GB2307560A - Open shelf bar using weighing for central billing - Google Patents

Abstract

An open shelf bar arrangement for an hotel comprises a plurality of open shelf bars(3) each having shelf units (23) for receiving vendible articles, weight sensors for detecting the presence or absence of articles, and means (7) for transmitting data from the weight sensors to a central processor (5). The central processor (5) provides data to reporting means (11) for providing reports on the operation of the bars (3) and to a central billing arrangement (9) for adding the cost of articles taken from the bars to appropriate customer bills.

Description

OPEN SHELF BAR This invention relates to an open shelf bar.

In the hotel business many rooms are equipped with bars which enable the occupant to have a drink in his or her room. There have been many types of bar provided for individual use in rooms and these range from the very basic system in which the room occupier takes articles from the bar and lists them on a form provided which he then takes down to the reception where the articles consumed are added to his bill to more sophisticated arrangements where the articles are kept in individual compartments holes and a sensor is used associated, for example, with the door to the compartment which indicates when an article has been taken out. This information is then fed to the bill producing station when the article is automatically added to the customer's bill.

Current systems have a number of disadvantages. For example, with the basic type, the customer may not record his usages properly or at all, where the discrepancy only comes to light after the customer has left the hotel with consequent loss to the hotel owners. In the more sophisticated systems, there is no open access and consequently the customer may be deterred from buying an article which he cannot readily inspect. Free access is also available to the hotel staff.

The present invention seeks to provide a sophisticated system which provides open access to articles in the bar so that they can be inspected before purchase and which provides adequate safeguards for the hotel and minimum difficulty in purchase by the customer.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a bar control arrangement for an open shelf bar comprising a plurality shelves, each having at least one location for articles in the bar, a weight detecting sensor arrangement for each shelf for determining the presence or absence of an article at the said at least one location, activating means for each shelf for activating the weight detecting sensor arrangement and a controller having drive means for activating the activating means for each shelf, receiving means for receiving signals from the sensor arrangement for the activated shelf, means for processing the signals received from the sensor arrangement into a suitable form for onward transmission of data and input and output means for communicating with a central processor.

The weight detecting sensor arrangement may comprise an individual sensor for each location or a single sensor may cover a plurality of locations.

Preferably the sensors comprise force sensing resistors (FSR).

The individual shelf units may all be activated at the same time or may be activated sequentially.

The activation of the shelf units may be continuous, i.e. once one cycle of activation has been completed a new cycle is started automatically.

The controller may have storage means for retaining the data until interrogated. Means may be provided for sending a simple signal from the controller when there has been no change in the bar status since the last interrogation.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a shelf unit for an open shelf bar comprising an upper surface for receiving articles for storage in the bar, location means for locating the articles in positions on the upper surface of the shelf and weight sensing means associated with the location means for sensing the presence or absence of articles on said locations.

The weight sensing means may comprise individual sensors associated with each location or one sensor may be associated with a plurality of locations.

Preferably the locations comprise shallow dished portions of the upper surface.

The weight sensing means preferably comprise force sensing resistors (FSR).

The sensors may be mounted on a circuit board located beneath the upper surface and the circuit board may also incorporate activating means for activating the sensors.

Alternatively, the shelves may be mounted on a cantilever, the moment of the cantilever being detected by the sensors.

Suitably the activating means may have means for activating the sensors in sequence so that signals there from will also be present in the same sequence.

The drive means may be triggered by a single input line and the outputs of the sensors may be combined into a single output line.

According to a third aspect of the invention, an open shelf bar arrangement for an hotel or like establishment comprises a plurality of open shelf bars having shelf units according to the second aspect of the invention and control arrangements in accordance with the first aspect of the invention, a central processor for receiving data from the bar controllers of each bar and for controlling the bars, the central processor providing data to reporting means for providing reports on the bars' operation and to a central billing arrangement for adding items taken from the bars to appropriate customers billing.

Suitably the connection between the central processor and the bar controllers takes place over a radio frequency channel. The radio frequency channel may be the aerial system of the hotel. Alternatively a twisted pair communication cable system can be used The invention will now be described in greater detail, by way of example, with reference to the drawings, in which:: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a complete bar system for an hotel; Figure 2 is a schematic view of a bar unit with the door open; Figure 3 is a block diagram of the bar circuit; Figure 4 is an exploded perspective view of a shelf unit; Figure 5 is a partial elevational view of the shelf unit of figure 4; Figure 6 is a circuit diagram of a first embodiment of a shelf unit; Figure 7 is a block diagram of the bar controller; Figure 8 is a diagrammatic perspective view of second form of shelf incorporating a second form of sensor device, and Figure 9 is a circuit diagram of a second embodiment of a shelf unit.

Referring firstly to figure 1, there is shown diagrammatically a hotel installation of open shelf bars. Each room of the hotel is fitted individually with a bar 3. Four are shown in the diagram but there may be any suitable number of bars.

The bars 3 are connected to a central processor 5 by means of the aerial system 7 of the hotel. This avoids the need for any extra wiring since the aerial system is already in place.

The central processor 5 controls the system and is connected to various ancillary devices such as the hotel billing system 9, a report printer 11 and an audit printer 13. It can also be connected to a remote support arrangement 15 which can be used to provide any adjustments required to the central processor 5.

The system operates as follows: Each bar comprises a refrigerated cabinet containing a number of shelves, each shelf having a number of individual locations on which articles for sale are placed. Weight detecting sensors located under the shelf surface or otherwise associated with the shelf detect the presence or absence of the articles and can additionally give information as to the weight of those articles which are present. Each bar has a bar controller which activates the sensors in rotation and collects information as to the status of the articles in the bar, absence of an article indicating that article has been sold.

The central processor 5 communicates with each bar controller in turn and collects the status information from it. It then stores and passes this information to the hotel billing system 9 for addition to the customer's bill.

Additional information to article status information can also be supplied by the bar controller. This includes the status of a door lock providing information as to the opening or closing of the bar door. It may also provide temperature information as to the temperature of the bar. The bar controller also controls the locking or unlocking of the door to allow access to the bar on the instructions of the central processor.

The central processor 5 has a number of functions, the major ones of which are:i) to receive and store information provided by the bar controllers, ii) to provide billing information to the hotel billing system.

iii) to control the operation of the bar door locks.

iv) to monitor the correct operation of the bar and to control the bar refrigeration system if necessary.

v) to provide reports on all aspects of the operation and diagnostics including status reports on the articles in the bar, use of the bar etc.

Figure 2 shows a suitable form of bar 3 for use with arrangement. To this end, the bar 3 comprises a refrigerated cabinet 21 having a number of shelves 23 for containing articles to be sold. The bar shown has seven shelves 23, each having locations 25 for eight articles making a total of fifty six articles for each bar. It will be understood that within the confines of a bar situation, the articles may range from bottles of wine and miniature spirits at one end to cans and cartons of soft drinks and snack items at the other end.

Suitably, as shown, the article locations 25 are shallow indentations in the shelf 23. These do not need to follow the shape of the article concerned making special locations unnecessary and enabling changes in the stocking arrangements of the bar possible without any change in the construction of a bar. The shelves 23 are provided with sensors related to the individual locations and these sensors will be associated with a bar controller which additionally has other functions as will be described hereafter.

The bar is equipped with a door lock 27 controlled by the central processor. This door lock 27 will also be provided with a sensor which senses the operation of the lock and may also, separately sense when the door is open. Temperature controls and sensors, not shown, are also provided.

It will be appreciated that the above described bar unit is of a basic design and this may be modified to suit different applications. For example, the bar may be divided into two compartments, one compartment being refrigerated and the other compartment being at ambient temperature. This allows for a wider range of goods to be available. The door of the bar may itself be provided with shelves for further articles, these shelves being of the same type as the shelves 23 but usually of a different configuration of locations. Suitably these would a single row of locations.

In a further extension of the bar principle, it is possible to provide additional shelves remote from the bar itself, for example, built into other furniture, the shelves working on the same principle as those in the bar. These additional remote shelves being wired in to the bar controller.

The shelf incorporating the sensing device for the individual articles is shown in Figures 4 and 5. The shelf comprises a base member 31 which carries the rest of the shelf components.

Sitting on the top of the base member 31 is a printed circuit board 33 carrying the operating circuitry of the shelf unit and is provided on its upper surface with a number of force sensing resistors 35, eight being shown here, one for each article location. Above the circuit board 33 is located a force concentrating retainer 37 which retains force concentrators 39, of which only two are shown here for clarity. The force concentrating retainer 37 has a number of circular apertures 41, one for each location, in which the force concentrators 39 are seated.

Each force concentrator 39 has a flat upper surface 43 which passes through the apertures 41 in the force concentrating retainer 37 so as to be flush with the upper surface thereof.

Beneath this surface, the concentrator has a flange 45 which engages the rim of the aperture in which it is seated and has a basically point contact element 47 on its underside, in the form of a part spherical surface by which it makes contact with the force sensing resistor 35.

Over the force concentrating retainer 37 is located a flexible membrane 49 on which articles 51 are intended to sit. So as to accurately locate the articles so that they are positioned over the appropriate force sensing resistor 35, the flexible membrane 49 is suitably formed with a number of circular ridges 53 within which the articles 51 are placed. It will be appreciated that, when the individual force sensing resistors 35 are activated, they will send out a signal which will vary depending on whether or not an article is present. These signals will be sent to a microprocessor in the bar controller (to be described in relation to figure 7).

The circuit board of each shelf is provided with the requisite circuitry for activating the force sensing resistors 35 as shown generally in figure 3 and in more detail in figure 6. This activation is suitably carried out by a binary switch device 52, operated by four address lines Ao to A3 which activates the eight force sensing resistors 35 in succession.

Figure 3 shows the arrangement of the connections of the seven shelves 23 in the proposed bar. The bar is controlled by a bar controller 53, details of which will be described hereafter in connection with figure 7. The bar controller 53 has a first line 55 for enabling it to communicate with the central processor 5, eight transmit lines 57 and eight receive lines 59, both of which latter sets of lines are connected to the shelf electronics of the individual shelves. There is provision, notionally, for an eight shelf, as indicated at 61, the connections for the eighth shelf being used for other functions such as lock detection etc.

Each of the first seven transmit lines 57 is connected to the binary switch device 62 (figure 6) of the individual shelves. The sensors 35 of the shelf in question are combined together into a single receive line 59.

Turning now to figure 6, which shows details of the shelf electronics, input is provided for the four parts of transmit line 57 on Ao to A3. These are four address lines in which the address 0000 is suppressed and replaced by address 1001 by means of the circuit indicated at 63. Power is supplied via connections 5v and 0v and the receive line 59 is connected at Rl. The transmit line receives an activation signal which passes to the binary switch 62 which connects the eight force sensing resistors 35 in turn into an oscillator circuit 65 formed by the individual resistors themselves, a capacitor C and an XOR circuit 67. The output of the oscillator circuit is feed to the receive line terminal R 1. It will be appreciated that the output at the terminal Rl is a frequency which varies in dependence on the weight sensed by the individual force sensing resistors 35.

Figure 7 is a block diagram of the bar controller 53 to which each of the shelf units shown in figure 6 are connected. The basis of this unit is a microprocessor 71. which provides the control operations. Power supply is by means of a power supply unit 73 which feeds a battery charger 75 for charging a stand-by battery 77. The battery charger output supplies either the mains supply directly from the power supply unit 73 or the stand-by supply from the battery 77 to a power supply controller 79 via lines 81 or directly to the microprocessor 71 via the line 83. The power supply controller also controls a reset device 85 and provides power to a voltage changing device 85 which in turn supplies the lower voltage required for the operation of the shelf units via line 87 (connected to 5v in figure 6).The power supply controller also provides information to the microprocessor 71 for transmission to the central processor 5.

The microprocessor 71 has four activation lines IREI to IRE4 forming the transmit line 57 (lines IRE 5 to IRE8 not being used) and eight receiver lines IRS I to IRS8 forming the receive line 59. Additional outputs for controlling the bar door lock and refrigeration control are provided on the control line 91.

Communication with the central processor 5 is carried out by way of an RF transmitter modem 93 and an RF receive modem 95 which are together connected to the aerial system by way of a coaxial cable 97.

The operation of the sensing operation is as follows: The bar controller first activates the first transmit line IREI which passes a signal to the 1 of 8 decoder 51 of the first shelf. The binary switch 62 of this shelf, in response to the transmit line signal, connects each of the eight force sensing resistors 35 in sequence into the oscillator circuit 65 and the oscillator 65 will produce a signal whose frequency depends on whether there is an article at the appropriate location and, if it is present, on its weight. This signal will all be transmitted down the single receive line 59 to the bar controller 53. Since, due to the sequential firing of the transmitters, the received signals will be received by the controller at different times, the controller can easily sort out which of the signals relate to which article location.The controller will then process these signals by comparing them with one or more reference frequencies to determine the status of the particular locations addressed and will then store the status data in suitable form for despatch to the central processor.

Once the first shelf has been dealt with, the same operation is carried out on the second shelf and so on.

In an alternative arrangement, instead of dealing with each shelf as a whole, the first locations of all shelves are triggered together followed by the second location of all the shelves and so on.

As previously mentioned, the notional eighth shelf will also have its sensors activated to read the other data required, namely door open status and the temperature in the bar. It is to be noted that while such features as door sensors may be operated on the force sensing basis, other suitable sensors such as micro switches or temperature sensors may be used.

The central processor 5 will interrogate the bar controllers in sequence, running through the various rooms of the hotel in order. It will process the data received and pass it as required to its ancillary equipment as mentioned earlier. In order to speed up the interrogation process, the bar controllers will issued a simplified signal indicating no change in its situation if no changes have taken place since the previous interrogation.

While the sensors will immediately detect the removal of an article from the shelves, a built in delay may be used before the data is passed to the billing arrangements so as to allow a customer to inspect an article and replace it if not wanted. The length of the delay may be set as circumstances demand. It will also be appreciated that, as well as detecting the presence or absence of an article, the status of the article is also detected. Thus, for example, the replacement of a full bottle by an empty bottle will be detected as well as whether one article has been replaced by a different article. Such detection may operate an alarm indicating possible cheating on the part of the room occupant.

While in the above described embodiment, the force sensing resistors have been located underneath the shelf, a different type of article sensor is shown in figure 8, still using force sensing resistors. Here the shelf unit 81 shown is intended for use with lighter articles, such as packets of peanuts or crisps, the weight of which might not be sufficient to enable sensing when using under shelf sensors. To this end, the shelf unit consists, as shown, of a single article carrier 83 which has a flat surface with a location 85 for the article 51 and a rear hook element 87 which fits over a carrying rail 89, thus forming a cantilever arrangement.

The rear of the hook element 87 carries a force concentrator 39 which is in engagement with a force sensing resistor 35. The weight of the article 51 at the location 85 will cause the force concentrator 39 to push against the force sensing resistor 35 with a force depending on the moment generated by the article 51. In this way the force provided can amount to a number of times the actual weight of the article 51.

In a variation of this arrangement shown in dotted lines in this figure, additional locations can be provided on the shelf unit 81, the number of articles present on the shelf unit being determined by variations in the frequency produced by the oscillator 65.

Figure 9 shows a second embodiment of the shelf circuit shown in figure 6. In this embodiment, instead of using the force sensing resistors 35 in oscillator 65, the variable voltage generated by a voltage divider consisting of the variable resistances 35 on the one hand and a resistor R on the other hand are fed to an 8 bit serial analogue to digital converter 91 which then provides a digital signal representative of the weight sensed by the force sensing resistors 35.

In another embodiment of the shelf circuit (not shown), the oscillator 65 is replaced by a voltage to frequency converter to which is fed the variable voltage from a voltage divider similar to that shown in figure 9.

It will be appreciated that various changes may be made to the above described embodiment without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, all of the shelves of a bar may be activated at once, the controller sorting out the individual shelves by reason of the fact that the received signals are returned on different lines of the receive line.

If it is desired to have more than eight articles on a shelf with less shelves, the extra positions can be sensed by combining the extra positions as a notional further shelf. Thus, for example, with four shelves containing ten locations, locations 9 and 10 of each shelf would form a notional fifth shelf. In this case and where all the shelves are driven simultaneously, each shelf unit could be provide with an extra two sensors having a different output. These additional outputs could then be joined together so as to be received by the controller as the "extra shelf".

Although the embodiment described has operated on the basis of eight shelves of seven shelves of eight articles, it will be appreciated that a controller having a microprocessor capable of dealing with more than eight inputs and outputs could be used if more articles and/or shelves are desired.

Additional functions other than those described above could be provided. For example, an override could be provided to cut off the operation temporarily while the bar is being restocked. A mechanical lock could be provide for the bar in addition to the electronically controlled lock to enable the customer to lock the bar to prevent access, for example by children.

Instead of the use of radio frequency transmission, a twisted pair communication cable system could be used.

Claims (26)

1. A bar control arrangement for an open shelf bar comprising a plurality shelves, each having at least one location for articles in the bar, a weight detecting sensor arrangement for each shelf for determining the presence or absence of an article at the said at least one location, activating means for each shelf for activating the weight detecting sensor arrangement and a controller having drive means for activating the activating means for each shelf, receiving means for receiving signals from the sensor arrangement for the activated shelf, means for processing the signals received from the sensor arrangement into a suitable form for onward transmission of data and input and output means for communicating with a central processor.

2. An arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the weight detecting sensor arrangement comprises an individual sensor for each location.

3. An arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the weight detecting sensor arrangement comprises a sensor covering a plurality of locations.

4. An arrangement as claimed in claim 1,2 or 3, wherein the sensors comprise force sensing resistors (FSR).

5. An arrangment as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the activatingmeans is arranged to activate all the individual shelf units at the same time.

6. An arrangement as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the activating means is arranged to activate the individual shelf units sequentially.

7. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the controller is arranged to activate the shelf units continuously whereby once one cycle of activation has been completed a new cycle is started automatically.

8. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the controller has storage means for retaining the data until interrogated.

9. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim wherein means are provided for sending a simple signal from the controller when there has been no change in the bar status since the last interrogation.

10. A shelf unit for an open shelf bar comprising an upper surface for receiving articles for storage in the bar, location means for locating the articles in positions on the upper surface of the shelf and weight sensing means associated with the location means for sensing the presence or absence of articles on said locations.

11. A unit as claimed in claim 10, wherein the weight sensing means comprises individual sensors associated with each location.

12. A unit as claimed in claim 10 wherein a sensor is associated with a plurality of locations.

13. A unit as claimed in claim 12, wherein the locations comprise shallow dished portions of the upper surface.

14. A unit as calimed in any one of claims 10 to 13, wherein the weight sensing means comprise force sensing resistors (FSR).

15. A unit as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 14, wherein the sensors are mounted on a circuit board located beneath the upper surface.

16. A unit as claimed in claim 15, wherein the circuit board also incorporates activating means for activating the sensors.

17. A unit as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 14, wherein the shelves are mounted on a cantilever, the moment of the cantilever being detected by the sensors.

18. A unit as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 17, wherein the activating means has means for activating the sensors in sequence so that signals therefrom will also be present in the same sequence.

19. A unit as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 18, wherein the drive means is triggered by a single input line and the outputs of the sensors are combined into a single output line.

20. An open shelf bar arrangement for an hotel or like establishment comprises a plurality of open shelf bars having shelf units as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 19, control arrangements as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9 and a central processor for receiving data from the bar controllers of each bar and for controlling the bars, the central processor providing data to reporting means for providing reports on the bars' operation and to a central billing arrangement for adding items taken from the bars to appropriate customers billing.

21. An arrangement as claimed in claim 20, wherein the connection between the central processor and the bar controllers takes place over a radio frequency channel.

22. An arrangement as claimed in claim 21, wherein the radio frequency channel is an aerial system of the hotel.

23. An arrangement as claimed in claim 20, wherein the connection between the central processor and bar controllers takes place over a twisted pair communication cable system.

24. A bar control arrangement for an open shelf bar substantially as described herein with reference to the drawings.

25. A shelf unit for an open shelf bar substantially as desvribed herein with reference to the drawings.

26. An open shelf bar arrangement for a hotel or like establishment substantially as described herein with reference to the drawings.

26. An open shelf bar arrangement for an hotel or like establishment substantially as described herein with reference to the drawings.

Amendments to the claims have been filed as follows 1. A bar control arrangement for an open shelf bar comprising a plurality shelves, each having at least one location for articles in the bar, a weight detecting sensor arrangement for each shelf for determining the presence or absence of an article at the said at least one location, activating means for each shelf for activating the weight detecting sensor arrangement and a controller having drive means for activating the activating means for each shelf, receiving means for receiving signals from the sensor arrangement for the activated shelf, means for processing the signals received from the sensor arrangement into a suitable form for onward transmission of data input and output means for communicating with a central processor.

2. An arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the weight detecting sensor arrangement comprises an individual sensor for each location.

3. An arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the weight detecting sensor arrangement comprises a sensor covering a plurality of locations.

4..An arrangement as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the sensors comprise force sensing resistors (FSR).

5. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the activating means is arranged to activate all the individual shelf units at the same time.

6. An arrangement as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the activating means is arranged to activate the individual shelf units sequentially.

7. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the controller is arranged to activate the shelf units continuously whereby once the cycle of activation has been completed a new cycle is started automatically.

8. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the controller has storage means for retaining the data until interrogated.

9. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim wherein means are provided for sending a simple signal from the controller when there has been no change in the bar status since the last interrogation.

10. A shelf unit for an open shelf bar comprising a shelf element in the form of a cantilever, the shelf element having an upper surface for receiving one or more articles for storage in the bar, location means for locating the or each article in a location on the said upper surface and weight sensing means associated with cantilever mounting means for sensing the moment of the cantilever and thus sensing the presence or absence of articles at said location(s).

11. A shelf unit for an open shelf bar comprising an upper surface for receiving articles for storage in the bar, location means integral with the upper surface of the shelf unit for locating individual articles in specific locations on the said upper surface and weight sensing means associated with the location means for sensing the presence or absence of articles at said specific locations.

12. A shelf unit as claimed in claim 11, wherein the locating means comprise shallow dished portions in or on the upper surface of the shelf unit.

13. A unit as claimed in claim 11 or 12, wherein the weight sensing means comprises individual sensors associated with each location.

14. A unit as claimed in claim 11 or 12 wherein a sensor is associated with a plurality of locations.

15. A unit as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 14, wherein the weight sensing means comprise force sensing resistors (FSR).

16. A unit as claimed in claim 11 or any claim appendant directly or indirectly thereto, wherein the sensors are mounted on a circuit board located beneath the upper surface.

17. A unit as claimed in claim 16, wherein the circuit board also incorporates activating means for activating the sensors.

18. A unit as claimed in claim 17, wherein the activating means has means for activating the sensors in sequence so that signals therefrom will also be present in the same sequence.

19. A unit as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 18, wherein the activating means is triggered by a single input line and the outputs of the sensors are combined into a single output line.

20. An open shelf bar arrangement for a hotel or like establishment comprises a plurality of open shelf bars having shelf units as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 19, control arrangements as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9 and a central processor for receiving data from the bar controllers of each bar and for controlling the bars, the central processor providing data to reporting means for providing reports on the bars' operation and to a central billing arrangement for adding items taken from the bars to appropriate customers billing.

21. An arrangement as claimed in claim 20, wherein the connection between the central processor and the bar controllers takes place over a radio frequency channel.

22. An arrangement as claimed in claim 21, wherein the radio frequency channel is an aerial system of the hotel.

23. An arrangement as claimed in claim 20, wherein the connection between the central processor and bar controllers takes place over a twisted pair communication cable system.

24. A bar control arrangement for an open shelf bar substantially as described herein with reference to the drawings.

25. A shelf unit for an open shelf bar substantially as described herein with reference to the drawings.