congatec, Basler and NXP Semiconductors have developed a function toolkit for deep learning applications in retail. The platform is a proof-of-concept, using artificial intelligence (AI) to fully automate the retail checkout process.

The toolkit demonstrates the possibilities of vision technologies in embedded applications and how they can simplify our daily lives. The kit is application ready, providing everything necessary for training automated checkout systems. Goods have already been trained for automatic video recognition without the use of bar or QR codes. This way, goods such as fruit or vegetables, which cannot be identified by a code, can now also be checked out. The kit can further create a symbolic invoice total. This illustrates that the modular system has all the basic features needed for integration into existing checkout systems that also map all payment functions. Such vision-based systems open up new perspectives for retail applications – in particular, if it is easy to add new products to the range. Retailers benefit from lower labor costs and a significantly improved shopping experience through instant checkout, shorter queues and 100% checkout capacity at all times – even when the store is open 24 hours a day. However, providing such solutions requires preparatory work that OEMs serving the retail market cannot accomplish from a standing start. This is why they need partners, such as the congatec, Basler and NXP team, who collaboratively provide them with application-ready platforms for the integration of camera and AI technologies at the embedded level.

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