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."

Comments

I really hate self service scales..

[tjstork]

Which is better for me as a customer, having someone in checkout that just grabs my tomatoes and enters the price, bags them, or, a stupid robot that makes me do everything. This technology doesn't benefit me at all, it benefits the store. I refuse to use it.

Re:I really hate self service scales..

[tjstork]

Stores that do this, too, just don't understand that the whole reason people do retail these days is because of the people. A supermarket is a social occasion, and, actually talking to a checkout person for 5 seconds is, well, a human experience. I was loyal to my Wawa (a convenience store) for the longest time largely because the person who worked there took 2 seconds to throw in a sausage egg and cheese into the oven for my wife when they had run out of the ones they'd already made. You can't get that kind of flexibility out of a robot.

Re:I really hate self service scales..

[AuMatar]

TO you it may be a social occasion. For me, its a once weekly annoyance. I want to get in and out as fast as possible, and get on with my life. Anything that shaves time off is appreciated, and these sound like they'd be great when combined with self-checkout lines.

Re:I really hate self service scales..

[tibman]

I like the self-checkout, it's fast and convenient. Kroger's works great, Walmart's isn't that good (i dislike the store a bit too, tbh).

But the small discount is probably doable if we take the money saved and convert it. Let's say they convert 2 normal lanes into 6 self-checkouts. That removes 1 employee (still need one to oversee the self-checkouts). Let's say 9 US dollars an hour is saved. You could get a discount of 15 cents US per minute. Ah, but wait, there is 6 self-service lanes which means you get 2.5 cents US per minute discount. Hardly worth it, imo.

A great idea but bound to be executed badly

[jimicus]

I don't know how widespread these are outside the UK, but ever used one of the self-service checkouts that are appearing? Scan item, bag it, scan next item etc...

Great idea. Except that the whole point is to save time, and these things were clearly never tested by someone in a hurry because it's trivially easy to scan and bag faster than the checkout can keep up. Well, it would be except the damn thing refuses to scan item 2 until item 1 has been bagged and it takes forever to register that item 1 has been bagged.

They're only faster if the supermarket is full of technophobic customers and the checkouts have a queue going out the door.

Re:A great idea but bound to be executed badly

[RMH101]

Great idea, flawed execution - you're not wrong. Whilst I still use them at my local Tescos, I use them because I take a calculated guess that I can deal with the self-service system and its bugs and short queue quicker than queuing up in the long line at the conventional checkout line.

I'm usually the guy who's standing there muttering "C'mon, c'mon!" under his breath whilst waiting for the damn thing to recognise that I really have scanned my purchase and placed it on the checkout roller. The annoying thing is you could see how it could be really great - better scanners, faster recognition: swipe, bag, insert card and you're done.
(Thinking about it, having self-checkout that's a bit of a pain to use unless you're slightly geek-savvy might not be a bad thing - keeps the queues down for us)

On a related note, to those of you who also buy clothing at supermarkets, bear in mind the self-service tills neither offer to remove the security tag from clothing, nor remind you that there's one present. Happily, there's lots of guides on the internet that'll walk you through removing these things at home using nothing more complex than a butane lighter.

My first real world experience

[grungeman]

Just a few days ago when I was shopping with my family at a "real" store (maybe comparable to WalMart in the US) in Potsdam (near Berlin), I was confronted with this kind of scale. The scale looks similar to the standard self service scales, but it sports a touch screen instead of the panel with selection buttons. The camera is also included in the touch sceen.

After I had placed a clear bag with nectarines on the scale it displayed a number of selections that it considered the appropriate type of fruit. None of the selections came even close, so I had to select "nectarines" manually on the touch sceen.

Generally this is a nice idea, but it just does not seem to work, maybe also because we always place the fuits in bags before putting them on the scale.

Bye bye service industry

[damburger]

We have stopped making things, and now increased automation is rendering the service industry pointless. To be honest, like most of the public, I would rather deal with a machine than another human being, if only because that other human being is inevitably some slack-jawed sack of cynicism and self-loathing who hates their job and thus a large percentage of their existence.

The economy of western Europe, therefore, is developing into one based entirely on producing reality TV shows and suing people for sharing them on the Internet. Hooray.

Re:From me

[Anonymous Coward]

If it could figure out the type op the tomatoes, it should also be able to recognize the things as tomatoes...

Re:Too bad..

[aproposofwhat]

But given the level of knowledge of the average checkout person, this might be more useful at the tills - having to explain to the staff what 'fennel' or 'parsnip' (I kid you not - it actually happens) is can get kind of frustrating after a while.

I can see this technology helping the checkout staff - of course, staff training might help as well (looking at you, Tesco...)

Refuse to use them

[Dr_Barnowl]

I refuse to use self-service checkouts. They have installed two of them in the local Tesco (occupies the position that Wal-Mart does in the UK market).

Every time I go in, a clipboard-wielding junior manager tries to make me use them. I usually just say "No", but next time I've resolved to explain why.

Completely aside from the fact that the implementation is dreadful, the things are designed to do people out of a job, in a town that sorely needs jobs. Two of these things are typically supervised by one worker, instead of requiring two people to man two manual ones. You only spend on capital if you have an expectation of increased quality or reduced labour costs, and I can't see these things increasing quality.

People who work grocery retail are at the bottom end of the labour market, so where are they going to go? I don't feel comfortable helping the the likes of Tesco line their pockets like this. I'm starting to feel close to the line where I stop shopping there (if only they hadn't managed to crowd out all the local greengrocers and fishmongers, which I suppose is partially my fault).

Re:Refuse to use them

[Anonymous Coward]

...the things are designed to do people out of a job, in a town that sorely needs jobs.

Since when do we owe these losers jobs? You should have seen the kids at my brother's old school. None of them gave a shit about their GCSEs, despite (because of?) the fact that they were going to be leaving school straight after them. They couldn't be arsed to work and seemed to think that the world owed them a living. I always wonder what percentage will grow up to look back on their GCSE exams and realise that they should have worked harder.

Most of my friends on the other hand have worked their arses off at top universities but are finding it impossible to get the jobs they wanted because of the credit crunch and companies tightening their belts. Yet you think we should be hiring unskilled wasters instead of the talented people who have worked their whole lives?

Here's a list of some other things we should therefore get rid of:

• Automatic traffic lights
• ATMs
• Being able to order things online without phoning someone up

They all reduce employment, right?

(Posted as AC, as no doubt someone will think rewarding the people who spend time and effort to do well at school over the layabouts is fascism of some sort.)

Re:Too bad..

[Mesa MIke]

Around here, the cashiers don't have to know what it is. Just throw it on the scale and type in the PLU code that's on the sticker.

Re:Too bad..

[Chaos Incarnate]

That depends on how granular it gets. It sounds like it could only narrow it down to "apple" or "tomato"; the weird stuff that drove me batty as a cashier would probably just come up as "weedy thing"...