Amazon Go, in Seattle on Monday opens its first supermarket without checkout convenience, human or self-service as purchases are billed to cutomers' credit cards as they leave the store.
The move which could revolutionise the way shoppers make purchases will most likely make the dreaded supermarket queue a thing of the past and give any retailer a huge advantage over its competitors.
Basically, customers download an app which allows monitoring and tracking of their every move in real time, as they go on picking up whatever they want from the inventory, and then walk right out the door without anyone stopping them.
They're calling it "just walk out" and while they won't spill the bean on just how it works, they say it uses "computer vision, deep learning algorighms and sensor fusion, much like you'd find in a self-driving car.
Customers at the entrance of the store scan a QR code as they enter, after which they can pocket their phones and proceed to shop.
Hundreds of infra-red ceiling cameras have been trained (with Amazon employees as guinea pigs) over a year to distinguish between customers as they move around the store, and between items for sale, even those with similar appearances, such as different flavours of the same canned drink.
There are weight sensors on the shelves to help indicate if an item has been taken or returned back to the shelve. And some items carry a visual dot code, like a bar code, to help cameras identify them.
With the help of the sensors on the shelves, items are added to customers' Amazon Go account as they pick them up and delete any they put back. And an electronic receipt is issued as they exit.
There's no need for a trolley or basket, as customers will not be unpacking items. In fact, unless you need to be ID-checked for an alcohol purchase, there's also no need for any human interaction at all.
According to an Amazon insider, there seems to be some teething problems with correctly identifying shoppers of similar body types and children moving items to the wrong places on shelves.
Gianna Puerini, head of Amazon Go, said the store had operated fine during the test phase, adding that this type technology did not exist in the past and that it was really advancing the state of the art of computer vision and machine learning.
Amazon however did not offer any information on how accurate the system is.
