Intelligent Systems on Parade at TechDays

Posted By Myriam Semery
Windows Embedded BG Lead

This was my fourth year participating in the TechDays France event with the Windows Embedded team. It’s been great to witness the event evolve and grow each year. In fact, Microsoft estimates that over 17,000 visitors attended this year.

The theme for our booth this year was around retail and hospitality. Windows Embedded extends Windows technologies to intelligent systems. Windows Embedded is already well installed and known in the retail industry and works with key technological partners, such as IER, Acrelec, Improveeze, IPM  and Itelios, that work with most of the key retailers in France to deliver intelligent systems and seamless, personal retail experiences to customers. We invited our partners to demonstrate the exciting and innovative work they have created using Windows Embedded. These solutions offer a perspective to retailers and new experiences for the customers. Take a look.

The first Bluecar electric cars were delivered for the Autolib' car-sharing program. IER created an intelligent system to make it quick and easy for consumers to sign up and access the vehicles. The service began on December 5, 2011 with 250 Bluecars available to the public, and rising to around 1,750 cars today. The intelligent system enables immediate identification of the customer, which enables retrieval of real-time user preferences and settings to personalize the driver’s environment.

ITelios’ Windows Embedded 8-based solution ITSHOES provides a real-time cross-channel customer experience. It demonstrates how a consumer can identify, read articles, place orders or manage their loyalty account on a website e-commerce, mobile and in-store device such as a Microsoft PixelSense table. Once the customer is identified, it is possible to load their preferences and purchasing history from Microsoft Dynamics CRM to offer a personalized experience.

With Terminal IER 960, IER offers shoppers a fast and simple way to check out. Without having to unload each item from the basket, the solution identifies all items in a batch process by RFID tags, disables any security labels and provides the shopper with their total. IER960 runs on Windows Embedded Standard 7. Additional data, such as calories or potential allergy information for each item, can be stored in the RFID tag, or alternatively in the cloud for bigger volumes of data to enable real-time informed decision-making on this innovative POS system.

Improveeze’s multi-touch, Kinect-enabled kiosk, C4Shop Focus, is designed for retailers who want to expand their product offering to allow customers to virtually shop with screens or touch pads. Improveeze chose to deveelop its solution on Windows Embedded Standard 8.

Working with Improveeze, IPM also demonstrated the Windows Embedded Standard 7-based Borne EK3000-STD EasyShopper, which enables retailers to provide consumers access to electronic catalogs, alerting them in a few clicks whether the item is available in the store. Customers can choose the method of delivery and check out right at the kiosk, enabling the retailer to secure immediate sales for items that have run out of in-store inventory.