Supermarket self-checkout is not everyone’s idea of fun shopping. Consumer surveys regularly show that most people still prefer to use standard checkouts. And even retail managers seem lukewarm about the benefits: last year’s “State of the Store Manager” report highlighted how only 53% actually regarded self-checkout as “valuable.” The explanation is simple: speed (or the lack of it).

Kroger, the $82 billion US grocery retailer, thinks it may have cracked that. Working with ICT giant Fujitsu, it is trialling a retail system that allows shoppers to check out by passing items through what looks like a fast-moving airport hand baggage scanner.

That similarity is no coincidence: the underlying technology comes from security and defense contractor Northrop Grumman.

Unlike conventional systems, Advantage Checkout doesn’t require item barcodes to be pointed at a fixed scanner; rather, it scans items across 360 degrees as they flow through a tunnel containing 12 optical cameras.

The trials have shown product identification rates of over 98%, even when items are stacked. The system also has the ability to recognize exceptions and restricted items, and to sideline these for manual processing.

According to Chris Hjelm, CIO of The Kroger Co: “The system has the potential to revolutionize the front-end experience in stores.”

See also this demonstration of the self-checkout system.