Data acquisition using the Internet of Things (IoT) in the retail industry is one of the most important innovations in increasing the amount of relevant data that can be collected during a customer’s visit. Analyzing the behavior of a customer during an in-store purchase using sensing devices can reveal a customer’s interests and choices. Using a number of sensing devices, the in-store customer behavior is captured, pre-processed, and then transmitted over a wireless network to the cloud. A data analytics model built with fuzzy logic is developed to generate the data of a customer’s purchasing intentions. This approach will help retail stores to recommend products to customers and guide supply chain planning. Such an approach allows retailers to gain more sales thereby increasing their market value. The increase in the amount of data available due to the advent of automation, new technologies, and standards have made the decision-making process in Continue reading
Business and Technology
What is a Proxy Server? Meaning, Functions and Goals
Proxy severs have been around for quite a while now. Most likely, the history of proxy servers dates back to the beginnings of networking and the internet itself. Proxy servers were originally developed as a tool for caching frequently accessed Web pages. A proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource, available from a different server. The proxy server evaluates the request according to its filtering rules. It may filter traffic by Internet Protocol (IP) address or protocol. If the request is validated by the filter, the proxy provides the resource by connecting to the relevant server and requesting the service on behalf of the client. A proxy server may optionally alter the client’s request or the server’s response, Continue reading
Case Study: eBay’s Business Model
Founded on 1995 by Pierre Omidyar, eBay was considered a pioneer in the online auction industry whereby people are brought together on a local, national and international basis to serve the purpose of creating a person-to-person community where ever individual could have an equal access through the same medium which is the Internet. eBay offers wide varieties of products and services for bargain hunters, hobbyists and collectors and sellers, changing the way people engage in trading hence eBay had changed the face of e-commerce from its inception. Today, eBay is continuously the brand preference with over 39 market presence and with $60 billion of the total value of sold items on the site’s trading platform. Basically, eBay introduced several crucial innovations tailor-made for the internet at the business level, a strategy which was conceived to be an improvisation. The online auction business model is where eBay served as the value-added Continue reading
Augmented Reality (AR) – Meaning, Operation and Benefits
Augmented reality refers to the utilization of computers to modify reality, usually in order to provide additional assistance when a human user is interacting with the real environment. The real world around humans provides a wealth of information which the human user must absorb and process through their senses. The most useful and informative of all human senses is the sense of vision and a huge amount of information about the ambiance is required to be sensed as well as processed by the human visual system. Computers are useful because they can provide an overlay of information to assist with the human processing of the information which they perceive through their senses, mostly the visual sense. As an example, a human who is walking around an urban area can be provided additional information through a head mounted display which superimposes textual information about identification of buildings and other important landmarks Continue reading
Internet of Things (IoT) – Meaning, Opportunities, Security Threats and Solutions
Today technology has gotten to a level where the Internet of Things (IoT) is an unavoidable reality. Now, an average person has at least three devices connected to the internet, including a smartphone and a personal computer. These already collect significant information about individuals which are used by different systems to make their lives better. As such, with more devices, it will be possible to improve the quality of life for different people, especially when these devices are interconnected. However, what is supposed to be beneficial has the challenges that make it a risky venture. Although the Internet of Things is expected to change things for the better, it is marred with many challenges which might eventually make it disadvantageous. About the Internet of Things (IoT) The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of physical objects with the ability to identify each other and interact with other devices Continue reading
Digital Technology and Personal Privacy
Privacy includes several contexts for individuals. There are three aspects of individual expectations to define the term “privacy”. The first aspect is the expectation of anonymity, which was defined as “The Right to Be Let Alone”. Individuals would expect an environment where no one can access their personal information in no matter physical or digital world. Another one is the expectation of control over information. Individuals would expect that professionals and companies would only collect the customers’ information for the purpose of providing services and they would not use or disclose the information for other commercial purposes. And the third expectation is about the confidentiality of personal documents, including e-mails and medical records. Individuals would expect that they could feel free to conduct online or offline activities without others disruptions. However, these expectations are being challenged by the digital technologies, which keep collecting personal information in our daily lives. This Continue reading