What: Aldi is testing a new technology, different from facial recognition, to estimate the age of customers willing to buy restricted products.

Why it is important:  If such a new usage becomes widespread and accepted, especially by the younger generations, other usages, especially on cosmetics, might be coming soon.

The German grocery chain Aldi is testing a new technology in its no-checkout Greenwich store in the UK. In this store, called Shop&Go, which is app-assisted, customers can pick up products and walk-out without going through a cashier. A novelty compared to similar Amazon’s just-walk-out stores is the introduction of an age recognition technology to help sell alcohol and cigarettes.

It is based on a machine-learning algorithm scanning photos of faces to estimate their age, and is not based on facial recognition. Images are deleted straight after the process. According to Yoti, the start-up behind the technology, the age estimation has an accuracy of 2.2 years.

Aldi uses age-estimation to sell alcohol