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China 'Smart Restaurant' Uses Facial Recognition To Make Meal Suggestions (techcrunch.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the how-about-chicken dept.

An anonymous reader quotes TechCrunch's report about Baidu's newest project: The search giant sometimes referred to as the 'Google of China' partnered with KFC to open a new "smart restaurant" in Beijing, which employs facial recognition to make recommendations about what customers might order, based on factors like their age, gender and facial expression... image recognition hardware installed at the KFC will scan customer faces, seeking to infer moods, and guess other information including gender an age in order to inform their recommendation... And the setup also has built-in recognition, so if you're a return customer, it can 'remember' what you ordered before and suggest your past favorites.
Baidu has also worked on another KFC restaurant in Shanghai where the orders were taken by a voice-activated robot.

61 comments

  1. Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by lxs · · Score: 4, Funny

    Based on the roundness of your face.

    1. Re:Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      They have had something like this in Japan for years. They have vending machines with facial recognition that estimates gender age. It then recommends a drink, based on trends like "middle aged women on the train platform on a hot day like to drink fruit juice".

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by quenda · · Score: 1

      Robo-waiter recommends go easy on the chilli for the Round-Eyes.

    3. Re:Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by gtall · · Score: 1

      Robot-waiter: (musing to itself) looks like Kim Jung-Un.

      Lil'Kimmy: I'd like a salad and a diet coke.

      Robot-waiter: Whoa there, Big Guy, would you feel better with a supersized Mc-Steak-O-Fat sandwich, lard induced fries, and an 80 ounce Jolt cola.

      Lil'Kimmy: Hehehe....just kidding, I'd like 800 McDoubleQuarterPounders with the extra layers of cheeze and a case of Jolt....to go.

    4. Re:Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      water

      In other words, a liquid that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re:Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      North Korea will soon have their own robotic restaurant, with occasional down-time to replace the starving guys in the robot suits.

    6. Re:Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They all look the same too.

    7. Re: Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And your belly circumference >;)

    8. Re:Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by Demolition · · Score: 1

      There's an explanation of how these vending machines work in this NHK documentary: https://youtu.be/8SNqD6YqVhQ?t=264

    9. Re:Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Begin Japanology is great, I love that show.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    10. Re:Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No thanks to suggesting what I may want to eat or drink; however, I supposed it has a more practical application elsewhere...

    11. Re:Robo-waiter recommends water and a salad by CaseCrash · · Score: 1

      Thank you for posting this. I just watched that episode and I think I'm going to binge watch the rest in the next couple weeks.

      --
      No, that link you posted to a web comic we've all seen a hundred times is not "obligatory."
  2. Is there a point? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

    You have your customer in the store they are going to buy something if China KFC is anything like the American version most people when they get to the checkout knows what they want. At best you may recommend some up sales or push food with a higher probability. But I don't see the need for all that technology for such a small advantage.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re: Is there a point? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wasn't there a study that found people intrinsically trust robots and automatons more than actual people? This is some fallacy of thinking that because many people have injected their designs into something that it must be some moral superset.

      In reality the many cooks in the kitchen also forms models used by companies and the NSA. Many people != ethical. Many people can become as corrupt as the worst villains in our world. Groupthink isn't automatically good, and we can look to some world wars to prove that quite easily.

      Also, *one* person decided to release that robot, and you can bet one of their questions was "will this make me rich?".

    2. Re:Is there a point? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Although people might have favourites they often order, some people do prefer to ask before ordering what is fresh or really good in that particular day. Eating becomes a social and a communal experience. The idea of the customer ordering always the favourite foods is a product of modern preservation techniques, chain restaurants with regularized experience and an endless supply of frozen beef or chicken. Smart restaurant may be a thing of the future, but it has to be a lot smarter than just embarrassing the customers with their eating history.

    3. Re: Is there a point? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wasn't there a study that found people intrinsically trust robots and automatons more than actual people? This is some fallacy of thinking that because many people have injected their designs into something that it must be some moral superset.

      Could be, but I suspect that this will hold even if they know that the machine was only built by a single person.
      I think it has more to do with people being so used to being lied to by salesmen an marketing people that they are content being sold to be a machine that at least doesn't lie to them for the heck of it.
      Engineers and programmers are in general very bad liars and often have to convince themselves of the lies before they tell them to someone else. This means that when the machine serves them crap they didn't want it can be explained as a honest mistake on the behalf of the programmers rather than a salesman trying to fool them.

    4. Re: Is there a point? by thundercattt · · Score: 1

      I for one like the lies. Mostly because any big purchase I do my research and form my own opinion. So, I get amused at sales pitch and why I SHOULD buy what they say. This was most amusing in purchasing a cellphone. Instantly pushed an iFone. Said no, then pushed Samsung again no. Said I wanted a Nexus, they asked....Why? They aren't knowledgeable, just know which ones they are required to push for commish

    5. Re:Is there a point? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You want fries with that?

    6. Re:Is there a point? by arth1 · · Score: 2

      if China KFC is anything like the American version most people when they get to the checkout knows what they want.

      Yes, and that is the problem they attempt to solve. The goal would be changing what people want towards what gives the most profit in the least amount of time, or new items that they want customers to sample at least once.

      A little nudge, a little reminder of other items, but within what has a higher likelihood of being acceptable.
      It doesn't have to work on all or even a majority of customers; as long as it works on just a small percentage, it's still going to increase profits. As long as it's not alienating the customers, it's all good from the corporate point of view, and attempting to guess what customers will be comfortable with helps.

      I'm just surprised that it's Kingston Fried Chicken that starts with this. I would have thought that MD would have been first, given how much they already attempt to push products (to the point that I've driven out of the line in anger and went to BK instead).

    7. Re:Is there a point? by hey! · · Score: 0

      if China KFC is anything like the American version most people when they get to the checkout knows what they want.

      Perhaps not. In the US fried chicken is comfort food you grandma may have cooked. In China it's exotic foreign swill.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    8. Re: Is there a point? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      Where I live, the folks selling cellphones are mostly students, earning their beer money. They will, of course, try to sell you the phone that pays the highest commission for them.

      Particularly lucrative for them are two year contracts with a cell provider . . . which I don't need, since my employer pays for it. They will nevertheless keep asking, "What do you pay for your cell phone service? I can offer you something cheaper!" When I finally answer, "I pay nothing", then they finally give up. Then they sell me the phone I want, with a unfriendly attitude.

      Luckily, "fast" food places won't waste time trying to sell you stuff that you don't want . . . they want to serve you and get one to the next customer, as quickly as they can.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    9. Re: Is there a point? by thundercattt · · Score: 1

      Lol yes I go through that too. I got a GREAT plan like 5 years ago that is still cheaper than today. If I built my plan on today's plans my $53 plan would be $130. I always let them view my plan then go....O...We can't beat that. Which means I can never upgrade my phone. I have to buy outright.

    10. Re: Is there a point? by thundercattt · · Score: 1

      People say they want fresh, but then go-to restaurants that are known for frozen food IE Boston Pizza. Many chef shows will make a homemade pasta dish with herbs etc then put it against pot noodles and people pick the pot noodles. The manufactured food kills taste buds. So I can see smart restaurants popping up quick along with pre packaged food even more so. When I dine out I can instantly tell if it's fresh/frozen, microwaved vs cooked. 90% of the time I eat at home.

    11. Re: Is there a point? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Wasn't there a study that found people intrinsically trust robots and automatons more than actual people?

      That seems reasonable. I certainly trust an ATM more than I trust the cashier at the grocery store. If ATMs miscounted money, I would have heard about the problem, so I rarely bother to double check. Human cashiers miscount all the time, although mostly out of carelessness rather than dishonesty.

    12. Re:Is there a point? by E-Lad · · Score: 1

      This, plus the aspect of us steadily outsourcing personal decisions and choices. Makes me wonder if the future General Public will actually be capable of thinking for themselves without having some technological crutch be a part of it.

    13. Re: Is there a point? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      Luckily, "fast" food places won't waste time trying to sell you stuff that you don't want . . . they want to serve you and get one to the next customer, as quickly as they can.

      You'd think so, right? But recently, the trend at my local KFC drive-through is a recording: "Welcome to KFC, would you like to try our _____?", to which I growl "No", and then I get to talk to a human. I have no idea why it irritates me so much, to be honest.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    14. Re: Is there a point? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      90% of the time I eat at home.

      When a reasonably good beef for four costs about half of the small restaurant portion, the cookery lessons literally pay themselves back.

  3. Ob Steve Martin Quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Baidu’s tech in this new restaurant, however, is all about guessing what you want before you can even ask..."

    "You cannot have the duck!"

    1. Re:Ob Steve Martin Quote by Mikkeles · · Score: 2

      No soup for you!

      --
      Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
  4. Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But they all look the same!

    1. Re: Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your thinking of robo waiters and your thinking of AreTwoDeeToo

  5. But mind your manners by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

    On your next visit it might just put in an order for a knuckle sandwich.

    I hear the robotic maître d' has a wicked uppercut.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    1. Re:But mind your manners by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes! Slashdot is an American website that supports American views and upholds American traditions and will proudly refuse to support the socialist conspiracy known as Unicode!

      'Murica Fuck Yeah!

  6. So it's like Netflix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So a fair approximation is 97% of the recommendations will be things you'd never want to order.

    1. Re:So it's like Netflix by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      It's not really about helping you out with recommendations. It's about providing a novelty, seemingly personalized service as a way to sell more food. It also helps introduce new products and encourage customers to try different things, maximizing profit for the restaurant.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:So it's like Netflix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So a fair approximation is 97% of the recommendations will be things you'd never want to order.

      Or it could be reverse justification.

      Consider this exchange from Star Trek III the Search For Spock:

      Kirk: "Beam the Vulcan up, and we'll talk"
      Klingon: "No!"
      Kirk:"But why?"
      Klingon: "Because you wish it!"

      I think that if a machine suggests something, chances are there are a sub set of people that would say that is not what they want just because a machine suggested it. It has nothing to do with their actual preference.. and interestingly in a parallel universe where they had read off of a paper menu, they would have ordered what the machine suggested a staggeringly high percentage of the time.

  7. Is this really necessary? by Master5000 · · Score: 0

    I already know what I want to order when I go in a fast food restaurant. No need to tell me. So this only looks more like a spy machine for the government. So they can see what everybody eats and draw conclusions on how to control them even more completely than they do now.

  8. Upsize by dohzer · · Score: 1

    I bet it always recommends the customer upsizes their meal.

  9. Probably not that complex by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

    If you look Asian, all the Chinese food. If you look western, only the meals the westerns like (because there is a lot of stuff in the Chinese food we don't like!)

    --
    Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
  10. Robo-waiter recommends bucket of lard by Kjella · · Score: 2

    Based on the roundness of your face and the profit margin. They don't care about your health.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  11. Return customer by DrYak · · Score: 1

    Please read TFSummary until the expression : "return customer".

    They don't care about your health.

    They DO care a tiny bit about the customers' health. Not as much as to earn a Nobel price, but just barely enough to make sure that customer lives long enough to return again and spend their money again.
    (That's why they don't outright actively try to poison their customers)

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Return customer by c · · Score: 1

      They DO care a tiny bit about the customers' health. Not as much as to earn a Nobel price, but just barely enough to make sure that customer lives long enough to return again and spend their money again.

      True enough, but I'm willing to bet that the point where the health versus profit curve peaks is not a place where the average person should or wants to be.

      If the industry has any brains then that curve and any research behind it will be buried deeply enough that the inevitable obesity epidemic fast food industry lawsuits won't discover it.

      --
      Log in or piss off.
    2. Re:Return customer by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      I work as a programmer for KFC. Here is the source code for the recommendation algorithm:

      String
      getRecommendation(Customer customer)
      {
            switch (getCustomerPreference(customer.facialImage)) {
              default:
                      return "Chicken";
              }
      }

    3. Re:Return customer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Need to tighten up that sloppy code:

      String tellCustomerWhatHeWants() {return "Chicken";}

  12. Could quickly become annoying by ITRambo · · Score: 1

    If I'm at KFC, I want chicken of some kind. I'll decide what, based on what I have a taste for, not what a programmer typed into an algorithm.

    1. Re:Could quickly become annoying by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If the algorithm is actually really smart, it will advise you to avoid all fast foods, including KFC.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    2. Re:Could quickly become annoying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't understand; CUSTOMERS program it every time they buy more KFC. So, as your generation wastes away more and more into obesity, it will gleefully encourage you to follow suit with intense psychological stimuli beamed at you from all directions.

  13. Funny story by wbr1 · · Score: 2
    When KFC first kame to China in 1987, the slogan was mis translated. Instead of "Finger Lickin' Good", it was "eat your fingers off". http://www.oddee.com/item_9773...

    Wonder how this could go wrong.....

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  14. has to be done by sheramil · · Score: 1

    Let's start a patreon to fund a visit from Danny John-Jules dressed up as the Cat, and have him go in there and repeatedly ask for "Fish!"

  15. Round eye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would you like fri chicken or...fri chicken?

    1. Re:Round eye by manu0601 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps it can advise on quantity: "your leaver can stand one extra serving".

  16. They always run... by Harold+Halloway · · Score: 1

    John Anderton! You could use a Guinness right now!

  17. Coming soon to a China near you: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Totalitarian communist Chinese government tracks all citizens via facial recognition in restaurants, only ALLOWS you to eat what the State thinks you should be eating. Later, technology is installed in all food markets, only allowing you to purchase what the State wants you to purchase. State wants you to die? They starve you to death. Don't even think of trying to escape, facial recognition tracks your every move, you try to feed yourself in a non-State-approved way, you are promptly arrested.

    1. Re:Coming soon to a China near you: by manu0601 · · Score: 1

      You deserve +1 funny, but on the serious side, starving people has historically being one of the few efficient way to cause a revolution. Do not bet chinese leaders ignore that.

  18. Funnier if it were fecal recognition by ichthus · · Score: 1

    I was thinking it would be funnier if it was:
    China 'Smart Restaurant' Uses Fecal Recognition To Make Meal Suggestions

    "So, Chang Li, it seems you need more bran in your diet. Ditch the won ton and have a muffin, k?"

    --
    sig: sauer
    1. Re:Funnier if it were fecal recognition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice. I was thinking: Mr. Li, you look constipated. How about you go to the Indian food restaurant across the street?

  19. fatface by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    fat face, eat more. skinny face, eat more.

  20. Should be easy enough by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    Theres not to many options at KFC.... There's chicken, chicken or Chicken burger..

    --
    [($)]
  21. "Fecal Recognition" by The+Creator · · Score: 1

    Just NO!!!

    --

    FRA: STFU GTFO