Supermarket Companion - Connecting Hypermarkets via Cloud Computing

Abstract

The development of the project proposes an all-in-one platform that fills the missing link between supermarket systems and the consumers. This is a platform that makes use of cloud technology to provide consumers with features necessary for grocery shopping to be done in a more efficient way. Such features as recipe databases will benefit customers in terms of revealing ingredients and viewing their real-time availability across existing supermarkets. The need for unnecessary trips to supermarkets is eliminated. For example, this platform uses computer vision technologies to carry out crowd detection which gives information on how busy or congested a supermarket is. Consequently, it can help consumers choose where they are going, saving them time and helping reduce their stress levels. Cloud computing makes communication simpler among supermarkets, manages the data of recipe databases, inventory information, crowd detection data as well as user interface design enabling customers interact with the platform. In addition, barcode scanning has been used both for giving complex product information quickly and creating a more effective checkout system through “Scan and Checkout” system; other features incorporated include “AI chef” which is chatbot system. Also, customers accessing the website will input their allergies to foods, their health requirements, and additional details about foods they prefer.: Every time a customer selects a product for addition to the cart, if, for the product, there is an ingredient the customer is allergic to, then on the screen there will appear an alert informing the customer of the product. This makes the shopping less dangerous than before and according to the health requirements of individual shoppers, as well as their dietary habits. All in all, it is the governmental supermarket’s project which aims to change the grocery environment and provide complex and individually tailored information to improve the offline grocery shopping and provide useful insights for the participating supermarkets.