1.
In association with
Sales and Syntax:
How app
developers will
reshape the future
of retail
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2.
Digital (re)defined
The first issue involves semantics.
Entrepreneur and MIT instructor
David Rose wrote of ‘enchanted
objects’ in his 2014 book by
the same name. Cedric Hutch-
ings, CEO of Withings, a French
consumer electronics company,
shared at a recent conference his
vision of how smart devices of the
future will need to be integrated
to current ‘dumb’ objects. Writing
for Ad Age, technologist Auro
Trini Castelli may have articulated
this concept best: “Today, our
five senses are the operating
system through which we decode
the reality around us. Tomorrow,
they will be enhanced by digital
operating systems embedded and
hidden inside our accessories and
clothes, transportation vehicles,
offices, homes and cities.” Their
perspectives collectively revolve
around the same general conclu-
sion: The future of the IoT will be
based around dormant objects
which have digital identities.
The mobile landscape
right now
What does this physical mani-
festation of a smarter, digitized
world look like?
Evolving consumer technology is
a good place to start. People shop
online. They eschew desktops
and laptops for mobile phones
and tablets. They use apps, not
browsers. The changing technol-
ogy landscape has shaped a new
kind of consumer. According to a
recent Harris Poll, 75 percent of
U.S. adult shoppers said if they
can’t find the product information
they need in store, they are more
likely to research and purchase
the product online.
Where does this leave the
consumer’s relationship with
physical products and stores?
Some predict a rapid acceleration
of e-commerce, forcing brands
and retailers to shift their focus
exclusively to online properties.
Others prophesize a world in
which stores function more like
digital playgrounds, where shop-
pers can experience the brand
and its products in ways that
are as much digital as they are
physical – and differentiated from
online-only retail.
A slightly more grounded per-
spective comes by way of John
Puterbaugh, managing partner
and chief digital officer at digital
marketing agency Blue Soho.
“We use our phones to search, to
compare and do things in physical
contexts, in retail, in packaging,
just in anything we’re doing,” Put-
erbaugh says. “That connection
is very powerful, and I think the
dystopian vision of virtual reality
among others makes it sound like
digital is going to divorce us from
the real world, which I think is
mistaken.”
The degree to which brands and
app developers embrace and
innovate around the notion of
mobile-influenced offline shopping
will ultimately dictate the winners
and losers in our retail economy.
Starting with the advent of cloud computing and the birth of mobile applications over
the past decade, the relationship between physical and digital steadily evolves. We
largely take for granted the modern conveniences of computing on-demand, pulling out
a smartphone to respond to an email, read the news or order lunch. Many people view
the Internet of Things (IoT) as the next big step in the physical-digital transformation.
IoT portends a world in which physical products, devices, vehicles, buildings and other
items are infused with digital identities, capable of collecting and exchanging data. The
potential impact of IoT is almost incomprehensible.
It all sounds impressive enough, but developers and brands need to think further ahead,
assess requirements and truly consider the impact on consumers for the potential of a
connected world to be fully realized.
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3.
An area of particular interest to this
discussion is product packaging.
Surveys show that shoppers have
grown increasingly unsatisfied with
the volume and quality of informa-
tion they receive from the physical
package. 78 percent of shoppers
have wanted additional informa-
tion after reading a product’s
package, according to the afore-
mentioned Harris Poll. In the case
of food and beverage products,
the government is increasing its
involvement in promoting product
transparency, spawning industry
initiatives like SmartLabel™ where
consumers can scan packaging to
receive standardized information
about each product. SmartLabel
and other initiatives that center
on ‘connected’ packaging para-
doxically create a stronger and
more meaningful bond between
consumers and physical products,
repudiating the argument that
physical stores are becoming
obsolete.
“Packaging isn’t going anywhere,”
says Puterbaugh. “That’s always
going to have a physical compo-
nent – you’re not going to virtual-
ize our products and things we put
in our house. I think every package
will have a virtual or digital hub
that comes with it, which contains
all that information.”
Making technology work
for us
The next issue which needs to be
tackled is the technology itself.
Namely, is it doing enough for
us? Consumer patterns naturally
influence the paths new technolo-
gies travel. For the combination
of the physical and digital to truly
take off, technology needs to work
harder, rather than require us to
bend to its will and limitations.
Our relationship with scanning
technologies – barcodes and QR
codes in particular – provides an
interesting case study. Barcodes
have been around for more than
40 years and the QR system has
been in use for more than 20. At a
fundamental level, these technolo-
gies fulfill the promise of a world
where dormant objects can have
network identities. Machines can
read them, people can scan them.
Yet, few would argue that bar-
codes and QR codes embody the
true potential of the ‘enchanted
object.’ Why haven’t our lives
been more impacted by the ability
to interact and connect with the
world around us?
“Mark Weiser foretold
a future of technologies
that serve us quietly and
invisibly – but in reality,
we largely conform to the
limitations of scanning
technologies”
To answer that question, it’s
helpful to look back not forward.
Mark Weiser, the former chief
scientist at Xerox PARC and the
man credited with advancing the
concept of ubiquitous computing
in the 1980s, wrote: “The most
profound technologies are those
that disappear. They weave them-
selves into the fabric of everyday
life until they are indistinguishable
from it.” Weiser foretold a future of
technologies that serve us quietly
and invisibly, helping us do more
without unnecessary interference.
In reality, we largely conform
to the limitations of scanning
technologies. Depending on their
placement, UPC barcodes and
QR codes can be difficult to scan.
We require specific applications
to read and decode them. We
can’t be certain that the scanning
experience will be consistent and
predictable from one system to
the next. We must take product
packaging off the shelf or out
of our pantry and manipulate it
in order to scan. And, their very
visible presence is overlooked at
best, a garish distraction at worst.
Our relationship with these tech-
nologies is fraught with interfer-
ence. Technologies can only truly
fade from our consciousness and
recede into the background when
we don’t need to fret about them.
That’s when the true promise of
the ‘enchanted object’ will take
hold.
Intuitive computing in the
mobile age
While it’s easy to talk about in-
tuitive computing in the abstract,
brands, application developers
and other technologists seek to
understand how it translates into
tangible mobile development. Digi-
marc has spent 20 years advanc-
ing its intuitive computing platform
(ICP), several interconnected
technology methods and systems
that enable smartphones, mobile
devices and other computer
interfaces to respond to the user’s
environment by recognizing the
digital signals that will increasingly
proliferate around us.
The promise of ICP is to approxi-
mate human cognition, looking,
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4.
listening and trying to figure things
out for us. Specific characteristics
of ICP include:
Multimodal discovery
One of the major shortcomings
of discovery technologies – the
myriad applications designed to
read and decode digital signals
– is that they largely function
as single-purpose applications
designed to recognize one specific
method of digital identification.
The QR code system, for example,
is an open standard and develop-
ers can freely enable apps to read
the technology. But QR codes are
simply one method for trigger-
ing digital content. In fact, many
experts would argue that they’re
among the least sophisticated
of trigger technologies, when
compared to systems like image
recognition, augmented reality and
digital watermarking. Discovery
systems are no longer confined
to the visual either. Audio can
also transmit digital identities
and activate mobile experiences.
As the discovery technology
landscape matures and evolves,
developers have to consider
comprehensive, multi-purpose
discovery platforms that leverage
cameras, microphones and similar
sensors to recognize a broad
range of symbols and modes of
digital identification.
Deterministic outcomes
Many existing discovery methods,
such as image recognition or
audio fingerprinting, rely on proba-
bilistic methods for identification,
meaning they use advanced
predictive algorithms to cross-
reference object characteristics
(known as “fingerprints”) against
an existing database of values.
Consequently, results will occa-
sionally be incorrect. Probabilistic
identification works for certain
low-risk endeavors like home
entertainment, but commerce
requires a much higher degree
of accuracy. When companies
cannot dictate the digital content
consumers receive or guarantee
that a product will be accurately
identified, it limits control of the
brand experience and the at-
tractiveness of the technology to
consumers. Meanwhile, determin-
istic systems represent the gold
standard of digital identification
because the output and input are
known to be true and accurate.
When someone engages with a
deterministic discovery system,
they are identifying a unique code
linked to a single output. It delivers
certainty. As brands and retailers
expand their mobile functionality
and adapt to a more connected
consumer, there will be no sub-
stitute for deterministic discovery
systems that ensure a predictable
experience.
Inconspicuous activation
Despite the limitations of technolo-
gies like image recognition, advo-
cates will point out that a distinct
advantage of these technologies
over a system like QR is that they
don’t require any perceived ma-
nipulation of the media or object.
A barcode, of course, is a symbol
that must be visible in order for
a device to read it. Brands and
designers sacrifice space to
accommodate visual symbols, a
problem that’s becoming more
pronounced in the consumer
goods space as packaging has
gotten smaller. Moreover, people
aren’t as responsive to digital
triggers that seemingly force their
way into the foreground, disrupt-
ing a more natural connection
between consumer and brand.
The discovery systems that will
ultimately drive meaningful mobile
engagement will be imperceptible,
inaudible and indistinguishable
from the media and objects they
enhance. A leading innovator in
discovery systems, Digimarc pro-
vides a Digimarc Barcode which
can digitally enhance media and
objects by incorporating visual
and audio codes imperceptibly.
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5.
QR scanning. For example, some
pharmacies allow app users to
scan prescription barcodes to
order refills. Such capabilities add
convenience but have a limited
impact and are not widely rec-
ognized as true game changers.
Shoppers also frequently report
poor scanning performance based
on the existing technologies that
are available. Moreover, building
additional capabilities beyond tra-
ditional barcode and QR scanning
for things like image and audio
recognition create challenges for
developers who must continually
piece together disparate systems
to create a seamless user experi-
ence, impacting scanning speeds
and processing times – not to
mention the onerousness of
integrating and updating various
code libraries.
As new automatic identification
systems gain wider appeal, de-
velopers will increasingly demand
more comprehensive solutions
that aren’t limited to one particular
discovery system. Few tech
companies are actively addressing
this demand.
Since introducing its Digimarc
Discover Mobile SDK in 2015,
Digimarc has been a leader in
multi-modal automatic content
identification. The SDK is capable
of reading Digimarc’s proprietary
audio and visual mechanism for
reliable, efficient identification,
Digimarc Barcode, but is also
equipped to read 11 of the most
common scanning symbols, in-
cluding traditional UPC barcodes
found on product packaging and
QR codes. Digimarc’s goal is to
give developers a single solution
for handling an evolving mobile
landscape.
“When technology is
both innately easy to use
and reliably accurate, the
possibilities for
engagement, interaction
and monetization are big
and bold”
“We are extremely confident that
the benefits of Digimarc Barcode
are so significant for brands and
retailers that eventually the market
will move away from UPC bar-
codes and QR altogether,” says
Tony Rodriguez, Digimarc’s chief
technology officer. “But we also
recognize that these changes will
take time, so we’re equally
committed to giving developers
the best tools to succeed today,
and the confidence that their
creations are also future-proofed
for tomorrow.”
App development meets
automatic content
identification
Among other things, advances
in automatic identification and
data capture (AIDC) systems will
fundamentally change the way
mobile applications are developed.
The app market today comprises a
handful of dedicated multipurpose
‘discovery’ apps, such as ScanLife
and Shazam, but the discovery
landscape is highly decentralized
and largely underutilized. The
QR code system enjoys a large
reach, with thousands of reader
apps available to mobile users.
However, many QR readers are
used as vehicles to promote ads,
resulting in poor and inconsistent
user experiences.
“As new automatic
identification systems
gain wider appeal,
developers will
increasingly demand
more comprehensive
solutions that aren’t
limited to one
discovery system”
A handful of retail and brand apps
have incorporated barcode and
When you pair trends in consumer behavior with the emerging sophistication and elegance of AIDC
systems, it’s easy to envision a future where ‘discovery’ with a mobile device is second nature, as simple
as looking and listening. When technology is both innately easy to use and reliably accurate, the pos-
sibilities for engagement, interaction and monetization are big and bold. However, success will hardly
fall into the laps of brands and developers. Rather, the movement beckons true innovators to shed the
technologies of yesteryear and produce easy, intuitive mobile experiences that subtly augment our
natural connection with the physical world, while profoundly impacting our relationship to it.
Conclusion
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6.
TRY FOR YOURSELF!
Download Digimarc Discover® (digimarc.com/app) and scan the image to experience connected content.
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