Xbox 360: Kinect Enabled Shopping Cart Aims to Turn Heads
Maybe I am just paranoid from watching 2001 – A Space Oddyssey but there’s something about self-aware machines that scare me. They don’t even have to speak with that calm yet menacing voice. No small wonder I was both thrilled and terrified by Portals 1 and 2 and GlaDOS.
To be honest, 2001′s HAL and GladDOS were lurking somewhere near the back of my mind when I was processing the latest news regarding Microsoft’ Kinect-enabled shopping cart. Microsoft recently showcased its shopping cart prototype. The unit is comprised of a Kinect sensor, a motor, and a monitor. What can this souped up shopping cart do? You can flash your membership card to it to verify your shopping club membership, it can retrieve your shopping list to assist you in your shopping, and it scans products as you place them in the cart. I suppose annoying hassles like running back to Aisle 8 to check the price of an unmarked can of soup will soon be relegated to the past. If the list above wasn’t impressive enough, the cart will also follow you around the store. Kinect has transformed the simple shopping cart into a shopping advisor, an inventory list, and a checkout stand. All in one unit. As part of its advisory functions, you can set up the cart to prompt you for confirmation if you have placed any products that don’t match your preferences. For example, the demo shows a cart prompting regarding gluten-free products.
Paying for your purchases is extremely easy, you just place the items in the cart and the amount due will be taken off a stored amount. You can either go straight to your car after shopping or stop somewhere in the store to bag your purchases.
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