MGM Trains with VR

 Have seen similar things tried with VR in Retail environments a decade ago without much success.  Is it enough to just be innovation in a clever way and fun way?  Or is it just a way to attract potential employees?

ACM TECHNEWS

Desperate for Workers, MGM Resorts Lets Applicants Role Play With VR

By Gizmodo, December 30, 2021

MGM Resorts will use VR to simulating checking guests into hotels as part of the hiring process.

MGM Resorts will adopt virtual reality headsets that allow job applicants to experience various customer-service roles before making a decision. The headsets will enable applicants to simulate various front-of-house roles, including operating casino games and checking in hotel guests.

The company also is considering using immersive technology at career fairs, and has partnered with enterprise VR training firm Strivr to create a VR employee training module.

The module will cover "difficult guest interactions, said MGM Resorts' chief human resources officer Laura Lee. "It can be very difficult just to verbally explain the types of positions or show a video," and VR lets applicants "throw a headset on and really experience the job," Lee said.

From Gizmodo

Interesting Sounds Podcast

Discovered a podcast called 'Twenty Thousand Hertz',  which is an examination of 'the most interesting stories of the most interesting sounds'  by Dallas Taylor.  There I learned about sound fatigue and sound scape design in casinos. We experimented broadly with this idea designing soundscapes in retail stores.  I had worked with some experimenters in college on sound immersion.  Could have used this podcast.  It is available here and on Alexa and Google Home.  Sound is another sense we don't pay enough attention to in the way it can influence and even prescribe behavior.

Casinos Watching for Weapons

Good to watch what the Casinos are doing, as we did, they have immediate risk with regard to assets, so are closer to investing logically in advanced methods in their existing architecture.

Las Vegas Casino Uses Artificial Intelligence To ID Customers Carrying Weapons

Cognitive Microwave Radar combines short-range radar with machine learning algorithms to scan individual guests for guns, knives, and bombs in real time—without forcing them to line up and walk through metal detectors. Units are small enough to hide inside existing infrastructure. Most people never realize they're there - exactly how (the casino) wants it. "The best analogy is antivirus software. It's equipped with a set of signatures. But it’s constantly checking the database for new ones."
Activate satellite view in Google Maps and head to the Las Vegas strip, and you'll see it: a strange smattering of Y-shaped buildings. Mandalay Bay. Monte Carlo. Treasure Island. The Mirage. Their blueprints put gambling at the center of everything, funneling visitors past slot machines and card tables whether they're en route to a show, their room, a restaurant, or a retail shop. For years, the casino floor was where Vegas resorts made most of their money, and the Y was devilishly good at monetizing it.

The Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino was the first megacasino to feature the design—a bit of trivia that Mark Waltrip, Westgate Resort's chief operating officer, relays with a mixture of pride and irony. Y-shaped buildings have their issues, after all. For one thing, gambling isn't the moneymaker it used to be; revenues from other extravagances—hotels, food, booze, shopping—outstripped gaming in the late '80s. For another: Y-shaped buildings pose a unique security challenge. "The bulk of your guests are in this highly concentrated area, just lingering," Waltrip says. Ensuring their safety— and the safety of the resort's assets—requires more than a few cameras and guards.   .... "

Casino Key Security

Interesting security application.  Not new, but alternative applications of beacons.  Note regulatory application.

Casino Prevents Security Violations Via Beacon Solution
Thanks to a system provided by Barcoding Inc. and Visybl, Mount Airy Casino Resort is alerted if an employee begins to remove a key from its facility, enabling it to prevent regulatory infractions.
By Claire Swedberg

Tags: BLE, Security and Access Control

Harnessing the Color of Data

All data visualization uses color to show pattern and emphasis in visuals.  Now Vizexplorer says they take it a step further.  I am exploring beyond that.   " ... VizExplorer software makes life easier, more productive and profitable for virtually any business. Our powerful, yet intuitive applications provide elegant solutions to a range of operational and marketing challenges in a multitude of industries. ... ".   They are showing a number of casino applications.   Others are also suggested, often those that show physical layouts and location.   But also visual abstractions.  Retail data detail is a clear possibility.  Also on Facebook.

Big Data Winning at the Casinos

In Forbes:  Still think there is real connection between the analytics of casinos and retail.  We explored.  Simulation in particular is a direct application.   We talked this to Harrah's.  See the casino tag link below.

" ... Caesars Entertainment, formerly known as Harrah’s – the company which runs the famous Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas and more than 50 other casinos worldwide – established itself as an early leader in Big Data customer service.

It has hit more than a spot of bother recently with a messy bankruptcy of its casino operating unit and reportedly facing fines of up to $20 million over money laundering allegations. The most valuable of the individual assets being fought over by creditors is the data collected over the last 17 years through the company’s Total Rewards loyalty program, which gained Caesar’s a reputation as a pioneer in Big Data-driven marketing and customer service. .. "

Engineers of Addiction and Engagement

A vast amount of knowledge and data exists that has been gathered by casinos and the makers of casino games.  How can this be used to further utilize game dynamics?  In mobile games, but also in applications that will benefit from gamification.  We used  simulation to measure solutions that came out of specific engagement alternatives and scenarios,  Detailed piece that looks at the evolution of casino engagement, and hints at the value of data being gathered. Inspirational.   In the Verge.

Beyond Customer Recognition for Retailers

Not a new thing, casinos have been doing it for years.  The capability has been improving for some time.  Now with cheaper hardware?   What is more interesting is how the consumer might gesture back to truly interact with the system.  Where Apple has patents. That was in The Minority Report.   Also, once you are recognizing the face, can you extend the process to eye tracking?  Both recognition and interaction will provide new forms of data.  But is that intrusive?  In Mashable:

" ... Microsoft hints at 'Minority Report'-style customer recognition for retailers ... 
Imagine a store that knows about the outfit you just bought, and can tell you exactly which shoes will go with it. .... 

Microsoft has teased the ability for retailers to employ its Kinect technology to identify customers through facial recognition, bringing the world one step closer to the weirdly prescient future displayed in the 2002 film Minority Report, which was based on a 1956 short story by Philip K. Dick. The introduction of such personalized retail has been viewed not only as a way to provide better service, but also as a dangerous entry into the personal lives of shoppers. ... "

D2Cincinnati Speaks Digital Marketing

On September 22-23 a number of my former colleagues will be speaking at the D2Cincinnati conference at the Cincinnati HorseShoe Casino.  " ... Bringing together the best and the brightest minds in the digital field ...  ".   Still open for attendance, I plan to be there.    Sponsored by Kroger and others.

" ... D²Cincinnati (as in “Digital Dialogue”), now in its seventh year, is the one digital marketing conference to focus specifically on customer centricity – the concept of putting an organization’s customers at the center of its business and marketing decisions. Designed to capitalize on the wealth of consumer marketing and customer-centric companies in the Cincinnati area, D²Cincinnati zeroes in on the intersection where brands, retailers, and technology companies digitally connect with consumers to build relationships and foster long-term loyalty. .. " 

->[ I would have linked to the Cincinnati Enquirer's article on this, but their new slide-style interstitial ads are too confusing and irritating  to submit my readers to.  To the Enquirer's digital crew, fix this, or I will cease linking to your articles]

Facial Recognition in the Wild

In the NYT:   Good overview about advances in facial and individual scanning and recognition. Pioneered for casino operations.  Crowd scanning for security applications.   As a possible replacement for user recognition passwords.   Also a considerable privacy issue.  And an integration with growing use of video systems.  Here a system I had not heard of before:

" .... The Department of Homeland Security tested a crowd-scanning project called the Biometric Optical Surveillance System — or BOSS — last fall after two years of government-financed development. Although the system is not ready for use, researchers say they are making significant advances. That alarms privacy advocates, who say that now is the time for the government to establish oversight rules and limits on how it will someday be used. ... " 

Retail Facial Recognition

Another example of using facial recognition for retail experience. Here apparently to detect VIPs. Had talked to people developing casino applications to detect people banned from the premises, where it was suggested that the same thing could be used to detect big spenders and personalize their presence.  But recognition may not be seen as a positive event.

And more generally Google Glass Facial Recognition.

How Good is Facial Recognition?

Had followed the technology for some time.  Especially how it had been used in casino applications, to apparently great success.  But under controlled conditions.  So I watched with interest about how it was said to be successful at the recent Boston Marathon bombing  using a combination of mobile cameras and fixed security cameras.  But perhaps not as useful as I thought, writes GigaOM.

Zoo Analytics

A local zoo and spin off consultancy makes a point of the value of business intelligence applications.  First I had heard of this specifically addressed in an article.  Though I know that other similar venues, like theme parks, have used business analytics applications for a long time.   I remember seeing early applications at Disney World.  There are also similar capabilities explored in the casino context. This focus is more addressed to what they call 'cultural' attractions.

Psych of Casino Design in Retail

A while back we examined some of the work that had been done designing casino spaces for maximum efficiency and return.  We were attempting to see how these same ideas could be used more generally in simulating and designing more general retail spaces.   I wrote a review of simulation approaches in this space.  In Wired, some recent writing on the subject.