CASA researcher Martin de Jode presented a technology demonstrator at the recent Digital Economy 2013 Open Digital conference at Media City in Salford, 4-6th November. ‘Tales of Things - Experiments in Retail’ explored deployments of Internet of Things technology in the retail sector originating from the Tales of Things and Electronic Memory (TOTeM) project and a subsequent follow-on collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and Oxfam, ‘The Internet of Second-Hand Things’.

The demonstrator featured CASA-developed Tales of Things technology currently deployed at UCL Launchbox, a pop-up shop in Boxpark, Shoreditch supported by UCL Advances and featuring a range of products from UCL student entrepreneurs. In addition, early prototypes of the Haggle-O-tron were showcased in the form of an interactive teapot which haggles with shoppers over the price of second-hand goods, as part of a wider exploration of the value of second hand items.