Popular “conveyor-belt” style sushi restaurants in Japan have been experiencing a wave of “sushi terrorism,” an unfortunate trend in which pranksters tamper with food as it travels around to unsuspecting patrons. Different chains are taking different approaches to combating the viral stunts, with one in particular, Kura Sushi, turning to technology.
As originally reported by Nikkei Asia, the chain will be outfitting the sushi-belt cameras that are already present with artificial intelligence-based monitoring, with an emphasis on detecting any “suspicious” behavior, such as unnatural opening and closing of the sushi-plate covers.
This will be a repurposing of technology that is already in place, with a spokesperson for Kura Sushi stating, “This time, we want to deploy our AI-operated cameras to monitor if customers put the sushi they picked up with their hands back on the plates. We are confident we will be able to upgrade the systems we already have in place to deal with these kind of behaviors.”
