Cloverleaf’s new grocery shelf displays watch shoppers, track their emotions

You walk into a grocery store to buy barbeque-flavored potato chips. But you’re disappointed to find that the overflowing shelf of chips — although harboring more than a dozen different types — doesn’t have that flavor.

Within seconds, the LCD digital sign along the shelf edge immediately shows a message: “Don’t worry – BBQ chips will be restocked tomorrow!”

That vision of responsive groceries got closer to reality this week, when retail tech company Cloverleaf announced what it describes as the first digital shelf display with built-in detection of customers’ emotional states and demographics. The system will be presented for the first time at the big National Retail Federation show, starting this weekend in New York City.

The San Diego-based firm, which has focused for 10 years on digital signage for sports stadiums and other venues, had been testing an LED version of its new shelfPoint solution. In the latter part of this year, shelfPoint will be released with displays that instead use LCD because of better resolution and lower cost. This is Cloverleaf’s first shelf-based product.

The dynamic digital displays are placed on the edge of several shelves in a grocery store rack, fed by a 4G-connected media player in the same shelf rack. No special kinds of shelves are needed.

[Read the full article on MarTech Today.]

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.