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Smart Self-Service Scales
Roland Piquepaille writes "German researchers have developed intelligent self-service scales for supermarkets, able to recognize fruit or vegetables placed on them (photo). The scales automatically recognize the item being weighed and ask the customer to choose between only those icons that are relevant, such as various kinds of tomatoes. The scales are equipped with a camera and an image evaluation algorithm that compares the image of the item on the scale with images stored in its database. Store managers can add items to the database. The scales are now being tested in about 300 supermarkets across Europe."
I understand that people want to avoid long lines at the grocery store. They all pile into the self-serve line because they can of course check out their own groceries faster than some retarded minimum-wage monkey girl and her patchouli-scented pet bagboy can.
It's a little like wanting to drive your own car instead of taking the bus or train. The feeling that you are in control makes you feel like you can move faster, but the fact of the matter is that you're simply clogging up the road with your lousy driving skills and 4 ton 2mpg piece of American shit SUV. You make yourself and everyone else slower just by being on the road.
I haven't been to Germany, but I've been to Austria and found that, aside from grocery stores closing at 3:30 in the afternoon, that you had to weigh and tag your own fruits. The retarded minimum-wage monkey girl just stared at me like I was from Mars when I passed her a bunch of bananas with no price sticker on it. Then she ate the fucking things.
So anyway, the experience of doing it yourself is highly overrated. I think Arsenio Hall said it best, "Oh give me the dick, Eddie!" But he also said something like the "wiping your own butt is overrated" or something in that movie about African dudes who came to Manhattan to work at McDonalds.