As an American, you are sure to stumble upon your fair share of new and unexpected things while traveling in Europe. Whether you’re sipping on an ice-free drink or visiting a nude beach for the first time, there’s always room for surprise on a European vacation. One TikTok creator, @valscitylife, shared her amazement at one particular aspect of European technology. In the video, she shows her experience shopping at Berksha, a trendy clothing store in Barcelona, Spain. Instead of a typical checkout experience with a cashier, @valscitylife uses a futuristic self-checkout system that is scattered throughout Europe.
We’ve all heard of self-checkouts; you scan each of your items yourself, allowing for a quicker checkout process. However, the self-checkout in @valscitylife’s video doesn’t even require scanning. Instead, she just places her items in a bin, and the machine correctly identifies her items, seeming like magic. She exclaims in the video, “Why do we not have this in America?” But how exactly does this technology work?
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Self-checkout technology is advancing
A self checkout with RFID scanning bins – Solstock/Getty Images
The explanation for this seemingly impossible technology is due to a combination of AI and radio frequency identification (RFID, which you may have heard of for products like travel wallets). With the use of special tags attached to the items, RFID devices are able to detect what customers are buying with radio waves. The tags are almost indetectable due to their small, slim size, and the fact that they are usually sewn into clothes or built into an item’s packaging. The AI component in self-checkout systems can analyze consumer patterns, monitor inventory, and detect theft.
Self-checkout is nothing new to Americans, but this seamless checkout experience is almost unheard of at the majority of retailers. While select retailers in the U.S., like Uniqlo, Amazon, and Circle K, use RFID technology, it is not as widespread for this purpose as it is in European countries. This may be because of the heightened cost of the tags as well as the effort needed to overhaul existing products with the RFID tags. Eventually, this technology may become the new normal globally. But for now, we can still enjoy the amazement while it lasts.
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Read the original article on Explore.
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