Ellen Tanowitz has uncovered what may become the envy of every budget-conscious, working parent. She found a simple way to save time and money — while keeping a brood of kids occupied — as she shops for groceries at her neighborhood Stop & Shop.
Her secret? Tanowitz, an attorney from Newton, Mass., uses a hand-held device that lets her scan items the instant she takes them off the shelf; that means no more long waits in a checkout line. The scanner also knows her buying history and whereabouts in the store, and it uses that information to deliver coupons for the items she purchases most. [Her family loves cream cheese, for instance.) Best of all for this mother of three, the device is so easy and fun to handle that it keeps her children busy till shopping is done. “My kids fight over the scanner. They have to take turns because they all love to use it,” she says.
Tanowitz owes her newfound savings of time and money to software that gathers vast amounts of information — not just a person’s whereabouts, but also such data as interests, buying habits, even social circles. Known as context-aware software, the technology then harnesses that information to provide useful tools to the smartphone user. At Stop & Shop, that can mean money-saving coupons. In other settings, context-aware technology can provide crucial, at-a-glance background information about a business associate or prospective client. Or it may simply aid travelers in finding a place to eat or locating where they parked their car.
For years, technology has been able to pick up a person’s location through Global Positioning System satellites that deliver up-to-the-minute traffic and mapping data. But only recently have electronics been able to put a person’s location into a larger context. By 2012, the market for information…