Industrial giants caught in LED headlights

Shoppers at the Carrefour hypermarket in Lille no longer have to ask for help to find items on special offer — instead they can navigate to them using their smartphone. Philips, the Dutch technology conglomerate, has installed 800 light-emitting diode fixtures at the 7,800 square metre store that can send a location signal to a customer’s phone using light invisible to the human eye. “With the right sensors installed, an LED light-fitting could become the best GPS ever by directing customers or visitors to where they want to go” says Gaia Nocchi, director at Frost & Sullivan, the research and consulting firm.