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Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

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Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#11
post #3

> Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. That line was unintentionally hilarious to me. Like looking inside a TV and finding a bunch of fast-working little people drawing images.

I often wonder how much human intervention goes into self-driving car fleets.

That reminds me of this, https://xkcd.com/1897/ perhaps it was based on something after all.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#12

I think that the scan-as-you-shop style systems are definitely the next realistic step for grocery stores. I really like using them, as they allow me to put stuff directly into my bags as I go. I think a further improvement on a system like that would be to use the cheap RFID tech (UHF EPC) so that when you walk through the anti-theft barriers, the system knows exactly what you got, and then there's no need to scan a…

See also the RFID tags Uniqlo and Decathlon use for self-checkout. You just place your shopping bag in a bin and it reads all the items within in a second.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#13

I think that the scan-as-you-shop style systems are definitely the next realistic step for grocery stores. I really like using them, as they allow me to put stuff directly into my bags as I go. I think a further improvement on a system like that would be to use the cheap RFID tech (UHF EPC) so that when you walk through the anti-theft barriers, the system knows exactly what you got, and then there's no need to scan a…

It's like a gift-registry, but you take all the stuff with you when you're done instead of letting other people buy it for you later.

We've got Barcode guns at self-checkout here, and I've begun to arrange my items barcode-up in the cart, so I can just get everything rapidly. I often don't bring my bags with me, because I'm going to have to load everything into the car anyway.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#14
post #3

> Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. That line was unintentionally hilarious to me. Like looking inside a TV and finding a bunch of fast-working little people drawing images.

It isn't that bad an idea. Imagine that next time you are drunk, you can hire a driver who will drive you back home remotely (along with some AI to stop the car in case connection goes away).

I disagree - at a basic level if people are able to tell which products you're picking up the resolution is necessarily high enough that there's a huge creep factor. I am sometimes amazed at what companies will pursue without a glance towards common sense.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#15
> Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts.

More of the same. I wonder if the incredible use of labor in India and other countries will cause their society to bypass their own growth so that the citizens of those countries become pure consumers, the majority of which can only ever get menial or gig jobs due to AI taking over most of innovation. In such countries, the only jobs left may be to aid in the extraction of larger and large amounts of natural resources required for the technological expansion of the west.

In this way, developing countries will never be able to gain independence from the few global powers at the top: instead, they will be forced to follow the folly of the United States and Europe: developing more technology for the sake of technology, and in return they will get a free Unlimited Streaming plan to watch the garbage that we have come to call entertainment.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#17

So they are offloading checkout onto the consumer via dash carts. There's no value proposition for the consumer unless somehow they are able to lower prices by not hiring cashiers.

If I can scan as I shop, that could save me time. I am repeatedly stuck behind individuals with ludicrously full carts, ill suited to self checkout.

Sam's Club does this now. You scan on the mobile app while you shop, then pay right there on the app. It's great.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#18
post #3

> Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. That line was unintentionally hilarious to me. Like looking inside a TV and finding a bunch of fast-working little people drawing images.

Mechanical Turk

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#19

I think that the scan-as-you-shop style systems are definitely the next realistic step for grocery stores. I really like using them, as they allow me to put stuff directly into my bags as I go. I think a further improvement on a system like that would be to use the cheap RFID tech (UHF EPC) so that when you walk through the anti-theft barriers, the system knows exactly what you got, and then there's no need to scan a…

We've had that in France for years, and noone uses that as far as I can tell.

The main usage I see is mainly self checkout.

Please note that I'm biased towards dense areas. We have on-the-go scanning in super stores as well, I feel it's not being used but I could be wrong

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#20
post #3

> Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. That line was unintentionally hilarious to me. Like looking inside a TV and finding a bunch of fast-working little people drawing images.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Turk , on the off chance you've never heard of it. (This article is not the AWS service by the same name, though by the time you conclude reading the Wikipedia page, it should be obvious where the AWS service got its name, and what it does.)

Thanks for the link. I knew of the concept and the Amazon service, but wasn't aware of the connection between the two. Interesting stuff.
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