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Launch HN: Aura Vision (YC W19) – Google Analytics for Physical Stores

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Re: Launch HN: Aura Vision (YC W19) – Google Analytics for Physical Stores

#31

Post by plahteenlahti »

Your explanation on how you plan to keep the data anonymised sounds good. I also love that you’re using existing cameras, I recently observed as a large it-consultancy piloted their multi-camera solution with a large Finnish grocery store chain and got rather poor results, mainly due to cost and amount work being too high when compared to the results.

This also instantly reminded me of the time I used to work in large thrift shop. Everyday the owner would count the daily visitors and compare it and the daily sales number to factors such as the amount of tables, changes in floor plans, amount of new items etc. He would have loved something like this.

Good luck with your product!

Re: Launch HN: Aura Vision (YC W19) – Google Analytics for Physical Stores

#32

Post by epberry »

First, the negatives. This space is enormously difficult. You have low margin, low technology clients with physical infrastructure. You have to get approval from operations, IT, and legal. Once you're up and running the data becomes stale fast and you have to produce insights like move this shelf here. Then you have to wait for them to do that, if they ever do, and demonstrate that the client is now seeing a ROI from that change. And prove it was you and not the new ad campaign they just ran or the better staff they have in place now that is making them slightly more money. I've been working in this area for years, also with a computer vision research background, also read Prayas's post several years ago and dismissed it, also started with specialty retail and focused on ease of install, also dismissed RetailNext for using their own hardware, etc.

Phew. Now, the positives! I do believe that someone will crack this at some point. There are several promising trends including a massive jump in the share of IP camera installs, massive drop in the price/performance ratio of GPUs, and steady increase in commercial broadband. And everybody loves data. Those trends, plus a pivot to optimizing physical business processes, are why I'm still working on camera software at my company, Perceive (www.perceiveinc.com). We got an interview at YC several years ago for this idea but were rejected.

So Jonathon and team, despite how this post started, I really do wish you guys the best. Your tech looks really good. I would love to talk.

Re: Launch HN: Aura Vision (YC W19) – Google Analytics for Physical Stores

#33

Post by jblok »

conanbatt wrote: post #28

I gotta be honest, this doesn't look to great to me. Most stores, mid-to-low grocery stores, dont even track inventory completely automatically, let alone something as sophisticated at this. How are you going to beat amazon that has expertise and actual stores to try this? Where is the tech break-through going to happen without that instantaneous feedback loop? But going back to the first point..have you talked to ta…

Amazon are currently more focussed on supplying services to developers through AWS, e.g. Rekognition that do one small, technical part of what we do. That and Amazon Go which is a cool concept that works really well for groceries/convenience stores. We're going after everything else and don't see Amazon making any moves to enter this space in the near future.

We've talked to lots of target stores and are live with a number of clients already. The story we hear most frequently is that they've previously tried a number of things to get this type of data but none have been good enough in terms of precision or depth of insight.

Re: Launch HN: Aura Vision (YC W19) – Google Analytics for Physical Stores

#34

Post by conanbatt »

jblok wrote: post #33
conanbatt wrote: post #28

I gotta be honest, this doesn't look to great to me. Most stores, mid-to-low grocery stores, dont even track inventory completely automatically, let alone something as sophisticated at this. How are you going to beat amazon that has expertise and actual stores to try this? Where is the tech break-through going to happen without that instantaneous feedback loop? But going back to the first point..have you talked to ta…

Amazon are currently more focussed on supplying services to developers through AWS, e.g. Rekognition that do one small, technical part of what we do. That and Amazon Go which is a cool concept that works really well for groceries/convenience stores. We're going after everything else and don't see Amazon making any moves to enter this space in the near future. We've talked to lots of target stores and are live with a…

Good luck!

Re: Launch HN: Aura Vision (YC W19) – Google Analytics for Physical Stores

#35

Post by anitil »

yc-kraln wrote: post #12

I joined a company with exactly this pitch in 2012. In 2016, I acquired a company with this pitch as part of a major international Telco. I have built a prototype of this technology and run a pilot with a major international conference venue. The stores aren't interested in your aggregated data, and they wouldn't know how to use it even if they were. They're interested in insights which you can't have, because you do…

I'd love to hear more about your reasoning. Obviously metrics and dashboards are shiny CTO-bait, but what would people be looking for in terms of business outcomes?

Like, could you do this on a consulting basis, where you run something like Aura Vision in store for a few tests, then come up with a business report?

Re: Launch HN: Aura Vision (YC W19) – Google Analytics for Physical Stores

#37

Post by musicale »

"Our mission is to ensure that physical retailers can innovate and improve their stores with data, in the same way their eCommerce counterparts do, while protecting customer privacy."

Unfortunately "the same way their eCommerce counterparts do" is by violating customer privacy.

The only reliable way to protect customer privacy is simply to not collect the video and other data in the first place.

Re: Launch HN: Aura Vision (YC W19) – Google Analytics for Physical Stores

#38

Post by michaelmarkell »

yc-kraln wrote: post #12

I joined a company with exactly this pitch in 2012. In 2016, I acquired a company with this pitch as part of a major international Telco. I have built a prototype of this technology and run a pilot with a major international conference venue. The stores aren't interested in your aggregated data, and they wouldn't know how to use it even if they were. They're interested in insights which you can't have, because you do…

What if you used the data collected in stores to serve better targets ads online, paid stores to incorporate your tech and made money through more traditional online ad revenue?

Re: Launch HN: Aura Vision (YC W19) – Google Analytics for Physical Stores

#39

Post by quickthrower2 »

ctoth wrote: post #17

So many people talking about what a good idea this is, or how it has already been done or ... Absolutely nobody talking about ... if we really, as consumers, want to be tracked everywhere all the time always. Do you just assume that there's no way to stop it so might as well nerd out over it? This is ... So weird, considering how HN usually treats privacy. I hope this company, and every company trying to track me bot…

Yes this is going to inevitably lead to your phone / face / way you walk being a "cookie" that follows you offline and online. They say 'while maintaining privacy', but once a FAANG buys them out, that is probably going to be over, let alone governments tapping in.
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