However, this is more about the standard product line that will change dramatically than vendor extinction. Most vendors are working hard to stay up with changes such as Near Field Communication – the transmissions that let devices such as smartphones communicate with other devices that can accept credit payments along with increasing use of  hand-held systems to free retail staff from stationary registers. But the booth that should scare the POS out of people was the Intel exhibit which was sort of a FutureLand of Retail. There was a robot utilizing AndyVision from Carnegie Mellon University that lets the robot roam a store floor checking for low inventory or misplaced stock. It looks like R2D2’s younger, taller and more athletic brother. Oh yeah, try to tip it over and numerous legs deploy in a thirtieth of a second to stabilize it. Then there were two floor displays at least six-feet tall each, one for those with smartphones, one for those without. They provide video offers and these change as the devices recognize the sex and general age of the person approaching. “A step toward ‘Minority Report?’” I asked a presenter. “No, the U.S. and European Union are kind of strict on that.” “I’ll be somebody’s doing it.” “The rules don’t apply to the CIA.” “The CIA has that kind of technology?” “Yep.”