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Amazon Opens 'Surveillance-Powered, No-Checkout Convenience Store' (geekwire.com)
An anonymous reader quotes GeekWire:
The first Amazon Go grocery and convenience store will open to the public Monday in Seattle -- letting any person with an Amazon account, the Amazon Go app and a willingness to give up more of their personal privacy than usual simply grab anything they want and walk out, without going through a checkout line... After shoppers check in by scanning their unique QR code, overhead cameras work with weight sensors in the shelves to precisely track which items they pick up and take with them. When they leave, they just leave. Amazon Go's systems automatically debit their accounts for the items they take, sending the receipt to the app. In my first test of Amazon Go this past week, my elapsed time in the store was exactly 23 seconds -- from scanning the QR code at the entrance to exiting with my chosen item...
The company says the tracking is precise enough to distinguish between multiple people standing side-by-side at a shelf, detecting which one picked up a yogurt or cupcake, for example, and which one was merely browsing. The system also knows when people pick up items and put them back, ensuring that Amazon doesn't dock anyone's account for milk or chips when they simply wanted to read the label. The idea is to "push the boundaries of computer vision and machine learning" to create an "effortless experience for customers," said Dilip Kumar, Amazon Go vice president of technology, after taking GeekWire through the store this past week... Apart from the kitchen staff preparing fresh food at the back, we saw only two workers in the 1,800-square-foot Amazon Go store during our visit: one at the beer and wine section to check IDs, and another just inside the entrance to greet customers.
TechCrunch calls it "Amazon's surveillance-powered no-checkout convenience store," adding "the system is made up of dozens and dozens of camera units mounted to the ceiling, covering and recovering every square inch of the store from multiple angles."
The Seattle Times reports that the store "was also criticized by grocery-store workers' unions, which feared an effort to automate the work done by cashiers, the second-most-common job in the U.S."
The company says the tracking is precise enough to distinguish between multiple people standing side-by-side at a shelf, detecting which one picked up a yogurt or cupcake, for example, and which one was merely browsing. The system also knows when people pick up items and put them back, ensuring that Amazon doesn't dock anyone's account for milk or chips when they simply wanted to read the label. The idea is to "push the boundaries of computer vision and machine learning" to create an "effortless experience for customers," said Dilip Kumar, Amazon Go vice president of technology, after taking GeekWire through the store this past week... Apart from the kitchen staff preparing fresh food at the back, we saw only two workers in the 1,800-square-foot Amazon Go store during our visit: one at the beer and wine section to check IDs, and another just inside the entrance to greet customers.
TechCrunch calls it "Amazon's surveillance-powered no-checkout convenience store," adding "the system is made up of dozens and dozens of camera units mounted to the ceiling, covering and recovering every square inch of the store from multiple angles."
The Seattle Times reports that the store "was also criticized by grocery-store workers' unions, which feared an effort to automate the work done by cashiers, the second-most-common job in the U.S."
You can be sure they've calculated this into their plans, and will be reviewing their camera footage and sending you a bill. Remember, you've identified yourself just to get into the store.
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
You seem to think this situation was avoidable. It was not. The higher minimum wage only made it happen faster.
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From the TFA:
"The company says the tracking is precise enough to distinguish between multiple people standing side-by-side at a shelf, detecting which one picked up a yogurt or cupcake, for example, and which one was merely browsing. "
I would take that as a challenge! What can I get a away with, how can I obscure, or fool the "AI", what are the limitations and assumptions, can I beat the design engineers? Very interesting problem!
If I would be tempted to do that - who hasn't shoplifted once in 47 years - what would that indicate for the average shoplifting rate?
A couple decades ago when I was in middle school banks in our town installed a few ATMs and issued mag stripe cards to replace the paper wallet size account number slips. My dad and many others around me said it would be the end of banking as a profession and I should not go anywhere near the industry.
That end of employment fear was unfounded as is this one.
Get a skill and earn some money.
OK: "Alexa, how many bags of dried beans weigh precisely the same as a 750ml bottle of Courvoisier?"
Unemployment insurance is just a holdover from another era, dressed up to appeal to old boomers too lazy to work and too entitled to seek training or personal betterment.
Instead of paying people NOT to work - the big government idea favored by the AC - we should allow federal agencies (especially parks and transportation) to hire unlimited minimum wage workers for infrastructure improvement projects or paid training. This approach eliminates other wage regulation (the private sector must pay higher than the guarantee wage), delivers the ultimate work requirement for government assistance, and provides a direct avenue to labor force retraining/modernization. It's far simpler than the current system involving complex, overlapping big government programs, more economically useful (infrastructure building and maintenance), and more socially useful for able-bodied people (training opportunities, work requirements, etc.).
A jobs guarantee is THE conservative answer to welfare, and it's a shame you (the AC) are too close-minded to see it.
.:Semper Absurda:.
In the Amazon store, one could do a "raiders of the lost ark", grab something off the shelf and quickly replace it with something worthless of equal weight, like Indy replacing the golden idol with a bag of sand. I'm hoping Amazon will add a rolling stone ball to crush such shoplifters as well.
Our supermarket now has self checkout as well, and we get checked just as frequently and in the same way. What surprises me is the perfunctory manner of the check: they never count items or check stuff at the bottom of the bag. So bury the stuff you want to steal or grab 10 beers and ring up only 8. Then again, I am sure that these supermarkets have very detailed figures on theft, and I am guessing that they feel that the increase (if any) in shoplifting introduced by self scanners is outweighed by the advantages these scanners offer.
I love self checkout by the way. Mostly because there's no taking out and (re)bagging of groceries anymore; everything gets scanned and goes straight into the bag, which goes straight into the boot. Checkout is a 5 second process.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
hoping the bag of pretzels will drop as intended
It's the 21st century, we're sending robots to Mars and probes to asteroids, cancer has gone from "death sentence" to "usually well treatable", and paper jams in printers have become exceedingly rare, but the solution to this problem still eludes us.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
If you don't put the item back the original spot, you should be charged anyway just for being an inconsiderate jerk.
will dwarf anything you could possibly steal before getting caught. As for privacy concerns, it's like the number of the beast. You won't have a choice. You'll at least have to buy food.
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you could pay them in just enough rice porridge to make it through one more miserable day and the machines would still win out; if only because shopping at places where the staff can barely survive is just plain unpleasant. After all, out of sight, out of mind.
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Some dollar stores (Dollarama in Quebec) have now replaced most of their cashiers with automatic cashiers, and those stores are really not in the B2B market. Between online shopping and machines, there won't be many retail employees 15 years from now.
Worse, self-driving cars will probably kill most of the remaining retail stores anyway. People will order their milk and bread online, a robot in a warehouse will put it in the delivery car, and the customer will get it at his door. Walmart killed a lot of retail stores, Amazon will kill what's left.
Shame on those people for not wanting to work for free! Automation could have been avoided if they would just submit to slavery!
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Not really. I've identified myself as Bill, because he keeps forgetting his phone on his desk.
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Sorry, skills such as running a cash register are no longer needed. Please proceed to the starvation line to your left.
Exactly. It is well known that automation causes poverty. Economists call this "the productivity catastrophe". That is why America, Europe, and Japan are mired in misery, while countries that have wisely avoided the "efficiency trap" such as Somalia, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan, are doing so well.
Slavery is expensive. Have to feed, house, give medical care and such to the slaves, not to mention the hassle of stopping them from running away. Much cheaper to pay them a pittance and bitch that they're poor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
You seem to think this situation was avoidable. It was not. The higher minimum wage only made it happen faster.
Absolutely... and speed of change is exactly what we don't want. It takes time for people to adapt. Automation is going to displace a lot of people, so it's important that the changeover happen as slowly as possible, to minimize the pain. High minimum wages are a bad idea.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
1. They are not working for free.
2. Raising the wage increases the motivation to automate.
3. Why all the fuss? Do you us ATMs and online banking? Do you know how many tellers you have put out of work?
When automation actually provides a better user experience it is going to happen.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
From what I've seen, most customers seem to accept them. In the case of the Dollarama I go from time to time, I'd say customers don't have much of a choice anyway. It's either waiting in line for the one remaining cashier (there were four cashiers before), or going to one of the eight automatic cashiers. Of course, the machines Dollarama installed accept cash, including coins.
If I look at the Maxi (a grocery store) near where I live, the technology was slow to be adopted by customers, but it's now been two years and they are now a significant number of people who got used to them. Maxi also advertises an "all tellers open" time, but as soon as there is some waiting, which happens even when all tellers are open, people with few items go to the automatic cashiers if they are available.
I'd say the store where automatic cashiers are the least popular is Walmart. The machines they installed don't accept cash and, because of the lack of space, they are not practical for anyone with more than a few items.
For stores where people buy a lot of items, I'm guessing the real change will be when the technology is integrated directly into the shopping carts.
Automation is fine, I like that. However, I want to be able to walk into a store, buy something with cash, and walk out, anonymously. Nobody has the right to analyze my life history of hygiene and drinking habits.
"But I happened to bring in a block that weighs the same as this item I'm too broke to get. Decisions decisions."
You know it doesn't work, Dr. Jones.
Beware the giant boulder.
So, what is your solution.. Let me guess, slavery? It is too easy to claim that the minimum wage is "too high" when it is not you who are getting the minimum wage.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Those pushing so hard for $15 minimum wage don't seem to realize this, but they've been instrumental in introducing economic distortions that won't just make full automation more economically attractive, but that will make full automation economically mandatory for any business that wants to survive. Socialists are always their own worst enemy. Their lack of understanding about the true nature of economics means that their policies will always be pushed too far, and will eventually destroy the economy that is hosting these socialists.
That doesn't make sense. This kind of automation and grocery store hasn't reduced the amount that our country produces. If anything it's made it produce more efficiently. There's more wealth. The problem remains, as always, how that wealth should be apportioned. Some people (maybe including you) believe the way to apportion that wealth is to have a bunch of poor people work degrading jobs that aren't quite enough for them to get by, and they also must depend upon taxpayer-funded handouts for essentials.
Is that because you think it's morally the right way to apportion society's wealth? Or because you think there exists no other better way?