It's a trend at most grocery stores: The number of automated self-checkout lanes is increasing.
And that's fine and all, until you get a bunch of people in front of you buying alcohol or cigarettes. Each person must wait to have their ID checked and the line behind them grows longer.
Now, it sounds as if AI-powered facial recognition is coming to the rescue.
Grocery chains across the pond in the United Kingdom are about to test out facial recognition that estimates a person's age and can cut down on all those mandatory ID checks.
The Telegraph has the story on this one:
NCR... will integrate a camera that will estimate the age of shoppers when they are buying age restricted items. The camera will reduce the need for staff to approve purchases by using AI to scan a person’s face to determine their age and either accept or deny the sale of the item.
Privacy concerns are always raised anytime someone mentions the words facial recognition. That was certainly the case when Silicon Valley's airport, San Jose International (SJC), announced the use of facial recognition for all international travelers.
But in the case of grocery stores, the system apparently does not retain any visual information after users make a purchase.
This is a good thing.
I mean, DMV photos are bad enough—can you imagine what we'd look like in a grocery store photo?
