JP2017071469A - Device, method and program for article identification, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance the determination accuracy of article identification.SOLUTION: An article identification device (10) comprises: a pressure detection part (30) having plural pressure sensors (31) arranged in a matrix shape on a placing surface (32) for placing an article (50) thereon; plural identification portions (60) provided on the article (50) in an arrangement pattern peculiar to the article (50) to bring a load pressure distribution peculiar to the article (50) to the placing surface (32); and an article identification program (41) identifying the arrangement patterns of plural identification portions (60) from the load pressure distribution of the placing surface (32) detected by plural pressure sensors (31), and identifying and determining the article (50) from the identified arrangement pattern.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for identifying an article, a method, a program, and a recording medium.

  In the retail industry, in order to provide a product requested by a customer without cutting it, the demand of the product is predicted, and a certain amount of the product is received in advance as a stock to prevent the loss of the sales opportunity of the product. On the other hand, because product inventory leads to increased retail store costs, product inventory management is performed in consideration of the balance between loss of sales opportunities due to running out of inventory and cost increases due to holding inventory. . Against this backdrop, detailed inventory management of products has become an issue. For example, in Patent Document 1, a weight scale using a pressure sensor is incorporated in a display shelf or a warehouse shelf of the product, and added to the weight scale. 2. Description of the Related Art There has been proposed an automatic inventory device that measures and displays the quantity of a product from the load of the product to be obtained. Moreover, in patent document 2, four pressure sensors are arrange | positioned between the four corners of the shelf which mounts food, and a shelf holder, and the position on the shelf surface of food is specified from the load applied to each pressure sensor. A refrigerator has been proposed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-017121 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-010208

  By the way, if the product is placed on a pressure sensor sheet in which a plurality of pressure sensors are arranged at high density in a matrix and the in-plane distribution of the load pressure of the product is detected, the shape of the bottom surface of the product can be determined from the load pressure distribution. Therefore, it is considered that product identification and inventory management become possible.

  However, in such a method, for example, when the product center of gravity is biased and a uniform load is not applied to the surface between the bottom surface of the product and the pressure sensor sheet, it is estimated from the load pressure distribution. The bottom shape of the product may not reflect the actual bottom shape of the product, which may hinder accurate product identification and inventory management. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, when the product 200 is placed on the pressure sensor sheet 100 and the load pressure distribution is measured, when the center of gravity of the product 200 is biased, as shown in FIG. 9, A load pressure distribution 210 indicating a high load in the direction of deviation of the center of gravity is obtained. In the figure, dark and light portions indicate portions where the load is locally high, and light and light portions indicate portions where the load is locally low. It has been found by experiments of the present inventor that such a tendency is particularly seen when the bottom area is large compared to the weight of the product 200.

  In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to solve such a problem and increase the accuracy of identifying and identifying an article.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, an article identification device according to the present invention includes a pressure detection unit having a plurality of pressure sensors arranged in a matrix on a placement surface on which an article is placed, and a load pressure distribution unique to the article. Identify the arrangement pattern of multiple identification parts from the multiple identification parts provided on the article in a placement pattern unique to the article and the load pressure distribution on the placement surface detected by multiple pressure sensors. And a determination unit for identifying and determining the article from the identified arrangement pattern.

It is the whole article perspective view provided with the discernment part concerning this embodiment. It is a fragmentary sectional view of the goods provided with the discernment part concerning this embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the load pressure distribution which the identification part which concerns on this embodiment brings. It is a fragmentary sectional view of the goods provided with the discernment part concerning this embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the article | item identification apparatus which concerns on this embodiment. It is the whole article perspective view provided with the discernment part concerning this embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the load pressure distribution which the identification part which concerns on this embodiment brings. It is a whole perspective view of the conventional article. It is explanatory drawing of the load pressure distribution which the conventional articles | goods bring.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, the same code | symbol shall show the same element, and the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.
FIG. 1 shows a state in which the article 50 according to the present embodiment is placed on the placement surface 32 of the pressure detection unit 30. In the drawing, a plane parallel to the mounting surface 32 is defined as an XY plane, and a direction perpendicular to the XY plane is defined as a Z direction. The article 50 is provided with a plurality of identification portions 60 in an arrangement pattern unique to the article 50. The arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions 60 means the relative positional relationship between the plurality of identification portions 60. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the identification portion 60 is a convex portion protruding from the bottom surface 51 of the article 50 toward the placement surface 32 (the cross-sectional shape of the bottom surface 51 of the article 50 when cut along the XZ plane is convex). Part having a shape of The cross-sectional shape of the identification portion 60 when cut along the XY plane may be, for example, a substantially circular shape or a substantially polygonal shape. The material constituting the identification portion 60 may be any material having an appropriate load resistance that does not easily deform with respect to the load of the article 50. When the in-plane distribution of the load pressure that the article 50 having the plurality of identification portions 60 brings to the placement surface 32 is measured using the pressure detection unit 30, a load pressure distribution 61 as shown in FIG. 3 is obtained. . In the drawing, the dark and light portion is a portion where the identification portion 60 having a convex shape abuts against the placement surface 32, and a high load is locally brought about in this portion. Since the plurality of identification portions 60 are arranged in an arrangement pattern unique to the article 50, the load pressure distribution 61 indicates a pressure distribution unique to the article 50. As described above, the arrangement pattern of the article 50 and the plurality of identification portions 60 corresponds one-to-one, and the arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions 60 and the load pressure distribution 61 also correspond one-to-one. The article 50 can be uniquely identified and determined from the pressure distribution 61. Here, the “load” means a “static load” in which the magnitude and direction of the pressure acting on the placement surface 32 are constant regardless of time, and the magnitude and direction of the pressure acting on the placement surface 32 are different. It should be noted that it does not mean “dynamic load (for example, impact load, moving load, etc.)” that changes with time. Note that the dotted line in FIG. 3 indicates the outer edge of the article 50.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the identification portion 60 is a recess recessed in the bottom surface 51 of the article 50 (a portion having a shape in which the cross-sectional shape of the bottom surface 51 of the article 50 when cut along the XZ plane is concave). But you can. When it is difficult to stably place the article 50 on the placement surface 32, the identification portion 60 is preferably a concave portion rather than a convex portion. When the cross-sectional shape of the identification portion 60 is concave, the bottom surface 51 of the article 50 does not come into contact with the placement surface 32 at that portion, so that the position from the article 50 corresponds to the position where the identification portion 60 is formed. Some parts are not loaded. Accordingly, even in such a case, the load pressure distribution brought about by the article 50 on the placement surface 32 shows a pressure distribution unique to the article 50, so that the article 50 can be uniquely identified and determined from the load pressure distribution.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the article identification device 10 according to the present embodiment. For convenience of explanation, the orientation of the article 50 is reversed so that the bottom surface 51 of the article 50 faces the + Z direction. The article identification apparatus 10 includes a pressure detection unit 30 having a plurality of pressure sensors 31 arranged in a matrix on the placement surface 32 on which the article 50 is placed, and a load pressure distribution unique to the article 50 on the placement surface 32. The arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions 60 is determined from the plurality of identification portions 60 provided on the article 50 in the arrangement pattern unique to the article 50 and the load pressure distribution of the mounting surface 32 detected by the plurality of pressure sensors 31. A storage resource 40 that stores an article identification program 41 that identifies and identifies the article 50 from the identified arrangement pattern, a processor 20 that interprets and executes the article identification program 41, and an output device that outputs the number of articles 50 70 is a computer system.

The pressure detection unit 30 is called, for example, a pressure sensor sheet in which fine pressure sensors 31 are arranged in a matrix at a high density, and increases the in-plane distribution of load pressure that the article 50 brings to the placement surface 32. It can be detected with resolution. As such a pressure detection unit 30, for example, a known flexible organic thin film transistor array in which a pressure-sensitive conductive rubber sheet is formed on the surface of an organic transistor of about 1 mm square can be used. When the pressure-sensitive conductive rubber sheet is deformed according to the load from the article, the resistance value changes. Therefore, the load pressure of the article is based on the change in drain current flowing from the power supply terminal to the organic thin film transistor through the pressure-sensitive conductive rubber sheet. Can be detected. An article 50 having a circular bottom surface 51 was placed on a flexible organic thin film transistor array having a resolution of about 1 mm square, and the area of the bottom surface 51 was measured by changing the diameter of the bottom surface 51 in 1 mm increments within a range of 18 mm to 35 mm. However, the area measurement error was 23.47 mm ^{2 to} 63.30 mm ² , and the ratio of the error area to the correct area was 9.2% or less. From this result, it is considered that the flexible organic thin film transistor array having a resolution of about 1 mm square has a practically sufficient detection accuracy.

  The processor 20 includes an arithmetic logic unit that processes arithmetic operations, logic operations, bit operations, etc., various registers (program counter, data register, instruction register, general-purpose register, etc.), a pressure detection unit 30, a storage resource 40, and An interface connected to the output device 70, reads a signal indicating a load pressure distribution output from the pressure detector 30, interprets and executes an article identification program 41 stored in the storage resource 40, and The identification is determined, and the number of articles 50 is output to the output device 70. The storage resource 40 is a logical device provided by a storage area of a physical device (for example, a computer-readable recording medium such as a disk drive or a semiconductor memory). The storage resource 40 stores an article identification program 41 and a table 43. The table 43 holds the correspondence between the article 50 and the arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions 60 provided on the article 50.

  The article identification program 41 is a program for identifying and determining the article 50 placed on the placement surface 32 and managing inventory of the article 50, and is a plurality of software modules that are called and executed in the main program. Is provided. Such software modules are created using, for example, procedures, subroutines, methods, functions, data structures, and the like. A module is a unit that can be compiled by itself. As one of such software modules, the article identification program 41 includes a determination module 42. The determination module 42 identifies the arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions 60 from the load pressure distribution 61 of the mounting surface 32 detected by the plurality of pressure sensors 31 using a known pattern recognition algorithm, and refers to the table 43. Thus, the subprogram is described so as to identify and determine the article 50 from the arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions 60. The determination module 42 determines the number of articles 50 from the load pressure distribution 61 of the mounting surface 32 detected by the plurality of pressure sensors 31 using a known pattern recognition algorithm, and determines the number of articles 50 in the output device 70. It can also be output. As described above, the function as the determination unit for identifying and determining the article 50 is realized by the cooperation of the processor 20 and the determination module 42. However, a dedicated hardware resource (for example, an application specific integrated circuit ( Similar identification determination processing may be performed using ASIC)) or firmware. The output device 70 may be a display device (for example, an organic EL display, a liquid crystal display, or a CRT display) that displays the number of articles 50, or a printing device (for example, an ink jet printer, a laser, or the like) that prints the number of articles 50. Printer, etc.).

  Next, an outline of processing for identifying a plurality of types of articles 50 and 70 will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. As shown in FIG. 6, a plurality of articles 50 and a plurality of articles 70 are placed on the placement surface 32. The article 50 and the article 70 are different from each other. Each article 50 is provided with a plurality of identification portions 60 in an arrangement pattern unique to the article 50 so that a load pressure distribution unique to the article 50 is brought to the placement surface 32. Similarly, each article 70 is provided with a plurality of identification portions 80 in an arrangement pattern unique to the article 70 so that a load pressure distribution unique to the article 70 is provided on the placement surface 32. In this case, the table 43 includes, in addition to the correspondence relationship between the article 50 and the arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions 60 provided on the article 50, the arrangement pattern of the article 70 and the plurality of identification portions 80 provided on the article 70. It is assumed that the correspondence relationship is also maintained. As shown in FIG. 7, due to the difference between the arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions 60 and the arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions 80, the load pressure distribution 61 brought from the article 50 to the placement surface 32, and the article 70. Therefore, the articles 50 and 70 can be identified from the load pressure distributions 61 and 81 because the pressure distribution modes 81 and 81 are different from each other. In addition, when there are a plurality of articles 50 of the same type on the placement surface 32, the load pressure distribution 61 indicating the same pressure distribution tendency is detected by the number of the articles 50, and thus the same pressure distribution tendency is exhibited. By counting the number of load pressure distributions 61, the number of articles 50 can be determined. Also for the article 70, the number of articles 70 can be determined by counting the number of load pressure distributions 81 showing the same pressure distribution tendency. The determination module 42 may count the number of the articles 50 and 70 at regular intervals, and output a change (increase / decrease) in the number of articles 50 and 70 over time to the output device 70. In addition, the dotted line of FIG. 7 has shown the outer edge of the articles | goods 50 and 70. As shown in FIG.

  According to the present embodiment, the article 50 is provided with an identification portion 60 having a convex cross section that causes a high load load locally on the placement surface 32 or an identification portion 60 having a concave cross section that does not cause a load load locally on the placement surface 32. In the case where the center of gravity of the article 50 is biased and a uniform load is not applied between the bottom surface 51 and the placement surface 32 of the article 50 (particularly, Even when the bottom area is larger than the weight of the article 50), the load that the identification portion 60 brings to the placement surface 32 and the load that the bottom surface 51 of the article 50 in which the identification portion 60 is not formed brings to the placement surface 32. Since the difference can be clarified within the practically realizable resolution range of the detection unit 30, the article 50 can be uniquely identified and determined from the load pressure distribution 61. In addition, by using a known flexible organic thin film transistor array having a resolution of about 1 mm square as the detection unit 30, the arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions 60 can be identified with sufficient accuracy in practice. In addition, since the flexible organic thin film transistor array has appropriate flexibility, it is less likely to be restricted in installation location and is excellent in convenience. Further, the type and number of the articles 50 and 70 can be determined by making the arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions 60 and 80 provided in the articles 50 and 70 different for each type of the articles 50 and 70. The articles 50 and 70 may be, for example, commodities with exchange value that are the targets of commercial transactions at retail stores or the like. A plurality of types of products sold at retail stores, etc. are provided with identification portions having arrangement patterns unique to each type, and a pressure detection unit 30 is installed on the display shelf or warehouse shelf of the product, so that the point-of-sale information of the product By installing the article identification program 41 and the table 43 in a management system (so-called POS system), it is possible to manage the inventory of products on the POS system.

  Each embodiment described above is for facilitating the understanding of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention. The present invention can be changed / improved without departing from the spirit thereof, and the present invention includes equivalents thereof. In other words, those obtained by appropriately modifying the design of each embodiment by those skilled in the art are also included in the scope of the present invention as long as they include the features of the present invention. For example, each element included in each embodiment and its arrangement, material, condition, shape, size, and the like are not limited to those illustrated, and can be changed as appropriate. Further, the positional relationship such as up, down, left and right is not limited to the illustrated ratio unless otherwise specified. In addition, each element included in each embodiment can be combined as much as technically possible, and combinations thereof are included in the scope of the present invention as long as they include the features of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Article identification apparatus 20 ... Processor 30 ... Pressure detection part 31 ... Pressure sensor 32 ... Mounting surface 40 ... Storage resource 41 ... Article identification program 42 ... Determination module 43 ... Table 50, 70 ... Article 51 ... Bottom surface 60, 80 ... Identification part 61, 81 ... Load pressure distribution

Claims (6)

A pressure detection unit having a plurality of pressure sensors arranged in a matrix on the placement surface on which the article is placed;
A plurality of identification portions provided on the article in an arrangement pattern unique to the article so as to bring a load pressure distribution unique to the article to the placement surface;
A determination unit that identifies the arrangement pattern of the plurality of identification portions from the load pressure distribution on the placement surface detected by the plurality of pressure sensors and identifies the article from the identified arrangement pattern;
An article identification device comprising: The article identification device according to claim 1,
The said identification part is an article | item identification device which determines the number of the said articles | goods from the load pressure distribution of the said mounting surface detected by these pressure sensors. The article identification device according to claim 1 or 2,
The article identification device, wherein the identification part is a convex part protruding from a bottom surface of the article or a concave part recessed in the bottom surface. Computer
The placement pattern of a plurality of identification portions provided in the article in a placement pattern unique to the article so as to provide a load pressure distribution unique to the article on the placement surface on which the article is placed, and a matrix on the placement surface Distinguishing from the load pressure distribution of the mounting surface detected by a plurality of pressure sensors arranged in a shape,
Identifying and determining the article from the identified arrangement pattern;
An article identification method for executing On the computer,
The placement pattern of a plurality of identification portions provided in the article in a placement pattern unique to the article so as to provide a load pressure distribution unique to the article on the placement surface on which the article is placed, and a matrix on the placement surface Distinguishing from the load pressure distribution of the mounting surface detected by a plurality of pressure sensors arranged in a shape,
Identifying and determining the article from the identified arrangement pattern;
An article identification program for executing On the computer,
The placement pattern of a plurality of identification portions provided in the article in a placement pattern unique to the article so as to provide a load pressure distribution unique to the article on the placement surface on which the article is placed, and a matrix on the placement surface Distinguishing from the load pressure distribution of the mounting surface detected by a plurality of pressure sensors arranged in a shape,
Identifying and determining the article from the identified arrangement pattern;
The computer-readable recording medium which recorded the goods identification program which performs this.

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