German "Future Store" lets you grocery shop with your cellphone
[Via PHONE Magazine]
Filed under: Cellphones
[Via PHONE Magazine]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jy.suis.jamais @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:24AM
Wasn't this article on BBC Breakfast a few weeks ago? i have slept since then though...
jy.suis.jamais @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:27AM
Wasn't this article on BBC Breakfast a few weeks ago? Out-done by Bill turnball - shame on Engadget :-)
GreezyG @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:31AM
The goggles...Zey do nothings!!
Danakin @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:09PM
LOOK OUT, Radioactive Man!
rsandoval1 @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:34AM
Have they heard of RFID?!?
Jamma @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:44AM
Sure, but this system doesn't need people to buy RFID enabled mobile phones!!
kjb434 @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:44AM
It would be easier if they just slap RFD's on all they products.
meist3r @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:48AM
I hate to say this but this place is the breeding ground for the next generation of surveillance and data-mining technologies. And not in a good way at all. I come from Germany and there are several groups here that oppose many of the developments that stem from this research facility. German Hacker group CCC in cooperation with a television station have proved that for example the fingerprint technology in that store can easily be fooled and exploited. I'm fed up enough already by all these bonus systems. If they introduce a mandatory cavity search soon shopping will be nothing short of the level of annoyance that air travel has become. Why should I want to send my shopping list to my traceable phone? The thought that someone can trace my movement and then tell from the transfer logfiles and data what I did there just by looking at my cellphone data is horrible.
DeaconGTG @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:49AM
And how exactly is this faster than scanning the barcodes at checkout?
I guess it would make the lines shorter, but it still consumes just as much of the customer's time.
clakimpersonator @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:49AM
Some Bloom grocerie stores do a similar thing - except there are handheld little scanners that you pick up in front of the store instead of cellphones.
Btw, I'm not impersonating clak with this comment, for all you weird people out there.
Shannin @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:21PM
one of our stores has that too.
Galley @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:37PM
The Bloom system works pretty well. Dock the scanner, swipe your credit card, and you're done!
Andrew @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:26PM
Yes this as indeed on BBC News some weeks ago.
Also, Safeway (now Morrisons) in the UK had this technology about 10 years ago, albeit using their own hand-held scanners instead of mobile phones. You scan each item, it prints off a big barcode, you just pay for it all in one go.
However tt remains to be seed why it would be preferred to target only the users that have capable phones (software requirements (java?), sufficient camera etc), manage testing on numerous devices, deployment and updating etc when you could get cheap little hand-held scanners that would sit in peoples' trollies. Also, having a holster for one's phone on the trolley does advertise it to thieves somewhat.
Publicity for publicity's sake? In all honesty the little robot that runs around the store interacting with customers is probably more newsworthy!
Rob Anderson @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:34PM
Doesnt this seem like a bigger hassle than just scanning and paying later? It comes to mind how many problems customers will run into: 'my camera isnt clear enough" "the bar code was cut off" "it wont scan from my cell phone"
And seriously, do you guys want to take 50-60 pictures on your cell phone when you are shopping- its annoying to take just one picture as it is!
Josh @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:34PM
It's likely to be a Java app that will take the pictures, get the data from them, and then delete the buffered image. It's not like you take pictures of everything and then present 80 images to the cashier at the other end! I wonder how you get the data off though.. presumably the tills will have bluetooth?
So you link say a points card to your phone, pop the card in, till reads all your data - job done.
Qugeist @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:35PM
yes, I saw this on BBC a few days ago =)
some people like me won't scan everything in the shopping cart -- although I think the German citizens are very law abiding...
Pretty cool invention - but I guess the phone part is just a "stepping stone"... However, I think that they should have put RFID tags on all the items, and when a shopper puts it into the cart the cart detects it and upon checkout the trolley will transmit a signal of the total amount payable =) it's just what I think...
Adding RFIDs to every single thing in the store may be expensive, but I guess it would still be cheaper in the long run with some customers not scanning everything...
qgst @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:41PM
yes, I saw this on BBC a few days ago =)
some people like me won't scan everything in the shopping cart -- although I think the German citizens are very law abiding...
Pretty cool invention - but I guess the phone part is just a "stepping stone"... However, I think that they should have put RFID tags on all the items, and when a shopper puts it into the cart the cart detects it and upon checkout the trolley will transmit a signal of the total amount payable =) it's just what I think...
Adding RFIDs to every single thing in the store may be expensive, but I guess it would still be cheaper in the long run with some customers not scanning everything...
Qugeist @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:49PM
stop copying my name and comments!
Chris @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:05PM
Umm, you either have way too much time on your hands and are just trying to be funny, or you're the biggest creepo I've ever met.
MickeK @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:43PM
Seems like much more of a hassle than the already well-established self-scanning that we have in pretty much every grocery store here in Sweden:
http://www.ica.se/img_archive/butiksbilder/9713-P1010387.JPG
http://blogg.svenssonsvensson.com/uploaded/sjalvscanning.jpg
ratboycom @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:44PM
Why do they have to snap a pic? Why not just enable phones to have barcode readers like they do in Japan? It seems every poster, pack of tissue and product in stores have the square multi square barcode that links to a website or something on my phone. This could easily be utilized for purchasing products, especially since my phone is linked to my Suica card.
michas_pi @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:50PM
Didn't they try RFID at that Future Store a while ago? It failed miserably due to privacy concerns. When Germans found out how insecure RFID really is, they went apeshit with protests and picket signs.
Quicksilver4648 @ Jul 3rd 2008 1:17PM
"camera-equipped cellphones (i.e., cellphones)" Oh really?
fuma @ Jul 3rd 2008 1:27PM
this is absurd it would never fly in the real world....
1. every camera phone has different resolutions, storage mediums and interface methods to get to the pictures...
2. transfer speeds would suck.. resolutions are getting larger
3. privacy.
I sure as hell wouldn't give anyone access to my storage card/IR interface/bluetooth/usb/whatever to get at my personal photos and address book.
Imagine the porn collection that register would amass!
Erik @ Jul 3rd 2008 1:28PM
I worked on a similar system in grad school. This system is similar to what we developed. In our system, it allowed shoppers to scan an item, and then perform price comparisons via different web sites and optionally purchase the item.
There are some problems, which have been noted here:
1) Security - a big issue
2) You have to download software on your phone, if this is even possible, provided it works on that phone at all. In our case, we used a Treo 650.
3) Most phones (especially here in the US) don't have barcode scanners built into them.
4) External barcode scanners aren't cheap - the one we used for the Treo was an SD-card version and cost $250, additionally it was a real piece of crap.
5) You could enter the bar code manually as an option, but that's too much work if you're purchasing a lot of items
6) Taking pictures of barcodes has been worked on a lot, but it can still pose problems.
Overall, it's a nice stepping stone, but this concept has a very long way to go.
Milind @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:09PM
Hi Erik,
Can we not use the inbuilt cell phone camera to scan the bar code instead of a separate expensive bar code reader?
I see a huge potential for this technology to do comparison shopping if it can be enabled on the cell phone cameras.
Thanks,
Milind
ClarK @ Jul 3rd 2008 1:30PM
They've had 'bonus systems' in the US long before they were introduced in Europe... Giant, Safeway, Exxon, .. cards.
Same with those annoying telemarketing phone calls, they've asked people to switch to Sprint long before they started asking people to switch to 'Arcor'.
The breeding grounds for agressive marketing and privacy-laws-bending technology have always been the good old US of A..
This won't be a success, though.. There have been attempts to get people to by movie tickets or soda cans with their cell phones, it didn't catch on..
Pdexter @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:12PM
Buying stuff with mobile phone at least here in Finland is kicking strong. Especially buss tickets, sodas and movie tickets.
BratPAQ @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:22PM
you guys knew that most camera phone have worse macro shots right?
Brian @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:02PM
That thumbnail is disgusting...
Nate DiDonato @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:13PM
...and then your phone dies when you're only halfway done shopping.
Also, do I have to delete 50 images from my phone when I get home?
Richard Lai @ Jul 3rd 2008 7:19PM
Isn't this technology already being used for boarding aeroplanes?
Frank @ Jul 3rd 2008 9:24PM
For a site full of 'techs', it seems odd that not one person is even considering what happens when you integrate this feature with all the other ones on your phone. A barcode is the perfect key for doing searches on products with global databases. Buying an item is only one tiny thing one can do with a barcode. You could get information about that product, watch a demo video, get recipes related to that item, etc, etc. The hardest part is now done, which is being able to decode the barcode from a horrible, low-resolution, blurry image off a phone.
Jacob Riskin @ Jul 3rd 2008 9:40PM
Too bad virtually none of the current cell phones can focus close enough to actually read a barcode.
Jonas @ Jul 4th 2008 5:55PM
Eh, like Micke said, we've had a similar system for years in sweden. People get their own scanners at the entrance, scan every product in the store and can put them directly in the bag, then when you get to the checkout counter you scan a checkout barcode, pay with your credit card and return the scanner. Every once in a while you will be checked, but if you've scanned everything correctly the checks will be less and less frequent and now I think I've shopped 20 times in a row without being checked. This system is great. There are no lines, you more or less walk right through the cashier. You pack your bags from the start and save the hassle of hurrying stuff down the bags before the next guy in line want your spot (in sweden we dont have people packing your bags for you at the cashier).
This mobilepicturetakingstuff just seem silly, the handscanners seems a lot smother. My camera takes a few seconds to take a picture and several more to store it, but the scanner is instant. Then I know they are talking about RFID, so I guess its coming, we have that already at the library where you just place your books at a plate and its done.