CASHIERLESS CONVENIENCE

GLOBAL retail giant Amazon is reinventing the way supermarkets service consumers. The company's latest innovation is Amazon Go, a cashier-free store which recently opened in Seattle, Washington, US.

Shoppers must have the Amazon Go smartphone app to begin shopping and highly accurate sensors and cameras lining the store's ceiling keep tabs on each customer and what is taken off each shelf.

Amazon's “Just Walk Out” technology automatically charges purchases to a connected Amazon account or credit card. Even though Amazon Go is cashierless, employees at the store attend to other jobs such as checking IDs for alcohol purchases, helping troubleshoot potential BIOMETRICS was once only in the realm of science fiction but it is now being used for a growing number of everyday financial transactions. Biometric data identification includes: W The analysis of facial characteristics W The analysis of an individual's unique fingerprints W The analysis of the shape of the hand and the length of the fingers W The analysis of the capillary vessels located at the back of the eye W The analysis of the coloured ring that surrounds the eye's pupil W name W The analysis of vein patterns on the back of the hand and wrist W The analysis of the tone, pitch, cadence and frequency of a person's voice

FACE: FINGERPRINT: HAND GEOMETRY: RETINA: IRIS: SIGNATURE: VEIN: VOICE:

The analysis of the way a person signs his problems, or preparing fresh food such as sandwiches in the adjacent kitchen.

Amazon has declined to speculate on any future plans for using the technology in other venues but analysts predict that this revolution in automated shopping will be adopted quickly because of its cost effectiveness and even be operational in Australia within a few years.