If losing your bearings while in the local supermarket is a common problem that haunts your weekly shop, leaving you sobbing uncontrollably between aisles while searching in vain for kettle chips, free-range eggs and ultra absorbent kitchen roll, then perhaps Microsoft and MediaCart have just what your pathetic lack of direction needs.
Microsoft and MediaCart introduce interactive guided shopping for those prone to getting lost at the supermarket. Credit: MediaCart.
A new high-tech device crafted for the truly lost, MediaCart has joined with software titan Microsoft in order to create a supermarket trolley that’s capable of guiding easily-mollified shoppers to the correct aisle and shelf for all the products they require during their visit.
No, sadly April 01 hasn’t come early this year.
According to MediaCart, its mobile computerised shop assistant could be in UK-based supermarkets and stores by as early as next year and will enable users to upload their shopping lists, monitor the cumulative price of their items, plot the quickest route around the store, and even view special offers and possible cooking recipes based on chosen food products.
Rather than being reliant on GPS positioning, which has patchy reliability when used indoors, the MediaCart trolley functions using Wi-Fi and delivers its (pointless?) service via voice recognition technology and a built-in 12-inch display screen.
“[Shoppers] would simply press the button and say, ‘Where’s the cereal?’ The trolley then shows its current location, the product and the best route there,” explained a MediaCart spokesman regarding the applications of its new technology.
“You just find the barcode on the bottom of the product, scan it and it pops up on your screen, as you go around it will subtotal all the items,” he added. “You can also look at special offers that are on in the store.”
Beyond its primary use, the MediaCart’s more personal and interactive aspects -- namely the likes of recipe suggestions and diet monitoring -- are activated by inserting a store loyalty card.
And, for those wondering what happens should a light-fingered shopper attempt to take the trolley home with them from the store to impress their friends, the MediaCart trolley will relay its exact physical location back to the store once it travels a certain distance.
So, we should perhaps expect supermarket store workers to be found dredging canals for suddenly valuable trolley hardware come 2009.
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AnonApr 10th, 2008 - 05:31:56
I think the author of this article is an Idiot.
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AnonApr 10th, 2008 - 05:31:56
I think the author of this article is an Idiot.
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