Self-checkout has become a popular way for people to skip long lines, waiting for a cashier to scan their items, but not everyone on our Gulf Coast is following the rules.
"We've seen it before where people will leave items on the bottom. A lot of times, it's alcohol on the bottom shelf," shopper Ed Annette said.
Kimberly McDonnell was arrested for not scanning all of her items at self-checkout. Collier County deputies said she went to the Target on Tarpon Bay Boulevard in Naples 18 times and stole over $3,000.
"That's unfortunate. That's why grocery prices go up, because people do that, and it happens a lot," shopper John Dyckes said.
TikTok influencer Marlena Velez was also arrested twice for using a false barcode at the Target on Pine Island Road in Cape Coral.
We wanted to know how this technology catches people trying to sneak things through.
"The system has two pieces of information about every product: the barcode information as well as the weight information," said Dr. Piyush Shah, an Assistant Professor for Supply Chain Management at FGCU.
"We see the price information, but we don't see the weight information. So as soon as I buy a box of Oreos or something and scan it and put it on the side where I'm supposed to put it, there is a weight of that item which is registered," Shah said.
Shah said self-checkout machines have some interesting ways of making sure you're paying for everything.
"AI-based techniques of visual recognition. So, what artificial intelligence can do is it can recognize patterns, or it can recognize actions. So, there is a constant. So as in when a person is scanning, and checking out, there are video cameras which are focused on observing the person," Shah said.
Shah said the cameras can actually pick up on your facial expressions.
"They might track how the eyeball movements happen or the kind of expressions that happen when a person is stealing, and they record all that," Shah said.
If you're looking shady, Shah said an alert is triggered.
"Sometimes the trigger is right up there, or sometimes the trigger could be in some office in the store, but it is automated AI-generated, and it generates triggers, which could then lead to probably checks," Shah said.
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