University of Illinois, Springfield

Instructor
Professor James Patrick Hall

Course
MIS 575 TECH MGT & ORG TRANSFORMATION

Technology Business Case

Project Tango at Walgreens

By
Praneet Reddy Guntaka

Executive Summary
Project Tango
Project Tango is a mobile device which is developed to navigate outside
world exactly in the same way how humans do. Project Tango has ability to
change the Android platform completely to open up new sides of technology
by providing image processing, vision of computer and vision sensors. Project
Tango was able to mix up gyroscope with camera which helped developers to
track 3D motion to create map of the surroundings. This technology is very
helpful in creating real world gaming, to develop indoor navigation. It also
helped to create virtual as well as reality experiences. Couple of inbuilt
sensors in Project Tango are coupled up with software library. It will get
information from library collectively to understand the area where the device
is present. Google developed and demonstrated several 3D applications
which can build a model of an area by simply moving device in that
particular area. We can just move that device inside the room to measure
dimension of window or a room to get new carpet just by tapping two
locations on the screen.
Weve seen developers build products where you can say find me the
Oreos, and the device will give you an accurate map through a store to
where they are kept even with no GPS or signal at all [Larry Yang , 2015]. In
Walgreens we can just say the A through Z medicines so that it will take you
that exact rack.

Overview and Introduction

Project Tango uses computer vision platform to understand its relative
position in the surroundings around them. Development kit of Project Tango
is an Android device with a camera which can cover very wide angle, depth
sensing and timestamping sensor which enables developers to use the
following.

Motion Tracking
Area Learning
Depth Sensing

Many developers purchased these kits to create their own experiences to

explore space around them without taking help of any GPS, to experience 3D
virtual worlds, measuring the dimensions of scanned spaces etc.
Motion Tracking:
It allows you to understand the relative position as well as orientation of the
object with the help of inbuilt motion tracking sensors which will gives us
real-time information about the motion.
Depth Perception:

Depth sensors can measure the depth of an object which will help to obtain
the shape of any object around us. This feature will help to interact with real
world in new ways.

Area Learning:
This device will use visual cues to recognize the physical world around us.
This feature will help to auto correct the errors that occurred during motion
tracking and to re localize the area which they have already been before by
fetching information from its local library.
Assumptions and Rationale
Actually there are three assumptions that are taken into consideration.
1. The first one is as computing became very personal so it should have
three ways to recognize the owner that are touch, voice and eye ball
recognition which are known as biometrics.
2. As devices became biometric sensitive, all applications now a days
becoming interlinked and smart.
3. Being smart devices, these are connected to humans so much and
they almost became extension for humans. These devices can act as
interface between humans and physical world around us.
Program Summary

Aisle411 provides indoor location services platform for major global leading
retailers.

Aisle411s proprietary, first-of-its-kind indoor retail mapping and

location service and mobile platform allows customers to navigate in the

stores to find what they want exactly without searching the whole store.

Walgreens is taking up a pilot project with Project Tango and Asile411 to take
traditional retail shopping to next level and give new experience to their
customers by making it very simple and exciting. The indoor mapping
technology from Aisle411 helped to locate the required products precisely to
their customers. As we said earlier, customers can just tap on the screen and
say find my Oreos so that it will navigate exactly to that row and rack
where Oreos are placed. This technology makes 3D mapping possible for all
smart phones or gadgets by using inbuilt cameras in those mobile phones
these days.

Aisle411 used these capabilities to create immersive AR technology

experiences by using Project Tango to do shopping. These capabilities can
help customers to go straight to the products what they want. These gadgets
also added one more feature which will pop out what all offers or deals are
there on those particular products currently. If you walk down the store and
pass through the product you are searching, for example if we are say find
my Oreos, it will navigate to that particular rack and also it will pop up all
offers on that particular product.

Customers are very excited to use Googles Project Tango and that is the
reason Asile44 is continuously working with Project Tango team to build more
applications and features in the mobile technology which can help to
improve the shoppers experience while shopping. Since almost every
shopper is having smart phones, it is critical to retailers to come up with out
of the box thinking while providing mobile applications which can improve
shopping experience to the customers. So to with stand the competition,
applications should be easy and lot of fun so that customers will be engaged
with shopping even on their mobile devices.

We can create new opportunities and bridge the gaps in business and
increase revenue by offering loyalty points for our customers. When
customer went to any particular product, project Tango will pop up all the
existing deals on that particular product. This will definitely increase interest
in customer and in turn it will increase the revenue. Thats is the reason why
Google came up with another product known as Google Glass and planning
to deploy similar technology in future.
Walgreens took up this pilot project to see how it works in their stores and
observed that customers are amazed and showed lot of interest to know
about this device and how it works and how it will make shopping simple and
more fun. By analyzing feedback from the customers now more retailers are
planning to join in to adapt this technology to attract customers to their retail
stores.
Retailers observed that customers will be little frustrated when they were not
able to find the product which they are looking for. Example: If we go to any
retail store to purchase moisture or hair gel and we are not able to find it out
in those shelves even after searching for long time then it will affect our
shopping experience for sure. To overcome this situation Walgreens started
this pilot project with Googles Project Tango and loyalty partner Asile411 to
create this product finder application which can help customers in navigate
them to exact shelf where the product is placed.

This pilot project allows us to rethink about the retail shopping experience
and find out the gaps where improvement is needed and to explore future
business opportunities that could meet customer requirement better and in
more efficient manner.
With this technology, mobile applications went to next level where by using
these applications firm created a 3D map of their retail stores and was able
to capture 2 million data points per second and also customers relative
motion. 3D maps information with the space inside the store which includes
floor plan shelves and products that are placed on the shelves. The accuracy
will be till 10cms from the required product.

Aisle411 has around 12500 retail stores like Walgreens and Home Depot
which are already using non 3D technology to get product location and price
information.
Cost Analysis
Facts and Figures
Revenue Lost In Retail Walk-Out $608,000,000,000.00
Sales in 2014 Globally
Cost of each device
$500.00
Number of devices per store
50
No. of stores
12500
Total cost of this pilot project (Approx.)
$320,000,000.00
Increase in profit from an Aisle411 user
5-10%
Note - Terms of Aisle411 and Walgreen deal were not disclosed.

Business Impacts and Benefits Analysis

This application is very helpful to impaired people to connect them visually
which guided them to avoid road blockers in retail store by providing
feedback about products that are near to you in audio format. This is similar
to how bats use echo to find the obstacles while flying. This will help
customers very much to find their products with putting any effort.
The 3D Scanner will help customers to scan an object using these mobile
devices to give live feedback to get the feedback. There are several
limitations to implement this technology because 3D knowledge is not so
mature and still in progress in order incorporate this technology in mobile
devices.

But in future this technology will enable to interlink the experience of virtual
world with real time.
Potential Uses for Devices like Project Tango
The real benefit of these kind of products comes from the value what they
are adding to a product or a service which is already exists.
Retail:

It will help retailers to map inventory in stores so that customers

know where to find the products what they are searching.

In physical world, it is used by visually impaired for navigation. On a higher
level, it takes games and advertising into the reality and places them in the
world around us. Depth sensing capabilities extends the currently available
photo and video applications. Building Apps for Project Tango Development of
applications for Project tango will be done in dark behind the close doors. At
least for now this is the process. However, soon it is expected to change with
7 inch tablet version of Project Tango according to the Wall Street Journal.
As per the other sources, it is expected that Google will distribute around
4000 tablet prototypes to its developers. Though its too early for retailers to
come up with applications that work on Project Tango devices, it never too
early to start imaging the possible advancements to help customer with
portable devices that can fit in their pockets.
What Project Tango Means For the Future of Mobile. We know what
smartphones can do today. Many believe that its just the scratch on the

surface and there still a lot to make possible with mobile devices. For
example, there is still a lot to improve in its specs like camera pixels, display
etc. This device add the additional feature to calculate the distance or depth
of the capture picture. We can say that Project Tango is a miniaturization
trend that technology following currently. This device is a mobile Kinect.
Schedule and Milestones
Project Tango is having multiple partnerships with several educational
institutes and multiple industry partners which are into technologies like
computer vision and robotics. Main agenda is to implement these
technologies on to mobile platform. Since process are becoming powerful in
mobile devices also, we can easily deploy these applications on to these
mobile devices.
Aisle411 developed application to experience the opportunity for loyalty
points whenever any customers pass through the particular aisle and can

collect

those

points.

This

is

same

as

video

game.

Now Project Tango is doing a pilot project in various retail stores with its 3D
augmented reality for indoor maps and to experience the new way of

shopping. There are almost 12,500 retail stores in US who are ready to join
and work with Project Tango to give new experiences to shoppers.
Risk Analysis
Set up new organizational models to manage innovation. Developing digital
solutions in stores to enhance the customer experience should not be viewed
as an IT responsibility. The most successful models of innovation merge IT
teams, which should understand the digital-technology landscape, with retail
teams that know the operational challenges and customer base. (See the
sidebar

Digital

Innovation

in

Action.)

Some

successful

models

of

collaboration are as follows:

Store Employee Teams. In-store associates, supported by IT, are given the
responsibility to explore new technologies that can enhance the retail
experience. These experiments may focus on behind-the-scenes operational
efficiency or customer-facing digital initiatives.
Business and IT Teams. Lean start-up-like teams inside the company are
formed to develop close-to-customer innovations. These teams can focus on
quick wins by staying highly responsive to customer needs.
Innovation Labs. On-site or off-site innovation labs can help companies
discover and explore digital strategies that will shape the future of retail.
Some companies looking to lead the digital revolutionsuch as Walmart,
Target, and Kohlshave set up off-site innovation labs in the epicenter of

global technology innovation: Silicon Valley. Otherssuch as Staples,

Nordstrom, and Searsstay closer to home, at headquarters or in nearby
urban environments with access to creative talent.
Organizational models helps in managing the innovation and digital solutions
provide the enhanced customer experience and digital innovation cant be
viewed as the IT responsibility. Successful models of digital innovations
should include with the IT teams, IT teams should understand the digital
technology scope with retail teams and understand the operational
challenges.
In-house teams will be advised to use the new technologies which are
developed by the teams for enhancing the retail experience to the
customers. These experiments may help for operational efficiency.
Business and IT teams should support the development for innovations to
the customer and these teams focus on the customer needs in very
responsive manner.
Innovation labs helps companies to explore the new digital strategies to help
the retail business and some companies lead the digital revolution like
Walmart, Kohls, Tesco, and Target. These store build their off-site innovation
labs which are related with the global technology innovation.
Conclusions and Recommendation

When you take into account digital technology then real-world shopping
experiences will much more towards online strategies in order to guide
navigation and a medium from which personalized offers can be delivered to
customers.
Over the years most of the shoppers have been divided based on broad
demographics. However in the coming days shoppers will be able to be
engaged in 3D shopping experience that can be customized and also it will
enable the shoppers to act relevant deals and some special offers in real
time.
Shoppers can now get an immersive game-like experience in the store with
augmented reality, [Pettyjohn, 2014]
Reference List
1. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/25/googles-locationaware-tablet-project-tango-on-sale-uk
2. http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/walgreens-to-fuse-digital-andphysical-experiences-via-virtual-shopping-technology
3. http://adage.com/article/datadriven-marketing/walgreens-tests-googles-augmented-reality-loyalty-app/293961/
4. http://www.mobilegroove.com/google-io-project-tango-aisle411-poweramazing-augmented-shopping/
5. http://www.fierceretail.com/mobileretail/story/walgreens-piloting-arshopping-experience-googles-project-tango/2014-07-01
6. http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/walgreens-pilots-googles-artechnology-project-tango/

7. http://www.greenbot.com/article/2908502/google-to-open-up-salesmore-broadly-for-project-tango-tablets.html
8. http://www.notey.com/external/6542145/google-is-cutting-the-cost-ofits-project-tango-depth-sensing%C2%A0tablets-in-half-google-mediabusiness-technology-games-dev-project-tango.html
9. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/25/googles-locationaware-tablet-project-tango-on-sale-uk
10. http://aisle411.com/about-aisle411/