FOR SHOPPERS with cart loads of groceries, especially at hypermarkets, shopping will soon be a wee bit breezier.
There will be no more long queues and long waits at payment counters as the process of scanning the products’ barcode will be a thing of the past.
The ITxRetail, an ingenious bench-top gadget packed with artificial intelligence (AI) will automatically [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] identify and register the prices of each product as they are placed on it.
This simply means, no more time being wasted searching for product barcodes, nor unsuccessful scanning due to barcodes that lack clarity, are wet and thus unreadable.
The ITxRetail was developed by ITXOTIC Sdn Bhd – a homegrown company specialising in automated data analysis and inspection solutions.
This innovation adopts the “deep learning with computer vision” application which provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed.
For instance, when a product is placed on it, its in-built camera automatically recognises the product and lists down details such as price, name of product, product image and quantity.
Even the price of a hand-packed “nasi lemak” could be detected and listed on the attached tab.
To a question by The Petri Dish as to how the product could recognise nasi lemak packages that come in all shapes and sizes, Dr Mohd Zafri Baharuddin , a University Tenaga Nasional lecturer said, “The computer has been trained multiple times to recognise products by capturing images of the products as well as similar products with different packaging. Hence, this explains how all necessary details could be listed almost immediately.”
Mohd Zafri who also works with ITxOTIC said the current technology which uses barcode on products is a good invention too, but what happens if you purchase items which do not have barcodes, for instance, pastries and breads at a petrol kiosk?
According to him, one great breakthrough of this invention is that, unlike the barcode system it does not need to scan one item at a time. This would significantly cut down on the waiting time at the payment counter.
When asked about the commercialisation of this machine, he said the ITxRetail has great potential to be commercialised at stores, both big and small.
“It can also be applied to other sectors that rely heavily on barcode systems such as manufacturing, warehouse systems, inventory management and others,” he added.
The ITxRetail machine
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