BlinkMedia, a media startup company, plans to roll out a new product called 'Intelligent Shopping Cart' (ISC) to spice up our mundane shopping experience.

The battery-powered, tablet-like device will rest on the shopping cart and will help a shopper navigate a shopping mall as along point him towards related purchases. The unit is set to be launched in the first quarter of 2009, starting from Bangalore.

To get started, a shopper has to swipe a smart card in front of the screen of the tablet; this will show up the user's account details and past purchases on the ISC. There are also advertisements and special offers pushed on the home screen of the device, based on the shopper's previous shopping experience. The intuitive touchscreen interface provides a map of the retail store as well; pointing out areas of shopping-interest. An RFID-based sensor tracks the shopper's location inside the store with the help of a sensor grid -- this along with the map can be used to guide the shooper to either what he/she is looking for, or to suggest related purchases and where to find them. There is also barcode scanner for billing products shopped.

A Wi-Fi network in the store is used to feed the content on the user's ISC screen.

The map of the mall shows the various sections to shop at such as Personal Care, Energy Drinks, and so on, which can be viewed by a tap on the screen. From this list a user can search by product type or brand name through the search box using a virtual keyboard. Search can be further filtered based using brand or price.

According to the company, the ISC works for 10-11 hours a single-charge of its battery.

Initiated in 2007 by Hemang Shah, Sawan Ruparel and Devang Raiyani, Blink is also working on 'Magic Mirror'. This product will be a huge mirror where advertising and interactive shopping content will be displayed. For example, at a fashion outlet a user can interact with the mirror to know if products such as jeans or shirts of particular sizes are available or not.

"We're not here to replace the physical shopping experience, but we want to make it more interactive and exciting," says Raiyani.