Amazon Go uses AI to create supermarket without lines nor checkout

If there's one thing most people hate about grocery shopping it's the sometimes endless waiting at the checkout line. What if you could just walk into a store, grab what you need and pay automatically? That's what Amazon envisions with Amazon Go, a concept of a new kind of store that doesn't have a checkout and doen't even require you to scan the items you want to buy.

Instead, Amazon makes plain-old grocery stores high-tech by incorporating the same kind of technology you find in self-driving cars. The Amazon Go stores will feature computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning to deliver a "Just Walk Out" experience. You check in with your smartphone via NFC and after you've grabbed everything you need, you just leave the store and the shop will automatically charge your Amazon account.

The first Amazon Go store is located at 2131 7th Ave, Seattle, WA, on the corner of 7th Avenue and Blanchard Street. At the moment, the 1,800 square feet store is still in beta but it will go open to the public in early 2017. Full details at Amazon.

How does Amazon Go work?
Our checkout-free shopping experience is made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning. Our Just Walk Out technology automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to the shelves and keeps track of them in a virtual cart. When you’re done shopping, you can just leave the store. Shortly after, we’ll charge your Amazon account and send you a receipt.