Technology

Robotic video display kiosk can invite diners to 'roll on in' for pizza

What if you had a way to send out a kind of unpaid emissary who displayed an enticing video of your brand's menu items to passersby to pull them in to eat? Or could you use that same kind of unpaid assistant to perhaps dispense hand wipes to customers and take their temperatures before dining in?

Provided

July 16, 2020 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

It looks like a Transformer toy with an out-sized display monitor for a belly and conveyor-belt rollers for wheels. It is, however, actually a rolling robotic kiosk which might — in the right pizza operator's hands — serve as a conduit for better business and customer engagement.

The device, made by RoboAds, was recently profiled on FastCasual's sister site, Digital Signage Today when Editor Bradley Cooper chatted with RoboAds Founder and CEO Faysal ElChamaa, to learn more about the self-propelled kiosks

He said as the kiosk rolls around a prescribed area — inside a pizzeria or around the business's perimeter, for example — it delivers messages on a 55-inch digital content display screen. In a pizza operator's hands, the display might well be used to show appetite-inducing images of pizza or wings or just a cold beer — all to awaken customer interest and engagement in the brand.

Cooper told us that each device was equipped with a pair of light detection and ranging (lidar) scanners, as well, to prevent it from running into things and people around it as it moves. But perhaps more of interest to brand leaders and operators in the current COVID-19-cautious business environment was that the mobile kiosks can also support any number of add-ons, including things like thermal cameras to detect that new pandemic public health benchmark –body temperature.

"I could see restaurants using this in a couple of ways," Cooper said. "First, they could use it to simply check people's temperatures when they enter a store to make sure they don't have a fever.

"I could also see them using it to dispense gloves or masks for use in crowded areas. Or it could act as a move-able self-ordering kiosk that can come to users and help them order to avoid lines, where customers would be in close contact."

Cooper even said that in mall environments, the rolling robots might be able to engage potential customers all around a restaurant's borders to entice them to come in and check out the menu. Whether the machines would be capable of safely and securely functioning outside a standalone restaurant location, however, remains a question.

See below for Cooper's interview with ElChamaa.

Q. How did you come up with the idea for this robot?
A.For the past 13 years, I have personally exhibited in over 100 trade shows for the purpose of promoting brands and services.
Here are the top questions that haunted me every time:

How to stand out among thousands of other exhibitors and successfully attract visitors to my booth?
Moreover, how to develop strong brand awareness and create a memorable experience within a short time frame?
I spent years applying all the creative ideas that I can think of. In 2017, I envisioned a B2B robot that not only attracts visitors, but can promote products and services. I spent a year and a half researching almost every robot on earth.

The trend for humanoid robots started to pick up in trade shows and in retail. However, people focused on a dancing or humanoid-shaped robot, rather than the business itself. By the end of 2018, when I didn't find what I was looking for, I decided to build RoboAds.

Q.What are its primary functions?
A. While autonomously navigating, it delivers:

• Ads: RoboAds promotes ads on four 55-inch screens in 4K resolution. Videos are uploaded in real-time on the cloud via CMS.
• Telepresence: One or multiple screens can be utilized for telepresence. For example, in a retail environment where there is a shortage of staff, employees can log in and remotely assist clients.
• Analytics: RoboAds analyzes the number of visitors, age, gender and emotions.

Q. What are its primary benefits from a business standpoint?
A. There are four main benefits:

1. RoboAds can attract clients to a retail location. People by nature are intrigued by robots; the screens can be utilized for further attraction.
2. Effective advertising: Malls, airports … and other venues can profit from new B2B advertising channels by offering advertising space.
3. A better service to attract more clients: An all-in-one mobile kiosk will approach the clients instead of the other way around. The latter also leads to better efficiency for kiosk utilization when targeting high traffic areas.
4. Lower costs … to deploy an all-in-one upgradable mobile kiosk, rather than multiple stand-alone kiosks with limited upgrading options.

Q. How is it helping to enhance customer and employee safety in light of the COVID-19 pandemic?
A. The purpose is to eliminate physical contact without excluding human interaction. Telepresence can be also used by security staff when dealing with the public. Other options include educational videos to remind people to put on masks (or) wash their hands.

We are currently testing thermal cameras to trigger alarms when human temperature variations are detected. However, we are monitoring new touchless technologies which will be more effective with virus diagnostics.

Q. How does it handle audience analytics?
A. Multiple cameras are installed on the robot and connected to edge computing hardware, which offer real-time video analytics. The data records the number of visitors and emotional analysis, based on the timing of each video displayed on the screens. There is also the option to display videos based on specific demographics.

Q.Do you have any plans for new features for the robot?
A. One of the features under development is related to augmented reality. … Due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, we have designed a mask that will fit on people's faces. If someone passes near the robot with no mask on, it will add the mask on the screen and a voice will advise them to take precautions.

Another feature being developed is related to analytics. (In the clothing industry, for instance,) the robot will be able to capture (things like) fashion logos and detect the type of clothing. This data is vital to reflect current … trends.

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.