YI Tunnel Demonstrates How to Accelerate Retail Transformation Through the Commercialization of AI at CES 2019

BEIJING, January 17, 2019 (Newswire.com) - This year’s CES as a major annual tech event at the beginning of the year already came to an end. As always, technology companies around the world again showcased their new products and new technologies at CES 2019, allowing people to take a sneak peek at the trends of tech life in the future. According to the official statistics of CES, during the four-day event, there were 180,000 visitors from various parts of the world exploring an assortment of future technologies and pushing the boundaries of their imaginations here.

In the South Hall of the outpost for global technology evolution, emerging technology companies from China breathed new life into the entire industry.   

As an AI startup with great potential in the world, YI Tunnel brought a matrix of AI products for different retail scenarios to the show, including the AI checkout robot, the AI vending machine and the AI shelf developed for the overseas markets. The company was showcasing its latest offerings along with the world’s top technology companies and startups on the same stage. 

The Stanford Global AI Report shows that people’s enthusiasm for AI and machine learning has been growing in recent years around the globe. The United States has the strongest overall strength in AI, but China’s speed to catch up is amazing. Because of this, China’s AI players also became the biggest shining spots at this year’s show.  

It’s worth noting that YI Tunnel, which came to CES for the first time, didn’t show off fancy concepts or gimmicks. Instead, the company demonstrated its mature AI technologies and products as well as commercial applications, hoping that the entire industry and consumers could see its ideas and blueprints for future retail as well as the changes it is about to create for the industry. 

For example, YI Tunnel’s AI vending machine is no longer limited by traditional categories, as it can also recognize items in categories such as snacks, beverages, fresh and raw meats, and groceries. Meanwhile, based on the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithm, it adopts a pure dynamic vision solution, which can dramatically reduce the labor cost of machine management and can digitally connect consumers, machines and merchandise to make everything data-based. This will further shorten the distance between retailers and brands on one side and consumers on the other.  

At the same time, for overseas retail scenarios, YI Tunnel separately developed a semi-closed AI shelf. According to the staff at the show, after a consumer registers through his or her face and confirms his or her identity, he or she can freely take any item from the shelf, and after he or she leaves the area, the items taken by him or her can be automatically recognized through computer vision, a bill can be automatically generated and the payment process can be automatically initiated, giving the consumer a “grab and go” experience. 

In addition, YI Tunnel also announced its latest-generation desktop AI checkout robot at CES, attracting a lot of people to take a look and give it a try. According to YI Tunnel founder Yili Wu, YI Tunnel’s AI checkout robots are already in their fourth generation, being able to recognize more than 30,000 items, including both standard and non-standard items. The machines can recognize an item just by taking a look at it. They can also weigh non-standard items such as fruits and vegetables. And the systems in the machines, such as those for facial recognition and membership management, can be connected with merchants' backend systems. The checkout robots can be used under scenarios such as retail outlets, major canteens, restaurants, bakeries, etc. 

In the field of AI, China’s innovators are no longer followers and have become leaders. They have really set foot abroad. China’s innovative technologies are gradually becoming the key drivers for technology development in the world. On the stage of CES, YI Tunnel received a lot of attention with its commercially available AI products for the retail ecosystem.

During the four-day event, quite a few customers and partners from Fortune 500 companies visited YI Tunnel’s booth frequently and also brought their friends along from time to time. A significant part of the visitors were those who had kept a close watch of YI Tunnel’s overseas developments, and some of them were old friends who interacted with the company at last year’s NRF. They expressed the intention to seek deeper exchange and collaboration with YI Tunnel.    

“Having been at the CES for several years in a row, this is the first time for me to see these very impressive products,” said a visitor who gave YI Tunnel the thumbs up. “AI has been playing the leading role at the CES over the last two years. But YI Tunnel possesses a technological barrier against rivals, and its systems have been commercially deployed for actual use across the globe very quickly, which is really amazing.” 

Today, YI Tunnel’s AI systems for retail scenarios have covered dozens of cities in over seven countries and regions across the world. Leveraging its rich deployment and delivery experience, the company is continuously accelerating the AI transformation of retail. Aiming to seek collaboration with global partners on a mutually beneficial and win-win basis, YI Tunnel fully demonstrated the power of China’s AI innovators on the stage of this year’s CES. With this, it will also help to breathe new life into the “Golden Era” of relations between China and other countries. 

Source: YI Tunnel