Annotated Summary

The article addresses a problem that customers face in supermarkets. The checkout process takes up too much time and effort due to the need for individual scanning of items. It then introduces a solution, which is to integrate current technology with an existing supermarket trolley to facilitate self-checkout, with the aim of reducing checkout times thus increasing shopping efficiency for customers. A wireless smart device comprising of a Raspberry Pie, a four-inch touch screen display and a battery kit is used to operate the system. Barcode scanners are connected to this device, allowing customers to scan a product as they place them in their trolley. The smart device will then calculate the total expenditure as customers shop thus remove the need for supermarket staff to scan each individual product at the checkout counters later on. With the items scanned prior to customers proceeding to checkout counters, it reduces the waiting time as it cuts down the cashiers’ duties, only requiring them to accept payment and bag the products.

The article provides an understanding on the situation pertaining to supermarket checkouts. It also provides a possible solution to help improve the shopping efficiency of said supermarket checkouts. This insight is valuable for our research project as it addresses a goal similar to ours, which is to increase customer shopping efficiency. It proposes a solution to reduce the time and effort in supermarkets’ checkout process, thus increasing the shopping efficiency of customers.

Sainath S., Surender K., Arvind V.V. & Thangakumar, J. (2014). Automated Shopping Trolley for Super Market Billing System. International Journal of Computer Applications. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.740.4975&rep=rep1&type=pdf