A huge part of Kinect's success has been the way the developer community embraced the device. The motion sensor has been hacked for countless different projects and the world has used the device in ways even Microsoft couldn't have imagined. This week, Whole Foods is joining the droves of people using Kinect for a purpose other than gaming with a new shopping cart that incorporates the technology.
GeekWire reports that Whole Foods is working on a new breed of shopping cart that will combine shopping lists, a loyalty points system, and even some aspects of self check-out. The cart is being developed by third party developer Chaotic Moon and was shown off as part of a developer event in Redmond this week.
The cart first identifies a shopper with a loyalty card before following them around the store (literally following them, the user doesn't even have to push), scanning items as they're placed in the cart and marking them off the user's shopping list. It will even warn you if you've picked up an item containing an ingredient you don't want (the example in the demo below is gluten). Once the shopping is done, the cart can then act as a check-out for the groceries. Check out GeekWire's demo below -- it's pretty awesome:
