In January Patently Apple posted a report titled “Apple Invents a ‘Guided Consumer Experience‘ to make purchasing Macs, iPhones & TVs online more Personable.” The patent related to advancing the experience of buying devices and software on their next-gen online Apple Store that will provide avatar salespeople who can make presentations and more. Our cover graphic represents imagery from that patent.
Yesterday, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple titled “Remote-Demonstration Unit and System.” The lead on this invention is: Matthew Henderson, Retail AI Conversation Systems and Contact Technologies. A second specialist listed on this patent is: Philip Williams, Engineering Manager, Conversational Intelligence.
IBM recently sought a Conversational Artificial Intelligence Engineer for their industry-leading chatbot platform Watson Assistant. That kind of technology would support Apple’s January patent. Conversation Intelligence platforms are also considered a new sales technology category that delivers insights from sales calls and virtual meetings / video conferences.
In Thursday’s patent, Apple is shown to have invented a live presentation tool that a remote sales representative could use to perform a live presentation to potential customers that are at home nowhere near a brick-and-mortar Apple Store. The individual may be a busy business person, elderly, disabled or locked-in due to COVID-19.
The remote demonstration units could assist an Apple Specialist with the tools to make a live presentation to a remote user. Apple notes that “remote-demonstration units, which may be part of remote demonstration systems, and which may be used, for example, to demonstrate products to customers from a remote location (e.g., a remote service center or the like).
The remote demonstration units may be self-contained units including, for example, a space for demonstrating a variety of products, lighting for illuminating the products and/or the product-demonstration space, and a device for capturing video of the products that may be sent to customers in real time (e.g., over the internet) as part of a live, remote product demonstration.
The remote-demonstration units may provide a consistent visual experience to customers viewing the demonstration by, for example, showing the products being demonstrated in a clean, visually-appealing environment, with consistent product positioning, illumination, and framing. The remote-demonstration units may also provide a personalized user experience to customers by allowing the customers to interact (e.g., by voice or message) with the employees demonstrating the products.
Remote Demonstration Units
Technically, the remote demonstration units may be self-contained units including, for example, a space for demonstrating a variety of products, lighting for illuminating the products and/or the product-demonstration space, and a device for capturing video of the products that may be sent to customers in real time (e.g., over the internet) as part of a live, remote product demonstration.
The remote-demonstration units may provide a consistent visual experience to customers viewing the demonstration by, for example, showing the products being demonstrated in a clean, visually-appealing environment, with consistent product positioning, illumination, and framing. The remote-demonstration units may also provide a personalized user experience to customers by allowing the customers to interact (e.g., by voice or message) with the employees demonstrating the products.
Embodiments may include a housing defining a space for demonstrating products and a product-display tray disposed within the product-demonstration space.
One or more products may be arranged, for example, side-by-side on the product-display tray such that several products may be displayed and demonstrated simultaneously. Several products may also be displayed and demonstrated sequentially, for example, by layering the products one above the other on the product-display tray.
The product-display tray may be modular and may be easily replaced or reconfigured, for example, to accommodate new types of products or a new retail strategy. The remote-demonstration unit may also include a light system for illuminating the product-demonstration space as well as an image-capture device for capturing video of the demonstrated products and/or the employee demonstrating the products.
The light system and/or cameras may be adjusted based on the product that the employee is demonstrating, for example, to achieve a proper exposure and/or to frame the product in a visually-pleasing way. In this manner, the remote-demonstration unit may produce a consistent visual experience for a variety of different types of products.
Apple’s patent FIG. 1 below shows a perspective view of a remote-demonstration unit that uses a company iPhone to video the remote presentation session that could be sent live to a remote user; FIG. 2A shows a front view of the remote-demonstration unit of FIG. 1 with a product being demonstrated by a user #500 which Apple clearly identifies as “a customer-service employee of remote-demonstration unit 100,” not a customer (found in Apple’s patent under point #0050). FIG. 14 simply illustrates that a MacBook size product could fit into the demonstration unit.
Apple notes that the compact size of housing may allow the remote-demonstration unit #100 to be used in typical office setting, for example, at a call center or other customer-assistance facility where support staff can make the remote presentation to customers online.
What Apple’s demonstration unit isn’t is an AR Pop-Up Booth as another Apple site claimed about this patent yesterday.
In the end, it’s fascinating to see how far the Apple and their retail team is willing to go to reach out and connect with new and established customers for a sale or to fix simple software issues and so forth.
For finer details, review Apple’s patent application number 20210097892. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.
