A First Look At Amazon Go

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN has unveiled a new concept grocery store, Amazon Go, which bypasses the check-out process in online shopping. The company has not provided any technical details so far; however, terming the latest initiative as a “revolutionary concept,” Bernstein’s Jay Huang said in a report that it is likely “camera-based vision technology.”

Cameras To Be The Core Technology

Cameras will play two important roles in stores. Firstly, cameras track the items, including the removal of items from their original position and their replacement back to that position. Secondly, cameras “constantly track the identity of customers, and match each item to an individual customer, without losing track at any moment,” analyst Huang wrote.

Huang explained the second role is much more difficult than the first because it employs pattern matching as well as real-time location and trajectory tracking.

“For this reason, we believe although the various sensors (laser displacement, pressure, weight [...]) barcoding and RFID may be supplementary in an Amazon Go store, they are unlikely to be the core, revolutionary part, as those methods are not particularly good at tracking movements,” the analyst stated.

Facial recognition may not be used, since individual customers can be tracked by their overall characteristics and movements, and this would allow Amazon to stay clear of privacy controversies, Huang added.

Employees

Amazon provided Benzinga with the following details:

• "We have at least as many associates as traditional retail store[s]."
• "Amazon Go associates work in both the kitchen and the store, prepping ingredients, making breakfast, lunch, and dinner items, stocking shelves, and helping customers."