Touch Screens: A touch screen provides the means by which simply moving fingers one can get into an interactive world. These are ideal applications for delivering customer information, especially when they meet a shopper's desire for speed and convenience. To give literal means to Window Shopping, fashion retailer Polo Ralph Lauren installed interactive window displays at its flagship store at Madison Avenue , New York and more recently at Michigan Avenue in Chicago , allowing its customers to shop 24 x7 from outside the stores even after the outlets had closed for the day.

Earlier this year, Polo Ralph Lauren launched this cutting edge technology in its New York flagship in conjunction with the company's sponsorship of the 2006 US Open and highlighted the stylish apparel and accessories created exclusively for this renowned tournament. Products featured in the window shopping assortment included Official Polo Ralph Lauren/USTA ball boy/girl uniforms, linesman jackets, and the widely popular big pony polo shirts.

“After watching Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, I really wanted to find a way to make that amazing technology a retail reality. We are thrilled to offer such a unique and exciting way for our customers to further explore the world of Ralph Lauren; with this initiative we are reinventing the concept of shopping anytime,” says David Lauren, Senior Vice President Advertising, Marketing and Corporate Communications of Polo Ralph Lauren.

Projected on the window of the Ralph Lauren Madison Avenue store was a 67” image featuring the latest in touch sensory technology. Customers could shop even when the store was closed by clicking on the window glass. The touch screen was powered by a transparent foil applied directly to the glass; a rear projection screen was then used to complete the 67” through-window touch shopping experience. The window had a credit card reader and an onscreen keyboard to complete the transaction.

“This is an incredible and dynamic way for customers to experience the advanced precision of our RLX line,” says Lauren.

RFID Technology: It already exists in stores to capture POS data and track the stocked as well as merchandise sold. The new chapter in RFID however, has innovations that are embedded with digital displays and triggers product specific information. It allows customers to know about the product without waiting for a salesperson or searching for product specification by twisting and toying with product. The next chapter is also quite interesting and helps shoppers, especially women to choose what matches with what. A changing room concept is being developed by researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic Institute of Textiles and Clothing: “An intelligent Simulator for Cross-selling & Up-selling using Smart Fitting Room & Smart Dressing Mirror.”

RFID technology communicates with a system that can mix and match and suggest clothing options, which would be displayed on an interactive screen. In addition to that, if one would like to involve friends and parents who are at home in deciding what one should buy, PrevYou has developed and patented a virtual/real retail mechanism, which allows realtime connections between consumers and their friends via mobile and other Internet connected devices. Two potential applications are:

1)Consumers could use their mobile camera to upload images to a secure website that friends or family could access, and supply real-time feedback of the product in question.

2)Stores could build cameras into changing areas and a shopper could model her outfit for friends or family on a retail branded website.

Holography 'Magic of diaphanous”: A major innovation in display technology. Hanging freely, giving a glimpse of what lies behind an inimitable display, it has ability to snatch a shopper's attention. What if a holo image is created outside the store, which too is moving? Wowing the shoppers of Berlin , MediaZest together with German media Group Axel Spring brought the famous Kurfurstendamn to a virtual stand still with its brilliant holographic display at C&A's flagship store, promoting a new range of lingerie. A life-size holographic image of a woman modelling the new “Selte 1 girl” lingerie dance appeared to interact with passers-by. The model, the lingerie and reactions of the passerbys could be seen on a webpage. One could vote from a list of 30 options on what the model should do next. The website periodically aggregated the votes and the model would then act accordingly.

Moving Mannequins: Moving MannequinsTM, a Los Angeles-based company, has developed mannequins that can move. In continuation to that, LocaModa, a Somerville, USA-based company has developed an interactive digital mannequin application, which allows consumers to customise a model's clothes displayed on a large screen using a cell phone as a remote control. This technology works with any phone and any network and does not require the user to download any software.