No more self-serve checkout theft? The change that may be coming to your supermarket
Scottish researchers think they have solved a debacle plaguing supermarket self-serve checkouts - theft.
Abertay University academics found digital human-like faces at self-serve checkouts can help reduce the risk of shoplifting.
The study stimulated a self-service checkout scenario in which participants were asked to scan and weigh items before paying.
Opportunities were provided in which shoppers could benefit financially through being dishonest.
"Items without a bar code provided opportunities for dishonest behaviours as participants were required to select a weight or provide the item numbers," researchers wrote.
Results showed when a human-like face was present, participants were less likely to cheat the systems than the times the face was not included.
The digital face shown above the checkout. Image: 9news
"This study shows that there are potential effects on people's behaviour due to the inclusion of human-like elements within the service," explained researchers.
"Interface designers interested in this field need to achieve a balance in that an agent will have to be noticed sufficiently, while not interfering with a consumer's task."
Researchers said there is "huge merit in maintaining a social element in consumer interaction with technology" in order to reduce self-service checkout theft.
The study comes out at the same time retailers across the country are trialing several different methods to combat the million-dollar problem.
New South Wales are testing out sensors which create a log of the products the customer selects.
The information is transferred into checkout at the time of purchase.
"Our distributed decision-making stack maintains a virtual 'cart' for each customer, reliably detecting and tracking all product interactions," black.ai, the robotics firm working with a number of unnamed supermarkets, previously told nine.com.au.