I loathe self-service checkouts at supermarkets. Not because I want to hang around there for the fun of it, but simply because they’re so incredibly inefficient, especially if you’re dealing with items that never had barcodes, such as fruit and vegetables. A new scanner from Toshiba might fix my woes, as it omits barcodes and just works out what it is you’re holding in front of it.
Awesome. No more misread barcodes, no more waiting for a bored sixteen year old to try to discern between vine grown, roma or organic tomatoes. Then again, if it can recognise beer cans, will it stop to ask for age-appropriate ID? [Akihabara News]