GB2090445A - Shopper's calculator - Google Patents

Abstract

An electronic calculator for use by shoppers comprising manually operable members operable to enter into the calculator information regarding quantity and price of a product and to cause the calculator to calculate an indicator of value of money of said product, and means operable to cause the calculator to compare a first calculated value indicator with a second calculated value indicator and provide in response an indication of which of them represents a product giving better value for money. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Shopper's calculator This invention relates to a shopper's calculator for use in comparing and determining what is the best buy in a supermarket for example.

In the past there have been numerous types of calculators which have been utilized for a wide variety of purposes. The art is well known. It is, for example, conventional to provide different types of entries in a calculator and to do so by manipulating buttons to determine various calculations.

However, known calculators are not well suited for enabling large numbers of shoppers, who are not familiar with the operation of electronic calculators nor with the rules of arithmetic which need to be employed when using them, to very easily determine which of the various offers made by a vendor, or vendors, represents the best value for money.

From a broad aspect, the present invention provides an electronic calculator for use by shoppers comprising manually operable members operable to enter into the calculator information regarding quantity and price of a product and to cause the calculator to calculate an indicator of value for money of said product, and means operable to cause the calculator to compare a first calculated value indicator with a second calculated value indicator and provide in response an indication of which of them represents a product giving better value for money.

Thus, the invention provides a shopper's calculator which can be utilized by a shopper to quickly and readily determine the relative price of a product offered by two particular vendors by determining their relative weight, and entering that into the machine, together with the cost so that it can be compared with another product by performing the manipulations as set forth more fully hereinafter.

The calculator which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, utilizes well known technology, and which provides a solution for a long outstanding problem occasioned by the various sized packages which are utilized for similar products and which are commonly encountered by a shopper and which calculator provides a quick and easy method for him to determine which is the best buy.

It will be seen from the preferred embodiment which is described below, that by providing special manually operable members with which there are associated simple non-mathematical indicia, and which when operated cause particular functions to be carried out by the calculator, the need for the user to know certain mathematic rules and to know how to deal with the relationships between the various different units of measurement which are employed in relation to products, is substantially reduced and yet at the same time the shopper can reliably obtain correct indications of value for money, and comparisons of value for different products, by following very simple and non-mathematical rules.

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description of one embodiment of the invention, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing which shows a perspective view of an electronic calculator in accordance with the invention.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral 12 generally designates a shopper's calculator which is composed of a housing 14 having the side walls 16, 18, 20 and 22 in which a conventional power source and calculator electronic parts are housed.

There is a display window frame 24 spanned by a transparent panel 26 for observing a display of the calculations of the calculator. The conventional keys are provided for the numerals zero through nine as is indicated by the numeral 56. Additionally, conventionally a decimal point 58 is provided as are the symbols for adding, subtracting, multiplying which are designated by the numeral 60.

The keys or buttons which are manipulated to accomplish the purposes of this shopper's calculator are designated by the numerals 28, for a can or bottle, 30 for weight in ounces, 32 for volume expressed in quarts, 36 for a bag or box, 38 for a weight in pounds, 40 for a volume expressed in gallons, 46 for a weight in grams, and 48 for a volume expressed in liters. There is also an an-off switch 44 and, additionally, a key for or/equal sign which is designated by the numeral 42 and a key designated by the numeral 50 which has the indicia comprising the word "for/and a division sign". Finally, the numeral 34 designates the best buy, which is pressed for the display to determine the best buy of two comparative evaluations.

The calculator is a device, which it will be seen, permits the comparison of the prices of various items and provides a display indicating which item gives the most for the price.

Generally speaking, it may be considered to be composed of the keyboard which is operated by touch in a conventional manner, a display to indicate the results of the comparison. The electronic parts are mounted in the housing for protection and batteries are provided to provide the source. The internal circuitry performs the computations called for by the sequential depressing of the keys on the keyboard such that the desired result is indicated on the display.

While the enclosed Figure or drawing shows a single embodiment, it will be recognized that departures may be made within the spirit and scope of this invention which is therefore not to be limited by the illustration set forth.

The manner of operation of the calculator can best be explained with reference to a particular situation which a shopper may meet. Suppose the shopper finds that, when seeking to buy a certain type of product, he is faced with two different offers. The first consists of three bags of the product weighing one pound each for a total price of 0.99 Dollars. The second consists of two boxes of the product weighing five hundred grams each for a total price of 1.00 Dollars. To answer the question "which is the best value for money?", he can in a very simple manner in effect direct the question to the calculator by instructing it "three bags (of) one pound for 0.99 or two boxes (of) five hundred grams for 1.00".Having done that, by then pressing the "best buy" button the calculator will indicate "1" if the first product represented the best buy or "2" if the second product represented the best buy. If they are equally good buys, or substantially so within predetermined limits, the calculator will indicate this by displaying the letter "E" by energizing suitable segments of one of the calculator display sections, which may be of completely standard form.

To illustrate in more detail, the user operates the calculator buttons in the following sequence to provide the calculator with the information needed to perform its calculation relating to the first product.

First Calculation Button Operated Effect 1. "3" number 3 entered 2. "bag" instruction to multiply previous entry by next entry 3. "1" multiplies 3 by 1 in accordance with previous instruction answer = 3 4. "pound" selects from set of constants the number 16 5. "for'-: a) multiplies answer 3 by number 16 to give 48 (total number of ounces) b) instruction to divide next entered number by previous result 6. "0", ".","9", "9" price 0.99 dollars entered 7. "or/=" a) divides 0.99 by 48 in accordance with last instruction and displays result 0.020625-this is unit price in dollars per ounce b) stores unit price The seventh operation additionally puts the calculator into a condition for carrying out a second calculation independently of the first, while storing the unit price calculated during the first calculation.

The purpose of the selection of the number 16 at step 4 above enables the calculator to calculate the unit price always i n the same units, namely dollars per ounce, irrespective of the units of weight which may actually be shown on the package of the product in question. The user simply informs the calculator as to what units of measurement are being employed on the package, and in response the calculator automatically takes this into account when calculating the unit price. Consequently, when it comes at a later stage to comparing unit prices, they will be in terms which are appropriate for comparison with each other.

The actual constants or multipliers which are selected by the various unit keys on the keyboard are as follows: Key Multiplier oz 1 pound 16 gram 0.0352422 kg 35.2422 quart 32 gallon 128 liter 33.8144 Second calculation The appropriate sequence of operations on the input buttons is: "2", "box", "5", "0", "0", "gram", "for/~", "1", ".", "0", "0", "or/=". This causes the calculating circuitry to calculate and display the unit price of the second product. Operation of the "gram" button selects from the stored constants the number 0.0352422 which during step 5 of the calculation causes the total product weight to be given in ounces, so the unit price will be in dollars per ounce as at the end of the first calculation, and will be 0.028375.

Comparison Pressing the "best buy" button causes the stored unit price from the first calculation to be compared with the unit price just calculated in the second calculation. If the first is higher the calculating circuitry causes "2" to be displayed, indicating the second product is the best buy. If the second is higher then "1" is displayed, indicating the first product is the best buy. If the results of the first and second calculations are equal, the calculating circuitry causes a special display which may be 'E' (for equal) by energising suitable segments of the display.

In some circumstances, the calculation needed in order to ascertain the best buy, as between two different offers, may be simpler than that illustrated above. For example the offer may be 3 boxes of a product for 36 dollars or 5 of the same boxes of the same product for 55 dollars. In such circumstances, during each calculation, the user would omit steps 3 and 4 of the above example. At step 7, the calculator would divide not by a computed number of ounces as obtained during steps 3,4 and 5, but simply by the number of boxes as inserted at step 1.

Similarly, if the alternative offers were 2 quarts for 99 cents or 1 liter for 99 cents, then steps 1 and 2 of the above example would be omitted and the calculator would compute its unit price utilising simply the number of liters or quarts which would have been inserted at step 3.

It should be understood that implementing the computations described herein, so far as the electronic circuitry required is concerned, is well within the capabilities of those skilled in the art and may be done in various conventional ways. It should be appreciated also that the particular sequence of events described above in relation to the operation of the described embodiment is not the only sequence that may be employed in carrying the invention out and that various other sequences of button operation, and of computation steps within the circuitry of the calculator, may be adopted to achieve the equivalent result.

The can/bottle key 28 has exactly the same function as the bag/box key 36 and consequently it is not necessary for both of them to be provided. Instead, a single key carrying for example the indicia "item" might be provided.

In the example which has been described, during each calculation the calculator derives the unit cost of the product and also displays it once it has been calculated. This unit cost is in, for example, dollars per ounce or dollars per item. However, the invention will be equally effective, so far as determining the best buy is concerned, if instead the calculation procedure is arranged to calculate a figure representing for example items or ounces per dollar. This also forms a satisfactory basis for comparison in order to ascertain the best buy. To operate in this manner, the calculator should be arranged so that in step 5(b) of the specific calculation illustrated above the instruction is to divide the next entered number into the previous result, rather than by it.

In the claims which follow the terms "indicator of value for money" and "value indicator" are employed as terms generic to any figure computed by the calculator which represents the value for money offered by the particular product in question.

Claims (8)

1. An electronic calculator for use by shoppers comprising manually operable members operable to enter into the calculator information regarding quantity and price of a product and to cause the calculator to calculate an indicator of value for money of said product, and means operable to cause the calculator to compare a first calculated value indicator with a second calculated value indicator and provide in response an indication of which of them represents a product giving better value for money.

2. An electronic calculator as claimed in claim 1, wherein the manually operable members include members corresponding to different units of measurement of product quantities, and these members are arranged to select respective different multipliers which are appropriate to convert the respective different units of product quantity to a common unit for the purpose of the calculation of the value indicator.

3. An electronic calculator as claimed in claim 2, wherein said members corresponding to different units of measurement of product quantities are associated with indicia representing respective volume and weight units.

4. An electronic calculator as claimed in claim 3, wherein said indicia respectively represent ounces, pounds, grams, kilograms, quarts, gallons and liters.

5. An electronic calculator as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the manually operable members include at least one member associated with an indicia representing an item of product.

6. An electronic calculator as claimed in claim 5, wherein said at least one member when operated gives the calculator an instruction to multiply a previously entered number by the next entered number.

7. An electronic calculator as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the normally operable members include a member operative to cause storage of a first calculated value indicator and to prepare the calculator for calculation of a second calculated value indicator.

8. An electronic calculator as claimed in claim 1, wherein the manually operable members include members with numeral indicia from 0 to 9, at least one member with an indicia representing an item of product, members with indicia representing different units of measurement of product quantities, and a member with an indicia having the significance of the word "for" whereby to enable manual entry of (number of) (items of product) (each containing a certain number) (of a particular unit of product) (for) (a number of money units) to cause calculation of a value indicator.