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Artificial intelligence continues to seep into our daily lives. Now, AI has been tasked with tackling a crime as old as retail itself: shoplifting.
A recent study by telecom giant NTT found that Japanese businesses lose around 400 billion yen annually through five-fingered discounts. No store is immune to this larceny, except perhaps anvil shops, and technology has yet to come up with a strong enough solution to effectively combat it, until now.
NTT and tech company Earth Eyes have joined up to create AI Guardman (“guardman” is the common Japanese-English word for “security guard”). This is a new type of security camera that is backed up with an AI system that can detect behaviors attributed to shoplifters.
The way it works is simple. The camera watches the store interior and identifies all the humans inside as they walk about. AI Guardman is aware of the different techniques commonly used by shoplifters in different types of stores, such as looking for blindspots in supermarkets or constantly checking one’s surroundings in bookstores.
If one shopper exhibits motions and postures typical of a shoplifter in that type of store, an alert will be sent to the clerk’s smartphone telling them the location and a photo of the suspect.
The clerk then goes over to the person and asks, “Good day! Can I help you find something today?” The friendly approach is effective enough at spooking potential sticky-fingers out of their thefts, but can also lead to genuine customer service in the event the AI screwed up.
Using their smartphone, the clerk logs whether or not they confronted the suspect, and the results are shared by both the store and AI Guardman system to improve their security. This way, even if shoplifters get wise to the system and begin to change their tactics, the AI can automatically keep up with them.
Preliminary tests appear to be effective as well. Trials have been conducted by major retailers such as electronics megastore Bic Camera, drug store Kirindo, and sporting goods store Xebio. One particular store reported a drop in shoplifting losses from 3.5 million yen per yer to 2 million, and it is expected that the system will get stronger as it is used.
Before you consider buying one to protect your own personal valuables from pilfering siblings, the AI Guardman costs a fair amount. One camera, which has a range of 13 meters across 144 degree swath, costs 238,000 yen up front. Then, there’s the 4,500 yen per camera monthly fee for usage of the cloud data it produces.
Considering the potential savings in lost merchandise, it would be a small price to pay for businesses, however. It will also be interesting to see if humans can actually adapt to this AI and find more creative ways to steal, or if such technology will actually be the end of shoplifting as we know it.
Source: NTT, IT Media, Hachima Kiko
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- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2018/05/31/ai-security-cameras-coming-to-stores-in-japan-reduce-shoplifting-by-40-percent/
13 Comments
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Yubaru
Seems to me that there are some other problems here if the store is losing THAT much per year in petty theft.
Their overall security sucks no doubt!
JonathanJo
Are you sure it's not doing facial recognition as well?
Keeping and sharing photos of suspected shoplifters in the cloud would be interesting from the data privacy point of view.
Do the hustle
Is it just me or do other people see a lot of false accusations coming from this software?
Michael Jackson
Next thing you know they'll be developing a pre crimes division like that Tom Cruise movie and people will be getting arrested for things they haven't even done yet
DaDude
I sometimes go into shops, particularly thrift stores, that paste pictures on the wall of shoplifters. Every single one shows a man/woman wearing a mask and sunglasses. OK, a mask may be needed for allergies/a cold but shouldn't wearing sunglasses indoors rings some alarms?
Aly Rustom
Do the hustleToday
No its definitely not just you. This has the potential to turn ugly.
spinningplates
@ Da Dude:
Why on earth would wearing sunglasses indoors ring any bells for you?
The system seems ok, but quite a hassle for the staff. Have they factored in the cost of supplying employees with 'work' smartphone?
Civitas Sine Suffragio
The future is not going to be nice...glad my youthful years were spent in a relatively low-tech, free era.
Aoi Azuuri
Japanese Society do not consider even risk of mass surveillance yet.
Many Japanese media are pleased new technology innocently
8T
This is a very bad idea.
Ah_so
What makes you think that? If it works well it should not pick out the wrong people, and even if it does now and then, people will just be approached. If people are wrongly accused of theft, then the publicity will be terrible.
I think it is a pretty good idea. Similar AI is also being used elsewhere to identify body language that suggests a fight is about to break out. All good.
mmwkdw
Someone's been stealing the toilet paper... let's install an AI camera and find out who.
econstats
Seems to me that there are some other problems here if the store is losing THAT much per year in petty theft.
Man you really need some help. First, its only 31k usd. Second as the store stated it was electronics megastore Bic Camera, drug store Kirindo, and sporting goods store Xebio, all high end stuff. Take Xebio, the sporting good store for example. A high end pair of basketball shoes goes for about $200 and a tennis racket goes for $200. Hypothetically speaking, Xebio is losing about 78 pairs of shoes and 78 tennis racket a year due to shoplifting. That isn't that much and its only two items. Xebio carries hundreds of items.