No more self-serve checkout theft? The change that may be coming to your supermarket
<p>Scottish researchers think they have solved a debacle plaguing supermarket self-serve checkouts - theft. </p>
<p>Abertay University academics found digital human-like faces at self-serve checkouts can help reduce the risk of shoplifting. </p>
<p>The study stimulated a self-service checkout scenario in which participants were asked to scan and weigh items before paying. </p>
<p>Opportunities were provided in which shoppers could benefit financially through being dishonest. </p>
<p>"Items without a bar code provided opportunities for dishonest behaviours as participants were required to select a weight or provide the item numbers,"<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://academic.oup.com/iwc/article/31/2/154/5426455" target="_blank">researchers wrote.</a></p>
<p>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. </p>
<p><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7831933/self-serve.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/eeb9dd7cebb84ac09bcf8cd04bd129b4" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>The digital face shown above the checkout. Image: 9news</em></p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Researchers said there is "huge merit in maintaining a social element in consumer interaction with technology" in order to reduce self-service checkout theft.</p>
<p>The study comes out at the same time retailers across the country are trialing several different methods to combat the million-dollar problem. </p>
<p>New South Wales are testing out sensors which create a log of the products the customer selects. </p>
<p>The information is transferred into checkout at the time of purchase. </p>
<p>"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<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/researchers-develop-method-to-combat-self-service-checkout-theft/ar-AAJ5bRV" target="_blank">nine.com.au.</a></p>
