What is Amazon Go, where is it, & how does it work?
Amazon has finally opened its Amazon Go store.
Situated in Seattle, it gives you the option to buy your goods from Amazon in person rather than through Amazon.com. However, unlike other physical shops, it doesn’t have any registers. You simply walk in, pick out what you want and walk out. Amazon is calling this a “Just Walk Out” shopping experience. Here is everything you need to know. Microsoft is developing Amazon Go tech
What is Amazon Go?
Amazon describes Amazon Go as “a new kind of store with no checkout required”. That means, when you shop at Amazon Go, you’ll never have to wait in line. The store works with an Amazon Go application – you enter Amazon Go, take the products you want and, thanks to the app, just leave again. The first Amazon Go is basically a grocery store with roughly 1,800 square feet of retail space.It works by using the same types of technologies found in self-driving cars, such as computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning. This technology can detect when products are taken or returned to the shelves and keeps track of them in your virtual cart.When you leave the store with your goods, your Amazon account is charged and you are sent a receipt.
Where is Amazon Go located?
The first Amazon Go store is located at 2131 7th Ave, Seattle, Washington. It’s on the corner of 7th Avenue and Blanchard Street.
How does Amazon Go work?
Amazon Go app
To get started with Amazon Go, you need an Amazon account, a supported smartphone and the free Amazon Go app.The video above shows customers opening the Amazon Go app on their phones, then holding it to a scanning device, which works like a subway turnstile and entering the store. Customers then put away their phones and began shopping.- picking up items, putting them in bags found in-store or brought from home (without needing to scan each item).The Amazon Go app shown in the demo video has a navigation bar at the bottom with tabs for four screens: “Key”, “Receipts”, “About”, and “More”. The Key screen seems to bring up the QR code that the store’s turnstiles scan to let you in, while the Receipts screen serves up what you bought after you’ve left.
Just Walk Out technology
Amazon said it is using a combination of artificial intelligence, computer vision and data pulled from multiple sensors to ensure customers are only charged for the stuff they pick up. The computer vision aspect seems to indicate that there are cameras being used to track you in the store. It’ll be interesting to see whether Amazon can successfully prevent stopping theft and fraud.
A patent application filed by Amazon in early 2015 first revealed details about a new kind of retail store that would allow Amazon customers to pick items and leave without stopping at a cashier register or kiosk. The patent described a store that would work using a system of cameras, sensors and/or RFID readers to identify shoppers and their items. According to this Amazon patent application, when a person exits the Amazon Go store, the store’s system triggers a receipt that is sent to the shopper indicating the items sold and the purchase price. As to how Amazon would be able to connect a product with a specific shopper, the application described the use of cameras that would take photos.
They would take photos when people enter the store, when they removed items from a shelf, and when they left with items in their hands. There is also a mention of “facial recognition” and user information, which may include images of the user, details about the user like height and weight, user biometrics, a username and password, even user purchase history.
Needless to say, Amazon is being pretty vague right now, and we’re not entirely sure if this patent application precisely describes the final iteration of Just Walk Out technology. However, if it is a camera-tracking system that also uses AI in the form of facial recognition or user biometrics, as well as sensors, such as something in the label of products, we could see the technology stoking some privacy concerns.
Are more Amazon Go stores in the works?
Locations
Amazon is expanding its Go cashier-less supermarkets, with the company confirming to GeekWire that a second store coming to Seattle in late 2018. New locations are also in the works for Chicago and San Francisco, though there’s no date yet on when those stores will open. The new Seattle store is expected to be almost twice as large as the first one, measuring in at 3,000 square feet.
Multiple formats
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Amazon hopes to one day open 2,000 grocery and convenience stores across the US. These stores might even have multiple formats, allowing it to better rival Target and Walmart and other big-box stores.Amazon is reportedly considering the convenience store model the most, while the other store formats include a smaller drive-thru retail shop and a massive, Ikea-style discount chain that involves up to 40,000-square-foot stores. Customers will simply pick up their packages at the drive-thru. They can also order in-store via touchscreen displays or online, but then they’d go to the drive-thru to pick up their packages.It’s not known if Amazon plans to open Amazon Go stores outside the US.