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Supermarket "sat nav" use light signals to navigate shoppers around stores

Supermarket "sat nav" use light signals to navigate shoppers around stores

Supermarket

A new indoor navigation system that uses LED lights rather than WiFi to pinpoint the user's location to within less than a metre is being rolled out in supermarkets in France.

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The system, developed by Philips, uses the supermarket’s light fixtures to form an indoor positioning grid. Each LED fixture emits a unique code through light that is invisible to the human eye but is detected by the camera on a smartphone.

This then triggers an app which shows the customer exactly where they are in the store, guides them to items on their shopping list and provides information relevant to their location such as details of special offers, new products and recipe ideas.

Philips claims that, as well as making supermarkets easier to navigate, the LED system can cut electricity consumption by 50 per cent compared to conventional store lighting, driving down running costs and making buildings greener.

Carrefour, the world’s third largest retailer, has become the first to adopt the technology. The company has intalled the system at its hypermarket in Lille, replacing its previous fluorescent lighting with 2.5km of Philips LED lighting.

Other stores are expected to follow as Philips rolls out the technology across Europe this year and in North America in 2016

Our connected lighting system has the potential to transform shopping into a more interactive and personalised experience," said Gerben van der Lugt, head of LED-based indoor positioning at Philips Lighting.

"At the same time it will enable retailers to differentiate themselves, enhance customer loyalty and provide new services to shoppers.”

Tesco tested a similar system at one of its Extra stores in Essex in 2011. The app, which was only available on Android, allowed shoppers to enter in their shopping list and then provided a map to each item.

Sainsbury's is also trialling an app that directs customers to the items they want to buy and allows them to pay for their supermarket shop on their smartphone. Both of these work using traditional positioning technologies such as WiFi and beacons.

One of the advantages of a light-based navigation system is that retailers do not have to invest in additional infrastructure to house, power and support location beacons for indoor positioning. It is also more accurate, according to Mr Van der Lugt.

“Radio frequency-based positioning technologies like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth triangulation deliver accuracies of two to five metres and require installation of additional hardware. Philips’ connected lighting system with indoor positioning technology is sub-metre accurate and simply uses the existing lighting infrastructure," he said.

"In addition, Philips’ indoor positioning system provides both orientation and positioning, and has the added advantage of delivering a 50 per cent reduction of lighting-based electricity consumption thanks to its energy-efficient LED fixtures.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11621589/Supermarket-sat-nav-shoppers-get-light-based-navigation-system.html