why is "deep learning" and "computer vision" required here? Surely a RFID tag on each item would suffice?
Amazon Go
441–450 of 1001 posts
Re: Amazon Go
#442Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your point, but at the same time, you should be charged the price of the food if you grab perishable food and place it in an area that renders it unsafe. I worked in retail and at theme parks, and I'm personally of the opinion that it's better for everyone in the long run if you fire entitled customers.
, you should be charged the price of the food if you grab perishable food and place it in an area that renders it unsafe That'd constitute a massive retooling of consumer behavior and logic and would require quite a bit of conditioning over many years, no?
Not really. Customers already pay more if they don't have the company card, aren't "loyal" etc... Instead of it being framed as a fine or punishment or way to "fire customers" it is simply referred to as a discount and a way to get coupons.
Re: Amazon Go
#443Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really wouldn't trust 'picked up off the shelf' detection, not without the whole thing looking like a giant vending machine. RFID tags on products probably works better.
RFID has some privacy concerns, since the tags continue work when you are outside the store and somebody can scan what you are carrying. Using these as EAN barcode replacement also has the problem that the system can't tell if you bought the product from Amazon GO or if you just happen to be carrying it with you when you enter the store.
Bring a Faraday's cage, or rather Faraday's bag. Use it once you've paid to store your goods.
Re: Amazon Go
#444Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad. I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement).. I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables. I know all the people who work in these supermarket…
Capitalism says if the majority of people agree with you they will spend their money at the supermarkets w/ the friendly clerks.
Not necessarily majority - it's an interesting ability of capitalism over many other systems - multiple solutions to a problem can co-exist. As long as enough people still demand it to make it economically viable.
With "just walk out" the friction is extremely low. It might see less pushback than other technological approaches. However I have to think security will be a major issue. If I can rob the store by just leaving my phone in my car or leaving a cheap phone in the store while I walk away with the products. Tap-in/out gates are probably the best bet, but can still be tailgated, so you'll need to have pretty tight security and monitoring ready to beat anyone down who doesn't pass the checks or looks fishy at the gate or in store attempting to fool the system into believing they're another person. Or write those off as losses, I suppose most retailers today already do a lot of that.
Re: Amazon Go
#445Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I don't like the company that you wageslaves work for, so I'm going to create a big stinky mess for y'all to clean up. (And also waste some trivial amount of the company's money.)"
If this was the only tactic one could use to waste money at Walmart, then yes, it would be trivial. Now, imagine a team of 20 people doing this, as well as numerous other tactics to waste their money, weekly at 5 locations in a city. the numbers start adding up real quick. the wageslaves don't care. Wal-Mart pays them low enough that the company assists them with acquiring welfare benefits to supplement their incomes…
are you 12 years old?
Re: Amazon Go
#446So it seems that most people assume that this kind of shop is a replacement to major grocery stores. I dont think that this is what their initial customer base is going to be. I see this more inline with "Fresh & Easy" kind of markets where on the go customers can just stop by for a quick bite or a quick pick up of resources like a 7/11 or something similar. I can see that they may want to expand to supermarkets but I think this is more addressing the quick easy supermarket market and focusing on easy pickups rather then full fledged supermarkets for all grocery needs. I may have missed something but that would be the most logical and successful way for Amazon to introduce this technology.
Re: Amazon Go
#447Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad. I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement).. I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables. I know all the people who work in these supermarket…
I live in silicon valley. And I have a good friend from Spain who ever told me about the culture difference between his home town and the U.S. One example he mentioned to me was what you said. He said they have grocery stores they routinely go. it's like a family tradition to always shop at a specific place. They know the cashier well. One day they went to a different store, the store owner became mad.
he said, here in the U.S., business is business. nobody gets attached to a store.
Re: Amazon Go
#448I worked at a grocery store for several years, and one thing I recall is customers CONSTANTLY putting items back in a random aisle, rather than where they found it. I wonder how this tech deals with that? Maybe they figured that out, too. But I was amused in the video when I saw the customer putting it back where it belonged, because that's not how I remember that going... All that said, this is fantastic and excitin…
I really wouldn't trust 'picked up off the shelf' detection, not without the whole thing looking like a giant vending machine. RFID tags on products probably works better.
Given the turnstiles that the users entered/exited from I'd have guessed there is RFID in play too.
Re: Amazon Go
#449Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad. I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement).. I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables. I know all the people who work in these supermarket…
I agree with @delegate that human interaction is valuable; sometimes I choose a cashier lane instead of self-checkout because I prefer it. But even then, half of the interaction has been delegated to the screen on the pin pad.
And, I'm all for people having careers that are meaningful and fulfilling. But, is supermarket cashier the most valuable thing these people can be doing?
Imagine we had all the money we wanted and could pay people to do anything and buy robots to do anything. What would we choose to buy robots to do and what would we choose to pay humans to do?
Re: Amazon Go
#450Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad. I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement).. I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables. I know all the people who work in these supermarket…
Trying to save jobs that are no longer the most efficient way of solving a problem is not the way to promote the value of humanity, in my opinion. People want groceries as cheap and fast as possible. They don't go to the grocery store for social interaction and forcing the majority of people to pay extra for something that only the minority get value out of is not a competitive strategy. If humanity were to take your…
I am unsure we are evolving. We have evolved in many areas that solve real problems, like healthcare and such, but I'm not sure today's society is any better for all the technology that allows us to save a couple of minutes in a queue.
To improve the efficiency of a particular group, we create problems elsewhere. The result may not be net positive. In fact, I think it isn't, since those saved "couple of minutes" will probably be spent browsing Facebook.