DE4004850A1 - Recognition system for identifying labels e.g. in supermarket - enters data as goods are selected apart from check-outs - Google Patents

Abstract

The concept of data input at source is extended by this system to supermarkets, airports and post. In supermarkets, the customer enters his selections as he collects them from the shelf (by bar code or other reading devices). When he comes to the check-out he is presented with the bill. In other applications, such as airport luggage handling, the customer is given an accurate baggage arrival time from data which had been provided earlier. ADVANTAGE - Reduced queuing and frustration.

Description

application areas

In supermarkets, for quick price determination.
At the post office, for package control.
In airports, when delivering suitcases after the flight.

purpose

Fast determination of the cash equivalent of purchased goods, collected by hand and stored "goods data, in supermarkets. Clearing cash registers. Transport control of packages on turnouts depending on pre-detected ten markings, e.g. B. at the post office.

Suitcase control in the airport to the seat of passengers on the conveyor belt, after the flight. Elimination of stressful situations.

State of the art

With today's price determination process, the goods packages are individually in the Taken by hand, the price is read and typed into the cash register, or via determined a movable reading head with which the cashier on a barcode drives on the goods label. In the case of laser cash registers, the cashier balances the Goods packages individually over the laser window, with laser beams and electrical do not read the barcode. The customer records at the Check Robot trial cash registers the barcode by scanner, and a scale under the belt detects it Weight. The computer then determines whether the goods and weight match, or whether the customer tries to cheat, e.g. B. by exchanging labels.

Post parcels: Parcels are put on the belts by hand and opened by hand other tapes rearranged.

Airport: Suitcases are placed on the belt by hand and by the passenger Hand taken down.

Critique of the state of the art

Supermarkets, check-out checkouts: all known procedures are time-consuming. Even a nimble cashier takes seconds per package, so at 10 Parcels that the customer puts on the counter can easily be put together for 30 seconds come, and with 20 packets 60 seconds.

Meanwhile, customers who are coming have to wait so that they are at peak times long lines, to the annoyance of the customers. Daily trouble of millions in a hurry people who lose 10 minutes of their lunch break, or to one  upcoming appointment want to appear on time, their tram or want to catch their train.

In addition to the loss of time comes the inconvenience for the customer in the area of Cashier having to move all goods twice, first from the shopping cart to the Cash desk, then from the cash desk to his shopping bag, and himself to have to hurry so as not to additionally hinder the pursuing.

With self-scanning, the flow of customers and goods is further fanned out more cash registers, while avoiding higher personnel costs. Problematic because of higher error rates and less control. The waiting times are getting a little shorter; they don't go away. Because every single package of goods still has to go into the Taken by hand or edited by hand.

Post parcels: high staff retention, high costs due to manual work.

Airports: In the airports, passengers huddle on the conveyor belt for their Spying on suitcases and fishing down. Stress and wasted time.

task

The task is to improve the flow of goods (goods flow or packets). Current rsp. Suitcase electricity) so that delays and Waiting times and inconveniences (stressful situations) drastically reduced to accelerate the flow of goods, especially in the supermarket, that even at peak times there are no longer any queues or the waiting room times are drastically reduced, avoiding the use of more Cash registers or more staff that cost space and money.  

solution

The object is achieved in that

• a) in the case of the supermarket checkout the data from the item labels at convenient and stress free time point collected and saved by all customers in parallel, and on critical point, the bottleneck checkout, read from the memory at lightning speed and processed.
• b) in the case of parcel transport, the parcel data (e.g. post code) in the first section of the main conveyor belt are recorded and stored and that thereafter Data, placement time and location and belt speed the switch, the point in time reasonable action is calculated and the action is carried out.
• c) in the airport, as at the post office, the time of pushing it off the line is calculated from the data obtained.

Another embodiment of the invention:

• 1. The data transfer from label to reader is reduced in the Close contact made, optically by barcode or color code, or by radio or Sound or ultrasound.
• 2. Success control via separate data query at the cash register. Query whether the Theft protection is still sharp or defused. Previous automatic Defuse when data is transferred to memory.

Achievable advantages

The speed of check-in is increased significantly as customers get theirs No longer have to unpack baskets on the counter while others do waiting.

The cash jams at peak times are resolved. Customers push theirs Shopping carts quickly and conveniently through the checkouts to get behind the checkout barrier pack their purchases in peace or take the handles of the special network, that lies above the basket and under the goods, so that the goods into the net slip, the customer can go home with the goods on the net. Every day there are 1 to 2 million waiting hours in cash jams in the FRG.  

The companies save personnel, because the new, fast cash registers have 4-fold Throughput; this means 3 out of 4 jobs. Or they work automatically. You no longer need human service, only human service At sight. A cashier who, e.g. B. via video, 3 to 4 automatic flash registers supervised. For example, a barrier opens at the push of a button if it detects that the final check of the shopping cart exclusively disarmed anti-theft devices results. Or intervenes when the label alarm signals that unpaid goods are in the basket.

In the case of parcel distribution in the post, there is no need for staff to be bound by automation. In the airport, passengers are no longer stressed out on the luggage belt exposed.

Claims (10)

1. System for recognizing item markings, eg. B. from Warenaus drawings with price and / or article number, for. B. of package or suitcase identification drawings for the purpose of automatic transport control, characterized in that (dgd)
the label data are recorded and stored individually at a strategically favorable location, at a strategically favorable time in the near contact, which requires little technical effort, and that they are then read out from the memory for lightning-fast further processing and are available at a later time, e.g. B. for transport control or, in the case of a cash system, for the automatic determination and summation of prices to the total price,
where, for example, in the case of the checkout, the strategically favorable location of the shopping cart and the strategically favorable time is the moment between removal of the goods from the goods shelf and insertion into the shopping cart, at which moment the customer contacts the goods label with the reading head of a data entry device on Creates a shopping cart and transfers the data to the memory, while other customers do the same in parallel,
and when the customer arrives at the checkout, the collected data is transferred and processed at lightning speed via a data bus (e.g. V24), e.g. B. the saved article numbers via a merchandise management system to call up the prices (look-up prices), which are added up to the final price, displayed and printed out;
where, for example, in the case of suitcase transport after the flight to the guest, the strategically favorable place is the start of the conveyor belt and the strategically favorable time is the passage of the suitcase, where a reading station is set up, an automatic one, or a worker with a movable reading head the case labels are contacted and the number is read and put into a memory together with the reading time, so that the time and belt speed and number can be used to determine the place and the time where the case can be pushed off the belt by a rake, at the feet of the passenger in a numbered position,
where, for example, in the case of parcel transport at the post office, the strategically favorable position is a point on the central conveyor belt in front of each switch, there, similar to the suitcases, read the postcodes and put them into a memory with the reading time and the time from these data and the belt speed is calculated, for which a certain package is automatically pushed onto a transverse conveyor belt. 2. System according to claim 1, dgd the labels are barcode labels and the registration device is a barcode reader. 3. System according to claim 1, dgd the awards are designed in the form of a label with color fields, ins special of a round label with spots of color and a central search point, and the recording device is an artificial eye, matched to the round color set kett, according to patent specification P 39 12 667.6 by the same applicant, the art to have only low resolution with a short reading distance needs, can be cheap. 4. System according to claim 1, dgd each label is a radio label and the recording device is a receiver, and both exchange data on contact over the shortest distance, therefore with low energy and high security against interference the data exchange can make and with little system effort, material and labor wall, especially on the radio tag side, which must be inexpensive. 5. System according to claim 4, dgd the detection device, upon contact with the radio tag, radiates the energy that this is required for sending; Interceptor z. B. be a coil, so that Radio label as a passive element is inexpensive to manufacture. 6. System according to subclaim 4, dgd the transmission energy for the radio tag by converting friction energy or Kinetic energy or pressure energy is obtained on contact, e.g. B. by Movement of a mini-coil in a magnetic field, the coil in the label, or the Magnet, or magnet and magnetic field originating in the data acquisition device. 7. System according to claim 1, dgd the label additionally contains (for example magnetically stored) information which can be queried and which can be deleted,
and that this information is deleted by energy and command from the recording device after successful data transfer, or with the radio label (claim 4), after the (goods) data has been emitted,
and in that the control information is queried (at the cash register or in front of transport switches) to ensure that all goods data for the goods in the basket have been transferred to the memory; Error and theft protection as known from department stores, or to ensure that there are no undetected suitcases or packages on the route. 8. System according to claim 1, dgd the data in the contact zone is transmitted by ultrasound (Goods) label as a passive and inexpensive to manufacture element Imprints data on the US echo. 9. System according to claim 4, dgd the transmitter labels are not disposable, but are easily removable and reusable, and loaded with a charger with new data so that it can May cost more than just pennies and are still profitable. 10. System according to claim 1, dgd the (goods) basket / trolley is covered with a net in advance, then the Objects (goods) are inserted, and after evaluating the identification drawings raised the net and the objects in it as a new trans port system can be moved, so that in the case of a purchase the Only had to be picked up once at the Umla put it on the shelf and put it in the net like fish and so on can be carried home.