Bertelsmann Hackathon
Pepper L.I.S.A supports shopping
Arvato Systems robots Pepper L.I.S.A. and Pepper Roberto have had many different uses at events (as reported in our April newsletter), and now, the Arvato Systems team has been working on exciting new applications for them. To test their relevance in a business environment, the two ambassadors have now entered into the second Bertelsmann Hackathon, which held this year under the slogan ‘Customer Interaction in the Digital World.’
Bertelsmann Hackathon
From May 4-6 Bertelsmann again has invited around 30 young IT talents to Denkwerk in Herford. During the three-day event, teams of IT students and recent graduates took on a 24-hour challenge that was based on the tasks arising from the Arvato Solution Groups real-life business environment:
- The humanoid Shopping Coach
- Conversational Interfaces: from ideation process with a customer to coding in an agile way
- Blockchain-based digital identity in e-commerce environments
- How to track customer movements in stores and offer individualized product offerings
Outcomes were presented to a jury which consists of Arvato and Bertelsmann experts with well-known personalities from the local start-up scene.
And the winner is ...
... Team Pepper L.I.S.A.!
With a lady robot that was programmed as a personal shopping advisor, the winning team was able to impress the jury completely. The robot greeted a customer entering the shop, and it also performs a camera-based age and gender analysis. The robot asks what style the customer is looking for, and by the information provided by the customer, it shows the customer some relevant ideas and leads them to the right area of the store.
To replicate this project, the robot was connected to cloud-based Microsoft Cognitive Service Using machine learning. Pepper L.I.S.A is trained on a neural network of 6,000 images of fashion clothing. The robot is then able to analyze what the customer is wearing and suggest suitable outfits. For example, a business look.
Conclusion: The use of robots in hackathon this year will serve to illustrate and emphasize their potential.