Surprised by Unmanned Stores?
Speaking | English & Chinese scripts are provided below and you can understand the content easier.
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Hi Jacky, I’ve bought some snacks at a store close to my office. Please get something.
Thanks Grandpa. I love it.
Here are some chocolates and chips.
Great! You are so late and I miss you so much.
Do you know what’s so special for the snacks?
I have no idea of it.
I bought those snacks from unmanned convenience store.
Oh really? What is it about?
I mean that the store does not have a cashier.
I haven’t seen such store before.
I should take you to the shop next time. Can you imagine a completely unstaffed store? You can’t find any cashier in the exit of the store.
It is very interesting. If there is no cashier, how do you pay for the goods?
The store deducts my credit card account automatically.
How does the shop know who you are if you do not provide anything?
That’s really a good question.
I am also curious about the way of preventing thefts from shoplifting.
It should not happen. The shop is able to recognize each customer.
How can the store do it?
Let me tell you how I shop. I walk into the store, scan my mobile application, grab the goods, walk out and my account is charged. It takes only a few seconds and is just simple.
It is truly a new shopping experience to me. Is there any queue at the store?
It’s none. As there is no checkout at all, it saves the queuing time.
It is fascinating. How is the design of the store?
It’s equipped with high-tech equipment.
How can the store operate?
I’ve read an article about the development of unmanned stores. The number of stores is expanding in different countries and it’s becoming more common.
If the store is so intelligent, I am more interested to know the setup.
It’s actually quite complicated because the store requires to know when an item is taken up by a specific customer.
Wow, what are those technologies?
The setup cost is relatively high because different technologies are adopted.
It’s marvellous.
Customer may put the item back on the shelf and the system should be able to know the movement of the item.
It’s amazing. Can you tell me how to do this?
First of all, can you imagine that the ceiling of the store has installed plenty of cameras?
Oh really? Is the function of those cameras to record the movement of customers?
Yes. The cameras can monitor which products a particular customer has picked up. With the use of cameras, the store can also know the path of each customer.
It’s very smart.
The cameras are equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms that can track each customer’s movement and provide insights.
Oh, it’s AI. I heard it many times recently.
Do you know how the importance of customer’s path?
Let me guess. If the store can know the path of a customer, the behaviour of purchase should also be tracked by the system.
Right. The store is then able to get some valuable insights by understanding the habits of customers.
I understood. The store is able to respond to the trends of design e.g. the hot items should be placed at a more prominent position.
Exactly. It’s able to help the design of goods display, hence improving customer experience.
I cannot imagine that our images are captured in every step within the store.
It’s also related to computer vision technology. Do you know why the shelves are so smart and can detect the goods?
There should be secret about the goods. Am I correct?
There is a chip placed in every item on the shelf.
It is awesome. It is an intelligent chip.
The chip is equipped with radio-frequency identification (RFID) and can store more information. It’s an electronic tag!
Is it related to storage only?
It’s more than that. It can track items that are taken off from the shelves and checked out automatically.
Grandpa, I do not quite understand.
Let me elaborate more. With RFID technology, customers leaving the store will be automatically scanned and detected with RFID chips on their purchases.
I got it. The store should be installed with sensors as well. Right?
Yes. The RFID chips linking up with the AI cameras mark the item to the specific customer. The whole process is seamless.
It is the reason why the system is able to recognize particular customer purchasing particular item.
All the systems are linked up together. If restocking is required, the store can arrange immediately.
It’s really an amazing design.
They’re all related to the usage of advanced technologies. Meanwhile, there is another type of unmanned store with relatively lower cost than the fully automated one.
I haven’t a clue.
There is a cashier section at the exit of the store. Customer can scan the goods by themselves and then leave the store. Customer’s credit card account will be charged automatically.
Still without a staff?
Right. It’s namely semi-automated store. Customers cannot walk out frictionlessly as there is a checkout process for scanning.
Mother has brought me there before. There is a self-checkout counter.
It’s different. Those stores have both manned checkout and self-checkout counters. Customer can select to pay via one of the types of counters.
For some of the elderly, they may prefer counters with staff.
For semi-automated store, it’s still not operated by any staff.
Grandpa, I was shocked by those applications.
With more adoption of new technologies, we can encounter more unmanned services. Do you remember that we stayed at unmanned hotel few months ago?
Yes. There was a robot serving us.
You could not find any staff at the hotel. I was so impressed by the state-of-art design because the hotel was trendy with style.
I was very excited for such services.
We’ll experience more unmanned services from different sectors in the future.
I cannot wait to visit the unmanned store. The snacks are very nice!
WITH CHINESE SCRIPT
嗨積奇，我在辦公室附近的一家商店買了一些零食，請拿一些。
謝謝爺爺，我很喜歡。
這裡有巧克力和薯條。
好極了！您那麼晚，我好掛念你。
您知道這些零食有什麼特別之處嗎？
我不知道。
我從無人便利店買的零食。
哦真的嗎？這是什麼的？
我的意思是商店內沒有收銀員。
我以前沒見過這樣的商店。
下次我應該帶您去，您能想像一家完全無人操作的商店嗎？您在商店的出口找不到任何收銀員。
這很有趣，如果沒有收銀員，如何支付貨品？
商店自動從我的信用卡賬戶中扣款。
如您沒有提供任何資料，商店怎麼知道您是誰？
這真是個好問題。
我也很好奇關於防止盜竊入店行竊的方法。
應該不會發生，商店能夠識別每個顧客。
商店怎麼可以做到？
讓我告訴您我是如何購物的，我走進商店，掃描我的手機應用程式，拿起貨品，然後離開，我的賬戶就被扣款了，只需要幾秒鐘，而且很簡單。
這對我來說真的是一種全新的購物體驗，店裡有人排隊嗎？
沒有，由於完全沒有收銀處，節省了排隊時間。
這很有趣，店面設計如何？
它配備了高科技設備。
店鋪如何運作的？
我看過一篇關於無人商店發展的文章，商店的數目在不同的國家不斷擴展，並且變得越來越普遍。
如果商店如此智能，我更有興趣了解如何設置。
這實際上非常複雜，因為商店需要知道某件貨品何時被特定顧客拿起。
哇，這些技術是什麼？
由於採用了不同的技術，設置的成本相對較高。
太棒了。
客戶可以將貨品放回貨架上，系統應該能夠知道貨品的移動情況。
太奇妙了，您能告訴我怎麼做嗎？
首先，您能想像商店的天花板上安裝了很多攝影機嗎？
哦真的嗎？那些攝影機的作用是記錄顧客的移動情況嗎？
是的，這些攝影機可以監控特定客戶拿起了哪些貨品，通過些攝影機，商店還可以了解每位顧客的行踪。
非常聰明。
這些攝影機配備了人工智能 (AI) 和機器學習算法，可以跟踪每個客戶的動作並提供分析。
哦，是人工智能，最近聽了很多遍。
您知道客戶購買路徑的重要性嗎？
讓我猜猜，如果商店可以知道客戶的購買路徑，那麼系統可以跟踪客戶的購買行為。
正確的，然後，商店可以了解顧客的習慣來獲得一些有價值的見解。
我明白了，該商店能夠按趨勢而設計，例如熱門的貨品應該放在比較顯眼的位置。
正是，它能夠幫助貨品的展示設計，從而改善客戶體驗。
我無法想像我們的影像在商店的每一步都被記錄。
這還與電腦視覺的技術有關，您知道貨架為什麼這麼智能，可以偵察貨品嗎？
這與貨品的秘密有關，我對麼？
貨架上的每件貨品上都有一個芯片。
太棒了，是一種智能芯片。
該芯片配備無線射頻識別（RFID）功能，可以儲存更多訊息，即是電子標籤！
它僅與儲存有關嗎？
不僅如此，它可以跟踪從貨架上取下並自動結賬的貨品。
爺爺，我不太明白。
讓我詳細說明一下，透過無線射頻識別技術，顧客離開商店時，所購買已裝有無線射頻識別芯片的貨品會被自動掃描及檢測。
我明白了，商店也應該安裝傳感器，正確的？
是的，與人工智能攝影機連接的無線射頻識別芯片將物品標記予特定的顧客，整個過程是無縫的。
這就是系統能夠識別購買特定貨品予特定客戶的原因。
所有系統都連接在一起，如需補貨，商店可即時安排。
這真是一個了不起的設計。
這都與先進技術的使用有關，同時，還有一種無人商店，其成本相對於全自動無人商店來說要低一些。
我一點頭緒也沒有。
商店出口處有收銀台，顧客可自行掃描商品，然後離開，客戶的信用卡賬戶將自動收費。
還是沒有職員？
正確的，即半自動化商店，由於仍須要掃描的結賬過程，因此客戶無法無接觸的離開商店。
媽媽以前帶我去過那裡，有一個自助結賬的櫃檯。
這不一樣，這些商店既有人工結賬櫃檯，也有自助結賬櫃檯，客戶可以選擇通過其中一種櫃檯付款。
對於一些老年人來說，他們可能更喜歡有職員的櫃檯。
對於半自動化商店，它仍然沒有任何職員操作。
爺爺，我被那些應用都震驚了。
隨著更多新技術的採用，我們會遇到更多的無人服務，還記得幾個月前我們住在無人酒店嗎？
是的，有一個機器人為我們服務。
您在酒店找不到任何職員，先進的設計給我留下了深刻的印象，因為這家酒店風格時尚。
我對這樣的服務感到非常興奮。
未來我們會體驗到更多不同領域的無人服務。
我迫不及待地想參觀無人商店，零食很不錯！