What are customers looking at?

Abstract

Computer vision approaches for retail applications can provide value far beyond the common domain of loss prevention. Gaining insight into the movement and behaviors of shoppers is of high interest for marketing, merchandizing, store operations and data mining. Of particular interest is the process of purchase decision making. What catches a customers attention? What products go unnoticed? What does a customer look at before making a final decision? Towards this goal we presents a system that detects and tracks both the location and gaze of shoppers in retail environments. While networks of standard overhead store cameras are used for tracking the location of customers, small in-shelf cameras are used for estimating customer gaze. The presented system operates robustly in real-time and can be deployed in a variety of retail applications.