EP3862984A1

EP3862984A1 - Display cabinet and installation method therefor

Info

Publication number: EP3862984A1
Application number: EP20214761.7A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Chaochang Zhang; Jian Tian
Original assignee: Carrier Corp
Current assignee: Carrier Corp
Priority date: 2020-02-07
Filing date: 2020-12-16
Publication date: 2021-08-11
Also published as: CN113256896A

Abstract

The present application provides a display cabinet (100) and an installation method therefor. The display cabinet comprises: a cabinet body (110) configured to provide cooling and/or heating conditioning for the items displayed therein, wherein the cabinet body has at least a first side and a second side that are not on the same plane; a first cabinet door (120) disposed on the first side of the cabinet body (110); a second cabinet door (130) disposed on the second side of the cabinet body (110); a door lock device disposed on the second cabinet door (130) and controlled to open the second cabinet door (130); a recognition device configured to recognize and provide change information of the items displayed in the cabinet body (110); and a control module configured to control the opening of the door lock device based on a received unlock request and determine removed items based on the change information provided by the recognition device. According to the display cabinet (100) and the installation method therefor of the present application, a balance is achieved between multiple types of display cabinets with different functions, and the application scope of the products thereof is effectively improved.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present application relates to the field of constant temperature commodity display and sales. More specifically, the present application relates to a display cabinet and an installation method therefor.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

For consumer goods on the market that require low or high temperature storage, they are usually stored in display cabinets with cooling or heating functions in the market for display and sales. At present, the most commonly seen display cabinets on the market are classified as follows. One type are traditional display cabinets, which have an unlocked cabinet door on one side or are completely open for consumers to view and select commodities. Such display cabinets are usually used in designated places with unified cashiers or unified intelligent cashier terminals, which have advantages such as rapid commodity replacement or replenishment. However, such display cabinets require full-time charging methods, which increases labor cost accordingly. In addition, the application of such display cabinets depends on the business hours of the designated places, and therefore such display cabinets have their limitations. The other type are intelligent display cabinets or Internet of Things display cabinets, which have a lockable cabinet door disposed on one side, where consumers can open the cabinet door and purchase commodities by establishing a communication connection with the display cabinet. Such intelligent display cabinets can be applied to designated places or time periods without cashiers. However, such display cabinets have the disadvantages of not timely enough replacement and replenishment of commodities and relatively short period of independent operation and maintenance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present application provides a display cabinet and an installation method therefor, so as to at least solve or alleviate some of the problems in the prior art.
In order to achieve at least one objective of the present application, according to one aspect of the present application, a display cabinet is provided, which comprises: a cabinet body configured to provide cooling and/or heating conditioning for items displayed therein, wherein the cabinet body has at least a first side and a second side that are not on the same plane; a first cabinet door disposed on the first side of the cabinet body; a second cabinet door disposed on the second side of the cabinet body; a door lock device disposed on the second cabinet door and controlled to open the second cabinet door; a recognition device configured to recognize and provide change information of the items displayed in the cabinet body; and a control module configured to control the opening of the door lock device based on a received unlock request and determine removed items based on the change information provided by the recognition device.
Optionally, the recognition device comprises a video camera or camera disposed in the cabinet body, wherein the video camera or camera provides image data at different moments as the change information.
Optionally, the first cabinet door has another door lock device, and the first cabinet door and the second cabinet door are associated with each other, wherein when the first cabinet door is opened, the second cabinet door is kept closed, and when the second cabinet door is opened, the first cabinet door is kept closed.
Optionally, the recognition device is triggered upon receipt of an instruction from the control module, and recognizes and provides the change information of the items displayed in the cabinet body.
Optionally, the control module receives an unlock request sent by a user terminal through an app, an applet, QR code recognition, or face recognition.
Optionally, the recognition device comprises: a recognition element disposed at least on a joint surface between the cabinet body and the second cabinet door configured to recognize elements to be recognized disposed on the items, wherein, when the items pass through the joint surface, the recognition data of the elements to be recognized by the recognition element are used as the change information.
Optionally, the recognition device comprises: a first recognition element disposed on a first joint surface between the cabinet body and the first cabinet door and a second recognition element disposed on a second joint surface between the cabinet body and the second cabinet door configured to recognize elements to be recognized disposed on the items, wherein, when the items pass through the first joint surface or the second joint surface, the recognition data of the elements to be recognized by the first recognition element or the second recognition element are used as first change information or second change information, respectively.
Optionally, the first side and the second side are adjacent sides of the cabinet body, or the first side and the second side are opposite sides of the cabinet body.
In order to achieve at least one objective of the present application, according to another aspect of the present application, an installation method for a display cabinet is further provided, which is used to install the aforementioned display cabinet; wherein, the installation method comprises: installing the display cabinet in a designated place, wherein the first cabinet door of the display cabinet is disposed inside the designated place, and the second cabinet door of the display cabinet is disposed outside the designated place.
Optionally, the designated place comprises a supermarket, a convenience store, a store or a shopping mall.
According to the display cabinet and the installation method therefor of the present application, cabinet doors are arranged on different sides of the display cabinet and disposed on different sides of the designated place. Meanwhile, the first cabinet door inside the designated place may not be provided with a door lock, so as to facilitate user purchases and goods replacement and replenishment operations by the staff during business hours. Whereas, the second cabinet door outside the designated place is additionally provided with a door lock to provide consumers with the option of purchasing goods during non-business hours of the designated place, and out-of-stock problems would rarely occur in the relatively short period of time. As a result, the weakness of pure automatic display cabinets in the aspect of goods replenishment is effectively made up for, and accordingly, a balance is achieved between multiple types of display cabinets with different functions, and the application scope of the products thereof is effectively improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Certain exemplary embodiments will now be described in greater detail by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic top view of an embodiment of the display cabinet of the present application;
FIG. 2 is a first view schematic diagram of an embodiment of the display cabinet of the present application installed in a designated place;
FIG. 3 is a second view schematic diagram of an embodiment of the display cabinet of the present application installed in a designated place.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

100: Display cabinet
110: Cabinet body
120: First cabinet door
130: Second cabinet door
200: Convenience store

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT(S) OF THE INVENTION

First of all, it should be noted that the composition, operating principle, characteristics, advantages, and the like of the display cabinet and the installation method therefor according to the present application will be illustrated below by examples. However, it should be understood that all the descriptions are given for illustrative purposes only, and therefore should not be construed as limiting the present invention.
In addition, for any single technical feature described or implied in the embodiments mentioned herein, or any single technical feature displayed or implied in each drawing, the present application still allows any continued arbitrary combination or deletion of these technical features (or the equivalents thereof) without any technical obstacles, thereby obtaining other embodiments of the present application that may not be directly mentioned herein.
The term "designated place" as defined in the text refers to a place used to sell consumer goods that require low or high temperature storage. It can broadly refer to a supermarket, a convenience store, a store, a shopping mall or other place with similar attributes not listed here.
Returning to the present application, the general structure of an embodiment of the display cabinet according to the present application is only shown schematically in FIG. 1. The general structure of an embodiment of the display cabinet according to the present application which is installed in an applied designated place is only shown schematically from different angles in FIGS. 2 to 3. The technical solutions of the present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the above drawings.
Referring to FIG. 1, the display cabinet 100 comprises a cabinet body 110 that is approximately a rectangular parallelepiped structure, and a first cabinet door 120 and a second cabinet door 130 disposed on two opposite sides of the cabinet body 110. In addition, although not shown in the figure, it should also be understood that the display cabinet 100 has a refrigeration circuit and/or a heating circuit, so as to provide cooling or heating conditioning for the commodities displayed and sold in the cabinet body 110.
In addition, the display cabinet 100 further comprises supporting devices to assist in performing automatic vending functions. Specifically, it may comprise a door lock device, a recognition device, and a control module. Among them, the door lock device is disposed on the second cabinet door 130 and can be controlled to open the second cabinet door 130. The recognition device is used to recognize and provide change information of the items displayed in the cabinet body 110. Finally, the control module can control the opening of the door lock device based on a received unlock request, such as an unlock request from a user terminal, and can determine removed items based on the change information provided by the recognition device. In this way, the display cabinet can learn that the second cabinet door is currently opened and which items are finally taken out for consumption, and then perform subsequent fee deduction actions based on this. It should be understood that the module used to perform fee deduction actions can be associated with the existing conventional payment methods, and has mature technical means in the communication level and execution level, so it will not be described in detail here.
In the display cabinet under this configuration, cabinet doors are arranged on opposite sides of the display cabinet and disposed on different sides of the designated place. Meanwhile, the first cabinet door disposed inside the designated place may not be provided with a door lock, so as to facilitate user purchases and goods replacement and replenishment operations by the staff during business hours. Whereas, the second cabinet door outside the designated place is additionally provided with a door lock to provide consumers with the option of purchasing goods during non-business hours of the designated place, and out-of-stock problems would rarely occur in the relatively short period of time. As a result, the weakness of pure automatic vending cabinets in the aspect of goods replenishment is effectively made up for, and accordingly, a balance is achieved between multiple types of display cabinets with different functions, and the application scope of the products thereof is effectively improved.
In addition, it should be understood that, although the first cabinet door 120 and the second cabinet door 130 of the display cabinet 100 in the aforementioned embodiment are arranged on the opposite first and second sides thereof, they are not limited to this kind of arrangement. The purpose of the present application is to provide multiple cabinet doors on different sides of the cabinet body to facilitate various possible applications in different situations. In accordance with this concept, the locations for arranging the cabinet doors can be appropriately changed. For example, the first cabinet door 120 and the second cabinet door 130 may also be arranged on the adjacent first and second sides of the cabinet body. Or the first cabinet door 120 and the second cabinet door 130 may be arranged such that the first side for disposing the first cabinet door 120 and the second side for disposing the second cabinet door 130 are not on the same plane. Of course, the present application focuses on describing the two sides of the cabinet body provided with the cabinet doors, but does not limit the cabinet body to include only these two sides. As long as the concept of the present application is conformed to, the cabinet body can have multiple sides. Similarly, it is not necessary to have sharp contours or bends between the sides of the cabinet body. For example, the cabinet body can appear as an upright cylindrical cabinet body. At this time, the first arc zone where the first cabinet door is disposed can also be considered as the first side, and the second arc zone where the second cabinet door is disposed is considered to be the second side, which should also be included in the protection scope of the present application.
It should also be understood that the use of different reference numbers to name the first cabinet door 120 and the second cabinet door 130 in the foregoing embodiments is mainly for the purpose of distinguishing their installation positions, rather than requiring them to be necessarily different in structure or size. As long as the concept of the present application is conformed to, that is, at least one of the two is in an automatic operation state, such a solution should be included in the protection scope of the present application as defined by the appended claims. For example, when the second cabinet door 130 is provided with matching auxiliary devices, the first cabinet door 120 can also be provided with these auxiliary devices. For example, a corresponding door lock device can be provided for it, and a recognition device and a control module can be additionally provided, or the recognition device and control module can be shared. These solutions are all in line with the present application. It should not restrictively require that the first cabinet door 120 and the second cabinet door 130 must be structurally distinguished.
In addition, on the basis of the foregoing embodiments, several modifications can be made to the various components of the display cabinet 100 in order to obtain similar or additional technical effects, which will be exemplified as follows.
For example, the recognition device in the vending system may specifically comprise a video camera or camera disposed in the cabinet body 110. The video camera or camera may provide image data at different moments by shooting or photographing as change information. For example, when it is found that an item is removed by comparing the image frame captured at the first moment with the image frame captured at the second moment and at this time it happens that the behaviors of opening the door lock on the user side and taking out the item are also detected, it can then be considered that the removed item has been sold, and the information thereof is retrieved based on this to perform subsequent fee charging actions. For another example, when the device is a camera, the photo taken at the first moment can also be compared with the photo taken at the second moment, and a similar subsequent process can be performed.
In addition, as an embodiment of another recognition device, it may comprise a recognition element disposed at least on a joint surface between the cabinet body 110 and the second cabinet door 130, which is used to recognize elements to be recognized disposed on the items. At this time, when the items pass through the corresponding joint surface, the recognition element can recognize the elements to be recognized carried on the items, and transfer the recognition data as change information to the control module to make subsequent judgments. This method has a relatively high recognition accuracy rate, but accordingly, the addition of an element to be recognized to each item will cause additional costs.
As another example, the aforementioned type or other types of recognition devices can also be associated with the door lock device, and be triggered upon receipt of an instruction from the control module. For example, when the door lock device is opened, the control module issues an instruction, and the recognition device is triggered to recognize and provide change information of the items displayed in the cabinet body 110. This configuration enables the recognition device to perform recognition work only when the display cabinet is used by the consumer, or enables the recognition device to only start to analyze the recognized data to provide the change information thereof from this time on. This can effectively reduce the redundancy of the data to be processed by the system, thereby improving processing efficiency and saving energy consumption.
For still another example, considering that some recognition devices can only efficiently recognize the action of taking out a commodity but can hardly tell from which cabinet door the commodity is taken out, or in order to reduce the difficulty of calculating the sales price for commodities taken out from both sides at the same time by the vending system, another door lock device can also be provided for the first cabinet door, and the first cabinet door 120 and the second cabinet door 130 may be made to be associated with each other. At this time, when the first cabinet door 120 is opened, the second cabinet door 130 will remain closed; and when the second cabinet door 130 is opened, the first cabinet door 120 will remain closed. However, for the aforementioned method of arranging the recognition element and the elements to be recognized, other alternatives can also be made to replace the association of the cabinet doors. For example, the recognition device at this time may comprise: a first recognition element disposed on a first joint surface between the cabinet body 110 and the first cabinet door 120, and a second recognition element disposed on a second joint surface between the cabinet body 110 and the second cabinet door 130. The first recognition element and the second recognition element are used to recognize the elements to be recognized disposed on the items. At this time, when the items pass through the first joint surface or the second joint surface, the recognition data of the elements to be recognized by the first recognition element or the second recognition element are used as first change information or second change information, respectively. In this way, the recognition device has a relatively high recognition accuracy rate for the items taken out from each cabinet door, but accordingly, the addition of an element to be recognized to each item will cause additional costs.
On the other hand, the control module in the vending system can receive an unlock request sent by a user terminal through an app, an applet, QR code recognition, or face recognition. The various interactive technologies as mentioned already have mature implementation methods, so they will not be described in detail here.
In addition, it should be noted that other parts of the display cabinet 100 provided according to the present application can be designed, manufactured, and sold separately, or they can be assembled together for sale as a whole. Regardless of the monomers formed before the combination or the whole formed after the combination, they all fall into the protection scope of the present application.
In addition, referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the present application further provides herein an installation method for a display cabinet 100, which is used to install the display cabinet 100 in any of the foregoing embodiments or combinations thereof, so that different cabinet doors of the display cabinet correspond to different application scenarios. Specifically, the installation method comprises: installing the display cabinet 100 in a designated place (e.g., a convenience store 200), and at the same time disposing the first cabinet door 120 of the display cabinet 100 inside the designated place (e.g., a convenience store 200), and disposing the second cabinet door 130 of the display cabinet 100 outside the designated place. At this time, the first cabinet door that is not additionally provided with a lock can facilitate consumers to purchase commodities in the display cabinet during business hours, and facilitate the staff to replace and replenish the commodities in the display cabinet in a timely manner during business hours. Whereas, the second cabinet door that is additionally provided with a lock can facilitate consumers to purchase and pay for commodities during non-business hours at the designated place, so as to meet an urgent need.
The above examples mainly illustrate the display cabinet and the installation method therefor of the present application. Although only some of the embodiments of the present application are described, those skilled in the art understand that the present application can, without departing from the scope of the invention, be implemented in many other forms. Therefore, the illustrated examples and embodiments are to be considered as illustrative but not restrictive, and the present application may cover various modifications or replacements if not departed from the scope of the present application as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

A display cabinet (100), comprising:
a cabinet body (110) configured to provide cooling and/or heating conditioning for items displayed therein, wherein the cabinet body has at least a first side and a second side that are not on the same plane;

a first cabinet door (120) disposed on the first side of the cabinet body;

a second cabinet door (130) disposed on the second side of the cabinet body;

a door lock device disposed on the second cabinet door and controlled to open the second cabinet door;

a recognition device configured to recognize and provide change information of the items displayed in the cabinet body; and

a control module configured to control the opening of the door lock device based on a received unlock request and determine removed items based on the change information provided by the recognition device.
The display cabinet (100) according to claim 1, wherein the first cabinet door (120) has another door lock device, and the first cabinet door (120) and the second cabinet door (130) are associated with each other, wherein when the first cabinet door is opened, the second cabinet door is kept closed, and when the second cabinet door is opened, the first cabinet door is kept closed.
The display cabinet (100) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the recognition device is triggered upon receipt of an instruction from the control module, and recognizes and provides the change information of the items displayed in the cabinet body (110).
The display cabinet (100) according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the control module receives an unlock request sent by a user terminal through an app, an applet, QR code recognition, or face recognition.
The display cabinet (100) according to any preceding claim, wherein the recognition device comprises a video camera or camera disposed in the cabinet body (110), wherein the video camera or camera provides image data at different moments as the change information.
The display cabinet (100) according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the recognition device comprises: a recognition element disposed at least on a joint surface between the cabinet body (110) and the second cabinet door (130) configured to recognize elements to be recognized disposed on the items, wherein when the items pass through the joint surface, the recognition data of the elements to be recognized by the recognition element are used as the change information.
The display cabinet (100) according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the recognition device comprises: a first recognition element disposed on a first joint surface between the cabinet body (110) and the first cabinet door (120) and a second recognition element disposed on a second joint surface between the cabinet body (110) and the second cabinet door (130) configured to recognize elements to be recognized disposed on the items, wherein, when the items pass through the first joint surface or the second joint surface, the recognition data of the elements to be recognized by the first recognition element or the second recognition element are used as first change information or second change information, respectively.
The display cabinet (100) according to any preceding claim, wherein the first side and the second side are adjacent sides of the cabinet body (110), or the first side and the second side are opposite sides of the cabinet body.
An installation method for a display cabinet (100) for installing the display cabinet according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the installation method comprises:
installing the display cabinet in a designated place, wherein the first cabinet door (120) of the display cabinet is disposed inside the designated place, and the second cabinet door (130) of the display cabinet is disposed outside the designated place.
The installation method according to claim 9, wherein the designated place comprises a supermarket, a convenience store (200), a store or a shopping mall.