Milan Expo shows the supermarket of the future: digital, interactive and connected

With the motto 'Feed the planet. Energy for life, Milan Expo 2015 shows up to 31 October what could be the market of the future, with the construction of a real prototype in which digital screens, Robots and interactivity to know all the data on the foods chosen by the user are the protagonists.

The Future of Food Pavilion, which can be visited until next time 31 October at the Milan International Exhibition, dedicated to food, houses a futuristic supermarket with some 1.500 products created by the Italian chain Coop in collaboration with the MIT Senseable City Lab of Boston and the Carlo Ratti studio, MIT professor.

In the 2.500 square meters of surface of this supermarket of the future, digital and interactive screens in different formats and configurations, along with several state-of-the-art robots equipped with seven independent joints, they are the technological heart of this project., structured in five product chains: milk and derived products, fruit, vegetables and wine.

With just a gesture of the hand when removing the chosen product, Visitors get detailed information on a digital screen, from its origin, nutritional composition, elaboration, properties, allergens, environmental impact, and even related recipes.

As Marco Pedroni explains, president of the Coop Italia chain in statements to Euronews, “this experiment works. We also sell the products here, so it could work in a normal supermarket. We would like to test this system for six more months to study all the details and then decide if we can apply it in our company.. But I believe that in the future this will exist. It's not just about technology. It's about turning consumption into something more social, more responsible and, above all, more sustainable”.

The integration of robots in this futuristic installation is not “to replace humans,” Pedroni points out., but they help customers choose products and guarantee the supply of some sections. Supermarkets evolve in this way thanks to new technologies, becoming places where customers can, in the not so distant future, find all the necessary information about the product you have chosen”.

The objective is to show the practical and real application of new integrated and connected technologies to facilitate the consumer's purchasing experience., informing them of all the content of the chosen product and involving them in its use in a more responsible way.