VOA慢速英语2018 亚马逊第一家无人便利店开业

Amazon Go: First Store with No Money or Lines

The American company Amazon has launched a store that does not require you to stand in a checkout 1 line or someone to process your payment.

美国亚马逊公司推出了一家无需排队等待收银员结账的商店。

You simply need an app on a mobile device, such as a smartphone. People with the app can enter the store, choose the products they want and then leave the store with them.

你只需要在智能手机上安装一个应用程序。安装了该应用程序的人们可以进入该商店，选择你所需要的商品，然后带着商品离开。

The company opened its first Amazon Go store this week in the state of Washington, after more than a year of testing.

该公司在经过了一年的测试之后，于本周在华盛顿州开设了首家Amazon Go商店。

You first need to download the Amazon Go app -- a computer program that helps you gain entry to the store. Once inside, hundreds of cameras and electronic sensors 3 follow people’s movements and record all the products chosen.

你首先需要下载Amazon Go应用程序，该程序让你获得进入商店的许可。一旦进去，数百台相机和电子传感器会跟踪人们的动作，并记录下所有选定的商品。

The products are then placed in the app’s virtual shopping cart. In other words, the app remembers everything chosen by the customer. If you decide against buying one or more products before leaving the store, the software automatically removes those items from its memory.

然后这些商品被放入该应用程序的虚拟购物车中。换句话说，该应用程序会记录下顾客选中的所有商品。如果你在离店前决定放弃购买一件或多件商品，该软件会自动将这些商品从内存中删除。

The system is powered by artificial intelligence or AI technology.

该系统采用了人工智能技术。

At the end of the visit, the customer just walks out of the store with all the desired products. Payment is made automatically through the app, which is linked to the buyer’s credit card.

在购物结束后，顾客只需要带着所有需要的商品走出商店。绑定了卖家信用卡的应用程序会自动结账。

The first Amazon Go is a small food market, selling mainly ready-to-eat products and drinks. It sits on the first floor of Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle.

首家Amazon Go是一家小食品超市，主要销售即食产品和饮料。它坐落在亚马逊西雅图总部的一楼。

“It’s such a weird 4 experience,” shopper Lisa Doyle told the Associated Press after trying out the new store. “Because you feel like you’re stealing when you go out the door.”

购物者丽莎·多伊尔（Lisa Doyle）在体验了这家新商店之后对美联社表示：“这种经历太奇怪了，因为当你出门时会感觉自己在偷东西。”

Another visitor, Paul Fan, said he tested the technology by turning off his smartphone, taking some products and then putting them where they did not belong. He said the app was not fooled and still recognized all the correct items.

另一位用户保罗·范（Paul Fan）表示，他对这种技术进行了测试，他关掉智能手机，拿起一些商品，然后把它们放到其它位置。他说，该应用程序没有上当，仍然识别出了所有正确商品。

Peter Gray told the Associated Press he usually makes purchases online to avoid store crowds. Gray said he was pleased with the new shopping experience. “Just being able to walk out and not interact with anyone was amazing,” he said.

彼得·格雷（Peter Gray）对美联社表示，他经常在网上购物以躲避商店的人潮。格雷表示，他对这次新的购物体验非常满意。他说：“可以不和任何人互动就直接走出门，这太棒了。”

Even though there is no need for cashiers to take payments, Amazon Go does employ workers. Some prepare food, while others refill product supplies and assist customers.

虽然该商店不需要收银员，但它还是雇佣了员工。一些人准备食物，其他人补充商品供应并协助客户。

Gianna Puerini is vice 2 president of Amazon Go. She told Reuters it is the first time this kind of computer technology has been used in a store setting.

吉安娜·佩利妮(Gianna Puerini)是Amazon Go的副总裁。她对路透社表示，这是这类计算机技术首次应用于商店环境。

“If you look at these products, you can see they’re super similar,” she said of two nearly exact Starbucks coffee drinks sitting next to each other. One had light cream added, while the other was coffee with no cream or sugar. But the technology learned to tell them apart.

“看看这些商品，它们超级相似。”她说的是挨着摆放的两杯几乎一摸一样的星巴克咖啡，其中一杯加了淡奶油，另一杯不含奶油或糖。但是这种技术学会了如何区分它们。

Amazon has yet to announce plans for additional Go stores. Last year, the online marketer bought U.S.-based Whole Foods Market, giving the company 470 stores. But Amazon said it has no immediate 5 plans to add the same technology to the larger and more complex Whole Foods markets.

亚马逊公司尚未宣布新开Go商店的计划。去年，这家电商收购了总部位于美国的全食超市（Whole Foods Market），这让该公司有了470家门店。但是亚马逊表示，目前还没有很快将这种技术应用到更大、更复杂的全食超市的计划。

Other companies are also working to create artificial intelligence-powered stores.

其它公司也在努力打造人工智能驱动的商店。

One of them is Standard Cognition, a startup company in California. The company has developed technology that works like that of Amazon Go. It uses machine vision cameras to follow customers’ movements.

其中一家就是Standard Cognition，这是加州的一家创业公司。该公司已经开发出工作原理类似Amazon Go那样的技术。它使用机器视觉相机来跟踪顾客的动作。

The goal is the same – to let shoppers walk into a store, choose desired goods, and leave without going through a checkout line. But Standard Cognition seeks to sell its artificial intelligence system to businesses for use in their own stores.

目标是一致的，让顾客走进商店，选购所需商品，然后无需通过收银台结账。但是Standard Cognition公司试图将他们的人工智能系统销售给其它企业，用于这些企业自己的店铺。

Aipoly is another California startup developing camera-powered computer vision technology. Aipoly’s website says its products can create “fully autonomous 6 markets.” The system “combines the understanding of human activity in real-time with the movement and interaction of objects,” the site said.

Aipoly是加州另一家开发以摄像头驱动计算机视觉技术的初创公司。Aipoly公司在其网站上表示，其产品可以打造“完全自主的超市。”该系统“把实时理解人类活动同物体的运动和相互作用互相结合。”

In addition to providing customers a checkout-free experience, the technology can also follow the movement of all company products. Aipoly says the AI data can help businesses – both big and small – continuously follow their full inventory 7 of products.

除了向顾客提供无需结账的服务之外，该技术还可以跟踪所有公司产品的移动。Aipoly表示，人工智能技术可以帮助无论规模大小的企业持续跟踪产品的完整库存。

Another company has taken the self-service shopping idea one step further – by making the stores autonomous and movable. Wheelys, a Swedish company, sells movable coffee stands worldwide. It also invented Moby Mart, a small market on wheels.

另一家公司通过使这些商店自主和可移动，将自助购物理念更推进了一步。瑞典的Wheelys公司向全球销售可移动咖啡亭。它还发明了Moby Mart这个安在轮子上的小超市。

The AI-powered Moby Mart is about the size of a small bus. It offers products found in 24-hour markets, such as milk, fruits and medicine. People gain entry to the store through an app. It also uses cameras to observe the movements of people and products.

由人工智能驱动的Moby Mart大约是一辆公汽大小。它提供了24小时超市中可以找到的一些产品，例如牛奶、水果和药品。人们通过应用程序进入该商店。它还利用摄像头监测顾客和产品的移动。

The developers say they created Moby Mart to be a self-driving vehicle that can be called to certain areas through an app. The vehicle has its own solar panels to power the electrical engine. The service has already been tested in China. And the company says on its website it plans to launch Moby II sometime in 2018.

这家开发商表示，他们把Moby Mart打造成为一辆自动驾驶汽车，它可以通过应用程序召唤到特定区域。这种汽车自身携带太阳能板来驱动电机。这种服务已经在中国进行了测试。该公司在其网站上表示，计划在2018年某个时间推出Moby II。

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

checkout – n. a place in a store where people pay for goods or services

virtual shopping cart – n. computer software that lists all of the products to be bought

automatically – adj. largely done by a machine

artificial intelligence – n. the ability of computers to copy human behavior, such as making decisions or offering suggestions

credit card – n. a small plastic card that is used to make purchases

online – adj. connected to a computer or telecommunications system

weird – adj. very strange

amazing – adj. very surprising, great

autonomous – adj. taking part in an activity separately from other things

inventory – n. a supply of goods stored in one place