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

gizmodo.com

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

#61

Post by nemomarx »

freedomben wrote: post #36
munk-a wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm a huge privacy advocate and don't think stores should track what you buy at all, so don't confuse what I say next with the is/ought fallacy. They already have perfect resolution and data retention of everything you buy at checkout time when it's scanned, plus they can verify your identity rather than have to rely on facial recognition or other things. I don't think this is any creepier than what they already do s…

That's fair as far as tracking purchases go, but high resolution cameras while You're in the store could also read your phone screen or other things on your person right? That seems more concerning than normal cashiers.

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

#62

Post by ribosometronome »

diggan wrote: post #41
ribosometronome wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 dat…

It does sound like a person was watching the shopper live: > 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. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped. But who knows, tech articles are so inaccurate that it might as well have been some misunderstanding regarding how the labeling…

Yeah, that's line was what got me trying to look at the article they cite, which is unfortunately paywalled. It'd be one thing to do that at like... several stores to generate the training data. But scaling it to dozens while it still requires that? Baffling.

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

#63

Post by leviathan303 »

silverquiet wrote: post #7
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.

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

2-4% of the time according to the former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt in a Hacker News comment.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38145997

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

#64

Post by PreachSoup »

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.

It's me, aws Mechanical Turk again!

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

#65

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

bshep wrote: post #28
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I am just a few minutes walk from my local grocery store, so I go frequently. Rarely use a cart, just my canvas bag. Will there be portable scanners, or will I have to drag a cart around to benefit from real time scanning?

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

#66

Post by slaymaker1907 »

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.

So what we thought was automation was really just outsourcing.

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

#67

Post by fsckboy »

silverquiet wrote: post #7
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.

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

those grocery delivery robots you see in LA, turns out are being monitored/operated by people in a central location with all their camera feeds.

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

#68

Post by kube-system »

noodlesUK wrote: post #30
lgfrbcsgo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I doubt the relationship between the rate of shoplifting and ease of shoplifting is anywhere close to linear. Even before self-checkouts existed, people still shoplifted. And in some places, the honor system even works much of the time.

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

#69

Post by drusepth »

weinzierl wrote: post #55
beardyw wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, same in the UK. Most stores have scan as you shop, but most people do self checkout. I get the impression scan as you shop is seen as being a bit prissy.

As a German it is always a culture shock to see how popular self checkout is in the UK, even though I see it used more often recently in Germany too. I think Germany is about a decade behind...

Wait until you see how popular it is in the US! I can't remember the last time I saw someone use a manned checkout line; my local grocery store has 1 manned lane and 12 self checkout lanes, and the manned one is almost always empty.

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

#70

Post by code_runner »

sgarman wrote: post #47
ortusdux wrote: post #16

SNL had a great sketch about them - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS9U3Gc832Y

Skit or ad?

amazon is notorious for paying late night sketch comedy shows to make fun of them in order to promote their niche projects that only exist in a few cities.
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