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Lowe's is set to unleash a retail-ready, multilingual robot. The project is designed to help shoppers navigate stores quickly and easily.
"People want to come in and find exactly where they want to go," said Kyle Nel, executive director of Lowe's Innovation Labs. "And they want to have a conversation instead of trying to find a map."
Customers can talk to the robot, OSHbot, like they to would speak to a typical sales associate, and it recognizes and responds in multiple languages. It's equipped with a screen that shoppers move through "Minority Report-style" -- it recognizes hand gestures made in front of the screen and can be used as a typical touch screen as well. OSHbot is also mobile and will roll up to customers to greet and escort them through the aisles.
Outfitted with a 3D scanner, OSHbot can help shoppers locate items, even if they don't know what they're called. For example, customers can scan a screw or nail brought from home, and OSHbot will search its database to locate it in the store or online.
The robots were born out of the Lowe's Innovation Lab, an experimental department that works with science-fiction writers and startups to solve consumer problems with technology.
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Huehuehue, Panera getting rid of cashiers, Lowe's starting to roll out robots, keep up the "$15/hr fast food wage" protests and robots will start making your Whoppers.
http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/meet-lowe-s-newest-sales-associate-oshbot-robot/295591/