AI on the Supermarket Shelf: what AI actually does, in one story.
From a live TESS Group AI workshop · captions included
“Little battery-operated wireless cameras that just sit on the shelves… they take a picture every 20 minutes, and it counts what's on the shelves. Then it sends a report to the staff room: there's only two packets of biscuits left, there should be seven.”
AI sounds abstract until you see it counting biscuits. William uses this story in TESS workshops to show what computer vision actually does in day-to-day operations, and why the best automation ideas are usually the unglamorous ones.
Transcript
…that this particular supermarket is now playing about with is little battery-operated wireless cameras that sit on the shelves, just where the prices go. They sit in there and take a picture of the shelves every 20 minutes or so, and it uses computer vision. You have to tell it what it's looking at, and then it looks and counts what's on the shelves.
Then it sends a report to the staff room to say: there are only two packets of biscuits left, and there should be seven. Or there are only two blocks of cheese, and there should be 20. And then the staff go out and replenish the shelves.
AI apprenticeships · 100% levy-funded · Ofsted Good · 4.9/5 from 776 reviews
Book a Free Discovery Call