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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @01:04PM
Once you've done a job a few times, you can predict most of these things, but a lot of times you're changing out something you'll only do once or twice during your ownership of that home. This is the reason why most skilled trades folks (plumbers, electricians, etc.) that come by your house have large vans full of all sorts of junk that they always bring along. You never know when you'll need some odd size of some random piece of something to avoid yet another run to the local store.
After a few of these experiences I've learned to get spares of nearly every part I think that I'll need (when practical, no need for (2) sink faucets as well, etc) knowing that when done I'll just be returning all the parts that I didn't use.