ProductFinder: a location aware product information display for retail environments

Orientating oneself and finding products in retail stores is a well-known problem. Common modern retail stores have up to 10,000 m2 and they offer not fewer than 100,000 products. At the same time, situated public displays and digital signage more and more find their way into such stores. We introduce the ProductFinder, an intelligent product information system for situated interactive public displays in retail environments. Connecting to the store's product database as well as to a market layout service, the ProductFinder forms a new digital connection between the physical store and its digital backend. Our system allows customers to lookup the placement of products in the store while providing filters for ingredients and allergens. We report on the results of an long term in-the-wild study on how customers interact with the ProductFinder and what they are searching for.