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1247 points mangoman | 10 comments | 05 Dec 16 14:57 UTC | HN request time: 1.269s | source | bottom
1. blackaspen ◴[05 Dec 16 15:27 UTC] No.13105919[source]▶
Here's an ad from IBM circa 2006 predicting(?) this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eob532iEpqk

Crazy to think we're actually here now. And even sans-RFID.

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2. chinathrow ◴[05 Dec 16 15:44 UTC] No.13106096[source]▶
"Sensor fusion" could very well imply that RFID could be within the picture.
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3. rkangel ◴[05 Dec 16 16:30 UTC] No.13106558[source]▶
Or even just a strain gauge weight detection on the shelf combined with computer vision.
4. space_ghost ◴[05 Dec 16 16:41 UTC] No.13106669[source]▶
Came here to post this, as I immediately thought of IBM's ad while I was reading Amazon's bumf. I think I would trust IBM's RFID tags vastly more than Amazon's visual tracking.
5. softbuilder ◴[05 Dec 16 16:49 UTC] No.13106745[source]▶
It's actually from the 90s [1]. So much so that I thought it was one of the AT&T "You Will" commercials [2].

[1] http://digest.dx3canada.com/2015/05/12/retrofuture-ibms-1999...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2EgfkhC1eo

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6. blackaspen ◴[05 Dec 16 17:21 UTC] No.13107093[source]▶
Glad to know I wasn't alone in thinking it was an AT&T one...that's what I searched for first. Those were the 80s though, right?
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7. danpalmer ◴[05 Dec 16 17:49 UTC] No.13107434[source]▶
I saw a fully working demo of this at IBM in 2010. It was fully RFID, plus E-Ink pricing labels on shelves so that prices/offers could be updated remotely.
8. lavezzi ◴[05 Dec 16 19:46 UTC] No.13108685[source]▶
I saw an article on the BBC this week, strange timing but maybe someone knew about the Amazon announcement: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38174011
9. Animats ◴[05 Dec 16 20:24 UTC] No.13109091[source]▶
I've been expecting that for years. RFID tags capable of being read without collisions were expensive back then and needed a battery. There were problems with reading many tags at once. Those problems have apparently been solved.[1]

I suspect that Amazon has RFID tags on everything in addition to the vision systems. There are existing backup vision systems for retail checkouts, such as LaneHawk. Most of the components for this already exist. Now it's here.

[1] http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/8475.pdf

10. softbuilder ◴[06 Dec 16 00:06 UTC] No.13111089{3}[source]▶
1993. I had to look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Will

And David Fincher? Wow. No idea.