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WiFi signals can measure heart rate—no wearables needed (news.ucsc.edu)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 2 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I've heard of similar, but how exactly does this work? Does it say $0.99 on the shelf and the receipt winds up being $1.50?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    I was referencing digital price labels that retailers are installing.

    This technology is being touted by the companies putting them in place to be a cost saving measure as staff no longer need to print new labels and manually replace them for products on the shelf. This is true in that it is a benefit of digital labelling, however there are many other usage options that could be implemented after installation.

    • alter prices around lunch hour for ready meals and snacks at retailers in walking distance to secondary schools
    • automatic increases for products being purchased more rapidly than historical averages to capitalize on a yet unknown trend
    • increases simply as stock begins running low

    Imagine in a few years when this technology is combined with network snooping of phone identification, loyalty rewards card purchase histories, and automatic buying of customer information from data brokers, all to create a profile that predicts when a person would be likely to be menstruating and the moment they walk in the store, the hygienic products they buy every month raise in price by 30%.

    It's a bleak future I'm afraid.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (4 children)

    Good point. A US department store chain -- Kohl's -- has been using electronic shelf labels that change several times per day. Not sure how they handle the discrepancies. How do I prove the product was prices $1 when I picked it up if the label now says $2? Is it my responsibility to notice the register price was different?

    I more or less avoided Kohl's, so I'm not sure how that was handled.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    The only solution for that which I see is taking photos of the labels for every product taken off the shelf, but that's quite the imposition obviously. Trouble is there are no laws guiding these practices, and the result is going to be quite the mess for customers to understand.

    In my opinion, the best purchasing experience for this type of shopping is using a handheld device with which you both scan the product as you take it off the shelf, and also process payment on your way to the exit. No cashier lines, and even better, no more unloading and repacking of your items just to purchase them. From the shelf into your bag, only back out again in your kitchen.

    On another note, it boggles my mind to see the square footage used by all these self checkout machines when these terminal systems exist. Sadly I've never used one in North America. This is an aspect of shopping that could make me loyal to a single vendor. I would actually install the vendor's phone app if they built in this functionality instead of having these terminals.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I would actually install the vendor’s phone app if they built in this functionality instead of having these terminals.
    I think you’re right, but I dread it. I avoid installing apps. The thought of installing even more tracking for multiple vendors annoys me.
    Although I am resistant, your point about bagging once is a true benefit.
    One downside, that system doesn’t seem to support cash.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I didn't give the privacy concern much thought in the moment, mainly thinking how useless and poorly designed those apps usually are, but I do agree.

    Considering it now, I do have loyalty cards in my company vehicle for certain things, primarily fuel, and those of course remain in that vehicle as they serve no other purpose. Perhaps keeping an old phone for purposes of doing this scanning thing might be ideal. Though ideally I'd imagine a few dedicated handheld terminals kept in store for redundancy purposes.

    Speaking of redundancy, you're right about paying in cash. Perhaps as easy as a 'cash' button and it would send the purchase total to a customer service desk. Around here, all grocers have a 'cashier' desk where you get lottery tickets and gift cards and such.

    Though it would be funny to see these handheld terminals have a compartment to accept notes and coins haha.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Perhaps keeping an old phone for purposes of doing this scanning thing might be ideal.
    That’s an excellent idea!

    all grocers have a ‘cashier’ desk where you get lottery tickets.
    Ha! Great observation. There’s no way in hell stores are going to give up on gambling cash. :-)

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