JP2006189991A - Food management system using sticker tag - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an opportunity of efficient purchase of food by managing an expiration date of the food. <P>SOLUTION: A food case is provided with: a reading part for reading a sticker tag fitted to the food; a tag reader for converting merchandise information read from the reading part to food information for management; and a communication part to be connected with a network, and the food information is registered in the data base of a home server. For an expired food, presence of the expired food is reported to a mobile terminal etc. If a food is close to the expiration date, the presence of the food and the expiration date are given to the mobile terminal etc. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

The present invention relates to a food management system that reads product information from a JAN code attached to a product and effectively uses the product information data.

  From the viewpoint of inventory management at home, there have been many proposals related to inventory management of food stored in a refrigerator. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-049743 provides a refrigerator capable of recognizing food items and performing inventory management and transmitting the inventory status to an external communication terminal such as a mobile phone or a personal computer.

  Some food storage stores manage food in the storage by a communication terminal. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-222476 discloses a terminal for ordering, via a communication line, ingredients that are insufficient for food stored in a refrigerator in the cooking recipe selected by the user. Is described.

JP 2002-049743 A JP 2000-222476 A

  In the conventional example of inventory management, the barcode reader attached to food is read each time the refrigerator is taken in and out, and the inventory list is created and sent to the mobile phone for communication by e-mail. It is. In view of this, the present invention creates food information with a tag seal to notify the mobile terminal such as a mobile phone or PDA of the management of the expiration date of the food, and gives the user an opportunity to purchase food efficiently.

  In addition, this invention contributes to the prevention of damage to consumers by providing warning information related to foods found in the occurrence of bird flu and BSE, which have recently become problematic.

In the present invention, the food storage has a barcode reading unit that reads product information from a JAN code attached to the product, and an input unit that creates food information for management in the food storage based on the product information The information processing apparatus includes a seal tag creating unit that uses the food information as a seal tag, a control unit that controls the whole, and a communication unit that is connected to a network. In addition to the product information read from the JAN code, it has information such as the production location, purchase location, purchase date, expiration date, and date when a warning alarm is about to expire. In order to manage the food in the food storage, the seal tag attached to the food is read by a tag reader in the food storage, and the food information is registered in the inventory management database of the home server.
In the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, when there is a food product whose expiration date is imminent, the expiry date of the corresponding food is imminent and the expiry date of the corresponding food is converted into XML Notify the terminal etc. In addition, when there is a food whose expiration date has expired, the mobile terminal or the like is notified that the expiration date of the corresponding food has expired.
The home server of the present invention has a configuration in which warning information related to food can be obtained from the Internet / intranet via a network, searches for warning information related to food from the mass media, and whether there is a corresponding food in the inventory management database. It has a configuration for matching. If there is a food corresponding to the warning information related to the searched food, the warning information related to the searched food and the food information of the corresponding food are converted into XML and notified to the mobile terminal or the like.

According to the present invention, by registering food information that can be easily managed using a JAN code, it is polled from food inventory data, and data on foods whose expiration date is imminent or whose expiration date has expired Can be stored in XML and easily managed on the go with mobile devices, allowing users to purchase food efficiently.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

A food management system according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. First, an outline of the food management system will be described with reference to FIG. The store 20, the home system 200, and the mobile terminal 240 are connected via the network 10, and the home system 200 includes a food storage 210 and a home server 220. The product 30 is given a JAN code 31.
In FIG. 2, the structure of the food storage 210 and the mobile terminal 240 is shown. The food storage 210 includes a barcode reading unit 211 having a function of reading the product information 310 from the JAN code 31 attached to the product 30, a display unit 212 for displaying the product information 310, a communication unit 213 for transmitting and receiving data, and the product information 310. The input unit 215 inputs the food information 320 for management based on the information, the seal tag generation unit 216 that generates the seal tag 217 from the food information 320, and the control unit 214 that controls them as a whole. A seal tag reader 500 is provided in the food storage 210, and includes a tag reader 501 that reads the seal tag 217, a communication unit 502 that transmits and receives data, and a control unit 503 that controls them. The mobile terminal 240 includes a communication unit 241 that performs data communication with the food storage 210 or the home server 220, a display unit 242 that displays product information, and a control unit 243 that controls the whole.
The food information 320 obtained from the seal tag 217 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3A is an explanatory diagram for explaining a route for obtaining the food information 320. In this embodiment, the product information 310 is obtained from the JAN code 31 affixed to the product 30 via the reading unit 211 of the food storage 210. Further, as shown in FIG. 3B, the product information 310 includes product information (product name 311, production place 312, purchase place 313, purchase date 314, expiration date 315, and expiration date for food management). This food information 320 is registered in the inventory management database 300 by adding a date 316) for which a warning alarm is to be raised soon by selecting a pull-down menu or the like. The inventory management database 300 can also be viewed from the management terminal 250 and the mobile terminal 240 via the Internet.
With reference to FIG. 4, a method for notifying a user of a food whose expiration date is approaching or a food whose expiration date has expired will be described. For example, on the home server 220, the date 316 and the expiration date 315 for which a warning alarm is to be raised near the expiration date of each food information 320 are compared with the date at that time, and the expiration date is approaching. Each data of the food that has expired and the food whose expiration date has expired is created, converted into XML, and notified to the mobile terminal 240.
With reference to FIG. 5, provision of information on the alert food according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described. For example, the home server 220 periodically gives warning information related to food on a mass media related site via the network 10 by a patrol search. When the warning information is raised, the food information 320 is searched / compared with the food in the inventory management database 300, and the presence / absence of the food, the name and number of the food are notified to the mobile terminal.
The embodiment described above can be understood as follows.
(1) A food management system comprising a function of searching warning information related to food from mass media via the Internet on a home server via a network and matching the warning information with an inventory management database.
(2) In addition to (1), when there is a food item that corresponds to the warning information related to the food searched by the home server, a function for notifying the mobile terminal etc. of the warning information related to the searched food and the food information of the corresponding food A food management system characterized by comprising:

It is a schematic block diagram of the food management system in this invention. It is a block diagram of the food storage and mobile terminal in this invention. It is the schematic of the merchandise information of the identification tag in this invention. It is a flowchart of the notification method of near expiration date and expiration date in this invention. It is a flowchart of information provision of the alert food in the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

10 network 20 dealer 200 home system 210 food storage 211 bar code reading unit 212 food storage display 213 food storage communication unit 214 food storage control unit 215 food storage input unit 216 food storage Seal tag creation unit 217 Seal tag 500 Seal tag reader 501 Tag reader 502 Communication unit 503 Control unit 220 Home server 30 Product 31 JAN code 310 Product information 320 Food information 300 Inventory management database 250 Management terminal 240 Mobile terminal

Claims (1)

A reading unit that reads product information from a JAN code attached to a product, an input unit that creates food information for management in a food storage based on the product information, and a seal tag creation unit that uses the created food information as a seal tag A communication unit connected to the network, and a control unit for controlling the entire unit, and the input unit includes the product information read from the JAN code, the purchase place, the purchase date, the expiration date, and the best date. A food management system for creating food information by inputting information such as a deadline alarm date, and the food storage has a seal tag reader for reading food information from a seal tag attached to the product, and the seal tag reader A means for registering the read food information in the inventory management database and a means for notifying the mobile terminal or the like of information relating to the expiration date are provided. Goods management systems.

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