Retailers might put more touchscreens around their stores if they didn’t require one thing: the touchscreen itself. If you put one on a car, you’re blocking the car. If you put one on a table, you’re wasting valuable tabletop real estate. Spacee, a tech startup in Addison, has a solution for this—and you can see it projected on a car hood in the photo above.

Spacee says HoverTouch is the first AI and computer vision solution that transforms any surface into an interactive customer experience without the need for touchscreens.

The plug-and-play solution can transform existing in-store surfaces like walls, glass, or yes, even cars into experiences that deliver sales data and info to browsing customers.

Builds on Spacee’s previous Sense solution

Spacee’s HoverTouch technology [Photo: Spacee]

Spacee previously released an interactive experience solution called Sense. HoverTouch builds on that technology with new features designed to drive in-store traffic and boost sales. WIth Hover technology, shoppers don’t have to touch a surface to interact with it. Just by hovering their hand over a surface, they can drive contactless interactivity. Spacee compares it to hovering over an object online with a cursor, then clicking it to find out more.

Audi Dallas is using HoverTouch in its showroom

Audi Dallas, one of the top 10 Audi dealerships in the U.S. by sales volume, is one of the first retails to use the HoverTouch solution, as seen in the photo at the top of this story.

“Shoppers are back in the stores, and we want to give them an incredible experience,” said Tom McCollum, president and CEO at Forbes Todd Automotive Group, which owns and operates Audi Dallas, in a statement. “We looked at a number of options for interactive experiences and found that Spacee’s HoverTouch not only provided the best customer experience, but was also the easiest to get up and running.”

McCollum said the dealership particularly likes not having to “repair and replace” physical touchscreens. 

“We’re still early in the process, but already seeing double-digit in-store sales increases for the products we’re promoting with HoverTouch,” McCollum added.

HoverTouch Connect adds UX management and delivers data

Spacee’s HoverTouch technology [Photo: Spacee]

Another feature Spacee built in is HoverTouch Connect, which gives retailers, brands, and their agencies “full control of content, UX, and device management” while providing “actionable data.”

The content can be deployed in an HTML5-compliant media player, allowing “virtually any” content to be run in the HoverTouch system, Spacee says. HoverTouch Connect enables retailers to capture “detailed data on customer interactions, on par with data collected during e-commerce interactions,” the startup adds.

The plug-and-play solution can be installed “in minutes” with no manual calibration or tweaking needed, Spacee said.

‘Desperate for data’

Skip Howard, founder and CEO of Spacee, says the new solution can give retailers one of the things they’re hungry for most: data.

“Retailers are desperate for data, and Spacee HoverTouch can provide CX data that’s on par with what’s collected online,” Howard said in a statement. “We’re excited to bring this to market, and thrilled that our customers are already seeing a measurable impact on in-store sales.”

Spacee works with a number of other leading brands including Walmart, Panasonic, Coca-Cola, and Mercedes-Benz. In 2020, we wrote about Spacee’s partnership with Las Vegas-based Konami Gaming to bring its new type of frictionless augmented reality—with its patented virtual touch technology—to the world of casino gambling.

Get on the list.
Dallas Innovates, every day.

Sign up to keep your eye on what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.