Always window-shopping but never stopping to buy? In the future you can do both with new technology allowing you to point through the window at items and buy them with a swish of your hand. The technology, already making a splash at the CeBIT, the world’s biggest high-tech fair, uses a series of infrared cameras that register the movements of your hand and instantly transmit them to a large screen in the shop window.
The shopper stands about a metre away from the glass and simply points to the desired dress, hat, bag or shoes. Instantly a new menu appears showing the item in 3D, along with crucial retail information such as the sizes available, colours — and of course, price.
With another brief wave of the hand, the user can rotate the item in 3D, change the colour and scroll through similar products. If the punter decides to take the plunge, he or she points at the “checkout” icon and pays by placing a smartphone against the glass. “It’s secure, easy and of course 24/7,” said Paul Chojecki, project manager at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, which developed the technology.
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