Unattended does not worry about "zero yuan purchase", and AI genes are integrated into convenience stores
Author/ IT Times reporter Shen Yibin
Editor/ Pan Shaoying, Sun Yan
When the last class was over, students would go to the education supermarket to buy a bottle of cold drinks and a few bags of snacks, and then return to the dormitory to enjoy the "Manchurian Full Banquet". Convenience stores near schools or office buildings have also become a "solid backing" for every student and office worker.
However, when I was rushing to work, every second of waiting in line for payment became very long, and everyone was eager to grab the goods and leave.
Nowadays, this idea does not only exist in my mind, but also the AI unmanned supermarket that can leave without store staff, without scanning the code and picking up the goods, has landed in multiple scenarios such as schools, office buildings, and parks in Shanghai. The three major technologies of 3D vision, deep learning, and multi-sensor fusion are the "three decisive moves" of AI unmanned supermarkets.
No need to scan the code to pay, take the goods and go
The term unmanned supermarket is not unusual, enter the supermarket, select goods, go to the self-checkout counter to scan and pay to complete a purchase, is this a test of consumer integrity?
Located next to the Oriental Sports Center, Lawson Yaolong Road store is an unmanned supermarket, its pattern is somewhat different from the general unmanned supermarket, the unmanned self-service area and dining area in the store are divided into two by a turnstile, is it afraid that people "zero yuan purchase"?
On the afternoon of March 27, this Lawson ushered in a few nearby office workers, only to see them scan their faces at the camera, and then enter the unmanned self-service area in the store, and after selecting the goods, they pushed the door without any payment action, and the turnstile did not seem to play any role in obstructing it.
After the "IT Times" reporter inquired, it was learned that before entering the supermarket, the supermarket system had been bound to the consumer's Alipay and WeChat, and the order would be automatically formed and deducted after the goods were taken out of the store.
There is an operation step instructions posted in front of the unmanned self-service area, and the payment binding interface will appear when you scan it with Alipay or WeChat before entering the store, and a QR code will be formed in the applet after agreeing, and you can enter the store by scanning it through the turnstile.
The store is not large, about ten square meters, and looking around the entire supermarket, there are no cashiers and cash registers, and there are no staff, only about 10 360-degree cameras above the head flashing brightly. The product is not much different from an ordinary supermarket, and the price, product name and other information are readily available, and you can put the product directly into the bag after getting it.
The reporter bought a box of 11.5 yuan of 100 alcohol, and left the store directly, and there was no obstacle set up at the turnstile when he went out. About 10 seconds later, a deduction reminder came from the mobile phone, and the order information such as 11.5 yuan, 48G 100 alcohol flower fruit and blueberry flavor, consumption time, and order number was clear at a glance, and the AI unmanned supermarket shopping was over.
In addition to office buildings, Shanghai Business School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Health Medical College and other university scenarios have also landed such AI unmanned supermarkets. During the peak shopping period at the end of class, students and teachers do not have to waste time queuing, waiting for manual cashiers or scanning QR codes one by one in front of the self-checkout counter, which greatly improves the convenience of convenience stores.
When the store opens the bag, it is targeted
The creation of this AI unmanned supermarket is a company called Yunna Technology. "Our model is to cooperate with traditional supermarkets such as Lawson, FamilyMart, and Education Supermarket, and the supermarket side puts forward the demand, and we provide AI technology, which has been implemented in more than 50 places in Shanghai. Grace, business manager of Yunna Technology, told the "IT Times" reporter that the AI unmanned supermarket mainly includes three AI technologies: 3D machine vision, deep learning and multi-sensor fusion.
3D machine vision is actually a 360-degree camera with no dead angle above the ceiling, which is not used to monitor faces, but to recognize consumers' action postures, similar to visual recognition in multi-modal large models, but will be displayed in the background with a relatively simple stickman structure. Even when the product is blocked, it can be calculated and analyzed according to the consumer's action of walking, staying, taking or placing the product, and identify whether the consumer has shopped or not, and multiple people entering the store at the same time can also be accurately identified.
For example, Grace said that if a consumer unpacks and eats before leaving the store, and there are a series of actions such as chewing, these will be captured by 3D machine vision, and when such abnormal behavior is detected, the order will be automatically generated.
Deep learning technology needs to be combined with 3D machine vision to learn the packaging, color, font, shape, etc. of the product through algorithms, and let the AI remember the corresponding product type and price according to the appearance, such as canned Sprite and Mirinida, when the shape and size are the same, the vision will capture the picture through the color to ensure that each product corresponds to the marked price one by one.
Multi-sensor fusion refers to the gravity sensor installed on the shelf, when each shelf is full of goods, the sensor will record the total weight and the weight of the single product, and each less item, the weight will change, "When the consumer takes away an item, the shopping cart data on the cloud will show +1, and when it is put back, it will show -1." Taking the wrong or misplaced shelf, multi-sensor fusion can also rely on different weights to locate the original location and price of the product. Grace said.
Imperceptual cashier is the most critical part of the technology, so before entering the store, it is necessary to bind the Alipay or WeChat payment account with the supermarket backend system, and the function of the turnstile is to detect the situation of consumers entering and leaving the store, so as to form an order deduction.
At present, through the complementarity of these three technologies, the accuracy of the AI unmanned supermarket built by Yunna has reached 99.7%, and the error rate is only 3 per 1,000, which is lower than the error rate of manual cashier.
Costs are reduced by two-thirds
Speaking of the original intention of creating AI unmanned supermarket technology, in addition to bringing consumers non-inductive payment and solving the pain point of long queuing time, it also saves labor costs for convenience stores and brings convenient and efficient management.
Grace told the "IT Times" reporter that at present, AI unmanned supermarkets mainly choose to be developed and operated in semi-open scenarios such as universities and office buildings, because they are closer to the 24-hour consumption needs and habits of young consumers, such as 20 square meters, 24-hour supermarkets, at least 2 salespeople are required to work in shifts, and chain supermarkets such as Lawson and 7-11 also need to pay for the training costs of employees before they take up their posts.
A 60-square-meter supermarket can save the cost of 5~6 laborers.
In terms of decoration, there is no need to decorate the store as a whole, the system can be used when it lands, the average installation time is one day, and the 10-square-meter store can be completed within 8 hours at the earliest. In terms of capital, the overall cost can be reduced by about two-thirds.
At present, the AI unmanned supermarket solution is divided into a satellite store of about 10 square meters mini, a satellite store of 15~18 square meters and a satellite store of more than 20 square meters pro, all of which belong to small-area supermarkets, which requires strong pertinence in terms of product types and accurate control of digital management. "In the process of distribution, we will examine the products that consumers buy the most in this scenario, and through data calculation, the top 20% of the best-selling products will be put into the supermarket. For example, office buildings have a high demand for refreshing goods such as coffee and spicy food, while school students are more in need of snacks such as potato chips and spicy bars. Grace said.
The store operation data system is the core of managing the entire AI unmanned supermarket. The system is divided into two types: computer and mobile phone, and the number of store visits, purchases, customer portraits, and action tracks of the day will be presented to managers in a digital way. When the inventory of items is less than the set amount, the system will issue a replenishment order to the warehouse, and the mobile phone of the replenishment staff will also receive this information.
It is worth mentioning that according to the needs of cooperative supermarkets, Yunna Technology also provides an online retail solution, which puts the goods of AI unmanned supermarkets into online mini programs, so that nearby consumers can shop at their fingertips. However, this can only be achieved by the logistics and distribution services provided by the collaborators.
Typesetting / Ji Jiaying
Photo/ IT Times
来源/《it时报》公众号vitimes