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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 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.