Microsoft is helping design the ultimate shopping trolley: a cart that will guide you round the store, suggest recipes…and tell you if you’re sticking to your diet.

Developed by MediaCart, the wirelessly controlled trolleys will help with special offers, remember your previous purchases and ‘deliver targeted communications at the point of purchase’ – i.e. blind you with advertising based on ‘traffic patterns’ and ‘shopper interactions’.

To make food shopping…