The Technology Is Getting Smarter
The future of self-checkout is likely to involve much more than simply scanning barcodes.
Computer vision can potentially recognize the physical object being placed on the checkout area and compare it with the product selected on the screen.
If the system sees one type of product but the register records another, it can generate an alert for an employee to investigate.
That means the self-checkout experience may increasingly resemble a conversation between several systems:
Camera: “I see this product.”
Register: “The customer selected that product.”
Scale: “The weight doesn’t look right.”
Software: “Something doesn’t match.”
The customer may never see all of these checks happening.
