The technology revolution consumerisation of IT and research opportunities

Last week the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference in New York took place last, showcasing some of emerging trends and innovation. The feedback from the event really made me start thinking about how are we positioning the consumerisation of IT within your teaching and research? 

At the NFT Conference Razorfish demonstrated a beta version of it's Retail Experience platform (codename "5D") and were drawing crowds with an amazing multi-channel retail experience that utilised Microsoft Surface, Tag, Windows Phone, Kinect and Windows 8 on Samsung slate. 

Whats interesting is the The 5D platform connects both enterprise devices such as kiosks, large-screen displays to personal and consumer focused devices such as tablets and personal smart phones, the goal is to better attract consumers into the stores, drive product engagement and arm store assistants and retailers with more contextualized digital tools.

A Short video of a fashion retail scenario is shown in the video below  I hope this helps generation of some interesting potential research projects. The quality of graphical detail and transitions caught the attention of many so I thought I'd share here for all to see the power of a connected retail experience of the future.

Razorfish Connected Retail Experience Platform (codename "5D") from Razorfish - Emerging Experiences on Vimeo.

Overview of the video - A user is seen browsing a large-format catalogue using the Kinect, transferring the catalogue to a phone with a Microsoft Tag, shortlisting the catalogue on the Surface and even virtually trying on products with the Kinect. At the same time, a store assistant is able to assist the customer with a tablet application.