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.
Related Stories
Google's Project Tango is shutting down because ARCore is already here
Google said today that it'll be shutting down Project Tango next year, on March 1st. Project Tango was an early effort from Google to bring augmented reality to phones, but it never really panned out. The system was introduced in 2014 and made it into developer kits and even a couple consumer devices as recently as last year.
But those devices required special sensors. And in the meantime, Google (and competitors, like Apple) figured out ways to bring AR features to phones with just the hardware that's already on board. Google introduced a new augmented reality system, known as ARCore, in late August. It just brought that system to the Pixel and Pixel 2 in the form of some augmented reality stickers — immediately opening AR features to more people than Tango is likely to have reached in its lifetime.
Also at Ars Technica, TechCrunch.
Related: Google's Project Tango Coming to 12 More Countries
Google Tango Means You'll Never Get Lost in a Store Again
Google Announces "Lens" Augmented Reality Service
Google Partnering With HTC and Lenovo for Standalone VR Headsets
HTC Cancels U.S. Release of a Google Daydream VR Headset, Reveals Own Standalone Headset
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Sunday March 19 2017, @03:28PM (8 children)
Isn't it easier to just click a couple times at amazon and not have to drive to the store and wait in line and argue with the cashier about extended warranties etc?
Tango was new about 3 years ago and it is kinda cool to see it get used.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 19 2017, @04:32PM (1 child)
A lot of times of an odd job at home, I just need one or two $5 parts, and it's nice to be able to just go and grab what I need. I can see this being a help, although I'm wary about apprising Google about every spare part I need.
There's also an app called Google Goggles I gave a spin a few times. It reads barcodes/QR codes and attempts to present information from the internet about the item. I think it also attempts to identify items when no barcode is present. Same thing. It's handy, but I never use it because I'm not sure I want Google to know every last thing I scanned with it.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday March 19 2017, @08:49PM
It reads barcodes/QR codes and attempts to present information
Yeah the amazon app, at least on android, has the same feature, in the search bar there's a camera and you snap a pix of the bar code on your favorite simply snacking teriyaki beef jerky sitting on my desk thats $1.49 per stick at the regional employee owned food coop (no state sales tax on food either...) and amazon will ship me a box of 12 at $1.78/item plus $8.03 shipping for a grand total of WTF amazon lately your prices totally suck when a grocery store can crush you like that.
I guess the point is I'm home with the kids I need to pack them up and pack my stuff up and drive 10 minutes to the store with the kids and shop for 10 minutes and wait in line with the kids for 5 minutes and drive home and get back to work and by the time I'm done I've blown like an hour on a piece of beef jerky, but if I don't need it until tomorrow I could have it on my doorstep next day delivery for an extra buck or whatever it works out to, and I don't have much time off and what little I get is quite financially valuable to me, so ... maybe I should 1-click order another shipping crate of beef jerky. Not to mention the trip is probably $2 at least worth of gas and wear and tear on my car, and I'd be wasting my kids time not just mine.... suddenly 28 cents extra plus $8 of shipping is starting to look reasonable...
In my woodworking hobby I have made several late afternoon trips to home depot because I need one more piece of wood to finish a project that day. Or all I need is 3 more wood screws. So I know how that goes.
Something I don't like about brick and mortar retail is I can buy apparently poorly sand cast pot metal factory reject screws from home depot or the good ones made of actual steel from my local independent lumber yard supplier but the lumber hovel is only open something ridiculous like 9-5 M-F so I'm stuck with home depot or amazon often enough. Amazon's never closed and I do a lot of midnight engineering, so what can I order at 2am is a serious question some times.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday March 19 2017, @10:15PM (2 children)
Isn't it easier to just click a couple times at amazon and not have to drive to the store
For me personally, Lowe's/Home Depot/local hardware store is one of the few places where local retail is superior. Why? Two things: (1) I've frequently bought oversize items there that are harder/more expensive to ship (even on Amazon). For more expensive items, the oversize/overweight overcharges are perhaps bundled into the shipping cost and thus may end up not making it much more expensive (depends on item). But if you're buying a cheap rake or a bag of gravel or just a few pieces of lumber, shipping costs are often a big issue.
And (2) because as anyone who has ever done any sort of home repair likely has experienced, you generally end up driving back-and-forth three times to do a "simple" repair or upgrade or whatever. You thought you could just replace the light fixture portion of that old ceiling fan? Turns out the "standard size fits-all" replacement kits won't fit your ceiling fan. Thought you could just swap out that sink fixture? Turns out you need 3 other pieces of random plumbing hardware to replace too because of some bizarre decision the previous homeowner made or because the fixtures are just a little too old to fit the modern "standard" stuff or whatever.
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.
So I could either run back-and-forth to Lowe's three times in a weekend and get a project completely finished (the second and third times taking pieces along with me to size things up against stuff in the store and make sure they are likely to fit), or I can play that game over Amazon over a couple months and eventually start being charged for returning too many things, in which case any savings (if there was any in the first place) is eliminated.
Most retail stores are less convenient. But for me there's still a reason at least for grocery (particularly when choosing fresh foods) and hardware stores. Also any store that offers in-store service as part of a purchase (e.g., tailoring clothing, though arguably you could take it to your own tailor instead).
(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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday March 20 2017, @01:20PM
large vans full of all sorts of junk
Its interesting that no one has moved in on that.. that I know of.
Something like a small shipping crate full of mini-bar style "you open it you bought it" with near zero labor costs would appear to be almost sustainable as a business. Maybe with uber/task rabbit style delivery of special parts via a phone app if you want something not usually stocked.
Note that plumbing supply stores catering to professional licensed plumbers still exist and sometimes are cheaper than home depot, so HD hasn't killed all competition, just most.
An interesting hack on licensed journeyman electrician being $40/hr or whatever it is now, would be hiring a dude who sits in the truck and sells you parts to work on your own home for $10/hr. It would be incredibly illegal for a guy like that to do plumbing work where I live, but there's nothing wrong with a trained manufacturer's sales rep demonstrating how an obscure plumbing tool works and renting it to me.
Essentially rent-a-center has made piles of money renting, like, concrete mixers, and now they're renting a concrete mixer plus a dude with ten toolboxes in his van. I would find this fascinating for car repair work too where I needed a vacuum pump to change break oil and bleed the lines exactly once in my life, and I needed a 4 foot cheater bar to do some brake work exactly once for about ten seconds. A dude with a van would have been pretty convenient.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 20 2017, @02:39AM (2 children)
This is yet another reason I'm drinking only Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 gal, 128 fl. oz. [amazon.com]. Yes, the overseas delivery tends to take a while, but ordering with 6 weeks in advance each day solves the availability problem; I wouldn't want to deprive myself of the goodness of Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 gal, 128 fl. oz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 20 2017, @01:29PM (1 child)
Amazon's prices for food are legendarily bad, for that specific example I'd use Peapod which wasn't that bad of a deal a decade ago.
If you buy a hungry families week worth of food the extra cost of peapod is about six months of food price inflation, so if you intend to eat food in six months the additional cost is not a big deal.
I had excellent luck with produce and meat quality when I was ordering from peapod.
Our work and school schedules got shuffled around so there was no point in peapod anymore but I do kinda miss it sometimes. I mean fundamentally walking around a store for an hour isn't even good exercise and I only get a couple contiguous hours per week off so they're valuable to me. I'm tempted to go back...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 20 2017, @02:18PM
(groan)
Come on, mate, you really need that (grin) signal?
Tuscan whole milk [knowyourmeme.com] and the Three wolves moon [knowyourmeme.com] are classic memes relate to Amazon reviews.
See some oldies-but-goldies [excusememe.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday March 19 2017, @03:47PM (9 children)
And Google gets to know your shopping list.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by opinionated_science on Sunday March 19 2017, @04:49PM
I suspect google already knows some of my shopping list!
I showed one of our interns the difference between searching "google" and "duckduckgo". identical search terms and the difference in the result.
If I understand correctly, DDG aggregates queries to google to make it less identifiable and hence, more reliable.
I have empirically determined that searching on google for anything with a "product" keyword, yields pages of ads/promoted links.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Sunday March 19 2017, @07:13PM
It knows when your kids birthday parties are - and how many you have.
It knows if you're on a diet.
If you're buying ammonia and nyquil or some shit now you're getting stopped at airports.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 20 2017, @02:43AM (6 children)
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
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Monday March 20 2017, @07:44AM (1 child)
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
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)
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)
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
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
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.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday March 19 2017, @04:26PM (8 children)
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.
Do you realize how sad those two sentences are?
You deserve Google. They make products exactly for people like you...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Sunday March 19 2017, @05:22PM (6 children)
Here's the thing with Google, I think. They do things for people that people want, and they do it at no monetary cost. In the process of doing this, and to help them perform these services, they acquire a lot of very detailed information about people, basically trading your private information for free servicves. For the most part, they perform these services very well. They have and amazing record of security and privacy, probably unrivaled by pretty anybody. The danger is that they start using that information *against* people, but I think for the time being, they're pretty good. I certainly understand the potential for abuse, but I think if they want to protect their reputation, they need to keep up the decent behaviour. Their long-term profit depends on keeping private information private.
That said, after seeing how far Microsoft has pushed abusive behaviour with their Windows "telemetry" without a huge outcry, mayby I'm wrong and Google will realize they can step pretty far into the realm of "Evil" and still make money long term. Really, I'm think Microsoft will be punished in the market long term though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 19 2017, @06:02PM (3 children)
> The danger is that they start using that information *against* people, but I think for the time being, they're pretty good
Many years ago it was shown that the prices of items listed on google's price-comparison system were higher than the average of a representative sampling that excluded those merchants (google's price comparison system is a paid advertising platform). That doesn't seem to have hurt that part of their business.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday March 19 2017, @06:12PM (2 children)
That's not using people's personal inmformation against them. That's basically the same as searching for the best price on Amazon and finding that a local bricks and mortar retailer has it cheaper .... which actually happens a surprising amount. Hasn't hurt Google? If it was a better, more valuable service, perhaps Amazon wouldn't own online retail sales.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 19 2017, @07:34PM
I think you are splitting hairs.
Google is using their position of convenience and trustedness to exploit people by providing a service that advertises that it will help them.
And despite exploiting that trust, they aren't paying a price for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @01:58PM
Have you heard of dynamic pricing and "finding your customer's price point"? If I know what that is, I can ride the price I'm offering you as close to the highest number of dollars you'll pay for the item; and then I do the same for another customer.
THIS is how this is used against you.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday March 19 2017, @08:55PM
they acquire a lot of very detailed information about people
Yet they cancel some of their most information dense sources like Reader, which is just weird.
I find it fun trolling to ask the more google-paranoid people I know how google intends to profit off normal users doing normal things when they couldn't even get Reader to pay for itself of all things.
Much as I'd like to think of a random 5K of telemetry as being as precious as my bodily fluids, even google stealing my telemetry or precious bodily fluids still doesn't have a wide enough marketplace for them to sell it at a profit.
Just because a business model sounds scary to someone a bit paranoid, does not mean the marketplace is under any obligation to implement it and make it profitable even at billion dollar google scale.... I mean they could sell this and they could sell that but they can't even make a profit off what appears to be even more valuable stuff.
Unless its all a google disinformation campaign. "Project Grassy Knoll". Hmm. Hold on while I wrap some tinfoil on me head.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday March 19 2017, @08:59PM
I completely agree with the first paragraph -- except the last sentence. I'd really like to know if they're buying cocoa futures [bbc.co.uk].
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday March 20 2017, @04:07AM
You deserve Google. They make products exactly for people like you...
No. They make applications and infrastructure. You are the product.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 19 2017, @04:29PM (2 children)
Why something is at a particular location in a shop is carefully decided in such a way that you see as much of the store as possible. This is to increase the amount of money you'll spend in the store. Like fuck are they going to 'optimize' your path to the store so that you 'get in and get out' as quickly as possible and thus not spend as much money there as you can.
This is just another step on the road to conditioning and blind obedience to technology: "my app tells me to take this road, so I just take it". If you think this doesn't happen, just search for articles on idiots blindly following their GPS and ending up in a lake. Now extrapolate from that and you've got a recipe for nice little obedient lemmings that do exactly what they are told.
I can't wait for fanbois to go all gooey and claim that "this saves me soooo much time" or "but this is for your own good". If you think the latter, then frankly, you're just dumb. There's nothing I can do for you.
When will we domesticate this technology (and technology companies) and make them work for us instead of for someone else.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 19 2017, @04:36PM
This strikes me as a different kind of reason to drop the oblig Manna reference.
Instead of the fantasy about hot chicks come to save the protagonist from his terrafoam prison and whisk him away to a post-scarcity utopia, this reminds me of the employees following Manna's commands over their headset like Borg drones in a half-conscious haze of obedience.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 20 2017, @02:48AM
When grumblers will become doers. E.g. contributing to openstreetmap [wikipedia.org].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Interesting) by black6host on Sunday March 19 2017, @05:36PM (5 children)
It's bad enough that we have people that walk with their heads down, eyes glued to their phone. Now we have to arm them with shopping carts in crowded store aisles?
The few times I shop in Home Depot I'm glad there are people there to answer my questions and guide me to my destination. This is just one step closer to fewer employees. I kind of like the social interaction....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 19 2017, @07:59PM (2 children)
The few times I shop in Home Depot I'm glad there are people there to answer my questions and guide me to my destination. This is just one step closer to fewer employees. I kind of like the social interaction....
That's what Uber and Ashley Madison are for, silly! (Oh, and dude, don't shop at Home Despot, it is owned and run by crazy Republican types!)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday March 19 2017, @08:59PM (1 child)
That's what Uber and Ashley Madison are for
I think you're missing the meta problem of its OK when you're looking at your phone while shopping for that kind of service, but when some woman at either employer needs a phone app with augmented reality camera to, you know, properly serve you, that's when the real problem starts. "Hold on sir I need the bigger screen on my ipad to properly enjoy serving you" and all that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @02:53AM
Yucks... I'd still prefer sex over a big screen iPad as social interaction.
(but that's me, kinky; others may prefer sex in bed).
(Score: 2) by ledow on Monday March 20 2017, @08:45AM (1 child)
I can't name a single time that a shop assistant ever assisted.
At best, they walk to the same shelves as I did, look at the same products as I did, then determine that they "don't have any", as I already did.
I honestly just wave them away when they start on their "Can I help you, sir?" bit. Because experience has shown that, no, they can't.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Monday March 20 2017, @05:12PM
Having worked as one of those people, I can tell you lots of people needed help. Sometimes it was only in finding products, but other times it was more, "how do I use this" and so forth. When it was more advanced than that, I was just step 1, and directed people where to get good information (because the first pages of Google in that industry were all sponsored junk, more about directing traffic than actually informing you).
Also, this was only part of the job. It was also directing foot traffic, stocking shelves, cleaning messes, finding lost children, protecting people from themselves (or in one case from their parents), mitigating "shrink", and so forth...
It was fun but it doesn't pay well and the non-sales promotions available are filled by people that often work those jobs for decades...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by loic on Sunday March 19 2017, @07:03PM (1 child)
Supermarkets alleys are organized so that the customers spend plenty of time looking at products they were not actually going to buy. It is made to maximize the "oh, I need/want that too" effect. With such a Google tool where people would look constantly are their phones, it would just destroy the whole concept. It would be replaced with an offer you cannot refuse from Google and some tools to promote specific products, and most often products which could play nice with Google.
What is the point for supermarkets now that customer movement tracking (bluetooth/wifi) is ubiquitous? Looks like a way to make big and influent companies, with huge government (employment) and legal leverage, angry at you.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Monday March 20 2017, @08:48AM
Have you not used Amazon?
Hey, you bought this, what about this?
Other people who bought this also bought this?
Why not buy these three related things together for a slightly reduced price?
You added this to your basket? Others also bought this?
And, besides that, Amazon is the most dangerous place in the world. If I'm bored, I click Today's Deals and flick through. Though I don't regret a single product I've ever bought that way (because usually they've piqued my interest enough to buy either that or a slightly better model once I know such things exist), several times I've filled up my basket with unrelated gumph, only to realise that I only came on to browse, or to buy a single item.
Of course, then you end up adding it to your wishlist or "Save for Later", and then you realise that forever after it's lingering precariously just under your current basket all the time, just tempting you.
Impulse buying is real, yes, but impulse buying online is so much easier and more convenient.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jimshatt on Sunday March 19 2017, @11:37PM
(Score: 2) by captain_nifty on Monday March 20 2017, @02:19PM
The stores want you to travel to all the different sections of the store, that way you are more likely to find something that you will buy that you had not intended to get.
To get around this the store just needs to periodically restock/rearrange the store layout, how often can Google economically scan the whole store?, or more likely start putting common items on moving end row displays.
(Score: 2) by donkeyhotay on Monday March 20 2017, @02:40PM
I'll admit, finding a particular item at someplace like Lowes or Home Depot can be a pain. But I've noticed that both stores have aisle and bin numbers on their website for specific items, and clearly marked aisle and bin numbers. I used this just last week to find a specific item I was looking for. I can't say that having some sort of "augmented reality" app would be much of an improvement, considering it's yet another app that's tracking my every move.