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Google Tango Means You'll Never Get Lost in a Store Again

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday March 19 2017, @03:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the where-is-the-restroom? dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

As a kid, I always wanted to be on the TV show "Supermarket Sweep."

In the middle of a Lowe's store in 2017, my dream almost came true. The home improvement retailer is rolling out an augmented-reality app that tells you the fastest way to find items on your list.

It's powered by Google's Tango, an indoor-mapping technology using special cameras to sense depth in 3D space. Measure objects, map a room and see virtual objects in the real world with augmented reality.

With a phone in one hand and a shopping cart in the other, I'm rushing around the aisles pulling items off the shelf. On screen I see a yellow line overlaid on the camera image, navigating me to the next item on my list. There's an aisle and shelf number in case I get really confused, as well as an estimate step counter that tells me how far I have to go.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 20 2017, @02:43AM (6 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @02:43AM (#481339) Journal

    And Google gets to know your shopping list.

    Well, yeah, what do you expect? You need someone, it takes two to tango.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Monday March 20 2017, @07:44AM (1 child)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday March 20 2017, @07:44AM (#481390) Journal

    All I need to find what I need is clear and correct labels on the shelves and a halfway logical ordering of the products in the shop. No privacy invasion required.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 20 2017, @07:54AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @07:54AM (#481392) Journal

      Bad tango partner, bad! Google is upset you don't want to tango with it!!

      (grin)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 20 2017, @01:31PM (3 children)

    by VLM (445) on Monday March 20 2017, @01:31PM (#481484)

    That's the purpose of grocery store loyalty cards. A decade ago "they" already knew everything you bought.

    We're in a weird era where privacy is dead and has been dead for a long time and only exists between general public neighbors. You and my next door neighbor are the only group in the world who does not already have purchased access to my shopping list.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 20 2017, @01:54PM (2 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 20 2017, @01:54PM (#481490) Journal

      That's the purpose of grocery store loyalty cards. A decade ago "they" already knew everything you bought.

      Absolutely strictly speaking, no, they don't directly know even today - I'm not using any loyalty card.
      Yes, they could recover this data if they match the payment against one of the bank cards, but... I doubt it worth the effort.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @04:47PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @04:47PM (#481577)

        Oh, how little ye understands about "Big Data". It's no effort at all to make that match.

      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday March 20 2017, @08:44PM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday March 20 2017, @08:44PM (#481759) Journal

        I pay my groceries in cash, so no information via bank card either.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.