Smart Self-Service Scales 279
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."
From me (Score:2, Insightful)
Just waaaaay too lazy! (Score:1, Insightful)
This is just plain silly and useless. If you fail to see why, I am sad for you. Cool software/hardware has its place, but this will just cost consumers more for no gain whatsoever.
I really hate self service scales.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
A great idea but bound to be executed badly (Score:5, Insightful)
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:I really hate self service scales.. (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
My first real world experience (Score:4, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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:A great idea but bound to be executed badly (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I really hate self service scales.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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:A great idea but bound to be executed badly (Score:3, Insightful)
"Please remove your item from the scales"
WTF.. there's nothing on them
"Please put your items in the bags to the left"
I only got a sandwich and a can of coke!
"Please put your items in the bags to the left"
*hrmmm*
"Please remove your item from the scales"
*cancel*
I hate those infernal machines!
Re:From me (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Too bad.. (Score:4, Insightful)
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...)
Re:Doomed to Fail (Score:2, Insightful)
Refuse to use them (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Too bad.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah. Daikon in my case. Isn't that just an indication these people _won't_ be retrained as rocket scientists? I hate auto-check-outs and never use them. More work for me, I assume more profit for the supermarket instead of lower prices, and I get to pay for somebody's unemployment/retraining. And, to be honest, you go back to the same place every week, there is the sociological angle as some of them become "familiar strangers". Why do I want to crap on them?
Nonetheless, "reprogramable" object recognition simple enough for a supermarket manager to use is a good hack.
Re:I've envisioned something like a Tricorder (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem is that no such device exists not because we can't build the device but because there is such a paucity of taxonomists and so many varieties of plant life that we don't really have a bead on how much is out there. If you can't build a database, having an interface for it is useless. Data first.
Re:Too bad.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I've envisioned something like a Tricorder (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, because it would be such a disaster for taxonomists if they had a machine that they could point at unfamiliar plant life and press a button that said "Is this in the database".
Re:Refuse to use them (Score:3, Insightful)
Two of these things are typically supervised by one worker
In the Tescos I use, it's generally more like 1 worker for 6 or 8 of these, and quite often there's no-one there at all (there is a button you can press to call for assistance).
I refuse to use them too, for exactly the same reasons - they're taking jobs away from people who can probably work in very few other places. That probably makes me a Luddite; so be it. I'm not opposed to technology, but I am opposed to the relentless effort by most companies to save money, often at the expense of the employees.
I'm all for increased automation and efficiency and thus increased leisure time, but society just isn't set up to support the people who find themselves with no jobs and no money because of it.
Re:Refuse to use them (Score:3, Insightful)
...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:
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:Refuse to use them (Score:2, Insightful)
I disliked them at first, but have now started to like them. Many bugs are now fixed, and if you don't press any screen prompts you don't get the patronising loud voice (just scan the food, insert the money without pressing the screen) and it's great.
Usually saves me about 5 minutes, rather than having to queue up behind everyone buying cigarettes and lottery tickets.
Also I've not noticed a reduction in staff in my local tesco express. Before, they often only had one member of staff behind the tills, with a queue of 20 people and 3 staff pointlessly re-arranging the already stocked shelves. Now they still have this scenario, but I just whizz through the self-serve.
Re:Too bad.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I really hate self service scales.. (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Refuse to use them (Score:3, Insightful)
At least in the US, grocery checkout staff are far from the bottom of the labor market. I used to think it had to be the lowest job imaginable, but then there was a major strike of grocery workers in Southern California a few years ago. There was a lot of discussion in the newpapers about their wages, benefits, etc. and it turns out they make decent wages (1.5x to 2x minimum wage) and have good benefits -- they were mostly striking over the details of health insurance. So I was mystified why they were striking, since it seemed like they were getting a fair deal for unskilled work.
But then the strike dragged on long enough that the stores brought in scabs. It changed my opinion of grocery workers immediately. The scabs were awful -- they didn't know any of the codes for the fruit, so it took them a minute to look up each code. They couldn't bag the groceries properly. They were twice as slow, etc.
And in the UK, my experience was that the grocery workers were much more competent than in the US. Generally more personable and helpful, like noticing if a package was damaged or letting me know if there was a special two-for-one price.
-Esme
Re:Too bad.. (Score:3, Insightful)
I think they are talking about fruit and veggies you bag mate, the ones without any stickers. There is no associated code on the bags and the attendant has to know the type of food before weighing it.
This device could help identify the various types that look similar. Although I gotta wonder how it's gonna handle the difference between a McIntosh and a Red Delicious apple. From the article it seems that it will just identify "apple" and then give the user choices. Which makes me wonder how much more useful this identification will be over the typical self-checkout you see in grocery stores.
Re:Refuse to use them (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Yet another instance of the Broken Window Fallacy [freedomkeys.com]. Yes, increased efficiency may put these individuals out of a job. But it also means that the grocer saves money, and we do too. That money doesn't just disappear from the economy, we spend it on better things. Maybe we go out to eat more often, and maybe the owner of the grocery can afford to add on to his house now. Those activities create jobs. Efficiency is better for everyone.
Bad idea (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with self-service scales in the supermarkets I've been to is not that it's hard to enter the item, it's that frequently _the item isn't in the database_. Or the PLU sticker is missing from the item or the shelf tag... and can't be looked up because it demands an exact name match and you don't know whether a sweet Vidalia onion begins with O or V or S.
The premise that it can recognize produce visually is unlikely to say the least. Do you really think it can tell the difference between bananas at $0.69 a pound and organically grown bananas at $1.19 a pound? How about a Fuji apple and a Gala apple?
I'm willing to bet that the system does more to impede legitimate purchases than to facilitate them.
I'm bet that "ask[ing] the customer to choose between only those icons that are relevant" sounds like a smokescreen and a pretext. I'll be these scales really being sold to control-freak store managers who fear that customers are building a better retirement by ringing up expensive orange peppers as cheap green peppers, and is willing to spend $50,000 to prevent a couple of customers a day from bilking the store of $2.67.
Re:Bye bye service industry (Score:3, Insightful)
And while you're lined up, waiting for some jackass to count out change while the cashier is scanning their dozen coupons, I'll already be out the door.
But please, keep it up! The more people like you there are, the more likely it is the self-checkout will be open and available. :)
Re:Refuse to use them (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Agreed! That's why I refuse to use electric light bulbs. I mean, what are the lamplighters to do if there are no gas lamps to light? Huh?? They're just a way for the city to continue to take my taxes while putting people out of a job!
Bye China, Hello UK! (Score:3, Insightful)
In fact the trend has just started to change again, the transportation prices are rising making it increasingly profitable to produce closer to home.
Just the other day I read an article from the UK about companies moving manufacturing home from China. And don't forget that the same thing is happening in the US [in some areas].
And China is experiencing problems with higher labor costs following a real lack of available manpower. People in China are getting picky about what jobs they take and the wages they get.
Re:I really hate self service scales.. (Score:2, Insightful)
But can't we use this tech to eliminate those little produce bags?
Why do I need my apples to be separate from my oranges?
At home they go into the same fruit bowl. Sometimes the bags are useful and are re-used. Most of the time I have a couple hundred saved up to throw away (no local recycling).
The bags are mostly for the checkout process. If we can weigh and pay for produce properly, we can cut back on stupid bags.
The only reason we partition our fruit and veggies before we put them in the final bag to go home is to make it easier for the cashier to handle. A little tech might allow us to try to change such a wasteful and silly cultural shopping habit.
Re:I've envisioned something like a Tricorder (Score:2, Insightful)
Or something like that.