Personal Shopping Support from Digital Product Memories

Auto-ID as well as traditional identification technologies such as barcodes allow for linking physical products with digital data. Thus products become “smart items”, which may contribute to the consumer's retail experience in future retail environments. In this article, we discuss how digital assistants can utilize so-called digital product memories for personalized support during tasks typically for the interaction between consumer and product. A demonstration system allowed participants of an IT fair to explore various approaches to personalized support on the basis of this technology in a storyline spanning several spaces, some of them public, some private. Feedback gathered from 132 visitors indicates that this kind of support is in general perceived well; however, it also emphasizes the diversity of people's interest in interaction metaphors and means of privacy protection.