JP6736244B1 - Reader and information providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a reading device and an information providing system in which the influence of radio waves is reduced while ensuring convenience during reading. A reading device reads information from an RF tag attached to a product P. The reading device 20 has an opening 30 formed therein, and radiates a radio wave for communicating with the shield portion 44 that houses the product P through the opening 30 and the RF tag 12 attached to the housed product P. An antenna 60 and are provided. The reading device 20 reads information from the RF tag 12 with the shield part 44 opened. [Selection diagram]

Description

The present invention relates to a reader for reading information on an RF tag and an information providing system for providing information on an article to which the RF tag is attached.

In recent years, an accounting system 100 shown in FIG. 6 has been proposed in order to smoothly perform accounting in a store. The accounting system 100 includes an RF tag 102 attached to each product P, a reader/writer 104 that reads information from the RF tag 102, and a register 106 communicatively connected to the reader/writer 104. The reader/writer 104 is installed on the back surface of the checkout counter T, collectively reads the information from the RF tag 102 of the product P in the shopping cart on the checkout counter T, and transmits the read information to the register 106. .. The register 106 performs accounting processing based on the product information (product name and price) corresponding to the received information.

According to the accounting system 100, accounting processing can be performed by a simple operation of placing a shopping basket on the accounting counter T. Further, since the accounting processing can be performed while the transaction is carried on the accounting counter T, the contents of the shopping basket can be visually confirmed, and the customer can reconfirm the product P to be purchased even during the accounting processing. On the other hand, since the communication area of the reader/writer 104 and the space where the customer is present are continuous, the radio waves emitted from the antenna of the reader/writer 104 affect other devices or the radio waves emitted from other devices. May interfere with the communication radio wave of the reader/writer 104.

Here, the reading device of Patent Document 1 includes a housing that stores a product through an opening and a lid that opens and closes the opening, and the housing and the lid are formed of a member that reflects or absorbs radio waves. This reading device reads the RF tag in a state in which the opening of the housing is closed by the lid, that is, the article housed in the housing is sealed by the shield, and therefore the above-mentioned problem regarding radio waves is prevented. You can

JP, 2015-207110, A

However, in the reading device of Patent Document 1, it is necessary to perform a troublesome operation in which the product is put in the housing, the lid is closed, the transaction is performed, and then the lid is opened to take out the product. Moreover, since the shopping basket stored in the housing cannot be visually recognized, it becomes impossible to confirm the product again during the accounting process. That is, the convenience of the customer is impaired.

Thus, it has been difficult to achieve both convenience for the customer and reduction of the influence of radio waves. It should be noted that such a problem may occur not only in a reading device used for accounting processing but also in a stationary device that reads an RF tag attached to an article.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a reading device and an information providing system that reduce the influence of radio waves while ensuring convenience during reading.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a reader for reading information from an RF tag attached to an article, which houses an antenna for radiating a radio wave for communicating with the RF tag, and the antenna, And a shield part having an opening wider than the article, and information is read from the RF tag in a state where the shield part is opened.

In addition, it is characterized in that a mounting portion is provided on the opening side of the antenna and on which the article is mounted.

Further, the shield part includes an electric wave absorbing layer that absorbs the electric wave, and an electric wave reflecting layer that is formed outside the electric wave absorbing layer and that reflects the electric wave.

Further, the above-mentioned reading device, and an information providing device capable of communicating with the reading device, the information providing device, a storage unit that stores the item information regarding the item in association with the information of the RF tag, An acquisition unit that acquires information about the RF tag from the reading device; an information generation unit that extracts the item information corresponding to the acquired information about the RF tag from the storage unit and generates information to be provided; And an output unit configured to output the information to be provided.

According to the present invention, since the antenna is housed in the shield portion, it is possible to suppress the spread of the radio wave emitted from the antenna and reduce the influence of the radio wave on other devices. Further, since the shield part has an opening wider than the article, the RF tag can be read by placing the article in the shield or placing the article on the opening. At that time, since reading is performed with the shield part opened, there is no need for the cumbersome operation of closing the opening as in the conventional case. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the influence of radio waves while ensuring convenience during reading.

FIG. 1 is an information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention, (a) is a perspective view of a reading device, and (b) is a diagram showing a manner of providing information by a mobile terminal. It is a block diagram of an RF tag, a reading device, and a mobile terminal which constitute the information providing system. It is sectional drawing and the partially expanded sectional view of the said reader. It is a functional block diagram of the said mobile terminal. It is sectional drawing of the reading device which concerns on the modification of embodiment. It is a schematic diagram of the conventional accounting system.

Hereinafter, embodiments of a reading device and an information providing system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1A, the information providing system 10 according to the present embodiment is used in a store that sells a product P such as clothing. In the store, the RF tag 12 is attached to each product P together with the price tag. As shown in FIG. 2, the RF tag 12 includes an antenna 14 and an IC chip 18 having a communication circuit (not shown) that communicates with the reader/writer 16 via the antenna 14. The IC chip 18 has a CPU (not shown) and a memory (not shown) built therein, and unique information (hereinafter, referred to as “tag information”) determined so that the RF tag 12 can be uniquely identified. Is stored in memory.

Returning to FIG. 1, the product P to which the RF tag 12 is attached is displayed on a shelf or a table in the store, and the customer selects the product P he/she likes and puts it in the shopping basket B. Here, there is a need to grasp the total amount of a plurality of products P in the shopping basket B while continuing shopping. Therefore, in the information providing system 10 according to the present embodiment, the total amount of the products P put in the shopping basket B is displayed on the mobile terminal 22 of the clerk S using the reading device 20 that reads the tag information of the RF tag 12. I have decided.
Hereinafter, the reading device 20 and the mobile terminal 22 will be described in detail.

The reading device 20 is a stationary device that communicates with the RF tag 12 attached to the product P in the shopping basket B and reads the tag information, and includes a housing 24 as shown in FIG. The housing 24 includes a rectangular bottom plate 26 that is wider than the outer shape of the edge of the shopping basket B. To each edge of the bottom plate 26, four wall plates 28 (FIG. 1) standing upright with respect to the bottom plate 26 are joined. Each wall plate 28 extends vertically to the height of an adult's waist, and the vertical edges thereof are joined to each other. The four wall plates 28 (FIG. 1) and the bottom plate 26 form a rectangular housing 24 that opens upward.

Inside the housing 24, two horizontal plates 32 and 50 are vertically provided. The upper horizontal plate 32 is detachably supported by a shelf support 34. The horizontal plate 32 is a rectangular plate on which the shopping basket (FIG. 1) containing the products P (FIG. 1) is placed, and the placed shopping basket B is inside the enclosure formed by the wall plate 28. The height is adjusted to fit in. That is, the horizontal plate 32 functions as a placing portion on which the shopping basket B is placed. The lower horizontal plate 50 is adhered to the inner wall surface of each wall plate 28. An antenna 60 of the reader/writer 16 is arranged on the horizontal plate 50. The horizontal plates 32, 50, the wall plates 28, and the bottom plate 26 are made of wood.

Here, in each wall plate 28, the radio wave reflection sheet 38 is attached to the inner wall surface 42 extending above the horizontal plate 50. The radio wave reflection sheet 38 is a sheet made of metal such as aluminum, and functions as a radio wave reflection layer that reflects radio waves on its surface. A radio wave absorption sheet 40 is attached to the entire inner surface of the radio wave reflection sheet 38. The radio wave absorbing sheet 40 is a sheet formed by mixing magnetic metal powder with a rubber material, and functions as a radio wave absorbing layer that absorbs radio waves inside. Similarly, the radio wave reflection sheet 38 is also attached to the upper surface of the horizontal plate 50, and the radio wave absorption sheet 40 is further attached to the radio wave reflection sheet 38. As described above, the radio wave reflection sheet 38 and the radio wave absorption sheet 40 provided on each wall plate 28 and the horizontal plate 50 constitute the shield portion 44 that houses the antenna 60 and has the opening 30 formed upward.

A space for housing the shopping basket B is formed by the shield part 44 and the horizontal plate 32 described above. That is, the shield part 44 and the horizontal plate 32 function as a housing part 36 for housing the shopping basket B.

The internal space formed below the horizontal plate 50 is a space in which the main body 48 of the reader/writer 16 is installed, and the lower portions of the four wall plates 28 and the bottom plate 26 forming this space function as a base 46. ing. In addition, the horizontal plate 50 and the radio wave reflection sheet 38 and the radio wave absorption sheet 40 attached to the horizontal plate 50 have through holes 52 penetrating the front and back thereof, and the wiring 54 passed through the through holes 52. Thus, the antenna 60 and the main body 48 installed on the bottom plate 26 are electrically connected to each other.

As shown in FIG. 2, the main body 48 of the reader/writer 16 has a communication circuit 62 (transmission/reception circuit, oscillation circuit, modulation/demodulation circuit) for communicating with the RF tag 12 via a CPU 56, a memory 58, and an antenna 60. And wifi module 64. The CPU 56 executes the program in the memory 58 to collectively or individually acquire the tag information from the RF tag 12 via the communication circuit 62 and the antenna 60, and uses the wifi module 64 to acquire the tag information to the mobile terminal 22. And send.

The mobile terminal 22 is a smart device such as a tablet terminal or a smart phone owned by the store clerk S (FIG. 1B) of the store, and as shown in FIG. 2, mainly the CPU 66, the memory 68, and the wifi module. It is realized by a computer including 70, a liquid crystal display 72, and a touch sensor 74.

An information providing program 76 is stored in the memory 68. A product table 78 is defined in advance in the information providing program 76. The product table 78 is a table in which, for all the products P in the store, product information such as the name, size, and amount of each product P (FIG. 1) is associated with each tag information. Therefore, the computer including the memory 68 functions as the storage unit 80 (FIG. 4) that stores the product information in association with the tag information.

The information providing program 76 further defines a process for providing information regarding the product P to the customer, and the process is executed by the CPU 66. Specifically, the acquisition step, the information generation step, and the output step are executed by the CPU 66 in this order.
(1) The acquisition step is a step of acquiring tag information, which connects to the network via the wifi module 70, specifies the reader/writer 16 existing on the connected network by the IP address, and specifies the specified reader. The writer 16 is requested to transmit the tag information, and the tag information read from the reader/writer 16 is received. In this way, the wifi module 70 and the CPU 66 function as an acquisition unit 82 (FIG. 4) that acquires tag information.
(2) The information generation step is a step of generating provision information to be provided to the customer based on the received tag information, and the product information corresponding to the received tag information is extracted from the product table 78, for example, extracted. List the product information and add up the prices included in the product information. In this way, the CPU 66 functions as the information generation unit 84 (FIG. 4) that generates the provision information.
(3) The output step is a step of outputting the generated provision information, and as shown in FIG. 1B, a list of the products P in the shopping basket B and the total amount are displayed on the liquid crystal display 72. To do. Thus, the CPU 66 and the liquid crystal display 72 function as the output unit 86 (FIG. 4) that outputs the provided information.

As described above, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, when the shopping basket B is set in the accommodation unit 36 of the reading device 20, the tag information of each product P is read by the reading device 20 with the accommodation unit 36 opened. Is read out and the provided information (list or total amount) is displayed by the mobile terminal 22.

According to the reading device 20 of the present embodiment, the reading preparation of the RF tag 12 is completed by a simple operation such as inserting the shopping basket B into the storage portion 36 through the opening 30. Further, at the time of reading (during communication), it is possible to reconfirm the product P while looking at the product P of the shopping basket B from the opening 30.

Then, the shield part 44 forming the housing part 36 suppresses the radio wave emitted from the antenna 60 of the reader/writer 16 from spreading around the reader 20 and reduces the influence of the radio wave on other devices. You can In addition, it is possible to prevent radio waves from other devices around the reading device 20 from entering the housing portion 36, and reduce a decrease in reading accuracy due to radio wave interference.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the shield portion 44 is formed outside the radio wave absorption sheet 40 so that the radio wave reflection sheet 38 surrounds the radio wave absorption sheet 40. Therefore, the weak electric wave leaked from the electric wave absorbing sheet 40 is reflected by the electric wave reflecting sheet 38 and is absorbed inside the electric wave absorbing sheet 40, and the electric wave shielding performance is excellent. As a result, the communication area with the RF tag 12 is limited to the housing portion 36 and above the housing portion 36, and there is no problem of misreading the tag information of the RF tag 12 of the product P around the reading device 20.

The reading device and the information providing system according to the present invention have been described above based on the embodiments. However, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above-described forms, and is implemented in the following forms, for example. I don't mind.

<Modification>
(1) In the above embodiment, the antenna 60 of the reader/writer 16 is attached to the horizontal plate 50, but the antenna 60 may be attached to the lower surface side of the horizontal plate 32. In this case, the structure may be simplified by omitting the horizontal plate 50. Further, the antenna 60 may be attached to the upper surface side of the horizontal plate 32. In this case, the radio wave reflection sheet 38 may be provided on the upper surface or the lower surface of the horizontal plate 32 to further reduce the influence of radio waves. Alternatively, the antenna 60 may be attached to the inner wall surface side of the wall plate 28. In short, the antenna 60 may be attached anywhere inside the shield part 44 as long as it is apart from the opening 30.

(2) In the above-described embodiment, the radio wave reflection sheet 38 and the radio wave absorption sheet 40 provided on the inner wall surface of each wall plate 28 are lowered to the extent that the wireless communication between the main body 48 of the reader/writer 16 and the mobile terminal 22 is not hindered. May extend to.

(3) Further, the radio wave absorption sheet 40 provided on the horizontal plate 50 may be omitted.

(4) Further, the radio wave reflection layer and the radio wave absorption layer are not limited to sheet materials, and may be plate materials. In this case, the upper portion of each wall plate 28 forming the peripheral wall around the shield portion 44 may be omitted.

(5) In the above embodiment, the horizontal plate 32 is arranged at a position (depth) where the shopping basket B is stored, but at a position (depth) where a part of the shopping basket B is exposed. It may be arranged.

(6) Further, the horizontal plate 32 is not limited to being arranged inside the shield portion 44. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the horizontal plate 90 may be provided so as to cover the opening 30 of the shield part 44. In this case, it is preferable to display a mark of a place (area) on which the shopping basket B is placed on the upper surface of the horizontal plate 90. Even in the modification, since the reading device 20 performs communication within the communication area shown in FIG. 3, the influence of radio waves on other devices can be reduced. Further, the customer only needs to place the shopping basket B on the horizontal plate 90, which is simple.

(7) In the above embodiment, the four wall plates 28 form a rectangular enclosure, and the shield portion 44 is formed along the inner wall surface of the enclosure. However, the enclosure may have another polygonal shape or a circular shape. Alternatively, the shield part 44 may also be polygonal or circular.

(8) Further, the shield portion may have a mode in which an opening is formed laterally. That is, the housing includes a bottom plate 26, four wall plates 28, a top plate provided at the upper end of each wall plate 28, and horizontal plates 32 and 50, and an upper part of one wall plate 28. The opening may be formed in and out of the article. In this aspect, it is preferable that the radio wave reflection sheet 38 is attached to the entire lower surface of the top plate, and the radio wave absorption sheet 40 is attached to the entire lower surface of the radio wave reflection sheet 38.

(9) Further, the opening 30 of the shield part 44 may be formed in at least one direction, and may be formed in, for example, two directions of upward and sideways.

(10) In the above embodiment, the reader/writer 16 and the mobile terminal 22 use the wifi modules 64 and 70 to communicate via the network. However, the communication interface is not limited to this, and Bluetooth (registered trademark) may be used. ) A known wireless communication interface such as a module can be used.

(11) In the above embodiment, the mobile terminal 22 is used as an information providing device that provides information to the customer, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a device used as a higher-level device of the reader/writer 16, for example, a reader via a network. It may be a server that can communicate with the writer 16.

(12) In the above embodiment, clothing has been described as an example, but it may be used for various products such as food products, home appliances, books, and DVDs.

(13) In the above-described embodiment, the product is described as an example, but the product is not limited to the product, and may be used for various products such as a sample product and a card or a document in which the content of service is described. In this case, the memory 68 (storage unit 80) of the mobile terminal 22 (information providing terminal) stores an article table in which article information regarding articles and tag information are associated with each other.

The present invention can be carried out in a mode in which various improvements, modifications, or variations are added based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Further, within the scope of producing the same action or effect, any of the matters specifying the invention may be replaced with another technique.

10... Information providing system 12... RF tag 16... Reader/writer 20... Reading device 22... Mobile terminal (information providing device)
36... Housing 38... Radio wave reflection sheet (radio wave reflection layer)
40... Electromagnetic wave absorption sheet (electromagnetic wave absorption layer)
44 Shield section 48 Main body of reader/writer 60 Antenna 80 Storage section 82 Acquisition section 84 Information generation section 86 Output section P Product (article)

Claims (5)

A stationary reader that reads information from an RF tag attached to an article,
An antenna that radiates a radio wave for communicating with the RF tag;
A shield part that is provided in a housing that is opened upward, accommodates the antenna, surrounds the article, and has an opening that is wider than the article and that is formed upward.
Equipped with
The shield part has a radio wave shielding performance part including a radio wave absorbing layer that absorbs the radio wave, and the radio wave absorbing layer is at least on a space side for accommodating the article in the radio wave shielding performance part,
A reading device, wherein information is read from the RF tag in a state in which the housing and the shield section are opened upward. A stationary reader that reads information from an RF tag attached to an item placed in a shopping basket,
An antenna that radiates a radio wave for communicating with the RF tag;
A shield part that is provided in a housing that opens upwards, accommodates the antenna, surrounds the shopping basket, and has an opening wider than the shopping basket that is formed upwards.
Equipped with
The shield part has a radio wave shielding performance part including a radio wave absorbing layer that absorbs the radio wave, and the radio wave absorbing layer is at least on a space side for accommodating the shopping basket in the radio wave shielding performance part,
The housing and the shield part are configured to be capable of enclosing and taking in and out the shopping basket containing the article in a state of being opened upward, and it is possible to read information from the RF tag while maintaining the state. Characteristic reading device. The reading device according to claim 1, further comprising: a placement unit disposed on the opening side of the antenna, on which the article is placed. The reading device according to claim 1, wherein the shield portion includes a radio wave reflection layer formed outside the radio wave absorption layer and configured to reflect the radio wave. A reading device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
An information providing device capable of communicating with the reading device;
Equipped with
The information providing device,
A storage unit that stores the item information related to the item in association with the information of the RF tag;
An acquisition unit for acquiring information on the RF tag from the reading device;
A generation unit that extracts the article information corresponding to the acquired information of the RF tag from the storage unit and generates information to be provided;
An output unit for outputting the generated information to be provided,
An information providing system including.

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