WO2018188783A1

WO2018188783A1 - Device for detecting the presence of consumer products and automatically managing the relative purchases

Info

Publication number: WO2018188783A1
Application number: PCT/EP2018/000174
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gianluca Pozzi; Mauro GIUDICI
Original assignee: Nautonnier Srl
Priority date: 2017-04-11
Filing date: 2018-04-09
Publication date: 2018-10-18
Also published as: IT201700040065A1

Abstract

A device for detecting the presence of consumer products and for automatically managing the relative purchases, usable within households and communities to allow the user to systematically monitor existing consumer products in a given domestic space and to be informed in real time about the need to provide for their repurchase if depleted, past or close to the sell-by date comprises at least one support which the packages of the products purchased are placed on, each of which has an RFid (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag or transponder applied by the end-user or upstream by the large-scale distributors. The top side of each support housing the products is provided with a plurality of seats or specially shaped recesses which hold a reader of said RFid tags with relative antennas and processing units as well as one or more weight sensors, a data processor and a Wi-Fi unit to connect to a data network server, said devices constituting the hardware of the apparatus.

Description

"Device for detecting the presence of consumer products and automatically managing the relative purchases"

Description

The present invention relates to a device for detecting the presence of consumer products and automatically managing the relative purchases.

More in particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus as defined above, intended to be used typically in the family environment, which allows the user to systematically monitor existing consumer products in a given household space and to be informed in real time about the need to provide for their repurchase if depleted, expired or close to the sell-by date.

It is known that the supply and management of goods intended for consumption by a standard family, starting from food products, involves a non-negligible commitment, in order to avoid being left without a minimum of store or to have products which have reached their sell-by date and cannot therefore be used. The massive presence of supermarkets and hypermarkets makes it easier nowadays for those responsible for such purchases, since in a single store one can find whatever product is useful or necessary for normal domestic management. However, it should be considered that after purchase there is a constant need to maintain a minimum supply of products, especially those intended for food consumption, which does not always happen. It happens in fact to remain without a given product or to discover that it has expired; if a large proportion of the most easily perishable consumer goods is traditionally stored in the refrigerator or freezer and is therefore monitored daily, other goods such as cereals, pasta, rice, coffee, salt and tinned goods in general are usually stored in special areas or pantries and are taken out only when needed. In these cases, it is more probable to remain without a minimum store, since the situation is not under constant control; in addition, one sometimes forgets to note that a particular product needs to be repurchased. EP 1 049 042 divulges a solution according to which products are arranged on a shelf; information is derived by transponders (RFID tags) attached to the products, read by sensors and transmitted to a central processing unit. However, it is not possible to verify the weight, therefore the amount of content, of each individual product.

WO 2014/160491 relates to a system for the presentation of objects /products aimed at supermarkets and depots which mainly involves a presentation of steps and shelves, not adaptable to existing furnishings.

Furthermore, WO 2011 /127334 describes a method for creating a packaging management system suitable to convey visual and computer information on the characteristics of the object placed in it, while WO 2005/109303 refers to an RFID tag reader for inventory, which does not incorporate detection sensors.

The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks complained of above. More in particular, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a device for detecting the presence of consumer products and automatically managing the relative purchases or repurchases, suitable for domestic use or within the community, which makes it possible to maintain adequate stocks of products, perishable or non- perishable, so as to cope with contingent situations that require immediate use of one or the other of said products, especially in the context of food preparation, thereby avoiding the inconvenience related to having to renounce or modify plans or have to make awkward last minute arrangements to repurchase what is needed.

A further purpose of the invention is to make available to users a device as defined above to be integrated into a shelf or in multiple shelves of a cupboard intended to constitute the storage area of consumer products of a household , a community or of other type of structure requiring careful management of such products, whether intended for food consumption or other uses.

A further purpose of the invention is to provide a device capable of providing users with a practical aid to avoid food wastage, facilitating the effective and real awareness of the resources needed and also providing the possibility of redistributing any surplus in good time for its use.

A no lesser purpose of the invention is to make available to users a device which provides a continuously and automatically updated database,easily available at any time, of the type, quantity and sell-by date of existing products, with a view to conscious consumption and without waste of money and time.

A further purpose of the invention is to make available to users a device for detecting the presence of consumer products and for the automatic management of their purchase or repurchase, suitable for households or the community use, suitable to ensure a high level of reliability over time, such as to be easily and economically made. These and other purposes yet are achieved by the device for detecting the presence of consumer products and for automatic management of the relative purchase or repurchase of the present invention according to the main claim.

The construction and functional characteristics of the apparatus of the present invention will be more clearly comprehensible from the detailed description below in which reference is made to the appended drawings /diagrams which show a preferred and non- limiting embodiment and wherein:

figure 1 schematically represents an axonometric view of a support, typically a shelf, equipped with seats to house the electric-electronic devices which detect and forward data relating to the presence of a particular product;

figure 2 schematically represents, seen from above, the same support wired and provided with said devices;

figure 3 is a schematic block diagram of the detection and data forwarding device made by the support on which the products are initially arranged. With reference to the aforementioned figures, the device for detecting the presence of consumer products and for automatically managing the relative purchases according to the present invention comprises at least one support suitable to house the purchased products, which constitute the food and non-food stores of a household or a community at a given time; said support is typically composed of a shelf or counter, preferably a plurality of shelves or counters that form a shelving or cupboard intended to contain said stores. The shelves or counters of the device may be of the self- supporting type, or may be supported and stabilized in a known manner on pre-existing shelves of furnishings, shelves and the like. The top face of each shelf of the device according to the invention, schematized as reference numeral 10 in figure 2 is provided with a plurality of shaped recesses which hold the devices constituting the hardware of said device and basically comprise an RFid (Radio Frequency identification) tag reader with relative antennas and processing units as well as one or more weight sensors, a data processor and a Wi-Fi unit to connect to a data network server. Said devices are mainly housed in the central recessed part 12 of each shelf 10, while the antenna is advantageously arranged in the lateral recesses 14. The weight sensors are for example located inside the support feet of the shelf.

The antenna integrated in each of the shelves is isolated from the other antennas by means of a coating, consisting preferably a sheet of material insulating RFid waves; each shelf 10 is preferably coated, at least on the top side along which the products are arranged, by an element such as a sheet or a thin sheet in copper coated aluminium or other suitable material, having the function of best directing the propagation of the RFid waves.

The functioning of the system implemented by means of the apparatus according to the invention is based on the use of RFid tags, which the user affixes to each package of the product purchased and placed on one or the other of the shelves 10; the RFid tags, as is known, make it possible to transmit the identity or identification elements of an object by means of a unique serial number, using radio waves, according to a procedure in which the reader interacts with the label (TAG) and reads the data to then transmit them to a computer, a tablet or the like without the need for human intervention, i.e. any activity by the person using the device.

In detail, the new object or product before being placed on the shelf is pre-tagged (labelled), to be catalogued as product "X" to be identified. Immediately after it is placed on the shelf, so that the sensors detect the weight and, automatically associate it with the tag-label, sending the data relative to the weight measured to the server (Wi-Fi); the latter, based on the data provided to it, looks up the references in the data-base (e.g.: the number) of the TAG and, not finding them, generates the reference of a new product, associating with it the unique number deductible from such TAG. At this point, the apparatus detects that the reference of a new product has been entered and, consequently, automatically sends the request to a dedicated "App" of an instrument such as a Smartphone or a Tablet available to the user for entering new data (name of the product, its weight, any sell-by date if the product is intended for food consumption). Following the activation of this procedure according to the sequences indicated, the user is in the advantageous condition of best managing the data acquired, being able to obtain from them via the data base, information on its presence and the quantity available in the pantry, as well as on its sell-by date.

Let us assume, for example, that the user of the system based on the device of the present invention purchases a packet of coarse salt of the weight of one kilogram and puts it on the plane defined by one of the shelves 10. In order to complete this operation in line with the teaching provided by the apparatus of the invention, the same user will affix to said packet of salt a label (Tag RFid) suitable to classify said packet as a "packet of coarse salt of a kilogram". The shelf 10, through the devices incorporated in it, will detect the presence of that tag, as well as the weight of the packet, and will access via the antenna placed in the recesses 14 of said shelf the network (cloud, according to figure 3 or a private server) to download to it said characteristics/references.

On the basis of this procedure, in the list or data base available for consultation by the user, the availability of a packet of coarse salt of a weight of one kilogram will appear. Following such acknowledgement by the device, however, the hypothesis must be considered in which the product, i.e. the coarse salt, is used only in part and repeatedly, as it usually happens in the domestic environment; In these cases, whenever the user picks up from the shelf 10 the packet of coarse salt, the weight sensors will detect the circumstance and will measure the updated weight of said packet by a simple subtraction calculation, at the moment it is replaced after taking the amount of the product required. The data referring to the quantity of the remaining product will be recalculated by the weight sensors and will be made available to the user through the data base which may be consulted; such consultation may refer, as required, to the identification of a minimum level prior to the total depletion of the product or of its imminent expiry, so as to place the user in the condition of promptly scheduling and providing for the repurchase of the good. In practice, the data detected (TAG/weight) is sent to the server via the application via wireless or wired transmission embedded in the hardware. The data transmitted are subsequendy updated on the basis of those sent from the shelf/es 10, so that by interrogating a conventional application with software on tablet and/or smartphone it is easy to verify the remaining quantity of the product and update its sell-by information.

In the event that a given product is definitively removed from the shelf 10, the device will detect a negative weight and will remain in stand-by waiting for the product to be replaced; in the meantime, the TAG of the outgoing product has in any case been detected by the device, by means of the action of the RFID antenna, while the data referring to the code or TAG number and the negative weight value are sent to the server that stores the data. The latter will receive and store the message relating to the fact that this product is no longer present on the shelf 10 or on one of the shelves 10; the relevant information may be received by the user at the time of accessing the system, using a password, with the App installed on his/her smartp hone/ tablet. The alert will be take place via a notification.

From the analysis of the schematic block diagram in Figure 3 it can be noted how the device of the invention also provides for the possibility of having the data of products which are still intact, but close to the sell-by date; this way it is possible to select these products and allocate them to a charity, for example through a dedicated smartphone/ tablet application that allows you to choose the charity in the context of a list previously defined and agreed with the charities participating in the program. Contact between the charity and the user will advantageously take place through an e- mail message. Through the same application, the user may, for example, avail of advice related to specific diets, as indicated in the same block diagram under "Dietologist".

The possibility that RFID tags could be placed directly by the employees of the mass distribution, is also to be envisaged, where according to an advantageous evolutionary hypothesis of the system as a whole, could have access to the information and consumption habits of individual users, subject to their consent. The advantage would be reciprocal, in the sense that the user would no longer have to affix the labels to the individual product packaging, while the mass distribution could manage with greater efficiency and accuracy, at a almost zero cost , the logistics of its warehouses according to the data collected and related to consumption and to indications on market trends.

As may be seen from the above, the advantages which the invention achieves are evident.

The device for detecting the presence of consumer products and for automatically managing the related purchases of the present invention makes it possible to optimise the periodic supply of food and non-food products of a household or community, with savings of time and money; having available in real time the situation of these products, of those close to the sell-by date and possibly of those already past such date, verifiable by consulting the database via the application, the user can be sure to purchase only the necessary goods. This avoids wasting resources and generating or increasing the level of waste, including an environmentally sustainable system.

Despite the invention having been described above with particular reference to one of its embodiments, given solely by way of a non- liiniting example, numerous modifications and variants will appear evident to a person skilled in the art in the light of the above description. For example, the antenna may be of any type and structured so as to detect within a short time, the input and output of the products, even of multiple products simultaneously, from each shelf 10, while the system as a whole may render the device of the invention functional and operational according to any appropriate programming language. The present invention therefore sets out to embrace all the modifications and variants which fall within the sphere and scope of the following claims.

Claims

1) A device for detecting the presence of consumer products and for automatically managing purchases, which can be used within households and communities to allow the user to systematically monitor the consumer products present in a given domestic environment and to be informed in real time about the need to provide for their repurchase if finished, past the sell-by date or close to it, characterised in that it comprises at least one support which the packages of the products purchased are placed on, each of which has an RFid (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag or transponder applied by the end-user or upstream by the large-scale distributors, the top side of each support housing the products being provided with a plurality of seats or specially shaped recesses which hold a reader of said RFid tags with relative antennas and processing units as well as one or more weight sensors, a data processor and a Wi-Fi unit to connect to a data network server, said devices constituting the hardware of the device.

2) The device according to claim 1, characterised in that said product support consists of at least one shelf (10) self-supporting or supported and stabilized on existing shelves of furniture and shelving, the antenna integrated in each of the shelves being isolated from the other antennas by means of insulation material preventing mutual interference.

3) The device according to the preceding claims, characterised in that it is connected via a dedicated application to a smartphone or tablet to verify the existence of the products and related supplementary details in the respective RFid tag.

4) The device according to claim 1, characterised in fact that said devices constituting the hardware are placed in the central, hollowed out part (12) of each shelf (10).

5) The device according to claim 1, characterised in that the antenna is placed in the lateral recesses (14) of each shelf (10) which, at least on the top side bearing the products, are covered by an element such as a thin sheet of copper-coated aluminium or other suitable material appropriately directing the propagation of the RFid waves.

6) The device according to claim 5, characterised in that each shelf (10) is covered, at least on the top side along which the products are placed, by a thin sheet of copper-coated aluminium.