Augmented Reality
August 26, 2016 at 10:40 am
The most massive and unexpected retail success story of the summer so far wasn't really even about retail. It was about catching, training and battling virtual monsters. The Pokémon Go augmented reality (AR) app was released in North America on July 6. It was downloaded approximately 7.5 million times in the first week and was…
August 15, 2016 at 7:34 pm
Ever since early July, it’s hard to go anywhere without seeing someone staring down at their phone, aimlessly wandering around and twirling in circles every few feet. The cause: Pokémon Go. Pokémon Go is an augmented reality (AR) game from Japan’s Nintendo Co., where players hunt virtual characters in a real-time, real-world environment — as…
August 9, 2016 at 10:07 am
Pokémon Go. It’s so big right now it has its own meme catalog (it’s about 50 percent NSFW, so I’ll eschew the direct link, but please feel free to do some searches on your own), it’s sparked tens of thousands of social interactions and even if you don’t love it and spend time joking about…
July 29, 2016 at 9:29 am
The uses of artificial intelligence (AI) that get the most press are usually the big, splashy ones. Whether it's IBM's Watson beating Ken Jennings at Jeopardy, DeepMind besting Lee Sedol at Go, the massive influx of news about self-driving cars, the growing personal marketplace, or Elon Musk's increasingly public trepidation, these kinds of AI stories…
July 21, 2016 at 11:42 am
What’s making sales soar 100 percent for one retailer? Pokemon Go, of course. Sales at some GameStop locations doubled last weekend because of the augmented reality mobile game. GameStop designated 462 stores as “gyms or PokeStops” — i.e., places predetermined by Google Maps data that players visit to help up their game. Pokemon enthusiasts are flocking…
July 19, 2016 at 11:55 am
Everyone seems to be in one of two camps. This isn’t a Trump vs. Hillary thing, or even an Android or iOS thing. It's Pokémon Go or Pokémon No. Even those not necessarily opposed to it, but not playing (like me), are certainly wondering what made Pokémon Go a global sensation in seemingly less than…
July 12, 2016 at 1:18 pm
Pokémon Go, the free iOS and Android app that employs augmented reality and GPS technology to allow smartphone users to seek and collect Pokémon characters around real-world locations, is taking over malls and retail stores. The app, which exploded in popularity over the weekend, is driving users to stores where many Pokémon Gyms and PokéStops —…
July 8, 2016 at 11:07 am
Lowe’s is stepping into the augmented reality (AR) game. With the help of Google, the home improvement retailer plans to release Lowe’s Vision, an app for Google’s 3-D smartphone platform Tango. The app will allow users to visualize how new furniture and appliances will look in their homes. Users will even be able to take measurements…
June 2, 2016 at 1:57 pm
You hear it time and time again — the customer is the center of the universe for retailers. Brands are constantly trying to stand out from the competition to attract new customers and keep their current ones happy. In FitForCommerce's report “Commerce Disrupted,” disruptors and innovators for areas such as websites, digital signage and personalization are…
October 22, 2015 at 11:25 am
With its clunky headsets and project names like Oculus and Morpheus, virtual reality has so far been the realm of hard-core gamers and other early adopters of cutting-edge tech. Now, retailers are jumping for a piece of VR’s promise to immerse its users in virtual 3-D video. (The industry even has a new term for…
