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| Amazon develops a smart refrigerator that can monitor your shopping habits |
Amazon is developing a refrigerator that can use some computer vision technology in its cashless Amazon Go store to detect expired or expired products and automatically place orders.
Amazon's warehouse division pioneered the "Just Checkout" technology that powers Go Stores and runs the refrigerator project. The team is responsible for other high-end products in the company's store, such as Dash Cart and the Amazon One payment system.
Other departments, such as the freshness team and materials department at Lab126, are also involved. The new refrigerator called Project Pulse is designed to track inventory levels and purchasing patterns, and predict and save what you want.
If some of the redeemed products (eg eggs) are about to expire or about to expire, the system may notify you automatically.
He can also order these products more easily through Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods. Other ideas discussed include recipe suggestions for whether a product like salmon has been in the fridge for a week and needs to be cooked as quickly as possible, as well as health and nutrition suggestions.
Amazon will not make smart refrigerators. Instead, the e-commerce giant hopes to team up with the home appliance maker. He has had high-level discussions with several major consumer electronics brands.
All three products can be equipped with the company's own camera hardware and computer vision software, similar to Amazon Go store technology. Alexa voice assistant can be added to your smart fridge but it is not currently a priority.
The team has been working on this project for at least two years. It is not clear when the device will be officially launched and Amazon may close the project.
Amazon invests $50 million in the project every year
Smart refrigerators represent the company's ongoing expansion into consumer homes through its own devices. Last week he launched Astro, a home robot that can make video calls and monitor homes.
It also launched its first TV brand in the US last month. This is in addition to a number of personal household appliances such as microwaves, smart speakers and wall clocks.
With Amazon introducing the smart fridge, the e-commerce giant can also compete directly with other home appliance manufacturers, including LG and Samsung. Many of these companies sell through the online Amazon marketplace.
Due to the complex technology used, the price of Amazon refrigerators is likely to be high. The target audience can be families with high incomes and active Prime subscribers.
The Smart Fridge team is based in Seattle, India, and Southern California. It employs less than 100 people. The company invests at least $50 million annually in the plan.
And the automatic refrigerator scanning technology needs improvement as test users in India need to manually record some transactions.
At Amazon, concerns are growing about slowing food industry growth, especially with the rapid rise of Instacart. Amazon grocery store employees raised the issue in August, saying that the user experience and product are below average when compared to some grocery startups with very limited resources.