While I was looking around for more information on Prada's iPod case, I came across a weblog entry titled Prada Epicenter Revisited. A few years ago, Prada set a plan in motion that involved building assorted epicenter stores in major cities around the world. They have since scaled back their plans, including pulling out of their expensive lease on space near San Francisco's Union Square. But at least one was finished in the United States: the Rem Koolhaas designed New York epicenter in SoHo (in space previously occupied by the Guggenheim SoHo, one of the first places I visited on my first trip to NYC many years ago).
Besides its architecture, art, and clothes, the New York store was to boast incredible new technology never put to such use in the retail space. RFID tags combined with a large database system were to tell you about your product when brought into the dressing room, as well as suggesting other accessories. Wireless technologies, staff PDA's, and more were to create an information rich shopping experience.
Unfortunately, that concept has not born itself out. The staff PDA's go unused, incorrect or looping video is shown, etc. All the wonderful automation (which was also supposed to tie in with a web site that never materialized) is already fading away, a scant couple of years after the store's launch.
It all sounds like a good idea, one that we've heard so much before. Gene at fredshouse sums it up like this (emphasis added):The potential uses and benefits of ubicomp often seem "obvious"; most of us in the field have spun variations of the same futuristic scenarios, to the point where it seems like a familiar and tired genre of joke. "You walk into the [conference room, living room, museum gallery, hospital ward], the contextual intention system recognizes you by your [beacon, tag, badge, face, gait], and the [lights, music, temperature, privacy settings, security permissions] adjust smoothly to your preferences. Your new location is announced to the [room, building, global buddy list service, homeland security department], and your [videoconference, favorite tv show, appointment calendar, breakfast order] is automatically started." And so on. Of course, what real people need/want in any given situation is FAR from obvious.Not that it's a bad target to move towards, but it is an issue that requires more time, power, and continued investment than I think most current implementations have applied so far. I never realized until now the complexity of just the context situation. Yeah, it might be nice for my smart house to pour me a bottle of Scotch and turn on the lights and stereo when I come home - but not when I have to run back inside the house when I realize I left my lighter inside. What a waste of Scotch that would be. And, being a restless person prone to pacing around, having lights and stereos and who-knows-what starting up as I wander aimlessly around the house would only be more annoying. Now, if the computer were to recognize my agitation and start talking to me in a soothing voice while it was really plotting my death by locking me outside the pod bay doors - it would at least be entertaining.
Anyways, with Prada reevaluating their epicenter strategy, it's doubtful that any significant time and money will be invested into the technological side of the New York store any time soon. The only other epicenter to be completed, to my knowledge at this time, is in Tokyo. It does not sound like the same amount of technological wonders are in this store, beyond its architectural beauty.