Kinect Grocery Cart Follows Shoppers Around the Store 155
cylonlover writes "When Chaotic Moon Labs debuted the Kinect-powered Board of Awesomeness — and its mind-reading offspring, the Board of Imagination — that was apparently just a preview of a more practical product the company had in the works. Grocery store chain Whole Foods recently gave a demonstration of Chaotic Moon's latest device, which uses the same technology in a self-propelled shopping cart. The 'Smarter Cart,' as it's been named, can detect what items are placed in it, match those to a shopping list, and even follow shoppers around the store on its own."
Re:You have that completely backwards (Score:4, Informative)
It really depends on the store. The original Whole Foods in New Orleans was, as we all used to joke, like shopping with 50 of your closest friends in a closet (It was by far the smallest non-family-owned grocery store I've every been in, even the A&P in the French Quarter was larger). When they built the new one uptown it was much more open and nicer. Now that I'm in the Boston area, the ones in Cambridge (near Mass Ave) and Woburn are definitely smallish and occasionally uncomfortable, the other one in Cambridge (near Alewife) and the one in Dedham are great though. As much or more room than any normal grocery store. I think a lot depends on age and location. The earliest ones were built where ever they could get the cheapest rent, as time went on 9and profits went up) they went to the medium sized stores for smaller markets or already served areas, and actually large nice store for flagship locations.