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."
Too bad.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Not shown in picture (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A great idea but bound to be executed badly (Score:3, Interesting)
There you would go to one person they would select the items you wanted from behind the shelves and place them in a basket, this would then be passed on to the second lady who would then total up your costs and give you a paper listing your total, the basket would then be passed to a third lady who would wrap up your items and place in bags you provided and that would finally be passed to the last lady who was at the door who would take the slip of paper so you could pay then hand you your items.
All of them were seperated so the lady with the basket would have to walk them over to the next station.
Re:I really hate self service scales.. (Score:1, Interesting)
Not only this, but (I've used them - they are deployed often by the Real grocery stores) they are horrible. They often don't even recognise things of the right COLOUR, so it's faster to do it yourself - but German is the land of NO CUSTOMER SERVICE so you need to weigh them yourself anyways (which you always needed to - the NEW thing is just the colour sensing), bag everything yourself as some hag crams it forward as fast as she can, etc etc...
And don't get me started on their Windows XP Professional based stick-20-serial-devices-onto-a-plain-PC-in-a-box-and-call-it-"embedded"
"self-service" cashiers. I used them as they're faster than waiting in line, but they *ARE SLOWER* than an actual cashier and don't have half the functions (Have three bread rolls? Have fun scanning each one individually and waiting for the woman at the counter to manually OK that you've put them in your bag as the weight scale won't register as them being added).
Re:Twice the time, twice the frustration (Score:4, Interesting)
Usually stores do have the facility for the check-out person to enter the code and weigh the fruit themselves at the checkout, but as they only do this when tourists come to town (or the OAPs who forget) they don't remember the codes off the top of their heads and have to spend a while looking them up.
In Australia, it is standard for the "checkout chick" to weigh fruit & veg (or anything else) as part of of the checkout process. The scales are built into the bench/barcode scanner and it takes maybe a second longer than a typical barcode scan.
(Which resulted in a bit of minor confusion and embarrassment the first time I visited a grocery store in Switzerland after we moved here.)
Having seen both systems in action, I'm in favour of having it done at the checkout. It doesn't add any meaningful amount of time, is more convenient for the customer and removes the ability for dishonest people to game the system by deliberately using an incorrect label on their goods.
Re:Bye bye service industry (Score:4, Interesting)
I will start using self checkout when they start giving me a discount on my purchase for the money they save on a cashier. Until then I'll keep on using the cashier lines, that is while they still exist.
Re:Too bad.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Too bad.. (Score:4, Interesting)
You'll sure as hell notice the difference when cooking though!
Re:I really hate self service scales.. (Score:1, Interesting)
You people are all weird. I *love* self service scales. Around here (WA, USA) the stores that have them treat them as other express lanes. That is how I treat them as well.
My purchases are never big. I usually have at most 8 items. Waiting in line seems like a right waste of time when I can step up, scan real quick and be on my way.
I liked them even before I got a temp job as a cashier.
I guess if you like dealing with people that's your bag, but I mean come on. You are posting on Slashdot. You should be all over the self service robots (oh my!) and not wanting to talk to people!
Re:Twice the time, twice the frustration (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah when I lived in Germany, they always did the weighing at the checkout. I never shopped at the big supermarkets like Real or the super-sized Edekas or Aldis because I lived too far away from the large shopping centres and didn't have a car. I just shopped at the small local stores around the corner. They never really had problems with identifying the produce. If they were unsure they usually referred to a guide with pictures to find the right code. If they still couldn't find it they just asked you or someone else. Didn't take long.
Same deal in Canada. I can't speak for the whole country, and have no idea how its done anywhere else, but in Winnipeg at the various Superstore locations I've been to, they have about 4-6 self-checkout kiosks which have the computer scales built in, but definitely are not smart whatsoever. Real Human Beings® still exist as cashiers in far greater numbers. Safeway seems to get the idea that people are better. Their recent store renovations (to the darker more luxurious look with wooden floors and all that) don't have any of the self-checkout kiosks at all. Maybe their next round of renos will put everyone out of a job, who knows.
For bulk purchases, like at Safeway buying a bag of candies or spices from the bulk bins, you still are asked to write down the number on the twist tie, but if you forget, don't worry about it, they can look it up in their guide. Very easy.
Once in the UK, we tried using the self-checkouts at Tesco and they were the hugest pieces of garbage on earth. The machine supervisor/manager guy basically waited beside us the whole time and constantly had to intervene where the machine screwed up. Double-scanning and not sensing the items in the bagging area were par for the course. Took about 10 minutes extra just to do that while people with full carts who went to the Real Human Beings® after we'd started were already loading their cars before we were finished wasting our lives with relatively few items vs. vastly inferior technology. The least the supervisor/manager could have done was to void everything and take us to a proper cashier to get it done in no time. Hopefully they've fixed those things up by now.
Moral of the story: go see the Real Human Beings® because they are harder, better, faster, stronger.. well maybe better and faster. Plus you can chat with them, or chat them up as the case may be, not have them talk down at you in some stupid disembodied voice. Human interaction is much more pleasant than interacting with a computer. I know this is Slashdot, and that may not be a universally held view, but it is the truth. Even Slashdotters have to emerge from their dens and get some food sometime...
Re:Too bad.. (Score:2, Interesting)