Wireless Shopping Carts Run Windows CE

An anonymous reader writes "Fujitsu has introduced a self-service retail scanner that could make long checkout lines a relic of the past. The U-Scan Shopper is a ruggedized XScale-based wireless computer with an integral bar code scanner, running Windows CE 4.2, and mounted on a shopping cart. The company even suggests that customers might upload a shopping list to the store's website before leaving home, and then download the list to the shopping cart upon arriving at the store."

Comments

Second Verse, same as the first

[pangur]

I used to work for Pathmark, a grocery shore chain in the Northeast US (specifically NY). About ten years ago the put on all their carts a screen that would notify them of specials in different lanes. You could accept coupons as they were sent to the screen.

I thought it was going to be the next wave of the future.

Within nine months, every cart had the system stripped out.

I don't know the exact reason the system was pulled (I had stopped working there by then). It was flaky, didn't always change display based on aisle, and some panels were broken, either by extreme weather (-20F that winter) or on purpose. Those are not trivial losses for a business with a tiny profit margin.

I use the self-serve checkout stands when I can. Some work fine, others keep telling me to start over from the beginning. Either way is slower than having someone else do it.

All I'm saying, is that it had better be a damn good piece of technology that saves some money on the backend before we see this stuff available at the local supermarket.

Re:Good idea but

[jm92956n]

When are they actually going to come up with something that will save you money at the grocery store.

It's not about saving you money, it's about saving them money.

I work part-time at a grocery store (and 9 credits short of a masters', too), and I know how unreliable cashiers are. They call out sick. A lot. Or they simply don't show up. And then there's the whole thing about having to provide benefits--these are all expenses, and the food industry (outside of 5 star restaurants) is notoriously low margin. They have to save money where they can.

To further compound the situation, the grocery industry is facing increased competition from WalMart, everyone's "favorite" discount store. I'm in an area that's, for now at least, immune to behometh, but other areas aren't.

Perhaps you remember the prolonged grocery store workers' strike that occurred last year in California? It was because they simply can't afford to have that many workers on the books. The UPC revolutionized the industry and enormously increased the efficiency of the average cashier. Here's a technology that'll produce even more savings (for the store, of course). Even if a few less-than desirable people use it as an opportunity to walk out of the store with unpaid food, they'll still probably make out in the end.

Oh, and the reason for the open coolers? The stores have to be air-conditioned anyway (heat does evil things to food), so it doesn't make much sense to put doors on any of the cases except the frozen products, especially when lazy people object to having to put forth the effort required to continuously open doors.

Are they constructing traffic pattern maps?

[Cryofan]

I wonder if they are sending back postition signals for collection while you are pushing the cart throughout the store. That way they could map traffic pattern and speeds of all shoppers and use that for marketing analysis....

Re:These are going to be stolen, and hacked.

[roseblood]

Fujitsu lists the following key features and specifications for the U-Scan Shopper:

* Processor -- 400 MHz Intel XScale
* Memory -- 64 or 128 MB SDRAM; 32 MB Flash
* Display:
o 6.5-inch reflective TFT LCD with VGA resolution
o CCFL backlight with software controls
o Temperature-based contrast compensation
* Wireless -- 802.11b or g; built-in 2.4 GHz antenna
* Scanning -- 2D imager
* Power:
o Main -- 2 6V, 7.2 aH sealed lead acid batteries in locked case
o Backup -- rechargeable lithium ion
o Piezo motion sensor implements power standby mode

Let me tell you, I'd take this thing over the metal wire carts I see stores provide around here!