JP2007128420A - Customer moving path information collecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently collect customer moving path information by improving the usage rate of a shopping cart. <P>SOLUTION: This customer moving path information collecting device is provided with a traveling state detecting means 7 and 8 provided in the shopping cart to detect a traveling state of the shopping cart, a moving path information forming means 10, 32 for forming a moving path information of the shopping cart on the basis of the traveling state detected by the traveling state detecting means 7 and 8, a moving path information collecting means 10 and 32 for collecting the moving path information formed by the moving path information forming means 10 as moving path information of a shopping cart user, a privilege information presenting means 16 provided in the shopping cart to present privilege information for a shopping cart user, and a privilege information reflecting means 32 provided in a settling device for settling merchandise to make settlement at a merchandise price corresponding to the privilege information for a shopping cart user when the shopping cart user makes the merchandise settlement. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a customer travel route information collection device that improves the usage rate of a shopping cart and efficiently collects travel route information when collecting travel route information of a customer using a shopping cart.

Conventionally, not only what the purchaser has purchased in the store, but also automatically obtains information such as what sales floor, what route, how much time the product was selected, etc. There are ways in which consumer behavior in purchases can be used in marketing. Along with this, research has also been conducted on sales promotion methods that provide in-store information and product information at an appropriate time. However, generally, customers with a small amount of shopping should use a shopping cart and not use a shopping cart. There are many. In order to collect a large amount of data and promote sales as much as possible, it is necessary to use a shopping cart.

For this purpose, for example, as in the invention described in Patent Document 1, a coupon issuing machine, an operation unit, a display unit, a voice output device, a customer number input unit, and a receiving / sending device are provided in a shopping cart to collect data. The collected data is transmitted to the host computer, processed, and used as sales promotion materials, and the necessary data is received and advertisement information is provided to increase customer purchasing motivation. Things are effective as a method for encouraging the use of a shopping cart.
JP 2001-34850 A

  However, as described above, in a method for improving the awareness of using a shopping cart by providing a coupon ticket issuing machine in the shopping cart, the operation of issuing the coupon ticket, the presentation of the coupon ticket, etc. Customer needs to do. For this reason, people who don't like machine operation or feel troublesome may not be willing to use a shopping cart to get benefits even if they can get benefits by using coupons. is there. Further, since the coupon is printed and used, when the coupon is printed but not used, it becomes garbage and becomes a factor of being scattered as garbage in the store. Moreover, even if the coupon is used, after the settlement is completed and the usage status of the coupon is counted, it becomes garbage and is a waste of resources.

In addition, when coupons are used, the cashier will perform an input operation when paying at the cashier. Therefore, regardless of whether the input method is a barcode format or a price input format, The burden on the staff will increase, and human error may occur.
Therefore, the present invention has been made paying attention to the above-mentioned conventional unsolved problems, and improves the usage rate of the shopping cart and efficiently collects information without increasing the operation burden on the user or the like. It is an object of the present invention to provide a customer movement route information collection device capable of such a thing.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention is a customer movement route information collection device that collects customer movement route information, and is provided in a shopping cart used by the customer, and a traveling state in which the traveling state is detected. Detection means, travel route information forming means for forming travel route information of the shopping cart based on the travel state detected by the travel state detection means, and travel route information formed by the travel route information forming means as the shopping cart Travel route information collecting means for collecting user travel route information, privilege information presenting means for presenting privilege information for a shopping cart user provided in the shopping cart, and a settlement apparatus for settlement of products When the user of the shopping cart performs checkout of the product, the privilege information for the user of the shopping cart It is characterized in that and a privilege information reflecting means for performing said settlement in commodity prices in response to.

  According to the above configuration, the travel route information of the shopping cart is formed based on the travel state detected by the travel state detection means, and this travel route information is collected. At this time, by referring to the privilege information presenting means provided in the shopping cart, the user of the shopping cart can recognize what privilege is provided, and the user of this shopping cart can When the settlement is performed, the benefit information reflecting means performs the settlement at the product price corresponding to the benefit information for the shopping cart user. Therefore, the user does not need to perform any operation for receiving the privilege, and gives the shopping cart user a privilege corresponding to the privilege information without burdening the cashier who performs the settlement. Can do. In addition, since the benefits for the shopping cart user are given to the shopping cart user when the shopping cart user pays, the shopping cart user receives the shopping cart user's privilege. Can be used, and as a result, the usage rate of the shopping cart can be improved, and customer travel route information can be efficiently collected.

In the customer travel route information collection device described above, the privilege for the shopping cart user is set to be higher than the privilege for the non-user of the shopping cart.
According to the said structure, since the privilege for shopping cart users is set so that it may become a privilege higher than the privilege with respect to the non-user of a shopping cart, the consciousness to use a shopping cart for a customer is strengthened more. And the usage rate of the shopping cart can be improved.

Further, in the customer movement route information collecting apparatus described above, the privilege information presenting means is a privilege related to a product near the current position of the shopping cart user based on the movement route information of the shopping cart formed by the movement route information forming means. It is characterized by presenting information.
According to the above configuration, since the privilege information for the product in the vicinity of the current position of the shopping cart user is presented, the shopping cart user can view the product corresponding to the privilege information on the spot, efficiently, Benefit information can be presented effectively.

  In the above-mentioned customer movement route information collection device, authentication means for authenticating whether or not the user of the shopping cart is a registered member, and the purchase status of the member using the shopping cart are collected for each member. A purchase history information storing means for acquiring the purchase history information of the member from the purchase history collection means when the authentication means is authenticated as a member, and the purchase history information. Individual benefit information generating means for generating individual member privilege information based on the purchase history information of the member acquired by the acquiring means, and the privilege information presenting means is generated by the individual privilege information generating means. It is characterized by presenting individual member privilege information.

  According to the above configuration, whether or not the user of the shopping cart is a member is authenticated by the authentication unit, and in the case of the member, the purchase status of the member using the shopping cart is collected and accumulated for each member. At the same time, when authenticated as a member, the member-specific privilege information is generated and presented based on the purchase situation so far. Therefore, for example, the discount rate is increased for products with a certain degree of purchase frequency, or the discount rate is set according to the cumulative purchase amount so far, etc. By presenting the member-specific privilege information, the customer can be more conscious of using the shopping cart.

In the customer movement route information collection device described above, the authentication means is provided in a cart place of the shopping cart.
According to the above configuration, since the authentication unit is provided in the cart storage area of the shopping cart, when the shopping cart user uses the shopping cart, the authentication unit of the cart storage area performs an authentication operation to perform authentication. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide authentication means for each shopping cart, and the cost can be reduced accordingly.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and a plurality of, for example, 10 units are provided in the vicinity of an entrance 2 in a store 1 that uses a shopping cart such as a supermarket or a department store. The cart yard 4A, 4B for arranging the shopping carts 3 in a row in a predetermined direction is arranged.

  Each of the cart places 4A and 4B has a guide bar 5 for guiding the shopping cart 3 in a predetermined direction as shown in FIG. The guide bar 5 includes side bar portions 5a and 5b arranged in parallel with an interval substantially equal to the width of the shopping cart 3, an end bar portion 5c connecting one end of the side bar portions 5a and 5b, and a floor For example, it is composed of support columns 5d that are planted on the surface and support the side bar portions 5a and 5b. Then, with the plurality of shopping carts 3 arranged in tandem, the front bar of the shopping cart 3 is regulated by the end bar portion 5c, and the left and right side portions of the shopping cart 3 are guided by the side bar portions 5a and 5b. Are arranged in a column in a certain direction.

  The shopping cart 3 is provided with a control unit 6 for measuring the movement path and forming movement path information, and a wheel speed pulse corresponding to the rotational speed of the fixed wheel 3a of the shopping cart 3 and this pulse. An incremental rotary encoder 7 capable of detecting a rotation direction by generating a rotation direction detection pulse having a phase difference of 90 ° with respect to the wheel speed pulse is disposed.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the control unit 6 includes a piezoelectric gyro 8 that detects the yaw rate of the shopping cart 3, a sensor unit 9 that outputs an angular velocity ω of the shopping cart 3, and an output from the sensor unit 9. And the travel information D before and after the shopping cart 3 and the stop time Tst are calculated based on the wheel speed pulse and the rotational direction detection pulse input from the rotary encoder 7. An arithmetic processing unit 10 constituted by, for example, a CPU for storing this and further performing wireless communication control with an external device, and a program necessary for the arithmetic processing performed by the arithmetic processing unit 10 are stored, and an angular velocity ω , Travel information D, stop time Tst, initial position information, current position information, movement start time, current position information A communication control unit 12 that performs wireless communication between a memory 11 that stores travel route information, privilege information, and member information that includes an acquisition time and a gyro reset time, and an external device that is controlled by the arithmetic processing unit 10; Use of a wireless communication antenna 13 connected to the communication control unit 12, a position information receiving unit 14 for receiving position information for correcting a movement route via the wireless communication antenna 13, product selection information, and use of the shopping cart 3 Display device 16 composed of a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display, a plasma display, etc. for displaying privilege information to a person, a sensor unit 9, an arithmetic processing device 10, a communication control unit 12, a position information receiving unit 14, and a display And a battery 15 for supplying power to the device 16.

  The cart locations 4A and 4B also include a card reader 17a for reading card information of a magnetic card or an IC card and a cart switch 17b for determining whether or not the shopping cart 3 is pulled out from the cart locations 4A and 4B. An initial information transmission device 17 is provided. As shown in FIG. 4, the initial information transmitting device 17 transmits the card information read by the card reader 17a to the personal computer 40, and inputs member privilege information or non-member privilege information as a response. When the cart switch 17b is operated, the privilege information, information indicating whether or not the member is a member, and in the case of a member, member information including a member number, absolute position information of the cart locations 4A and 4B, and a column of the shopping cart 3 Communication is performed with an arithmetic processing unit 17c configured by, for example, a CPU that wirelessly transmits initial position information including azimuth information representing a direction to the control unit 6 of the corresponding shopping cart 3 as initial information, and a personal computer 40 described later. The external communication control unit 17d and the initial information are transmitted via the wireless communication antenna 17e. And an initial information transmitting unit 17f for.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, the communication range is regulated within the product purchase range corresponding to the product category, for example, in the upper part of the product display shelf 21 along the movement route arranged in the store 1. A wireless LAN access point that transmits current position information having a circular directivity, a position information transmission unit 22 configured by an RFID tag, and the like are installed. From the position information transmission unit 22, for example, about several meters to several tens of meters The current position information is transmitted to the control unit 6 disposed in the shopping cart 3 located within the communication range.

  In addition, a POS (Point Of Sales) system 32 is provided at the checkout location 31 in the store 1 for checking out the products. As shown in FIG. 6, the POS system 32 includes a movement route data communication unit 33 for obtaining movement route information and member information of the user of the shopping cart 3 from the control unit 6 of each shopping cart 3, and this movement route. A wireless communication antenna 34 connected to the data communication unit 33, a product information input unit 35 including a bar code reader or a numeric keypad for inputting product information, a liquid crystal display, an EL panel, a plasma display, etc. for displaying settlement information The display unit 36 and the travel route data communication unit 33 are controlled to acquire travel route information and member information, and specified based on purchased product information, settlement amount information and member information input from the product information input unit 35. For example, CP that executes a data acquisition process that performs payment based on the benefit information for this user And the product price information corresponding to the program and privilege information used for the arithmetic processing of the arithmetic processing device 37, and the settlement information, the settlement end time, and the travel route information are temporarily stored. A memory 38 to be stored and an external communication control unit 41 that communicates with a plurality of personal computers 40 that perform external data analysis via, for example, a local area network (LAN) 39 are provided.

  Each personal computer 40 is connected to one or a plurality of databases 43 through, for example, a local area network 42, and stores the travel route information and the settlement information acquired from the POS system 32 in the database 43. Then, a data analysis process for analyzing the stored travel route information and settlement information and settlement end time is performed. Further, when the card information read by the card reader 17a is input from the initial information transmitting device 17, it is determined whether or not the member is a valid member based on the registered member information stored in the database 43. In some cases, the privilege information for members set in advance and stored in a predetermined storage area is output to the initial information transmission device 17, and in the case of a non-member, the privilege information for non-members is output to the initial information transmission device 17. Output.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the initial information transmitting process executed by the initial information transmitting device 17 first determines whether or not the card information is read from the card reader 17a in step S1, and if the card information is read, step S2 is performed. The card information is output to the personal computer 40 via the communication control unit 17d and an authentication request is made. In step S3, the privilege information for the member or the non-member according to the authentication result is returned as a response. Get bonus information for.

Next, the process proceeds to step S4, where it is determined whether or not the cart switch 17b is operated. When the cart switch 17b is operated, the process proceeds to step S10 described later.
On the other hand, if the card information is not input by the card reader 17a in step S1, the process proceeds to step S6, and it is determined whether or not the cart switch 17b is activated. When the cart switch 17b does not operate, the process returns to step S1, and when the cart switch 17b operates, the process proceeds to step S7.

In step S7, the personal computer 40 is notified that it is a non-member, and as a response, privilege information for non-members is acquired in step S8, and then the process proceeds to step S10.
In this step S10, the privilege information for the member received from the personal computer 40 or the privilege information for the non-member and information indicating whether or not the member is a member. The control unit of the shopping cart 3 corresponding to the member information including identification information such as a number and the initial position information including the absolute position information of the cart storage 4A and 4B and the azimuth information indicating the vertical direction of the shopping cart 3 as the initial information. 6 through the initial information transmission unit 17f and the wireless communication antenna 17e. Then, the process ends.

Further, the arithmetic processing unit 10 of the control unit 6 mounted on the shopping cart 3 executes the movement route information collection process shown in FIG.
This movement route information collection processing is started when the supply of external power to the battery 15 of the control unit 6 is cut off by removing the shopping cart 3 from the cart storage 4A or 4B. First, in step S11 , An angular velocity ω, travel information D, stop time Tst, initial position information, current position information, movement start time, current position acquisition time, reset time, total movement distance L, and travel time stored in the memory 11 It is determined whether the information and the member information and privilege information are deleted. When these travel route information, member information, and privilege information are not erased, the process proceeds to step S12 and the travel route information, member information and privilege information is erased, and then the process proceeds to step S13. When the member information and privilege information are deleted, the process directly proceeds to step S13.

In step S13, the movement start time is stored in the movement path information storage area of the memory 11, the counter for counting the wheel speed pulses output from the rotary encoder 7 is reset, and the piezoelectric gyro 8 is further reset.
Next, the process proceeds to step S14, and the absolute position coordinates X ₀ and Y _{0 of the} shopping cart 3 and the shopping cart at the cart locations 4A and 4B transmitted from the initial information transmitting device 17 disposed in the cart locations 4A and 4B. 3, initial position information composed of the current azimuth information θ ₀ , privilege information for the user of the shopping cart 3, and member information are acquired as initial information, and the acquired initial position information is transferred to the memory 11. While storing in the information storage area, the privilege information and the member information are stored in the privilege information storage area of the memory 11.

  Next, the process proceeds to step S15, the movement route information forming process shown in FIG. 9 is started, and then the process proceeds to step S16, where there is the position information transmission unit 22 arranged on the upper part of the merchandise display shelf 21. If the position information transmission unit 22 does not exist, the process proceeds to step S37 described later. If the position information transmission unit 22 exists, the process proceeds to step S17, and the current position acquisition flag FP is set. It is determined whether or not “1” is set. When the current position acquisition flag FP is set to “1”, it is determined that the state already within the communication range of the position information transmission unit 22 is continued, and the process jumps to step S25 to be described later, When the position acquisition flag FP is reset to “0”, it is determined that the communication range of the position information transmission unit 22 has been reached for the first time, and the process proceeds to step S18.

  In this step S18, it is determined whether or not the current position information has been received from the position information transmission unit 22. If the current position information has not been received, the process jumps to step S32 described later, and if the current position information has been received, step S19. In step S20, the current position information and the current position information acquisition time are stored in the movement path information storage area of the memory 11, and the process proceeds to step S20.

In this step S20, the piezoelectric gyro 8 is reset to remove the drift, and then the process proceeds to step S21, where the gyro reset time T _R (n) is stored in the movement path information storage area of the memory 11, and then the step The process proceeds to S22, in which the gyro drift component is estimated based on the current gyro reset time T _R (n) and the previous gyro reset time T _R (n-1), and the previous piezoelectric is determined according to the estimated gyro drift component. An angular velocity correction process for correcting each angular velocity ω stored after the reset time T _R (n−1) of the equation gyro 8 is performed, and then the process proceeds to step S23 to execute a passing position information calculation process shown in FIG. To step S24.

In step S24, the number N _{E of} entry into the product purchase area corresponding to the position information arrival area of the position information transmitting unit 22 is incremented (N _E = N _E +1), and then the process proceeds to step S24a, where the current position The acquisition flag FP is set to “1”.
Next, the process proceeds to step S25, where it is determined whether the number N _{E of} product purchase area entry is equal to or greater than a reference value N _{ES for} determining that a preset customer is at a loss in product selection, and N _E ≧ N _ES. If it is, it is determined that the merchandise selection is in a state where there is a large number of visits to the corresponding merchandise purchase area and the merchandise selection is at a loss, and the process proceeds to step S26.

  In step S26, bargain product information, recommended product information, sponsor maker product information (product information with a high profit margin) in the current product purchase area, and a privilege that is the target of the privilege given to this user Select one or a plurality of product selection auxiliary information including the product name and product price of the target product, etc., and then move to step S27 to output the selected product selection auxiliary information to the display device 16 and display it. Then, the process proceeds to step S32 described later.

On the other hand, if the determination result in step S25 is that the product purchase area entry number N _E is less than the set value N _ES , the process proceeds to step S29.
In this step S29, the area location time T _P (= T _N −T _A ) is calculated by subtracting the current position information acquisition time T _A stored in step S19 from the current time T _N, and then the process proceeds to step S30. Then, it is determined whether or not the calculated region stay time T _P is equal to or greater than a reference value T _{PS for} determining that a preset customer is at a loss in product selection. If T _P ≧ T _PS , the customer If it is determined that the product selection is in a state of being in doubt about the selection of the product, the process proceeds to step S26. If T _P < _TPS, it is determined that the product is not in the process of selection selection and the process proceeds to step S31. .

  In this step S31, the number of reciprocating movements within the same product purchase area based on the position information calculated in step S23 is equal to or greater than a reference value for determining a product selection stupid state in which the customer is at a loss in product selection. If the number of reciprocating movements is greater than or equal to the reference value, it is determined that the product selection is in a lost state, and the process proceeds to step S26. It is determined that there is not, and the process proceeds to step S32. Here, the number of reciprocating movements is determined by counting how many times the cumulative angle exceeds 180 degrees with respect to the direction of entering the region, for example.

  In step S32, it is determined whether or not a movement route information acquisition request has been received from the movement route data communication unit 33 of the POS system 32. If no movement route information acquisition request has been received, the process returns to step S16 to move When the route information acquisition request is received, the process proceeds to step S33, from when the wheel speed pulse is obtained to the count N of the counter for counting the wheel speed pulse until the next wheel speed pulse is obtained. After the travel distance ΔL of the shopping cart 3 is multiplied to calculate the total travel distance L, the process proceeds to step S34.

  In this step S34, the stay time in the store is calculated by subtracting the movement start time stored in step S13 from the current time, and then the process proceeds to step S35, where the passing position information and stop time stored in the memory 11 are calculated. The communication control unit displays travel route information composed of Tst, total travel distance L, and staying time in the store, and member information including a member number and the like, indicating whether the member is a member or a non-member. 12 and transmitted from the wireless communication antenna 13.

Next, the process proceeds to step S36, where the initial position information, angular velocity ω, passing position information, current time, gyro reset time, total travel distance L and stay time in the store, and member information stored in the memory 11 are deleted. Then, the movement route information collection process of FIG.
On the other hand, if the position information transmission unit 22 is not present as a result of the determination in step S16, the process proceeds to step S37 to determine whether or not the current position acquisition flag FP is set to “1”. When the position acquisition flag FP is reset to “0”, it is determined that the position information transmission unit 22 does not exist and the process proceeds to step S32 as it is, and the current position acquisition flag FP is “1”. When the position information transmission unit 22 has been set, it is determined that it has left the communication range of the position information transmission unit 22, the process proceeds to step S38, the position acquisition flag FP is reset to “0”, and the reset time T _R (n) is set. After setting as the previous reset time T _R (n-1), the process proceeds to step S32.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 9, when the movement route information forming process activated in step S15 is activated in step S15, it is first determined in step S41 whether or not a wheel speed pulse has been input. When the wheel speed pulse is not input, the system waits until the wheel speed pulse is input. When the wheel speed pulse is input, the process proceeds to step S42, and after reading the current time Tn, the process proceeds to step S43. After incrementing the count value N of the software counter that counts the speed pulses, the process proceeds to step S44.

  In this step S44, it is determined whether the shopping cart 3 is moving forward or backward based on the combination of the wheel speed pulse and direction detecting pulse and the previous combination, and when it is moving forward, the process proceeds to step S45. Then, the travel information D is set to “1” representing forward travel, and then the process proceeds to step S47. When the travel information is traveling backward, the process proceeds to step S46 and the travel information D is set to “0” representing backward travel. To step S47.

  In step S47, the angular velocity ω detected by the piezoelectric gyro 8 is read, and then the process proceeds to step S48, where the previous current time T (n-1) is subtracted from the current time T (n), thereby reducing the time between pulses. ΔT (= T (n) −T (n−1)) is calculated, and then the process proceeds to step S49, and the minimum stop time Tmin at which the shopping cart 3 in which the pulse time ΔT is preset can be determined to be stopped. It is determined whether or not this is the case, and when ΔT ≧ Tmin, it is determined that the vehicle is in the stopped state, the process proceeds to step S50, the inter-pulse time ΔT is set as the stop time Tst, and then the process proceeds to step S52. When ΔT <Tmin, it is determined that the vehicle is not in the stop state, and the process proceeds to step S51. After the stop time Tst is set to “0”, the process proceeds to step S52.

  In step S52, the angular velocity ω, the travel information D, and the stop time Tst are stored in the travel route information storage area formed in the memory 11, and then the process proceeds to step S53 to calculate the pass position information shown in FIG. After the calculation process is executed, the process proceeds to step S54, where the calculated passing position information and the sales floor layout are matched to calculate the sales floor position information representing the sales floor position coordinates. Store in the storage area.

Next, the process proceeds to step S55, and the merchandise near the current position of the shopping cart 3 specified by the sales floor position information based on the member benefit information or the non-member benefit information stored in the memory 11 is stored. Benefits and benefits for members or non-members are displayed on the display device 16. Then, the process returns to step S41.
In the passing position information calculation process executed in step S23 of FIG. 8 and step S53 of FIG. 9, as shown in FIG. 10, first, in step S61, the angular velocity ω is integrated to calculate the rotation angle θn of the shopping cart 3. . Here, in step S23, the corrected angular velocity ω ′ is integrated as the angular velocity ω.

Then, the processing proceeds to step S62, by adding sequentially rotation angle θn to accumulated rotation angle θa including azimuth information theta ₀ in the initial position information acquisition, it calculates a cumulative rotational angle θa of the shopping cart 3, and then step The process proceeds to S63, where it is determined whether the shopping cart 3 is in the forward state or the reverse state based on whether or not the traveling information D is “1”. The travel distance ΔL of the shopping cart 3 from when the speed pulse is obtained until the next wheel speed pulse is obtained is set as a positive value + ΔL, and then the process proceeds to step S66. Then, the travel distance ΔL is set as a negative value −ΔL, and the process proceeds to step S66.

In step S66, the calculation of the following formulas (1) and (2) is performed based on the travel distance ΔL and the cumulative rotation angle θa set in step S64 or S65, so that the wheel speed pulse is input. Position coordinates X ′, Y ′ are calculated.
X ′ = X + ΔL · cos θa (1)
Y ′ = Y + ΔL · sin θa (2)
Next, the process proceeds to step S67, where the calculated position coordinates X ′ and Y ′ are stored as passing position information in the passing position information storage area of the memory 11 together with the cumulative rotation angle θa.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 11, the data acquisition process executed by the arithmetic processing unit 37 of the POS system 32 can be communicated with the communication control unit 12 of the control unit 6 of the shopping cart 3 in step S71. In a state where communication with the communication control unit 12 is not possible, the system waits until communication is possible, and when communication is possible, the process proceeds to step S72.

  In this step S72, the movement route information and the member information acquisition request for requesting the transmission of the movement route information and the member information are transmitted to the communication control unit 12, and then the process proceeds to step S73. It is determined whether or not information and member information have been received. If the travel route information and member information are not received, the process waits until they are received. If the travel route information and member information are received, the process proceeds to step S74. The travel route information and the member information are temporarily stored in the memory 38, and then the process proceeds to step S75.

  In step S75, it is determined whether or not the member is a member based on the notified member information. If the member is a member, the process proceeds to step S76, and the cart use stored in a predetermined storage area is set in advance. Based on the price information for members, the payment processing is performed on the purchased product information input from the product information input unit 35. On the other hand, if it is a non-member, the process proceeds to step S77, and a settlement process is performed based on price information for a cart non-member that is set in advance and stored in a predetermined storage area.

Then, the process proceeds to step S78, where the travel route information, the payment information, and the member information are output as user information to the external communication control unit 41 and transmitted to the personal computer 40, and then the process returns to step S71.
Further, the privilege information transmission process executed by the personal computer 40 for transmitting the privilege information to the control unit 6 is, as shown in FIG. 12, first, in step S81, the communication control unit 17d of the initial information transmitting device 17 is performed. When the card information is entered, it is determined whether or not the member information is entered. When the member information is entered, the process proceeds to step S82, the authentication process is performed, and the database 43 in which the registered member card information is stored is referred to. Determine whether the user specified in is a member. If the member is a member, the process proceeds from step S83 to step S84, and the member privilege information representing the member privilege stored in the predetermined storage area is transmitted to the initial information transmitting device 17. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S82 that the member is not a member, the process proceeds from step S83 to step S87 described later.

If the card information is not input in step S81, the process proceeds to step S86, where it is determined whether or not it is notified of non-membership. When the notification is made, the process proceeds from step S86 to step S87.
In this step S87, the non-member benefit information representing the non-member benefit stored in the predetermined storage area is transmitted to the initial information transmitting device 17.

  Here, the privilege information for members and the benefit information for non-members are set so that a user of the shopping cart 3 can obtain a higher privilege than a person who does not use the shopping cart 3, that is, shopping. It is set to increase customer awareness of using the cart 3. In addition, the benefit information for members is set so that members can obtain higher benefits than non-members, that is, to increase non-members' awareness of becoming members, When the shopping cart 3 is used and when the shopping cart is not used, the setting is set depending on whether the member is a registered member or a non-member registered in advance.

  Table 1 shows an example of benefits that can be received depending on whether the member is a registered member or a non-member, and whether the user is a shopping cart 3 or a non-user. In Table 1, “◯” indicates that the service can be received, and “X” indicates that the service cannot be received.

  Benefits given to users include, for example, general services for members, discounts for cart users, acquisition of non-advertisement information, cart user discounts (member discount rate), member cart user-only discounts, member-only non-advertisements There is publication information acquisition.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 13, in the data analysis process executed by the personal computer 40, first, in step S91, a user comprising travel route information, payment information, and member information from the external communication control unit 41 of the POS system 32. It is determined whether or not the information has been received. When these are not received, the process waits until the user information is received. When the user information is received, the process proceeds to step S92. Then, it is determined whether or not the user is a member by referring to the member information. When the user of the shopping cart 3 is a member, the process proceeds to step S93 and is specified by the member number or the like of the notified member information in the database 43. The notified travel route information and settlement information is stored in a storage region for travel route information and settlement information unique to each member. Then, the process proceeds to step S95.

On the other hand, when it is notified in step S92 that the member information is a non-member, the process proceeds to step S94, and the notified movement route information and storage information for the non-member movement route information and settlement information are stored. Stores checkout information. Then, the process proceeds to step S95.
In step S95, the process ends after performing marketing data generation processing for generating marketing data based on travel route information, time information, payment information, membership or non-member, and member information. To do.

In this marketing data generation process, the position coordinates X ′, Y ′ whose stop time Tst is set to other than “0” and the cumulative rotation angle θa are extracted, and the position coordinates X ′, Y ′ are matched with the sales floor layout. As a result, it is possible to detect in which area the shopping cart 3 is stopped and in which direction.
In addition, it is possible to collect the stay time in the store for each customer from the stay time in the store, and the stay in each area of the product purchase area corresponding to the area stay time T _P representing the communication time with the position information transmission unit 22 Time can be aggregated.

Further, by combining the stop time Tst and the purchased product, the selection time required for purchasing the product can be calculated.
Furthermore, it is possible to predict a change in the customer's desire to purchase due to the provision of privilege information.
Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

  Now, it is assumed that a plurality of shopping carts 3 are arranged in a row in the cart yards 4A and 4B. At this time, the angular velocity ω, various time information, passage position information, total travel distance L, area travel time stored in the memory 11 of the control unit 6 provided in each of the shopping carts 3 disposed in the cart locations 4A and 4B. It is assumed that all stored information such as store stay time and privilege information has been deleted.

  In this state, after the customer enters the store from the entrance 2 and performs an input operation of the membership card with the card reader 17a of the cart yard 4A, for example, the shopping cart 3 is pulled out, and the cart switch 17b is activated. When the charging state of the battery 15 by the charging device 15a provided in the cart place 4A is canceled, the initial information transmitting device 17 proceeds from step S1 in FIG. 7 to step S2 in the initial information transmitting process shown in FIG. Then, the card information read by the card reader 17a is output to the personal computer 40 via the communication processing unit 17d and an authentication request is made.

  In response to this, the personal computer 40 executes the privilege information transmission process shown in FIG. 12 and inputs the card information. Therefore, the process proceeds from step S81 to step S82 to perform the authentication process on the card information. When the member is a registered member, the process proceeds from step S83 to step S84, the preset privilege information for the member is read, and the privilege information is transmitted to the initial information transmitting device 17.

For this reason, in the initial information transmitting device 17, the received member privilege information and the initial position information composed of the absolute position coordinates X ₀ and Y _{0 of} the shopping cart 3 and the absolute bearing information θ ₀ are handled as initial information. To the shopping cart 3.
On the other hand, if the user of the shopping cart 3 is not a member, the customer pulls out the shopping cart 3 without performing a membership card input operation. Therefore, the initial information transmitting apparatus 17 performs steps S1 to S6 in FIG. Then, the process proceeds to step S7, and since the membership card input operation has not been performed, it is determined that the customer of the shopping cart 3 is a non-member and the personal computer 40 is notified of the non-member as member information. To do. Therefore, in the personal computer 40, the process proceeds from step S81 in FIG. 12 to step S87 through step S86, and the privilege information for non-members stored in the predetermined storage area is output to the initial information transmitting apparatus 17.

  For this reason, the initial information transmitting device 17 proceeds from step S8 to step S10, and transmits the notified non-member privilege information and initial position information to the control unit 6 of the corresponding shopping cart 3 as initial information. The control unit 6 receives the initial information and stores it in the memory 11. Thereafter, the control unit 6 displays the privilege information and reflects the privilege based on the privilege information for non-members. Here, hereinafter, a case where processing is performed based on member privilege information will be described.

On the other hand, in the control unit 6 of the shopping cart 3 pulled out by the customer, since the charging state of the battery 15 by the charging device 15a has been eliminated, the control unit 6 executes the movement route information collection process shown in FIG. .
For this reason, first, the angular velocity ω, travel information D, stop time Tst, current position information, movement start time, current position acquisition time, reset time, area stay time, total travel distance L, store stay stored in the memory 11 are stored. It is determined whether or not the travel route information and member information and privilege information are deleted in time (step S11), and when the travel route information, member information and privilege information are not erased, these travel route information and member information, The privilege information is erased (step S12).

  For this reason, the previous shopping cart 3 was pulled out from the cart yard 4A and started moving. However, when shopping is stopped halfway, the travel route information, member information, and privilege information up to that point remain stored in the memory 11. However, since the information is deleted when the movement route information acquisition process is started, it is possible to reliably prevent the previous movement route information from being accumulated.

Then, the movement start time of the shopping cart 3 is stored in the movement path information storage area of the memory 11 and the counter for counting the wheel speed pulses is reset to set the count value N to “0”. The gyro 8 is reset (step S13).
Next, the initial position information including the absolute position coordinates X ₀ and Y _{0 of the} shopping cart 3 and the absolute direction information θ ₀ from the initial information transmitting device 17 disposed on the exit side of the cart storage 4A, the privilege information and the member Information is acquired and stored in the movement route information storage area and the privilege information storage area of the memory 11 (step S14).

Next, the movement route information forming process shown in FIG. 9 is started (step S15).
In this state, when the shopping cart 3 is retracted along the side bar portions 5a and 5b and is completely pulled out from the cart storage 4A toward the desired sales floor, the wheels 3a are reversed by first retracting the shopping cart 3. Then, a wheel speed pulse and a direction detection pulse are output from the rotary encoder 7 and input to the control unit 6.

  For this reason, when the wheel speed pulse is input in the movement route information forming process of FIG. 9, the current time Tn is read (step S42), then the count value N of the software counter is incremented (step S43), and then Based on the combination of the wheel speed pulse and the direction detection pulse and the previous combination, it is detected that the vehicle is moving backward, and thereby the traveling information D is set to “0” indicating the backward movement (step S46). The angular velocity ω is read from the equation gyro 8 (step S47), and then the previous time T (n-1) is subtracted from the current time T (n) to obtain the time between pulses ΔT (= T (n) -T (n-1). )) Is calculated (step S48).

In this case, since the shopping cart 3 continues to retreat, the stop time Tst is set to “0” when the inter-pulse time ΔT becomes less than the minimum stop time Tmin (step S51). Then, the angular velocity ω, the travel information D, and the stop time Tst are stored in the travel route information storage area formed in the memory 11.
With this travel route information forming process, every time the shopping cart 3 moves and a wheel speed pulse is input from the encoder 7, the angular velocity ω, the travel information D, and the stop time Tst are sequentially stored in the travel route information storage area. Then, the passing position information calculation process of FIG. 10 is executed to calculate the cumulative rotation angle θa and the position coordinates X ′ and Y ′.

  That is, the angular velocity ω is integrated to calculate the rotation angle θn (step S61), and the calculated rotation angle θn is added to the cumulative rotation angle θa to calculate a new cumulative rotation angle θa (step S62). When the travel information D is “1” representing forward (or “0” representing backward), the travel distance ΔL is set to + ΔL (or −ΔL) (step S64 (or step S65)), and the previous position coordinate X , Y, the current position coordinates X ′ and Y ′ are calculated by performing the calculations of the above-described equations (1) and (2) based on the travel distance ΔL and the cumulative rotation angle θa (step S66). The position coordinates X ′ and Y ′ are stored in the memory 11 together with the cumulative rotation angle θa as passing position information (step S67).

Then, matching between the calculated passing position information and the position coordinates of the actual sales floor layout is performed to calculate the sales floor position coordinates (step S54).
As described above, each time the wheel speed pulse is input, the movement position information formation process and the passage position information calculation process calculate the passage position information, the sales floor coordinate information, the cumulative rotation angle θa, and the stop time Tst. They are stored in the movement path information storage area of the memory 11 in time sequence.

And from this sales floor position coordinate and the privilege information for members stored in the memory 11, the current location of this shopping cart 3, that is, the privilege information related to the product near the customer's current location is specified. It is displayed on the display device 16 of the cart 3 (step S55).
For this reason, the user of the shopping cart 3 refers to the display device 16 to determine which product can be purchased, how much compared to non-members, or how much compared to the case where the shopping cart 3 is not used. It is possible to recognize whether or not the benefits can be obtained, and to realize the merit of using the shopping cart 3. In addition, when providing privilege information, information about the product near the current position is displayed, information about the product that the user can actually see or take in the product, etc. Since privilege information according to the current position of the user is provided, it is possible to provide accurate privilege information with appropriate timing and effectively increase the user's willingness to purchase.

After that, when the shopping cart 3 reaches the communicable area of the position information transmission unit 22 arranged on the upper part of the commodity display shelf 21, the process moves from step S16 to step S17 in the movement route information collection process of FIG. Since the current position acquisition flag FP is reset to “0”, the process proceeds to step S18, where the current position coordinates X _P and Y _P and the direction information θ _P are acquired from the position information transmission unit 22. At this time, the position information transmitting unit 22 has the current position coordinates X _P1 , Y _P1 and X _P2 , Y _P2 and the direction in the path when the communication range reaches the communication range for the path in the vicinity of the position information transmitting unit 22. The current position information composed of the information θ _P1 and θ _P2 is transmitted to the control unit 6 of the shopping cart 3 that can communicate.

For this reason, the control unit 6 stands by until the current position information is acquired from the position information transmission unit 22 in the movement route information collection process of FIG. 8, and when the current position information is acquired, the current position information and the acquisition time are obtained. Store in the current position information storage area (step S19).
Next, the piezoelectric gyro 8 is reset (step S20), and the gyro reset time is stored in the reset time storage area (step S21).

Then, a gyro reset interval is calculated based on the gyro reset time T _R (n) and the previous gyro reset time T _R (n-1), and a drift component is estimated from the gyro reset interval and the gyro specification, Each angular velocity ω stored in the memory 11 is corrected every time a wheel speed pulse is input from the previous gyro reset time T _R (n−1) based on the drift amount (step S22).

Then, for each angular velocity ω that has been corrected, the passing position information calculation process of FIG. 10 is executed to integrate the angular velocities ω to calculate the rotation angle θn of the shopping cart 3 (step S61). by adding the sequential rotation angle θn to the azimuth information theta ₀ information, it calculates an accumulated rotation angle θa of the cart 3 separately (step S62), by determining the forward or backward on the basis of the traveling information D, After setting the sign of the travel distance ΔL, the calculation of the above formulas (1) and (2) is performed to calculate the position coordinates X ′ and Y ′ when the wheel speed pulse is inputted (step S66), The calculated position coordinates X ′, Y ′, the cumulative rotation angle θa, and the stop time Tst are stored in the memory 11 as movement path correction information.

In this way, by receiving the current position information from the position information transmitting unit 22, the drift component of the piezoelectric gyro 8 is estimated and the angular velocity ω is corrected. Therefore, by receiving the current position information, an accurate passing position can be obtained. Information can be calculated.
Then, by incrementing the appropriate purchase area enters the number N _E, is set to "1" to the current position acquisition flag FP (step S24a). At this time, since the customer first entered the purchase area, the purchase area entry frequency _NE becomes “1”, which is smaller than the reference value N _ES and the area stay time T _P is also less than the reference value T _PS , and shopping within the purchase area is performed. Since there is no reciprocation of the cart 3, the process proceeds to step S32 without determining that the merchandise selection is in doubt. At this time, since the shopping cart 3 has not been moved to the checkout station and the movement route information acquisition request has not been received, the process returns to step S16 in the process of FIG.

  During this time, when the shopping cart 3 is moved within the communication range of the position information transmitting unit 22, the current position acquisition flag FP is set to “1”, so that the current position coordinates are not acquired again. The movement route information forming process of FIG. 9 and the passing position information calculation process of FIG. 10 are executed, whereby the movement route information of the shopping cart 3 is sequentially stored in the movement route storage area.

In this way, with the movement of the shopping cart 3, the passing position information, the sales floor position information, the stop time Tst, and the like are collected and sequentially stored in the moving route information storage area.
Here, a specific example of the passing position information calculation process of FIG. 10 will be described. First, the absolute position coordinates X ₀ and Y ₀ of the initial position transmitting device 17 are stored as the initial position, and the azimuth information θ ₀ is stored as the cumulative rotation angle. It is stored in the cumulative rotation angle storage area as θa. Thereby, the initial position of the shopping cart 3 is stored in the movement route storage area. At this time, it is assumed that the direction of the side bar portions 5a and 5b of the cart yard 4A is the Y-axis direction of the XY orthogonal coordinate system, and the azimuth information θ ₀ is 90 °.

When the shopping cart 3 is retracted to be pulled out from the cart yard 4A, the angular velocity ω detected by the piezoelectric gyro 8 when the wheel speed pulse is input is determined by the shopping cart 3 at the side bar portions 5a and 5b. Since it is guided and recedes straight, the detected angular velocity ω is “0”, and the rotation angle θn obtained by integrating this is also 0 °.
For this reason, since the cumulative rotation angle θa is set to the initial orientation information θ ₀ = 90 °, the new cumulative rotation angle θa obtained by adding the rotation angle θn = 0 ° to the cumulative angle θa maintains 90 °. .

On the other hand, since the shopping cart 3 is retracted, a negative value −ΔL is set as the travel distance ΔL, and the position coordinates X ₁ ′, Y ₁ ′ are calculated according to the equations (1) and (2), cos θa = Since 0, sin θa = 1, X ₁ ′ = X ₀ , Y ₁ ′ = Y ₀ −ΔL, and the calculated position coordinates X ₁ ′, Y ₁ ′ are stored in the movement path storage area. Therefore, the current estimated position coordinates X ₁ ′ and Y ₁ ′ move from the initial position coordinates X ₀ and Y ₀ in the negative direction in the Y axis direction by a travel distance ΔL as shown in FIG.

Thereafter, since the shopping cart 3 continues to move backward, the current estimated position coordinates X _j ′ and Y _j ′ (j = 2, 3,...) Sequentially move in the negative direction in the Y-axis direction by the travel distance ΔL.
Thereafter, when the shopping cart 3 is rotated in the clockwise direction, the angular velocity ω of the shopping cart 3 is detected from the piezoelectric gyro 8 accordingly, and by integrating this, a negative rotation angle θn is calculated and accumulated. The rotation angle θa decreases from 90 °.

For this reason, the position coordinates X _j ′, Y _j ′ calculated according to the equations (1) and (2) move according to the rotation of the shopping cart 3 as shown in FIG. Is moved forward in the X-axis direction, the cumulative rotation angle θa becomes 0 °, and the travel distance ΔL becomes a positive value, and the position coordinates X _j ′, calculated according to the equations (1) and (2) are obtained. Y _j ′ moves in the X-axis direction.

Thereafter, when the shopping cart 3 is moved forward in a counterclockwise direction so as to go to the merchandise display shelf 21 in the vicinity of the cart yard 4A, the position coordinates X _j ′, Y corresponding to the movement path of the shopping cart 3 are accordingly obtained. _j ′ is calculated and stored in the moving path analysis information storage area sequentially.
In this way, the cumulative rotation angle θa is updated as the shopping cart 3 moves, and the current estimated position coordinates X _j ′, Y _j ′ are sequentially calculated and sequentially stored in the movement path storage area. Since the detection error is accumulated in the piezoelectric gyro 8, in order to correct this, the shopping cart 3 reaches a position in the vicinity of the position information transmission unit 22 arranged at the upper part of the product display shelf 21, and this position information. When wireless communication with the transmission unit 22 becomes possible, in the movement route information collection process of FIG. 8, the process proceeds from step S16 to step S17, and the current position acquisition flag FP is reset to “0”. The current position coordinates X _P and Y _P and the direction information θ _P are acquired from the position information transmission unit 22. At this time, in the position information transmission unit 22, the current position coordinates X _P1 , Y _P1 and X _P2 , Y _P2 and the direction information θ _P1 and θ _P in each path when the communication range reaches the communication range for the nearby path. _The current position information composed of _P2 is transmitted to the control unit 6 of the shopping cart 3 that can communicate. For this reason, the control unit 6 can determine from which direction the position information transmission unit 22 has been approached from the previous movement route, and the current position coordinates X _Pi , Y _Pi and direction information corresponding to the approach direction. θ _Pi (i = 1, 2) is determined, the current position coordinates X _Pi , Y _Pi are stored in the movement path storage area, and the azimuth information θ _Pi is stored as the cumulative rotation angle θa in the cumulative rotation angle storage area.

During this time, the customer is the shopping cart 3, together with the If you are doing the shopping while moving without hesitation the product selection, the region stay time T _P in one purchase area is less than the reference value T _PS, purchasing less than purchasing entry number N _E many a and the reference value is about 2 times N _ES to stop by region, the reciprocating number of the shopping cart 3 in the purchasing area is small, the product selection auxiliary information display device 16 It is not displayed and general information corresponding to the purchase area is displayed on the display device 16.

However, the results in lost in the selection of products in a certain purchase area, in situ, by examining for or hands to visually recognize the various items, the area stay time T _P is longer or, in the purchasing area The number of reciprocating movements of the shopping cart 3 increases, or even after moving to another purchase area, the product selection state in which the operation of returning to the purchase area is performed several times is lost.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 15, when the number drop to Purchasing 3 increases, an increase in the purchasing area enters the number N _E, If this is the reference value N _ES above, in route information collection process of FIG. 8, Shifting from step S25 to step S26, bargain product information, recommended product information, sponsor maker product information (such as a product with a high profit margin) based on the sales floor information corresponding to the position information transmission unit 22, and for members Product selection auxiliary information such as privilege target product information that can receive a predetermined privilege specified by the privilege information is selected, and the selected product selection auxiliary information is output to the display device 16 and displayed.

  For this reason, the user of the shopping cart 3 can select a product based on the product selection auxiliary information displayed on the display device 16, and can quickly make a product purchase determination. At this time, by displaying the comparison information such as the price and function of the product for which the customer is not sure about the product selection on the display device 16 as the product selection auxiliary information, the product selection can be performed more quickly without calling the sales staff. Can do.

In addition, a commodity selection delusion state, as shown in FIG. 16, when it becomes equal to or greater than the reference value T _PS becomes region stay time T _P of the same Purchasing 3 long, in the processing of FIG. 8, a step S30 The process proceeds to step S26, and the product selection auxiliary information can be displayed on the display device 16 in the same manner as described above. Further, as shown in FIG. When the number of reciprocating movements of the cart 3 exceeds a predetermined value, in the process of FIG. 8, the process proceeds from step S31 to step S26, and the product selection auxiliary information can be displayed on the display device 16 as described above. it can.

In this way, the product selection assistance information is displayed on the display device 16 each time a product selection state is lost in each purchase area, so that it is possible to reduce the time required for the customer's shopping, and the store is also congested. Can be relaxed.
Thereafter, when the shopping is finished and the shopping cart 3 is moved to the checkout office, communication with the movement path data communication unit 33 provided in the POS system 32 becomes possible. When the information acquisition request is received, the process proceeds from step S32 to step S33 in the travel route information collection process of FIG. 8, and the total travel distance L is calculated by multiplying the count value N of the software counter by the travel distance ΔL. The travel time information is calculated by subtracting the travel start time from the time to calculate the store stay time, and including the passing position information, the sales floor position information, the stop time Tst, the total travel distance L, and the store stay time stored in the travel path storage area. And the member information are transmitted to the travel route data communication unit 33. When this transmission is completed, the travel route storage area and the time storage area are recorded. Erases the data, is cleared to "0" to the count value N of the software counter, further, remove the member information and privilege information, and ends the route information acquisition processing.

  In the POS system 32, when the travel route data communication unit 33 acquires travel route information and member information from the shopping cart 3, the travel route information is temporarily stored in the memory. And since it is notified as a member information that it is a member, it transfers from step S75 of FIG. 11 to step S76, and the price information for members using the shopping cart 3 stored in the predetermined storage area is obtained. The settlement information is calculated by performing a predetermined settlement process based on the purchased commodity information input from the commodity information input unit 35.

Then, the payment information, travel route information, and member information are transmitted to the personal computer 40 as user information.
When the personal computer 40 receives user information consisting of payment information, travel route information, and member information from the POS system 32, the personal computer 40 executes data analysis processing shown in FIG. In this data analysis process, it is determined whether or not user information has been received (step S91). When user information is received, the process proceeds to step S92, and in this case, it is notified that the user is a member. Therefore, the process proceeds to step S93, and the received travel route information and settlement information is stored in the storage region for travel route information and settlement information dedicated to this member specified by the member number of this member information in the database 43. .

Then, marketing data generation processing is performed based on the travel route information and the payment information stored in the database 43 (step S95).
In this marketing data generation process, the position coordinates X ′, Y ′ whose stop time Tst is set to other than “0” and the cumulative rotation angle θa are extracted, and the position coordinates X ′, Y ′ are matched with the sales floor layout. By taking this, it is possible to detect in which area the shopping cart 3 is stopped and in which direction, and from this and the payment information, it is possible to determine whether or not the product has been purchased at the stop position. .

In addition, it is possible to collect the stay time in the store for each customer based on the stay time in the store calculated from the movement start time to the time when the settlement ends, and it is also possible to collect the stay time in the area.
Furthermore, by combining the stop time Tst and the purchased product included in the settlement information, the time required to purchase the product can be calculated.

Furthermore, based on the travel route information for each customer used by the shopping cart 3 stored in the database, the customer's flow line is judged, and the customer can set the sales floor layout that is efficient for shopping and the customer congestion is distributed. Layout settings can be made in consideration of trends.
As described above, according to the embodiment, by providing the shopping cart 3 with the incremental rotary encoder 7 and the piezoelectric gyro 8, the movement path of the shopping cart 3 can be accurately detected according to the movement path. The effect is obtained. At this time, it is not necessary for the customer to have a device for detecting the moving route, and the moving route can be detected without bothering the customer.

Moreover, regarding the accumulated error that occurs in the piezoelectric gyro 8, the current position coordinates and direction can be corrected by communicating with the position information transmission unit 22 disposed on the product display shelf 21, Since the piezoelectric gyro 8 is reset at this time, the influence of the accumulated error can be suppressed.
And since the movement route of the customer can be detected continuously, it is possible to detect the number of reciprocating movements within the same purchase area, and that the customer is in a state of product selection in the same purchase area. When it is detected accurately, this product selection auxiliary information is displayed on the display device 16 to accurately provide the product selection auxiliary information to help customers select the product. be able to.

  In addition, since the travel route information acquisition means for acquiring the travel route information collected by the control unit 6 of the shopping cart 3 is provided at the checkout place where the charge of the shopping item is settled, the travel from the customer to the time when the fee is settled. Route information can be acquired with certainty, and the payment information of the POS system provided at the checkout office and the movement route information are stored together in the database to accurately grasp the relationship between the customer's movement route and the purchased item. It is possible to accurately analyze customer trends, and use the analysis results to set a sales floor layout that enables customers to shop efficiently.

Further, the control unit 6 mounted on the shopping cart 3 only collects the travel route information, and the travel route is analyzed using another processing device (personal computer 40). This can be reduced and an inexpensive CPU can be applied.
Further, as described above, in the POS system 32, when the account is settled, the member information received from the shopping cart 3, that is, the privilege information for the member provided to the customer using the shopping cart 3 is provided. Since payment is made based on the reflected member price information, the input operator who inputs the product information of the purchased product by the product information input unit 35, so-called cashier, should reflect the member privilege information, or There is no need to consider whether or not privilege information for non-members should be reflected. Therefore, it is not necessary for the cashier to perform discount price input operations, etc. in consideration of the privilege information, so the load on the cashier does not increase and the cashier's input error occurs. Can also be prevented. Further, since the customer does not need to perform any operation for receiving the privilege, and the cashier does not need to perform the operation for reflecting the privilege, the customer only uses the shopping cart 3. Benefits to be provided can be received without omission.

  Further, when providing the privilege information to the user of the shopping cart 3 and reflecting it, the customer can obtain the privilege without any operation when receiving the privilege. As in the case of using a ticket, it can be avoided to forget to give out a coupon or to not use a coupon because it is cumbersome to present a coupon. , You can receive the benefits that are provided.

  In this way, the customer can obtain a privilege simply by purchasing a product without any operation, and this privilege is higher than when the shopping cart 3 is not used. Therefore, the customer's willingness to use the shopping cart 3 can be improved, that is, the utilization rate of the shopping cart 3 can be improved. In addition, in order to encourage the use of the shopping cart 3, an indication that the user of the shopping cart 3 has a user-limited privilege is displayed in the cart storage 4A, 4B of the shopping cart 3 or a shopping cart storage (not shown). Or using the shopping cart 3 and displaying such that a more advantageous privilege can be obtained if a member becomes a member.

  And since the utilization factor of the shopping cart 3 can be improved in this way, it is possible to acquire travel route information and settlement information for more customers. Therefore, more effective marketing can be performed by acquiring movement route information and settlement information of more customers, generating marketing data based on the information, and performing marketing based on the generated marketing data.

Moreover, as described above, the privilege information is provided by an ideographic device provided in the shopping cart 3. Therefore, in the case where privilege information is provided by printed matter such as a coupon, it leads to unnecessary garbage discharge. However, since information is presented by display on the display device 6 without using a coupon ticket, unnecessary garbage is discharged. It can be avoided.
In the above embodiment, the case has been described in which the incremental rotary encoder 7 is provided on the fixed wheel 3a of the shopping cart 3 so as to grasp the forward and backward movement of the wheel 3a. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Instead, the forward and backward movement of the shopping cart 3 may be detected by providing a longitudinal acceleration sensor. In this case, a wheel speed sensor that outputs a wheel speed pulse in accordance with the rotation of the wheel 3a can be provided instead of the rotary encoder 7, and the angular speed of the wheel 3a is detected by a gyro, and the angular speed is calculated. By integrating, it is possible to detect the traveling direction of the wheel 3a. In short, a sensor capable of measuring the moving direction and the moving distance of the shopping cart 3 may be provided.

  Moreover, although the said embodiment demonstrated the case where position coordinate X ', Y' was calculated based on traveling distance (DELTA) L and cumulative rotation angle (theta) a, it is not limited to this, Traveling speed V of the shopping cart 3 Can be calculated according to the following equations (3) and (4), and any other estimated navigation (dead reckoning) can be applied. it can.

X ′ = X + V · Δt · cos θa (3)
Y ′ = Y + V · Δt · sin θa (4)
Here, Δt is a sampling period.

  Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the control unit 6 mounted on the shopping cart 3 performs the data analysis process to calculate the position coordinates X ′, Y ′, the cumulative rotation angle θa, and the sales floor position information has been described. The current time information and the previous gyro reset time are stored each time the current position information is acquired from the position information transmission unit 22 in the arithmetic processing unit 10 of the control unit 6 disposed in the shopping cart 3. Each angular velocity ω and traveling information D are transmitted to the personal computer 40 via the position information transmitting unit 22, and the personal computer 40 calculates the drift amount of the piezoelectric gyro 8 up to the present, and based on this drift amount, Is corrected based on the corrected angular velocity ω and the cumulative rotation angle θa. The position information may be calculated by performing the calculations of the expressions (1) and (2), and this may be transmitted to the processing unit 10 of the controller 6 as the movement path information.

  Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the position information transmission unit 22 is disposed on the upper part of the commodity display shelf 21 has been described. Can be disposed on the object. Further, as the position information transmitting unit 22, a short-range wireless communication means such as Bluetooth or wireless LAN can be applied with the communication range limited according to the product category.

  Still further, the accumulated error of the piezoelectric gyro 8 is not limited to the case where the position information transmission unit 22 is applied, but a landmark is formed on the floor surface, and the landmark is imaged by the imaging device. The current position information may be acquired. In this case, the moving direction and the moving speed can be calculated by performing the same processing as that of the optical mouse from the floor surface image captured by the imaging device. Therefore, the position coordinates X ′ and Y ′ can be calculated by the above-described equations (3) and (4).

In the above embodiment, the case where the piezoelectric gyroscope is applied as the means for detecting the angular velocity has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a gyroscope having an arbitrary configuration can be applied. As long as the angular velocity (yaw rate) of 3 can be detected, an angular velocity sensor other than the gyro can be applied.
Furthermore, although the said embodiment demonstrated the case where merchandise selection assistance information was memorize | stored in the control unit 6 mounted in the shopping cart 3, it is not limited to this, Merchandise selection assistance from the positional information transmission part 22 is carried out. Information may be transmitted to the control unit 6, and further, a program update device is provided in the cart yards 4A and 4B, and the program update process shown in FIG. 18 is executed outside business hours such as late at night. Also good.

  In this program update process, first, in step S101, it is determined whether or not there is an update program to be updated. If there is no update program, the process is terminated, and if there is an update program, The process proceeds to step S102, where it is determined whether or not a communicable shopping cart 3 exists. If there is no communicable shopping cart 3, the processing is terminated and there is a communicable shopping cart 3. In this case, the process proceeds to step S103.

  In this step S103, ID information such as the MAC address of the corresponding shopping cart 3 is acquired, and then the process proceeds to step S104, the management table is referred to based on the acquired ID information, and the corresponding shopping cart 3 It is determined whether or not the update of the current update program has been completed. If the update has not been completed, the process proceeds to step S105, and the update program is transmitted to the control unit 6 of the corresponding shopping cart 3 for update. Then, the process proceeds to step S106, the completion of the update is recorded at the ID information position corresponding to the management table, and then the process proceeds to step S107 to determine whether there is another shopping cart 3 with ID information that can be communicated. If it exists, Return to flop S103, if it does not exist, the processing is terminated.

On the other hand, when the determination result in step S104 indicates that the update program has been updated, the process directly proceeds to step S107. Thus, by providing the program update device, there is an advantage that the product selection auxiliary information can be automatically updated without manpower.
Moreover, in the said embodiment, while gathering the user's movement route information and providing the privilege information, it was possible to provide only the privilege information. The person can receive the privilege presented by the privilege information simply by purchasing the product using the shopping cart 3.

In the above embodiment, the case where the card reader 17a is used to authenticate whether the user is a member has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a bar code reader may be provided and a membership code reading type may be used, or fingerprint or voiceprint authentication may be performed.
Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the case where privilege information was provided by performing the information display with the display apparatus 16 was demonstrated, it is not restricted to this, For example, a speaker is provided with the display apparatus 16, and only a display is provided. Alternatively, privilege information may be provided by a speaker, or only a speaker may be provided. In short, any method may be used as long as privilege information can be presented to the user of the shopping cart 3.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although demonstrated about the case where various privilege is provided to the user of the shopping cart 3 as shown in the said Table 1 according to a member or a nonmember, it does not restrict to this. The content of the privilege is changed depending on whether the user is a user of the shopping cart 3 or not, and the privilege for the member is provided to the user of the shopping cart 3 regardless of whether the user is a member or a non-member. Also good.

  Further, in the above embodiment, when authenticating whether or not a member is a member, the individual member can be specified from the member information, and since the history is stored in the database 43 for each member, the member is a member. Sometimes, each member may provide different privileges depending on the past purchase history. For example, if a certain product has been purchased more than a predetermined number of times, it may be set to be a higher privilege for this product. For example, the date of birth or the number of the telephone number is a specific number. A special privilege may be given to a person or a person whose membership registration period has reached a specified number of years, such as 5 years or 10 years.

  In this case, for example, purchase history information acquisition means for acquiring the purchase history information of the member from the database 43 when the member is authenticated, and privilege information unique to the member based on the acquired purchase history information The personal computer 40 is provided with individual privilege information generating means for generating the information, and this is transmitted to the control unit 6 via the initial information transmitting device 17, and the member-specific price information reflecting the privilege information is generated, This is stored in the memory 38 of the POS system 32. When the movement route data communication unit 33 receives the member information including the member information along with the movement route information, the price information corresponding to the member is extracted based on the member number included in the member information. Checkout may be performed based on unique price information. In short, when a member performs settlement, settlement may be performed based on price information corresponding to member-specific privilege information set for the member.

Further, in the above embodiment, only when the user is at a loss, the bargain product information etc. is provided, but along the current position of the user of the shopping cart 3 and its movement route, Service information provided to all customers, such as bargain information, may be displayed together with privilege information for products near the user.
In the above embodiment, the case where the card reader 17a as the authentication device is provided in each of the cart places 4A and 4B has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the card as the authentication device for each shopping cart 3 A reader 17a may be provided. In this way, by providing an authentication device for each shopping cart 3, authentication can be performed regardless of where the shopping cart 3 is located.

Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the case where the display apparatus 16 was provided in the shopping cart 3 as a privilege information presentation means was demonstrated, Furthermore, the vicinity of a user's movable path | route, such as the goods display shelf 21, etc., for example Alternatively, a fixed privilege information presentation device such as a speaker or a display device may be arranged, and privilege information may be provided from this privilege information presentation device.
In the above embodiment, the case has been described where the shopping cart 3 can be used regardless of whether or not the card reader 17a has been authenticated. For example, when a coin is inserted, the lock is released and the shopping cart can be used. In the case of a system that is configured so that coins are returned when the shopping cart is returned, an authentication device is provided instead of coins, and when the authentication is successful, the lock is released and the shopping cart can be used. You may comprise so that it may become possible. In this case, it suffices to provide a member cart yard provided with an authentication device and a non-member cart yard provided with a coin insertion mechanism that can be used by inserting coins, or an authentication device and a coin insertion mechanism. You may provide the cart place provided.

  Here, in the above-described embodiment, the encoder 7 and the piezoelectric gyro 8 correspond to the traveling state detection means, and the processing in steps S14 and S19 to S23 in FIG. 8, the processing in FIG. 9 and FIG. Corresponds to the travel route information forming means, and the process of step S35 in FIG. 8, the process of transmitting the travel route information in step S78 of FIG. 11, and the process of storing the travel route information in the database in FIG. Corresponding to the collecting means, the display device 16 corresponds to the privilege information presenting means, and the processing of steps S75 to S77 in FIG. 11 corresponds to the privilege information reflecting means.

  Further, the processing of the card reader 17a and steps S81 and S82 of FIG. 12 corresponds to the authentication means, and the processing of transmitting the settlement information at step S78 of FIG. 11 and the processing of steps S92 and S93 of FIG. It corresponds to.

It is a schematic structure figure showing one embodiment of the present invention. It is a top view which shows a cart place. It is a block diagram which shows an example of the control unit arrange | positioned at the shopping cart. It is a block diagram which shows an example of the initial stage information transmission apparatus arrange | positioned in the cart place. It is explanatory drawing which shows the positional relationship of the positional infomation transmission part of a goods display shelf, and a shopping cart. It is a block diagram which shows an example of a POS system. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the initial information transmission process procedure performed with an initial information transmission apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the movement route information collection process procedure performed with a control unit. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the movement route information formation process procedure performed with a control unit. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the passage position information calculation processing procedure performed with a control unit. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the data acquisition process procedure performed with a POS system. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the privilege information transmission process procedure performed with a personal computer. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the data-analysis processing procedure performed with a personal computer. It is explanatory drawing which shows the movement path | route of a shopping cart. It is explanatory drawing with which it uses for description of the merchandise selection hesitation state of the form which carries out the multiple approach to a purchase area | region. It is explanatory drawing with which it uses for description of the merchandise selection hesitation form of staying in a purchase area. It is explanatory drawing with which it uses for description of the goods selection lost state of the form which reciprocates several times within a purchase area | region. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the program update process sequence performed with a program update apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Store, 2 ... Entrance / exit, 3 ... Shopping cart, 3a ... Fixed wheel, 4A, 4B ... Cart place, 5 ... Guide bar, 6 ... Control unit, 7 ... Encoder, 8 ... Piezoelectric gyro, 9 ... Sensor unit, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Processing unit, 11 ... Memory, 12 ... Communication control part, 13 ... Wireless communication antenna, 14 ... Position information receiving part, 15 ... Battery, 16 ... Display apparatus, 17 ... Initial information transmission apparatus, 17a ... Card reader, 17 ... Cart switch, 21 ... Product display shelf, 22 ... Location information transmission unit, 31 ... Checkout office, 32 ... POS system, 33 ... Travel path data communication unit, 34 ... Antenna, 35 ... Product information input unit, 36 ... Display , 37 ... arithmetic processing unit, 38 ... memory, 40 ... personal computer, 43 ... database

Claims (5)

A customer movement route information collection device for collecting customer movement route information,
Traveling state detecting means provided in the shopping cart used by the customer and detecting the traveling state;
Travel route information forming means for forming travel route information of the shopping cart based on the travel state detected by the travel state detection means;
Travel route information collecting means for collecting travel route information formed by the travel route information forming means as travel route information of the shopping cart user;
Privilege information presenting means provided in the shopping cart for presenting privilege information for a shopping cart user;
Provided in a checkout device that performs checkout of the product, when the user of the shopping cart performs checkout of the product, privilege information reflecting means for performing the checkout at a product price corresponding to the privilege information for the shopping cart user; A customer travel route information collection device comprising:   The customer travel route information collection device according to claim 1, wherein the privilege for the shopping cart user is set to be higher than the privilege for a non-user of the shopping cart.   3. The privilege information presenting means presents privilege information relating to a product in the vicinity of the current position of the shopping cart user based on the travel route information of the shopping cart formed by the travel route information forming means. The customer travel route information collection device described. Authentication means for authenticating whether the user of the shopping cart is a registered member;
Purchasing history collection means for collecting the purchase status of members using the shopping cart and storing this for each member;
Purchase history information acquisition means for acquiring purchase history information of the member from the purchase history collection means when the authentication means is authenticated as a member;
Individual privilege information generating means for generating privilege information for each member based on the purchase history information of the member acquired by the purchase history information acquiring means, and
4. The customer travel route information collection according to claim 1, wherein the privilege information presentation unit presents the member-specific privilege information generated by the individual privilege information generation unit. 5. apparatus.   5. The customer movement route information collection device according to claim 2, wherein the authentication unit is provided in a cart storage area of the shopping cart.

Images