Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

gizmodo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 769 posts

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

#21

Post by lgfrbcsgo »

noodlesUK wrote: post #6

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…

What would prevent someone from lining their shopping bag with metal to shield the RF?

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

#22

Post by ribosometronome »

speff wrote: 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.

The article they link for that isn't readable without subscription. Were they actually labeling data live? That sounds like effectively a secret concierge following you around and writing down what you're getting & like it would be pretty difficult to keep up with. Otherwise, labeled data and machine learning kind of go hand and hand. It's not wild that Amazon would dogfood its own product while creating training data to improve it.

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

#23

Post by dotnet00 »

speff wrote: 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.

Kind of reminds me of how back when speech-to-text started to get good enough to use (in the form of Google Assistant/Siri), my parents wondered if there was someone on the other side doing the transcription.

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

#24

Post by stemlord »

munk-a wrote: post #14
saddist0 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Someone will reply to you saying "I have nothing to hide"

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

#25

Post by frakkingcylons »

fullshark wrote: post #5

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.

It’s a huge advantage if you don’t have to wait in line for self checkout machines or human checkout.

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

#26

Post by cdchn »

munk-a wrote: post #14
saddist0 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is high enough resolution to identify products more creepy than simple ubiquitous surveillance?

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

#27

Post by jimbob45 »

There was a really neat company called Digimarc[0] a while back that promised to bake the barcode into the packaging such that you could scan any part of the label and receive a barcode successfully. I have no idea what happened to them because it seemed like a slam-dunk idea that would have greatly improved the purchasing process virtually everywhere (and you could just have a traditional fallback barcode in case the baked-in one fails).

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digimarc

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

#28

Post by bshep »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #9
fullshark wrote: post #5

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.

I agree, and if you bring bags with you, you can bag as you scan. Works great for quick shopping trips, not so much when I'm making a big purchase.

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

#30

Post by noodlesUK »

lgfrbcsgo wrote: post #21
noodlesUK wrote: post #6

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…

What would prevent someone from lining their shopping bag with metal to shield the RF?

Nothing, the same as current self-checkout systems. You can already easily just put stuff in your pocket or ring expensive items up as incorrect, cheaper things. I suspect shops have done a risk analysis and decided that they'd prefer to have more shoplifting and fewer staff.
Post reply on HN