NEC’s Sumaho Sensor detects proximity of prospective customers
It’s creepy enough to see those mobile mannequins who trigger off action, each time you pass a store. It’s another to have a store that knows you’re nearing it. NEC are at work on a technology that could attract smartphone users to shops in their vicinity. Called Sumaho Sensor, the technology will enable users with information on the stores they are passing, at a particular moment. This is mainly to encourage more footfalls and tempt people with exciting offers and the likes. The sensor basically detects wireless LAN frames emitted from a smartphone and collates that is later sent to the user, subject to him/her accepting to receive such files by means of a subscription.
This technology reaches out to a maximum of 30 meters. God forbid every store having this. Imagine the number of pings you’d be subject to in a mall or shopping arcade. The most vulnerable are those with a Wi-Fi connection that’s always on.
