Philips and Carrefour set to utilize special lights to send coupons to customers

Philips now has a deal in place with French retailer Carrefour to sell lights that are designed to track customers and present them with coupons in their smartphones, as they move around a grocery store.

The lights will utilize built-in technology to transmit data to smartphones via light pulses.

With the deal in place with Carrefour, the new coupon dispensing system will get a trial run in one of the company's stores in Lille, located in Northern France, according to the London Free Press.

Carrefour and Philips will not just be forcing coupons upon their customers. In order to receive the service, customers will have to download the Carrefour app on their smartphones and then choose to opt in on the offer.

The light pulses themselves are invisible to the naked eye, but they will be read by the camera on the smartphone and then translated into a coupon, according to Reuters.

The coupons the customers will receive will be based on what part of the store they are currently in. Additionally, information about the product could be displayed in place of a coupon should the latter be unavailable.

Philips has been fine tuning the technology for this venture since 2014, according to the Engineering and Technology Magazine.

The new technology utilizes an already existing network as opposed to necessitating the installation of new hardware.

Aside from their venture into coupon-dispensing store lights, Philips has also begun work on streetlamp technology which may allow for remote control. The people assigned to monitor the lights can do so online, and they may also be able to see if any of the lights of the streetlamps are broken and whether any of them may require replacement.