15.12.2022
265

Amazon Plans to Destroy the Barcode

Andrew Andreev
Author at ApiX-Drive
Reading time: ~2 min

Amazon's AI-powered camera system identifies products without having to scan a barcode. This development is planned to modernize robotics in the company's warehouses.

Robots have already become a part of our lives and without them the future is simply unthinkable. Now they mostly take on monotonous or hard work. But, as it turned out, they can not fully perform a barcode scan – a completely simple routine action. It can be difficult for a robot-manipulator to find an identifier on an irregularly shaped product, and also if it is attached in a hard-to-reach place.

On December 9, Amazon representatives issued a statement about the rejection of barcodes. Its experts have created a camera system to track items on the conveyor in order to check their compliance with their own photos. To make the system work, a computer model was trained – it was shown photographs of products stored in the warehouse. This technology will help modernize robotic manipulators that will identify each item immediately as it is moved from place to place.

Nontas Antonakos, a specialist from the computer vision working group of the German office of Amazon (Berlin), noted that the successful collection of goods by a robot and their subsequent processing without interacting with a barcode is an important step in the development of modern commerce. This technology will help improve the accuracy and speed up logistics processes (in particular, the delivery of goods to customers).

A global replacement of barcodes with a multimodal identification system is not yet foreseen. According to Amazon, it is implemented and actively used only in 2 branches: German (in Hamburg) and Spanish (in Barcelona). The results are very encouraging: representatives of these branches said that with the help of the new technology they were able to speed up the processing of parcels. Thus, we can assume that it will soon be deployed in all other structural divisions of Amazon.