Sonification of Goods in Stores
A pilot study on theft prevention in retail through sound and music. The project is a collaboration between KTH, Institute of Retail Economics, Soundmark and Lidbo Music.
Sonification of goods in stores is a pilot project that explores the possibilities sonification provide to reduce theft in retail. Sonification involves translating data to sound, in general, and a typical use of the method is to detect movements with sensors (such as lifting an RFID-tagged item off the shelf) and control or generate audio from these movements. The approach is to make subtle changes and modify the background music in a store, and to add sounds that call attention to both the vigilant customer who causes the change and the shop attendant who listens actively for such variations. Other customers who have less reason to be attentive to changes in their sound environment should not notice.
The project involves master thesis students whose work is listed in the publications.
Team
Kjetil Falkenberg (PI), Sandra Pauletto, Emma Frid, Sven-Olov Daunfeldt (Institute of Retail Economics), Martin Ljungdahl Eriksson (Soundmark), and Håkan Lidbo.
Funding
Hakon Swenson Stiftelsen
Project Duration
June 6th, 2020 to May 30th, 2021