Mall of America has a 'holographic' Christmas elf to help shoppers find stuff

[Cal Jeffrey]

Minnesota’s Mall of America has partnered with a mixed reality startup called VNTANA to bring the “first-ever” holographic shopping concierge to the mall. The “Holiday Cottage” features an elf named Ellie that can direct shoppers to the right stores based on various criteria.

Using a microphone, shoppers can ask where to find an item they are looking for or browse using pre-defined sections such as men, women teens, or kids & babies. Choosing a general category will take users to more specific selections like Tech.

Ellie uses voice recognition and speech synthesis to communicate with mall goers and has a full directory of all the shops in the mall.

Sure, it’s a bit gimmicky and not really a hologram, but with more and more people taking their Christmas shopping online, even the biggest mall in America needs help attracting holiday shoppers.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/77818-mall-america-has-holographic-christmas-elf-help-shoppers.html

 

[cliffordcooley]

"Sure, it’s a bit gimmicky and not really a hologram"

That's under stating it.

 

[fktech]

The elf will help you spend more, thanks Santa's helper!

 

[Puiu]

I like Elfo from Disenchantment more.

 

[petert]

Oh brother, just met UPS's virtual assistant. Both on their website and phone ... got enough, no more please, I want a real human being to interact with.

 

[tipstir]

I see we got a long way to go in holographic tech if this is the best we can com up with. Would be nice if it had a mobile emitter so it could walk around the mall.