The machines that do their own shopping
The contraption you see above may look like any old printer, but this particular model is rather different: it not only monitors its ink levels, but when they run low, it contacts Amazon’s Dash service and asks for refills.
Perhaps it’s not that surprising: we all know about Dash, those funny little buttons you stick on the coffee jar, washing machine, etc., that you simply press when you run out of whatever product. Obviously, this is also something you can do with the right app, but that essentially does most of the job of buying stuff for you. The idea, like all the best ones, is simple, and can be seen as part of a trend of making everyday objects intelligent; they’ve been around for a while now, and can even be hacked and put to different uses.
But now it’s machines themselves that are monitoring themselves, and when they see they have run out of whatever they need, they press their own button and ask Amazon for a refill. Which is all well and good, but let’s not forget that machines can also be programmed by their makers to lie, notably printers, which can say they’re running low on ink, when in fact they aren’t. And we all know how expensive printer cartridges are. It’s not hard to think of myriad uses for the Dash Replenishment Service (DRS) beyond printers: washing machines, water purifiers, glucose monitors for diabetics, soap dispensers, pet food, swimming pool cleaning products, or batteries for intelligent locks.
Using our imagination, I’m sure we can come up with even more articles that we have to buy every week and that we can start forgetting about and let them look after themselves. And then there are optimization algorithms, able to calculate how many days use of this or that product are left on the basis of ongoing consumption. Or we could combine this with other manufacturers, looking to get their products to us just when we might need them.
Food for thought indeed: for how long have we wanted shopping that pretty much does itself, without even telling us, thanks to machines that talk to suppliers directly?
(En español, aquí)
