In this article, eWEEK reports about new smart carts announced by Fujitsu. After entering your shopping list on your Bluetooth-enabled PDA, you'll go to your supermarket and pick a smart cart which will download your list on the rugged screen (read brat-proof) of its $1,200 unit. The system will lead you around the store, alert you about promotions, show you new recipes and update the shopping list in real time. It also can send messages to the deli or pharmacy sections and tell you when your order is ready. The U-Scan Shopper system allows you to remain anonymous and to receive only regular store promotions. Or you can use a loyalty card, receive targeted ads or recipes based on your shopping history, which will be maintained in the retailer's databases. The article doesn't say anything about shoppers who still use paper lists, but I bet these carts are still not smart enough to guess what is written on them. Read more.
Here is the rosy scenario imagined by eWEEK.
With a craving for broiled salmon, Jane quickly sifted through her spice cabinet only to find that her bottle of dill weed was nearly empty.
With a few clicks on her Bluetooth-enabled PDA, she updated her Web shopping list with the dill, and a window opened onscreen suggesting a new salmon recipe. It looked good, so she approved the recipe and her shopping list was instantly updated with all of the necessary items, omitting those that her kitchen already had in stock.
Jane drove the half-mile to her local supermarket where she grabbed a smart cart, scanned her loyalty card and saw her updated shopping list appear in front of her. It had been categorized by aisle, and the cart directed Jane to each item. While she was checking for brown spots on broccoli heads in the produce aisle, her cart signaled the pharmacy to prepare a prescription refill and sent an order for lunch meats to the deli.
Here is an example of what you'll see on this smart cart's screen. (Credit: Fujitsu Transaction Solutions Inc.) Here is a link to a larger version which is customizable by retailers to fit their own needs.
Now, let's look at the Fujitsu's business model for these smart carts.
Mrs. Zajac knows you didn’t try. You don’t just hand in junk to Mrs. Zajac. She’s been teaching an awful lot of years. She didn’t fall off the turnip cart yesterday. She told you she was an old-lady teacher.
—Christine Zajac, U. S. fifth-grade teacher. As quoted in Among Schoolchildren, “September” section, part 1, by Tracy Kidder (1989)
Equipping an ordinary shopping cart with Fujitsu's new U-Scan Shopper unit will cost about $1,200. That price also includes about 60 infrared triggers to be strategically placed along various store shelves to help the cart find its path around the store. Fujitsu is hoping to sell 100 carts at each typical grocery store, according to Vernon Slack, Fujitsu's director of mobile solutions.
And now, here are more details about the essential part of the system, its screen.
Slack points to more practical advantages of Fujitsu's design, such as their claim that their cart-handle-mounted unit (it's literally bolted on) is small enough to allow for a child to sit in the traditional front-compartment, while some rival units are too large.
The "just less than two-pound" unit with the 6.5-inch display is surrounded with a quarter-inch of hardened Mylar plastic making it almost indestructible, even by a curious child, Slack said. The units are also sealed with a polycarbonate cover.
Slack sees the fact that the cart would already have the unit bolted to its bar when the customer arrives as an advantage over smart-cart approaches where the customer has to pick up a pad at customer service or at the entrance and place it in the cart.
The article from eWEEK also looks at the privacy concerns which could be raised by such devices. It also addresses the checkout issues -- yes, you'll still have to pay -- and the delivery of personal ads.
Now, I have two questions for you. Would you like to find these smart carts at your local supermarket? And who will profit the most from these systems, the retailers or you?
Birch boughs enough piled everywhere!
All fresh and sound from the recent ax.
Time someone came with cart and pair
And got them off the wild flowers’ backs.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
Sources: Evan Schuman, eWEEK, February 16, 2005; Fujitsu Transaction Solutions Inc.
Related stories can be found in the following categories.
Business Intelligence
Human Computer Interface
Pervasive Computing
Wireless.