Self-service checkouts shake-up set to stop common practice
It's been more than a decade since self-serve checkouts arrived in Australia, and soon there will be another shake-up that's lightning-fast and cheat-proof.
Supermarket self-checkouts can hold customers up, but new scanning technology is set to streamline the shopping experience.
No longer will customers need to search menus and tap in the right fruit or vegetable - the new technology does it automatically and records the correct price.
"Smart checkouts" can also tell the difference between products, so customers can't cheat, saving supermarkets up to billions of dollars a year in theft.
The technology is so smart, it can tell the difference between a Royal Gala and Golden Delicious apple, to speed up shopping, while cracking down on theft.
With this self-checkout technology shoppers will no longer need to search through menus trying to identify fresh items for scanning.
Snake's hiding spot in terrified woman's bathroom stumps reptile catcher
’We are pro-men, not anti-women': Barbershop turns away female customer
Chicken lays giant egg with another egg inside
A camera stores product information to identify items at the scanner, without the reliance on barcodes, and preventing customers from under-scanning.
The automated product recognition technology was developed by Aussie start-up company Tiliter Technology.
“It's a massive breakthrough. It will cut your time down at the checkout dramatically,” Tiliter Technology’s Martin Karafilis told 7 News.
Colleague Chris Sampson added: “This machine can distinguish between a Red Delicious and a Pink Lady apple. Between a truss tomato and a gourmet".
“You can't pretend an avocado is an onion.”
Retail theft is estimated at up to $9 billion a year in Australia, with a large proportion is supermarket scanner-cheating according to Australian Retailers.
Russell Zimmerman, from the Australian Retailers said the product recognition technology was “urgent” to help retailers minimise their losses.
“It adds around three percent to our products. So retailers want to minimise that theft so they don't have to charge the honest consumer the extra money," Mr Zimmerman said.
The technology is being tested in several grocers and the aim is that retailers, like supermarkets and hardware stores, start implementing it towards the end of this year.
