On Mon, Oct 14, 2013 at 10:54 AM, Bob Mottram <[email protected]> wrote: > On 2013-10-14 15:27, tintner michael wrote: >> >> >> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303492504579115310362925246.html?dsk=y >> [1] >> >> >> [But why can't they barcode the fruit?] > > > > Some good observations. Also if the checkout machine fails there's the > embarrassment factor of needing to call for help. I think the checkout > machines will eventually be perfected but that before that time arrives > shopping might be mostly done online. Another disruption factor might be > changes to the business model. Why not have subscription based shopping > where you just pay some fixed price each week and that entitles you to up to > some maximum weight of fresh produce. That would make the fruit a lot > easier for machines to deal with.
How about we take this as a concrete goal for AGI? I mean, ideally a camera should be able to look at your shopping cart from several angles and calculate the total without you even unloading the items. Then it would recognize your face and charge your account. A human could do it. Is this so hard? I think shopping online for groceries won't be practical until we have robots to deliver the groceries for you. Right now, hiring human delivery people is too expensive. I've seen automated checkout machines fail in a dozen different ways. Walmart has to have a full time person waiting next to the machines to fix problems. Identifying bananas is the least of the problems. -- Matt Mahoney, [email protected] ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
