Startup creates AI software that detects shoplifters before they steal
Marie Donlon | March 04, 2019
A Japanese startup has created artificial intelligence (AI) software capable of detecting potential shoplifters.
Developed by software company Vaak, the AI software can be added to already installed security cameras throughout a store and used to locate potential shoplifters in the moments before they actually attempt to steal an item based on their body language and behaviors. The AI algorithm scans security footage and notifies store employees whenever the software hits upon someone who seems restless, fidgety or displays some other suspicious body language. Once detected, retailers are alerted so that they can intervene, approaching the suspect with offers of help and thereby thwarting the attempt before it even begins, according to Vaak.
Currently, the software is in use in just a few dozen stores around Tokyo. However, Vaak expects the software to eventually be in use in 100,000 stores throughout Japan in three years.
“If we go into many retailers whether in the U.S. or U.K., there are very often going to be CCTV cameras or some form of cameras within the store operation,” said Thomas O’Connor, a retail analyst at Gartner. “That’s being leveraged by linking it to an analytics tool, which can then do the actual analysis in a more efficient and effective way.”
Vaak believes that the software can be applied to other industries beyond the retail sector. Placed in public spaces like train platforms where cameras are already mounted, the AI algorithms could be used to scan people on the platform, notifying the proper authorities when a person is captured behaving suspiciously (for instance, someone moving as if they are preparing to jump in front of an oncoming train).
As I understand it, the normal rules of retail staff engagement dictate that employees will approach to offer you help whenever you do not need it, and conversely will never offer help when you actually could do with some.
In reply to #1
Yeah, that about sums it up.
Let's hope this insanity stays in the land of the rising sun.
As taken from the paragraph, " retailers are alerted so they can intervene, approaching the suspect " .
This could be viewed as a violation of the 4th amendment, among others.
According to the dictionary a suspect is :
(a) ( noun ) A person thought to be guilty of a crime or offense. ,
(b) ( transitive verb ) To imagine one to be guilty or culpable on slight evidence or without proof.
In Law Enforcement jargon : A suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime.
(a) Wikipedia. (b) Merriam Webster.
Apparently in Japan, your guilty first, innocent second.
In reply to #3
Maybe the article should have referred to the 'suspect', a subject of investigation to be a 'person of interest'.