Be Smart

Running between the vegetable counters and self-service scales while trying to print out the correct price label for your groceries may soon be a thing of the past. Provided the smart weighing scale graces your local supermarket.

For now, this common shopping irritant of having to remember the number tag for your groceries at the supermarket is out of the lives of some lucky folks in Europe. And that's attributed to the smart self-service weighing scale, which promises to give these shoppers a unique “weighing experience.”

Developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Information and Data Processing IITB in Karlsruhe, this device can automatically recognize the fruit or vegetable that is placed on it and brings up the most appropriate icons on its touch screen interface for you to print out the price label. How so? The weighing scale is equipped with a supremely intelligent built-in camera that can recognize not only the difference between an apple and a tomato, but say, even different types of tomatoes. Or any other fruit or veggie - even if it is within a cloudy plastic bag! Pretty impressive. The smart scale is currently being tested in supermarkets around Europe.

This is how super-satisfied shoppers are made. And retained.

Via Slashdot.