Self-service checkouts have become a common feature in supermarkets around the world, a trend accelerated by the coronavirus epidemic. While some may mourn the loss of human contact, others enjoy the opportunity to scan their own: with a little practice, self-service can provide a very quick checkout experience. Assuming, of course, the machine can recognize each product, the built-in weight sensor works properly and you are not selected for a random check.
If you want to practice your checkout game without spending a lot of money, you may want to check it out [Niklas Roy] And [Kati Hyyppä]Its latest project: Bonprix is a game where the goal is to scan as many items as possible within a 90-second period. Installed at the Eniarof DIY festival, it is designed similar to a simple supermarket checkout with a display, a barcode scanner and a shopping cart full of random items. The screen indicates which item should be scanned next; If you are too slow, checkout will start giving discounts, which you obviously don’t want. At the end of 90 seconds, the machine issues a receipt indicating your total score.
The checkout desk is made of wood pallets and cardboard; Inside is a laptop running Linux, a handheld barcode scanner via USB. An LED strip provides a beam of bright red light to indicate the scanning area, and the barcode turns green when successfully scanned. The Arduinos controls the LEDs and the large red-yellow “Start” button, while a heat printer from the ATM prints receipts at the end of each game.
In addition to being a bit of fun, the Bonprix project seeks to address questions related to consumer culture and self-checkout: is it fair to let customers do their own thing? Should they pay for it? Is it ethical to encourage people to spend as much as possible?
Although this is the first time we’ve seen a self-service checkout computer game, we’ve taken a few deep dives into the fascinating technology of barcodes that make it possible. Look at this!