7-Eleven / ICT Kobo

2022: Japanese start using AR glasses to shop in familiar stores from home

On July 11, 2022, it became known that RemoPick smart glasses, which were presented by ICT Kobo a month earlier, are now used to help the elderly, helping customers get the goods they need in specialized stores without leaving their homes.

Since the beginning of June 2022, the Japanese supermarket chain 7-Eleven has been testing RemoPick glasses, which allow elderly residents of the area to buy everything they need without leaving their homes. A store employee puts on glasses and moves from shelf to shelf, checking for the necessary goods, and the buyer notes the positions he needs in a special application during video broadcasting and gives prompts in a voice chat. The service has already been used by 13 people aged 60 and over.

The experiment will last until the end of July 2022, the second stage of testing will begin in September 2022, and the service will fully work in April 2023. Until that time, the authors of the initiative hope to find additional employees who will work in the chain of stores and deliver orders directly to unload the network employees.

ICT subsidiary Kobo Toppan originally developed the RemoPick augmented reality headset for older farmers to use in remote apple sorting when their junior assistant is in the orchard, with a more experienced mentor giving voice instructions.

Subsequently, the project was retrained for shopping needs, which is also a problem for many elderly people in Japan. Due to their age and habits, they cannot cope with shopping on the site with everything they need, so the developers have proposed a compromise option using augmented reality glasses.^[1][2]

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