Camera in Coles Checkout Machines?

[CJay]

I just noticed on the new NCR machines at my local Coles supermarket, seems to be a camera, why?
Don't recall if the old ones had them.

Local Tesco stores here have a live display of the shopper from similar cameras as a deterrent against 'swap theft' where customers scan a low priced item and put a high priced one of the same weight in the bag, maybe just not implemented fully (yet) on Coles' machines.

[cdev]

That sounds like a very good example of the kind of thing that machine vision quite likely excels at. They should also get a well-lighted, ideally multispectral image of the pulse or commodity that is being sold that can be compared to reference images of each batch as they come in.

If they did that then if a particular customer (identified from his or her facial dimensions when they came in) had a habit of claiming a bag was one thing when it was another they could likely be prepared the next time they entered the store and then catch them in the act and have a well documented case.

Thats likely why they want some good images of them.

IMHO preventing theft IS a legitimate and desirable use of the technology.

I just noticed on the new NCR machines at my local Coles supermarket, seems to be a camera, why?
Don't recall if the old ones had them.

Local Tesco stores here have a live display of the shopper from similar cameras as a deterrent against 'swap theft' where customers scan a low priced item and put a high priced one of the same weight in the bag, maybe just not implemented fully (yet) on Coles' machines.

[MrMobodies]

I know they have them on most ATMs now and they did have problems before in the past with criminals putting covers over the card readers to skim cards and sometimes they hide a camera at the top to try and capture the pin.

[james_s]

The cameras are there because people regularly abuse the system and steal items. You may not be a criminal, but blame the significant percentage of your fellow men and women who have no qualms about stealing items from a store for the fact that everybody gets watched. Shoplifting costs businesses a not insignificant amount of money each year and the rest of us pay for it in higher prices. All self checkout systems have cameras, if not in the unit itself, there are surveillance cameras in the ceiling above. You're on someone elses private property, there should be no expectation of privacy.

[cdev]

Soon it won't be possible for anybody to steal anything because of biometrics. People also wont use cash, everything will be cashless.

https://usa.visa.com/visa-everywhere/global-impact/cashless-man-of-india.html

With help from US think tanks some cities are doing this already.

One example in India is Visakhapatnam (the cashless city)

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/vizag-city-to-go-almost-fully-cashless-in-a-year/articleshow/61008906.cms

Even the poorest illiterate people are in the system, the Aadhaar system in India uses their biometrics including their retina scan.

[beanflying]

Welcome to our Dystopian future. Time to make a new improved tinfoil hat with built in fake retina display modules

[Mr. Scram]

The cameras are there because people regularly abuse the system and steal items. You may not be a criminal, but blame the significant percentage of your fellow men and women who have no qualms about stealing items from a store for the fact that everybody gets watched. Shoplifting costs businesses a not insignificant amount of money each year and the rest of us pay for it in higher prices. All self checkout systems have cameras, if not in the unit itself, there are surveillance cameras in the ceiling above. You're on someone elses private property, there should be no expectation of privacy.

The problem often lies in the implementation, rather than the problem being addressed. While people may not have an expectation of privacy in a shop, they do arguably have an expectation not to be profiled or exploited without explicit consent. Yet shop or company wide tracking and profiling is being implemented at breakneck speed. The same applies to these kinds of cameras. Instead of having a camera on each and every customer, you could opt for random checks upon exiting the shop. Often there are many solutions imaginable which serve the purpose quite nicely. Unfortunately the tendency seems to be to opt for solutions which open up all sorts of other avenues which aren't serving the customer.

The long story short is that there's a huge difference between a locally stored surveillance video, and the same video being used to analyse and profile.

[EEVblog]

FYI, the cashless NCR machines at the same Coles don't have a camera.

[Flenser]

I just noticed on the new NCR machines at my local Coles supermarket, seems to be a camera, why?

One possible reason is BOM.

If this was your contract and you went looking to buy perhaps a few 1000's of screens, in baches of perhaps a few 100's at a time, and the standard screen being offered at the best price included a camera then would you choose to pay more to get a screen without a camera or would you choose to just ignore the camera in your software?

[Fraser]

If the cameras at Coles are of significant concern to a person, can they not contact Coles HQ and request an explanation for their presence, the information captured, its storage location and what is done with the data once collected. I believe that is possible in the UK but Australia may have different data protection rules.

Fraser