(25 Apr 2019) Inside one of Walmart's busiest Neighborhood Market stores, high resolution cameras suspended from the ceiling point to a table of bananas and determine from the color of the bananas how ripe they are. When a banana starts to bruise, that would send an alert to a worker to replenish. Normally,  that task would have been the subjective assessment of the worker, who likely wouldn't have time to inspect every banana. But now Walmart can rely on  thousands of cameras  hanging from the ceiling that track when products are running low or when produce or meat start to lose their freshness. These cameras are a key feature of a living lab that officially opens inside this 50,000-square-foot store on Thursday. Walmart envisions using these cameras, combined with other technology like sensors on shelves  to get the best picture of what's going on in the store in real time so its workers can quickly react to replenish the products or fix other problems. The technology will also be able to figure out things like when shopping carts are running low,  identify spills on the floor or when cash registers need to be open before it gets to the point of long lines. The end result: shoppers will be able to find what they need and have cleaner stores. It should also make workers more efficient as they'll be freed up to serve the customers better or help out with creative merchandise displays.   The technology, unveiled exclusively to The Associated Press, is the first time that so-called Artificial Intelligence is being used by Walmart in the most visible and pervasive way in its stores. In fact, behind a glass enclosed wall at the back of the store is a massive data center, where shoppers can see nine cooling towers, 100 servers and other computer equipment that process the 1.6 terra bytes of data per second _ roughly three years worth of music _ that is coming from cameras, and other equipment. Walmart says this AI Lab in a store is the first of its kind in the industry. Walmart's deep dive into artificial intelligence in its physical store comes as Amazon raised the stakes in the grocery business with its purchase of Whole Foods Market nearly two years ago. That's put more pressure on Walmart and other traditional retailers like Kroger and Albertson's to pour money into technology into their physical stores as they want to make them more easier to shop. At the same time, they're trying to keep food prices down and manage expenses. Amazon has been rolling out cashier-less Amazon Go stores, which has shelf sensors that  track the 1,000 products on its shelves. Walmart's online U.S. sales are still a fraction of Amazon's online global merchandise empire, which reached $122.98 billion last year.   To push online growth, Walmart has been rapidly expanding online services like curbside pickup of groceries. Walmart says that this new AI technology will ensure that shoppers will be able to have the item available once they show up to the store for pickup. Walmart's new living lab marks its second living lab in a physical store to test new technology. Last year, Walmart's Sam's Club opened a 32,000 square foot lab store, the quarter of a size of a typical Sam's Club store.   It's using the store to test new features surrounding its Scan & Go App, which lets customers scan items they shop and then pay from their phones, skipping the checkout line.   Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/102011028589719587178/+APArchive​ Tumblr: https://aparchives.tumblr.com/​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/1ef4a467c2f6829cf4664cc9c6eac10f