The start-up Zippin opened its first cashier-less concept store in the SOMA district of San Francisco, offering a range of fresh lunch items, snacks and drinks. Zippin has developed the next generation of checkout-free technology enabling retailers to quickly deploy frictionless shopping in their stores.
While the access to the demo store is currently available by invitation only, by mid-September the shop will be open to the public for a few hours. The start-up is also planning to grow into a full-sized AI-driven convenience store in the coming months.
With the opening of this demo store, Zippin becomes the first rival of Amazon Go to open a checkout free shop and becoming one of the leading companies to use AI, machine learning and sensor fusion technology to create the best consumer experience: banishing checkout lines and self-scanners for good and letting shoppers zip in and out with their purchases.
How does Zippin technology works?
Shoppers need to download the Zippin app from the Apple App Store or Google Play and then select their preferred payment method. To enter the store, shoppers are required to use the QR code in the app as the 'key' to the store. Once inside, overhead cameras follow the shopper and track when a consumer picks up or puts back a product on the shelf. The cameras can keep track of a shopper by identifying generic details such as body shape and clothing.
Weight sensors are strategically placed on the shelves as a backup method to the cameras to guarantee the highest level of accuracy, even in crowded stores. When the shoppers leave the store, the Zippin technology calculates what items were picked up, charges their online account and sends a receipt to the customer.
What is very innovative about this technology is that the system doesn’t use facial recognition technology, in fact faces of the customers are not even visible on the video feeds.
To learn more about this technology have a look at the following video:
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References:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/technology/retailer-stores-automation-amazon.html
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