Near future
No Result
View All Result
June 3 2023
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Inland solutions
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+
Understand, anticipate, improve the future.
CES2023 / Coronavirus / Russia-Ukraine
Near future
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Inland solutions
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+

Understand, anticipate, improve the future.

No Result
View All Result
Technology

Food sector, 7 anti-Covid innovations

The food sector faces the greatest risks associated with the pandemic every day. For this reason, it plans anti-Covid innovations to be preserved even after.

August 6 2020
Gianluca RiccioGianluca Riccio
⚪ 6 minutes
Share17Pin4Tweet11SendShare3ShareShare2

READ THIS IN:

It's raining innovative ways that startups and food retailers are keeping buyers and employees safe from COVID-19.

It is one of the essential purchasing sectors, which have remained open even during the worst pandemic periods. For this reason, shops and companies in the food sector have had to think innovatively about how to keep their customers and workers safe.

From robots that enforce social distancing to an app that gives stores an "activity score," here are seven innovations that respond to the pandemic. Many could become part of our daily life.

1. In the traffic light at the supermarket

Innovations in the anti Covid food sector
Aldi's "traffic light" to help the food sector regulate flows and attendances

The supermarket chain Aldi recently launched an "automated traffic light system" in its UK stores. The purpose? Ensure that social distancing measures remain in place even after they are lifted.

Depending on the size and layout of the shop, each will have a maximum number of customers who are able to stay at a distance from each other (in the UK the minimum distance is 2 meters). The traffic light system follows the customers who enter and leave the shop: it not only regulates their flow, but also takes into account how many are present.

The light turns green only when there is enough space in the store for the next customer to enter safely.

2. The app that avoids overcrowding

Innovations in the anti Covid food sector

The startup Line Scouts has developed an app that alerts users of the congestion they may find in the store they intend to reach. LineScouts produces an aggregate "activity score". In-store queues are assigned a score that translates to a color code: red for very busy, yellow for busy, green for light traffic, and purple if there is no data.

Users can help by reporting the conditions in the store they are in.

3. In-store social distancing devices

The food sector faces the greatest risks associated with the pandemic every day. For this reason, it plans anti-Covid innovations to be preserved, in case, even afterwards. Here are 7.

The technological society indyme, based in San Diego, is making it easier to follow social distances in stores that sell essential items, such as those in the food sector (and pharmacies). Smart Dome it is easy to install and can be adapted to checkouts, counters, entrances and other elements of a shop.

It is similar to a security camera - it observes customers and sends messages if they are violating the rules. Things like "for your own safety, please keep at least three feet of social distance." If you are looking for other comparisons with Big Brother, think about him.

4. Restaurant booking platforms that extend to in-store purchases

Innovations in the anti Covid food sector

The restaurant booking platform OpenTable has expanded its offer to allow users to book time slots in which to shop. Grocery stores and supermarkets can use the new app to limit waiting times and reduce the crowd waiting to enter the store.

Each reseller can adapt the platform to allow for a different number of reservation slots. For users, purchase times can be booked on OpenTable in the same way they can reserve a table in the restaurant.

Basically, you can go shopping knowing that in that time slot there are enough "booked" people to guarantee safety.

5. App to skip the line

In the early days of the New York pandemic, Fairway Markets accelerated the promotion of its app to skip the checkout: the company reported that it registered more than 1.000 new users per day and had to add more servers to process the extra orders.

Once the app is downloaded, users scan product barcodes with their smartphone. At the end of the purchases, users scan a special QR code that tells the app that they are ready to pay, with their smartphone, and then go out directly and without going to the cashier.

About one in twenty transactions are verified after checkout by a store employee to discourage theft. Fairway is rapidly training its employees to promote the app, enroll people in the store, and help shoppers use it.

6. A robot to raise awareness of hygiene in supermarkets

Anti Covid innovations in the food sector: the Pepper robot

To ease the stress of its employees, the German supermarket chain Edeka introduced a robot called Pepper into its Ahrensburg branch. Pepper advises customers on coronavirus protection and prevention and helps regulate the payment process.

Developed by Entrance Robotics e also employed in some Japanese hotels, Pepper helps customers. She first helps them understand behavioral recommendations and implement preventive measures, through intuitive and hassle-free conversations. The robot uses clear and unambiguous language, as the company designed it specifically for human communication. In the food sector, it may also be useful for "non-health" purposes, to guide products and routes of points of sale (especially in large-scale distribution) that are increasingly sprawling.

7. Chatbot that advises on the perfect time to buy

Food sector, Lidl's solutions
Photos K. Mitch Hodge su Unsplash

In an effort to provide a solution to long lines in stores, the supermarket chain Lidl has launched a WhatsApp chatbot in Ireland, with which customers can converse and find the most peaceful moments in their favorite stores.

Customers simply send the chatbot a message on WhatsApp indicating the time and day they intend to visit the store. Using real-time data and customer transaction numbers, the chatbot will respond with an automatic message that alerts the sender if the particular day and time is usually a quiet, medium-traffic, or not recommended time to shop.

Among all these innovations (perhaps excluding meddlesome cameras) the constant in the food sector seems to be user oriented anyway. In redesigning the experience of use in stores, companies restart (and do well) from the needs of customers.

The "new normal" may, with a little luck, end up being more comfortable than the old one.

The article continues after the related links

8 "futuristic" innovations inspired by science fiction

10 Medical Innovations for the Future of Healthcare

Tags: innovationsretail


GPT Chat Megaeasy!

Concrete guide for those approaching this artificial intelligence tool, also designed for the school world: many examples of applications, usage indications and ready-to-use instructions for training and interrogating Chat GPT.

To submit articles, disclose the results of a research or scientific discoveries write to the editorial staff

Most read of the week

  • Oculus gives VR visit to the Anne Frank house

    268 Shares
    Share 107 Tweet 67
  • Here comes a new magnetic field reversal. We are ready?

    4 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1
  • Sucralose, the bitter truth: the sweetener damages DNA

    4 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1
  • Inhale, exhale, remember: the links between breath and memory are getting stronger and stronger

    4 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1
  • Look what's on my mind: an AI that transforms thoughts into HQ Videos

    4 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1

Enter the Telegram channel of Futuroprossimo, click here. Or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Mastodon e LinkedIn.

The daily tomorrow.


Futuroprossimo.it provides news on the future of technology, science and innovation: if there is something that is about to arrive, here it has already arrived. FuturoProssimo is part of the network ForwardTo, studies and skills for future scenarios.

FacebookTwitterInstagramTelegramLinkedInMastodonPinterestTikTok
  • Environment
  • Architecture
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Gadgets
  • concepts
  • Design
  • Medicine
  • Spazio
  • Robotica
  • Work
  • Inland solutions
  • Energy
  • Edition Francaise
  • Deutsche Ausgabe
  • Japanese version
  • English Edition
  • Portuguese Edition
  • Русское издание
  • Spanish edition

Subscribe to our newsletter

  • The Editor
  • Advertising on FP
  • Privacy Policy

© 2022 Near future - Creative Commons License
This work is distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.

No Result
View All Result
Understand, anticipate, improve the future.
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Inland solutions
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+