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Yes, this is exactly what the shopping experience should be like.

Display a QR code on your smartphone, use it to pass through the gate and enter the store, take what you want to buy, and simply walk out. That is all. When you take an item from a shelf, it is added to a virtual shopping cart on your smartphone. If you change your mind, return it to the shelf and it disappears from the cart. Once you have taken everything you want, you can simply walk out. The items in your virtual shopping cart are then paid for through Amazon’s payment system. The receipt is delivered to the app.

This will become possible at a store on 7th Avenue, at address 2131 in Seattle, Washington, beginning early in 2017.

 

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How is this possible?

It is the result of a project begun 4 years ago, and is reportedly realized by combining:

  • computer vision
  • deep-learning algorithms
  • sensor fusion1

Amazon reportedly calls this “Just Walk Out technology”2.

It is extremely convenient for shoppers, reduces labor costs for the store, and would also eliminate shoplifting. Perhaps reading in the store beyond a certain amount of time could count as a purchase, or incur a time-based charge.

There are various points I wonder about, such as what happens when the population density inside the store rises, but this is surely the direction we should be aiming for. I thought Google’s facial-recognition payment system was good too, but Amazon has effortlessly surpassed it. (Though I think the facial-recognition approach is probably more realistic.)

Well done, Amazon.

By the way, did they choose the name “Amazon Go” before Pokémon GO was released???

Footnotes

  1. A technology that integrates and handles information from multiple sensors, enabling recognition of more than can be learned by simply adding together the information available from individual sensors. It is used in self-driving cars and similar applications.
  2. For more details, see https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=16008589011

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