Slashdot Mirror
Kinect Grocery Cart Follows Shoppers Around the Store
cylonlover writes "When Chaotic Moon Labs debuted the Kinect-powered Board of Awesomeness — and its mind-reading offspring, the Board of Imagination — that was apparently just a preview of a more practical product the company had in the works. Grocery store chain Whole Foods recently gave a demonstration of Chaotic Moon's latest device, which uses the same technology in a self-propelled shopping cart. The 'Smarter Cart,' as it's been named, can detect what items are placed in it, match those to a shopping list, and even follow shoppers around the store on its own."
... and the cart can't find its way around the other shoppers. Remember, compared to its "owner" the cart is rather bulky, and may have some trouble advancing in situations which pose no problem for the owner...
Joy, great joy! Another damned monitor [almost] no one needs embedded in yet another lazygenic device. Isn't moving our asses way better that using this kind of technology?
There's plenty of real needs to solve, please stop designing teh futurez.
We need a new "That meme is not funny anymore" moderation choice.
If they want to impress me, then find a way to let me order groceries from home to be delivered at my home at no additional charge.
You want someone else to pay for the fuel and the manpower to individually ship your groceries to you... and this is the only way to impress you? I suspect you are going to have a very unimpressive life.
Look at Amazon with their no shipping charges on anything over 25 dollars rule.
You are failing so hard at economics right now it's hard for me to type this right now. Let's be clear on something: The shipping company gets paid. The delivery driver gets paid. The warehouse owner gets paid. And they're all making a profit. And you get whatever you ordered. Amazon is allowed to do stuff like that because they don't pay sales tax, which if you did the math you'd notice sales tax costs more than the "delivery tax" as it were. So basically, you're getting that "free" shipping because you're not paying taxes on what you ordered. But it's not free. And other companes offer "free shipping too". It works like this $price = $price + $shipping cost ...now the shipping is 'magically' free.
My point here is that nobody's going to perform a service for you for free. Nothing is 'free'. Stop using the word 'free' in reference to a business transaction. There. Is. No. Such. Thing.
Maybe this is a stupid idea... But I'd use it exclusively.
*cough*
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
First, you're being exceeding and entirely unnessarily rude. Rather then appear superior, this sort of behavior makes you appear childish. This is just a word to the wise in case you weren't aware pointless insults make you sound stupid.
Second, obviously people get paid. However, there is an expense in maintaining retail space in the middle of a city. There is an expense to issuing mail coupons. There is an expense to having check out baggers in the store. There is an expense to having the managers. there is an expense to send trucks to the store and unload goods.
I am hoping that by eliminating all of that there is enough savings to pay for the cost of having a truck deliver to the door directly. For example, leasing space often is 5 percent or a little less of total spending. By not having a store front they eliminate that and get five percent right there. Total number of employees per customer should also be reduced. Labor costs are typically the largest expense in any business. Any thing that can bring those costs down will probably have a big impact on the bottom line.
So the economics aren't that irrational. Had you bothered to think about it a bit before acting like a spoiled child... you might have realized that. I suspect you're too interested in protecting your ego at this point to actually give the idea a fair hearing. But this is my likely vain attempt to have a rational discussion with you.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.