The technology, already making a splash at the CeBIT, the world's biggest high-tech fair, uses a series of infrared cameras that register the movements of your hand and instantly transmit them to a large screen in the shop window.

The shopper stands about a metre (yard) away from the glass and simply points to the desired dress, hat, bag or shoes.

Instantly a new menu appears showing the item in 3D, along with crucial retail information such as the sizes available, colours -- and of course, price.

With another brief wave of the hand, the user can rotate the item in 3D, change the colour and scroll through similar products.

If the punter decides to take the plunge, he or she points at the "checkout" icon and pays by placing a smartphone against the glass.

"It's secure, easy and of course 24/7," said Paul Chojecki, project manager at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, which developed the technology.

One of the main advantages over touch screen technology is that the user does not need to input personal data that could be visible to passers-by, he said, predicting it would soon become everyday practice.

"It's the same as with touch screens," he said. "At first, everyone thought it was strange, now everyone does it."

Another advantage of this system over touch screen technology is that it is much more hygienic as there is no contact with the glass.

Chojecki said you could be buying things with your finger sooner than you might think. "I would say in two years, this technology will be fairly widespread. A few big stores have already expressed an interest.

The first prototypes will likely be coming to a store near you this year, he added.

"It's really a revolution for window-shopping."

More than 4,200 exhibitors are showcasing their latest technologies at the CeBIT in Hanover, Germany, which runs until March 5 and hopes to attract some 350,000 visitors.

earlier related report
World's top tech fair opens under a cloud
Hanover, Germany (AFP) March 1, 2011 - The world's biggest IT fair opened Tuesday amid concerns over the security of its featured technology -- cloud computing -- after some 150,000 Google email accounts vanished into the ether.

The theme of this year's CeBIT expo in Hanover, northern Germany, is "Work and Life with the Cloud" and "cloud computing," or the idea of storing data online rather than on individual machines, is the fair's undisputed buzzword.

"Cloud computing is the mega-trend in the high-tech sector. It is going to change the IT sector completely," said August-Wilhelm Scheer, president of BITKOM, which represents the technology sector in Germany.

"Many people are using cloud computing without even knowing it," he added, citing a BITKOM survey showing only one in eight people knew what the term meant, despite being avid users already.

Turnover in the cloud computing sector in Germany is expected to rise by around 55 percent this year and, growing at a breakneck pace, represent some 10 percent of the overall IT market by 2015, according to BITKOM.

Scheer cited the example of people posting holiday snaps on social networking site Facebook, playing online video games or signing up for an Internet dating website.

Cloud computing users are effectively storing their data on gigantic servers somewhere in the world, linked by Internet, rather than saving them physically on their own computer's hard drive.

The advantages for business are clear -- no need to build and maintain costly IT centres for data storage.

Partly for this reason, BITKOM estimates the sector will grow from 1.1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in 2010 to 8.2 billion euros in 2015.

But the disadvantage is that users can be powerless when things go wrong.

In an unfortunate piece of timing for the CeBIT, Google admitted it had temporarily lost 150,000 email accounts -- through which users can store documents and photos online -- due to a technical glitch at the weekend.

While this represents a tiny fraction -- 0.08 percent says Google -- of overall global users of the service, it is still a "small setback" for cloud computing, said Carlo Velten from Experton, an advisory firm.

"It's the first time this has happened on this scale," he told AFP.

Germans, who already jealously guard their personal data after years of being snooped on first by the Nazis and then by the communist secret service, appear to be especially sceptical, according to the BITKOM poll.

One in five said they would not use cloud computing services due to fears over a lack of data protection and 21 percent are scared their data would get lost.

Overall, more than half of Germans surveyed thought their data were "not safe" on the Internet, compared to 40 percent who believed them secure.

Scheer said it was in the own interest of firms offering cloud computing services to "take these concerns seriously and address the security loopholes.

"We know that people make safe cars, safe machines and safe medical equipment. Why should we doubt that the cloud is also safe?"

Seeking to play down the security fears, he added -- "Of course, you could imagine an attack, a plane that destroys a server."

"But that is the same for power plants that produce electricity and that doesn't mean that every company has a generator in its basement," he said.

More than 4,200 tech firms from 70 countries are expected to attend this year's CeBIT with many of the big names that stayed away during the global financial crisis returning.

Google, IBM, SAP, Microsoft, HP and Dell are among the top companies setting up their stalls for the event, which runs until March 5 with Turkey as this year's "partner country."

The event was officially launched on Monday evening by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News