uma demonstrate the future of shopping at London Retail Technology Expo

Second Generation of uma SKIN™, powered by Intel® Core® i7 Platform and Intel® AIM Suite, showcased at the London Retail Technology Expo.

LONDON, UK - uma, the leading innovator in semantic web technology will unveil the second generation of the innovative uma SKIN™ (Semantic Knowledge Information Network) semantic display product at the Retail Technology Expo in London, March 13-14, at the Earls Court Conference Center.

The uma SKIN system will be one of a number of next-generation retail technology at Intel Corporation’s booth #440 at the show. Specifically, the uma SKIN installation for leading German sports retailer SportScheck , part of the OTTO Group, will be on demonstration. This enables customers to dive into more than 25,000 products from more than 500 brands, aggregated with expert comments and social media feeds and other internal and external data. The customer can select and compare different products and collect them on the wall or on their mobile device for order and checkout.

The uma SKIN installation at the Retail Technology Expo consists of an interactive multitouch wall and uses advanced displays from MultiTouch Ltd. The uma SKIN system integrates the Intel® Audience Impression Metrics Suite (Intel® AIM Suite), which will enable retailers to better understand characteristics of the wall’s users, including gender, age, interests, impressions, and other demographics.

The latest features of uma SKIN enable retailers to connect their product databases directly via standardized connectors. The uma SKIN system offers a feature-rich presentation of retailers’ products offering automatic 2D and 3D interactive visualizations and playful ways to compare products. Personalization options are also extended to allow barcode identification and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tracking. Uma SKIN can be arranged from 42-inch, 46-inch, and 55-inch multitouch displays and consist of either single-unit installations up to more than 18-unit installations.

uma SKIN was recently also featured by the Luxury Brand Bally of Switzerland, which has created an in-store system showcase for customers that was unveiled at the Milan Men’s Fashion Week event.

uma SKIN  includes analytics tools, such as the Intel® AIM Suite – that enable customers to perform audience measurement for their digital signage networks by providing statistical information, including relevant customer behavior criteria. The Intel® AIM Suite data can be merged with other data sources, including people counting and point-of-purchase (POS) systems, for richer insight into customer behavior by using Anonymous Viewer Analytics (AVA) software to detect the presence of people viewing a digital signage display. This enables customers to collect information on the number of viewers, their gender and age range, what content was viewed, and how much time was spent viewing content.

“The capability to collect audience metrics in the growing digital signage market is enabling more sophisticated approaches to presenting customer information, and solutions such as the digital signage developed by uma are delivering the latest innovations in semantic display,” said Jose Avalos, worldwide director of retail at Intel Corporation. “With the integration of Intel® AIM Suite, the uma SKIN product delivers a powerful set of data serving and collection tools that can be applied to myriad digital signage applications.”

“The ability to have content follow shoppers as they experience a retail environment, and have information tailored to who they are, creates a new dialogue for the retailer and the shopper. The uma SKIN system is designed to drive the shopping engagement to new levels of interactivity,” said Christian Doegl, founder and CEO of uma informationtechnology. “We are seeing greater interest in our semantic display system as retailers understand their customers and their own data. It is increasingly apparent that these two dynamics can be integrated for a more harmonious shopping experience.”

The uma SKIN product integrates large-scale multitouch LCD displays from MultiTouch Ltd., with the uma semantic web content curation engine and user interface for information delivery.  It can be used in corporate or public communication, retail, exhibition and museum scenarios. uma SKIN enables content that tracks users with RFID and NFC technology and detects motion using 3D sensor cameras, enabling passive interaction with visitors. The semantic content curator engine is able to retrieve and contextualize content from various repositories or the web, including web 2.0 sources. uma SKIN’s semantic content curation engine minimizes the effort for content production, editing and curating and playout to various locations.  Like an organism’s skin, the uma SKIN product provides a display that can be touched and manipulated to generate responses in the form of information.

About uma© - separating the signal from the noise

Since its founding in 1994, uma has been the innovation leader in new forms of knowledge mediation and spatial user experiences. uma provides end-to-end services for its customers, helping with creative planning as well as the implementation and integration of its semantic service platform Melvil©. With its uma SKIN™ technology, uma developed the industry’s first product for semantic display, enabling a wide range of content producers – including corporations, retailers, and brands - to deliver smart content to users on massive, multitouch displays and emerging devices.

uma clients include the OTTO Group, Siemens, IBM, Deutsche Telekom AG, Toy Industry Association, Red Bull, Bally and L’Oréal. uma is headquartered in Vienna, Austria with offices in Munich, Berlin, New York City and Santa Cruz, California. For more information, please visit www.uma.at.

About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com. 

Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: If you would like a color photograph of Christian Doegl, founder and CEO of uma; installation photos of the uma SKIN product, or uma SKIN product shots, please contact Chris Pfaff on +1-201-218-0262 or chris@chrispfafftechmedia.com