Tired of standing in line? Wait a bit longer, and you may never have to again.

Amazon has opened 24 of its Amazon Go stores, which use cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) to see what you’ve taken off shelves and charge you as you walk out. Some companies are closely copying Amazon’s approach to using AI-powered cameras fixed in ceilings. But others are trying an entirely different way to skip the checkout: smart shopping carts. These companies have added cameras and sensors (传感器) to the carts, and are using AI to tell what you’ve put in them. Customers pay by entering a credit card, or through an online payment system. When a customer exits the store a green light on the shopping cart shows that their order is complete, and they’re charged.

The companies behind the smart carts, including Caper and Veeve, say it’s much easier to add technology to the shopping cart than to an entire store. Amazon’s Go stores rely on hundreds of cameras in the ceiling. The shelves also include sensors to tell when an item is removed. Ahmed Beshry, co-founder of Caper, believes the technology to run Go is too expensive to use in a large-format grocery store. Neither Caper nor Veeve has said how much their smart shopping carts will cost, making it difficult to compare the different formats. Shariq Siddiqui, CEO of Veeve, said, “We’re always happy when Amazon is doing something. They force retailers (零售店) to get out of their old school thinking.”   

Each time a business uses AI and cameras, it raises questions about customers’ privacy and the effect on jobs. Beshry notes that the cameras in his shopping cart point down into the cart, so only a customer’s hand and part of their arm will be captured (拍摄) on camera.

Sometimes it only takes a shopping trip to change your life. When Shannon Murray-Doffo headed out to buy a shirt for her four-year-old son in 2019, little did she imagine it would be the spark to start her own kid-friendly clothing company. What Murray-Doffo found at not one but six different children’s clothing stores was that boys’ clothing is a disappointment.

“Boys’ clothes in every store were in gray, black or white—I mean, who buys white for a four-year-old boy? The graphics on the shirts were either giant rubbery logos across the chest or grown man or monster (怪兽). I remember coming home empty-handed and disappointed,” she said.

This bothered her, as she felt the fashion industry was sending a damaging message to little boys—that their clothes don’t matter as much as girls’, due to their location in the store and far fewer options, and that they should be violent.

She decided to start her own clothing company called Living Loudly. The result is a collection of T-shirts with fun, creative, and non-violent designs that appeal to boys and their parents.

The material makes a kid keep reaching for the same shirt day after day, and will stand up to hours of rough physical play. The T-shirts are shipped in a plastic-free, zero-waste cardboard tube used as shipping container and packaging. Inside, the shirt is wrapped in a sheet of seed paper, which will bloom if planted. A story is printed on the paper to entertain and educate the child about valuable lessons. “From developing self-control and healthy emotional expression to discovering the importance of being heard, our short stories give families fun, easy, and teachable moments. ”

Being the innovative entrepreneur as she is, Murray-Doffo didn’t stop at T-shirts. While conducting market research into her target audience, she spent a lot of time on online parenting forums to follow trending topics.

You’re asleep on a Saturday morning when the sound of an alarm clock erupts from your device. You turn over to see the word SNOOZE projected in the air above your device. You reach out and touch the virtual button with your finger—a slight feeling on your fingertip—before falling back to sleep.

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba in Japan are working on a technology that could make this possible. Led by associate professor Yoichi Ochiai, the team creates shapes in the air using a laser(激光) that releases short pulses(脉冲) of light. The high-intensity light can break down air molecules(分子), which produces short-lived spots of light. The system polishes images by rapidly adjusting the central point of the laser in three dimensions.

A previous version of the technology used nano-second laser pulses, which have the unfortunate side effect of burning human skin. Ochiai’s system, named Fairy Lights, employs much shorter laser pulses that are much less dangerous despite having a high peak intensity, Ochiai says. The tiny hearts, stars and fairies that the system projects are not only safe to touch, but they are sensitive to contact. In one test, the system projects a checkbox that can be filled in with your finger. “It feels like sandpaper or a mild electric shock,” Ochiai says.

Ochiai also predicts large-scale emergency monitors that could be projected high over a city to warn residents about a natural disaster or direct them toward an escape route. While the initial images were not large, Ochiai says the flexibility of the system depends on the size and power of the equipment used. Large systems are currently expensive, he says, adding that technologies that draw images will likely become more achievable over the next 10 to 20 years as the multi-million-dollar price decreases.