Intel is beginning to departure from their core business, selling chips, and starts to widen their product range. Hitting retail stores would be a great idea. No, I don’t mean going shopping. What I mean is, Intel’s trying to develop new devices for retailers to use in their cashers.

The hulk of polished metal, glass, and fibre looks like something from Star Trek universe, but Intel promises to revolutionize our experience with paying things in retail using new concepts that will incorporate touchscreen devices, and some great elements from online stores.

The kiosk will use your credit card to identify who you are, and will trace back your history of purchase and provide recommendations on things that you might want to buy, so that you’ll waste more money. Gee, thanks Intel!
When a customer swipes a card or slides their purchase across the horizontal screen, the display will show the price and payment options –which include the option to pay by cell phone. As you scan the items, the kiosk also makes recommendations on what else you can buy and gives you a quick snapshot of it. When I buy an iPod nano let’s say, and the system recommend things like a pouch or AUX cables then I guess it would be great, but if the system starts recommending me a Zune or a Touch, then I guess all hell would break lose.

The entire kiosk is powered by Intel’s Core2Duo processors and it uses a solid state drive that helps the overall system work faster and consumes less power than existing registers. The chips also include Intel’s vPro technology, a virtualization technology that Intel builds into the chip itself, to make it secure and easy to manage.

Intel says it retailers don’t have to buy this whole idea as it is. They can pick the pieces they want and integrate it into their existing stores. A great concept from Intel, but I won’t want to queue behind a grandma if the shop’s using this system.

[via Wired]