ARHT Media Inc. announced its partnership with Cairo Einrichtungsversand AG (Cairo). Under the visionary leadership of Gero Furchheim, the president of the German E-commerce Association and CEO of Cairo, the project aims to merge the physical and digital worlds in a way never seen before. Leveraging ARHT hologram technology, Cairo plans to "duplicate" their sales assistants as live hologram and beam them via ARHT CAPSULE to other retail shops, offering a unique and immersive shopping experience for their customers.

The project is part of the "Future Retail Store", funded by the Gunther Rid Foundation for Bavarian Retail and executed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. Cairo was one of the two retailers winning the Future Retail Store competition, which enabled them to turn this idea into reality. The first step is a proof of concept in the open innovation lab "JOSEPHS", a spin-off research project of Fraunhofer IIS and Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, which is conveniently located just 230 meters from the Cairo showroom in Nuremberg.

Cairo plans to invite its existing customers to be part of this innovative pilot experiment. They will have the opportunity to receive complete sales pitches and consultations from the holographic sales assistants who are filmed in the Cairo store in Nuremberg as if they were in the same room. If successful, Cairo aims to open smaller stores in various locations, offering customers the chance to interact with holographic sales assistants.

The Fraunhofer IISand the Rid Foundation will conduct scientific research during the proof of concept on the reactions of the customers. The partnership between ARHT and Cairo demonstrates the commitment to embracing digital and technical possibilities to stay relevant in the ever-evolving retail landscape. With the holographic sales assistant, Cairo aims to reshape the way customers interact with their products and bring a new level of personalization to the retail experience.

The project will run from January 24 to March 17, with a demo day scheduled in the first half of March revealing the first research results.