Online shopping works well for "standard line" items; tins of beans, bottles of wine, loaves of bread. Take one photo, put it on the website, WYSIWYG.

But some establishments have a rapid turnover of unique items - antique shops, art galleries, craft outlets with small-batch products.

The idea is to have a remotely controlled "robot", about 1.5m high, with good quality binocular CCTV cameras that can be steered around the store by a user logged into the shop's website. The twin cameras allow VR goggles to be used.

The device has no manipulators, but the shopper can request the shop to place the item on a plinth for "all-round" examination.

The unit is not in any way humanoid (instead, it's built to resemble Jeremy Corbyn). It is programmed to avoid collisions with shop furnishings, and human shoppers.
-- 8th of 7, Sep 23 2019

//It is programmed to avoid collisions with... human shoppers//
It was a good idea, until this point. Damn borg, spoiling all the fun. As usual.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Sep 23 2019



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