IBM developing energy and retail technology of the future

Bangalore: Working with several hardware partners, IBM is developing systems to be hopefully taken up by retailers and energy suppliers. This work is a part of the Smarter Planet strategy - about connecting different kinds of technology to come up with more useful, efficient and environmentally friendly systems.

It is developing electronic shelf labels or passive LCD labels made by a Finnish company MariSense, which use e-ink to display prices. E-ink works by an electronic charge activating it to display. This means the labels don't need constant power to work. IBM has integrated the e-ink labels with a central pricing system, which can update what they display. Price guns like these can be used to scan products and then change the price by communicating with a central system, which then sends out a signal to change the price on the e-labels. Moreover, the LCD labels - made by English firm ZBD require power to change what they're displaying, but are more flexible than the e-ink labels as they can include more information in a variety of formats.

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IBM is also working with near field communication (NFC) technology. In the demo lab at Hursley software development lab near Winchester, developers have attached RFID tags to items such as DVDs, which, when scanned against this NFC tag, trigger a nearby screen to show a trailer for the relevant film. In this way, each screen in a shop could be used to show relevant information to shoppers in that part of the shop. IBM is integrating its Cognos business intelligence technology into this kind of technology so that items can be traced as they progress through the supply chain.

Another demonstration lab at Hursley focuses on the future of energy use in the home. IBM is talking to several UK power suppliers about how to integrate smart meters into homes in the near future. The devices can monitor the use of energy down to every 15 minutes so electricity and gas suppliers can see how energy is being used and tailor supply to meet demand. These allow people to see how much electricity and gas they are using in their home as well as the current price they are being charged to use it. The hope is that this kind of technology will see more efficient use of energy.