JP7470953B2 - Reading device and information providing system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a reading device that reads information from an RF tag, and an information provision system that provides information about an item to which the RF tag is attached.

In recent years, an accounting system 100 as shown in FIG. 6 has been proposed to facilitate smooth accounting in stores. This accounting system 100 is composed of an RF tag 102 attached to each product P, a reader/writer 104 that reads information from the RF tag 102, and a cash register 106 that is communicatively connected to the reader/writer 104. The reader/writer 104 is installed on the back of the accounting counter T and reads information from the RF tags 102 of the products P in a shopping basket on the accounting counter T in a batch and transmits the read information to the cash register 106. The cash 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, the transaction can be completed with the simple action of placing the shopping basket on the accounting counter T. Furthermore, because the transaction can be completed with the shopping basket still on the accounting counter T, the contents of the shopping basket can be seen, and the customer can reconfirm the product P to be purchased while the transaction is being completed. On the other hand, because the communication area of the reader/writer 104 is continuous with the space in which the customer exists, there is a possibility that the radio waves emitted from the antenna of the reader/writer 104 may affect other devices, or that the radio waves emitted from other devices may interfere with the communication radio waves of the reader/writer 104.

Here, the reading device of Patent Document 1 comprises a housing that contains products through an opening, and a lid that opens and closes the opening, with the housing and lid being formed from materials that reflect or absorb radio waves. This reading device reads RF tags when the opening of the housing is closed with the lid, i.e., when the items contained within the housing are sealed with a shield, so it is possible to prevent the above-mentioned problems related to radio waves.

JP 2015-207110 A

However, the reading device of Patent Document 1 requires customers to place products inside the housing, close the lid, complete the checkout process, and then open the lid to remove the products, which is a cumbersome process. In addition, because the shopping basket contained within the housing cannot be seen, customers are unable to check the products again during the checkout process. In other words, customer convenience is compromised.

As such, it has been difficult to ensure customer convenience while simultaneously reducing the impact of radio waves. This problem can occur not only with reading devices used in accounting, but also with stationary devices that read RF tags attached to items.

In view of the above problems, the present invention aims to provide a reading device and an information provision system that reduce the effects of radio waves while ensuring convenience during reading.

To achieve the above object, the present invention is a reading device that reads information from an RF tag attached to an item, comprising an antenna that emits radio waves for communicating with the RF tag, and a shield section that houses the antenna and has an opening that is wider than the item, and is characterized in that the information is read from the RF tag when the shield section is open.

The device is also characterized by having a placement section on the opening side of the antenna on which the item is placed.

The shield section is also characterized by having a radio wave absorbing layer that absorbs the radio waves, and a radio wave reflecting layer that is formed on the outside of the radio wave absorbing layer and reflects the radio waves.

The present invention also includes the above-mentioned reading device and an information providing device capable of communicating with the reading device, the information providing device including a storage unit that stores item information about the item in association with the RF tag information, an acquisition unit that acquires the RF tag information from the reading device, an information generating unit that extracts the item information corresponding to the acquired RF tag information from the storage unit and generates information to be provided, and an output unit that outputs the generated information to be provided.

According to the present invention, since the antenna is housed within the shield section, it is possible to suppress the spread of radio waves emitted from the antenna and reduce the impact of radio waves on other devices. Furthermore, since the shield section has an opening wider than the object, it is possible to read the RF tag by placing the object inside the shield or on the opening. In this case, since reading is performed with the shield section open, there is no need for the troublesome action of closing the opening as in the past. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the impact of radio waves while ensuring convenience when reading.

1A is a perspective view of a reading device of an information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a diagram showing a manner in which information is provided by a mobile terminal. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an RF tag, a reader, and a mobile terminal that constitute the information provision system. 3A and 3B are a cross-sectional view and a partially enlarged cross-sectional view of the reading device. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the mobile terminal. FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of a reading device according to a modified example of the embodiment. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional accounting system.

Below, an embodiment 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. 1(a), the information provision system 10 according to this embodiment is used in a store that sells products P, such as clothing. In the store, an RF tag 12 is attached to each product P along with a price tag. As shown in FIG. 2, the RF tag 12 is composed of an antenna 14 and an IC chip 18 that has a built-in communication circuit (not shown) that communicates with a reader/writer 16 via the antenna 14. The IC chip 18 has a built-in CPU (not shown) and memory (not shown), and unique information (hereinafter referred to as "tag information") that is determined so as to uniquely identify the RF tag 12 is stored in the memory.

1, products P with the RF tags 12 attached are displayed on shelves or tables in a store, and customers select products P that they like and place them in a shopping basket B. While continuing shopping, there is a need to know the total price of the multiple products P in the shopping basket B. Therefore, in the information provision system 10 according to this embodiment, a reader 20 that reads the tag information of the RF tags 12 is used to display the total price of the products P placed in the shopping basket B on the mobile terminal 22 of the store clerk S.
The reader 20 and the mobile terminal 22 will now be described in detail.

The reading device 20 is a stationary device that communicates with the RF tags 12 attached to the products P in the shopping basket B to read the tag information, and has a housing 24 as shown in FIG. 3. The housing 24 has a rectangular bottom plate 26 that is wider than the outer shape of the edge of the shopping basket B. Four wall plates 28 (FIG. 1) that are erected perpendicular to the bottom plate 26 are joined to each edge of the bottom plate 26. Each wall plate 28 extends vertically to about waist height of an adult, and each perpendicular edge is 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, 50 are provided, one above the other. The upper horizontal plate 32 is detachably supported by a shelf support 34. The horizontal plate 32 is a square plate on which a shopping basket (FIG. 1) containing a product P (FIG. 1) is placed, and its height is adjusted so that the placed shopping basket B fits within the enclosure formed by the wall plates 28. In other words, the horizontal plate 32 functions as a placement section on which the shopping basket B is placed. The lower horizontal plate 50 is glued to the inner wall surface of each wall plate 28. An antenna 60 of the reader/writer 16 is disposed on the horizontal plate 50. The horizontal plates 32, 50, each wall plate 28, and the bottom plate 26 are made of wood.

Here, in each wall panel 28, a radio wave reflection sheet 38 is attached to the inner wall surface 42 that extends 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 absorbing 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 made of a rubber material mixed with magnetic metal powder, and functions as a radio wave absorbing layer that absorbs radio waves inside. Similarly, a radio wave reflection sheet 38 is attached to the upper surface of the horizontal plate 50, and a radio wave absorbing sheet 40 is attached on top of the radio wave reflection sheet 38. In this way, the radio wave reflection sheet 38 and the radio wave absorbing sheet 40 provided on each wall panel 28 and horizontal plate 50 form a shield section 44 that houses the antenna 60 and has an opening 30 facing upward.

The above-mentioned shield portion 44 and horizontal plate 32 form a space for accommodating the shopping basket B. In other words, the shield portion 44 and horizontal plate 32 function as a storage portion 36 that accommodates the shopping basket B.

The internal space formed below the horizontal plate 50 is the space in which the main body 48 of the reader/writer 16 is installed, and the lower parts of the four wall plates 28 that form this space and the bottom plate 26 function as the base 46. The horizontal plate 50 and the radio wave reflection sheet 38 and radio wave absorption sheet 40 attached to the horizontal plate 50 have through holes 52 that penetrate from the front to the back, and the antenna 60 and the main body 48 installed on the bottom plate 26 are electrically connected to each other by wiring 54 that passes through the through holes 52.

2, the main body 48 of the reader/writer 16 includes a CPU 56, a memory 58, a communication circuit 62 (transmitter/receiver circuit, oscillator circuit, modulation/demodulation circuit) for communicating with the RF tag 12 via the antenna 60, and a WiFi module 64. The CPU 56 executes a program in the memory 58 to acquire tag information from the RF tag 12 via the communication circuit 62 and the antenna 60 either collectively or individually, and transmits the tag information to the mobile terminal 22 using the WiFi module 64.

The mobile terminal 22 is a smart device such as a tablet terminal or smartphone owned by a store clerk S (Figure 1 (b)), and as shown in Figure 2, is realized by a computer mainly including a CPU 66, memory 68, a WiFi module 70, an LCD display 72, and a touch sensor 74.

The memory 68 stores an information provision program 76. The information provision program 76 has a product table 78 defined in advance. The product table 78 is a table in which product information such as the name, size, and price of each product P (Figure 1) is associated with each tag information for all products P in the store. Therefore, the computer having the memory 68 functions as a storage unit 80 (Figure 4) that stores product information in association with tag information.

The information provision program 76 further defines a process for providing information on the product P to the customer, and this process is executed by the CPU 66. Specifically, the CPU 66 executes an acquisition step, an information generation step, and an output step in this order.
(1) The acquisition step is a step of acquiring tag information, in which a connection is made to a network via the WiFi module 70, a reader/writer 16 present on the connected network is identified by its IP address, a request is made to the identified reader/writer 16 to transmit 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 generating step is a step of generating information to be provided to a customer based on the received tag information, in which product information corresponding to the received tag information is extracted from the product table 78, and the extracted product information is compiled into a list, and the prices included in the product information are added up. In this way, the CPU 66 functions as an information generating unit 84 (FIG. 4) that generates the information to be provided.
(3) The output step is a step of outputting the generated provided information, and as shown in Fig. 1(b), displays a list of the products P in the shopping basket B and the total amount on the liquid crystal display 72. In this way, the CPU 66 and the liquid crystal display 72 function as an output unit 86 (Fig. 4) that outputs the provided information.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, when a shopping basket B is set in the storage section 36 of the reading device 20, the tag information of each product P is read by the reading device 20 with the storage section 36 open, and the provided information (list and total price) is displayed by the mobile terminal 22.

According to the reading device 20 of the present embodiment, preparation for reading the RF tag 12 is completed by a simple action of placing the shopping basket B in the storage section 36 through the opening 30. In addition, when reading (communicating), the product P in the shopping basket B can be viewed through the opening 30 to reconfirm the product P.

The shielding section 44 that constitutes the housing section 36 prevents radio waves emitted from the antenna 60 of the reader/writer 16 from spreading around the reading device 20, reducing the effect of the radio waves on other devices. It also prevents radio waves from other devices around the reading device 20 from entering the housing section 36, reducing the deterioration of reading accuracy caused by radio wave interference.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, the shield section 44 is formed on the outside of the radio wave absorbing sheet 40 so that the radio wave reflecting sheet 38 surrounds the radio wave absorbing sheet 40. Therefore, weak radio waves leaking from the radio wave absorbing sheet 40 are reflected by the radio wave reflecting sheet 38 and absorbed inside the radio wave absorbing sheet 40, resulting in excellent radio wave shielding performance. As a result, the communication area with the RF tag 12 is limited to the storage section 36 and the area above it, and there is no problem of the tag information of the RF tag 12 of the product P around the reader 20 being misread.

The reading device and information providing system according to the present invention have been described above based on the embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and may be embodied in the following forms, for example:

<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 horizontal plate 50 may be omitted to simplify the structure. The antenna 60 may also be attached to the upper surface side of the horizontal plate 32. In this case, the influence of radio waves can be further reduced by providing a radio wave reflection sheet 38 on the upper surface or lower surface of the horizontal plate 32. 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 away from the opening 30.

(2) In the above embodiment, the radio wave reflection sheet 38 and the radio wave absorption sheet 40 provided on the inner wall surface of each wall panel 28 may extend downward to an extent that does not impede wireless communication between the main body 48 of the reader/writer 16 and the mobile terminal 22.

(3) In addition, the radio wave absorbing sheet 40 provided on the horizontal plate 50 may be omitted.

(4) Furthermore, the radio wave reflection layer and the radio wave absorption layer are not limited to being made of sheet material, and may be made of plate material. In this case, the upper parts of each wall plate 28 that forms the peripheral wall around the shield portion 44 may be omitted.

(5) In the above embodiment, the horizontal plate 32 is positioned at a position (depth) where the shopping basket B can be accommodated, but it may be positioned at a position (depth) where a portion of the shopping basket B is exposed.

(6) Furthermore, the horizontal plate 32 is not limited to being disposed 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 portion 44. In this case, it is preferable to display a mark indicating the location (area) where the shopping basket B is placed on the upper surface of the horizontal plate 90. Even in this modified embodiment, the reading device 20 communicates within the communication area shown in FIG. 3, so the influence of radio waves on other devices can be reduced. Also, it is easy because the customer only needs to place the shopping basket B on the horizontal plate 90.

(7) In the above embodiment, a rectangular enclosure is formed by four wall panels 28, and the shield portion 44 is formed along the inner wall surface of the rectangular enclosure. However, the shape of the enclosure may be another polygon or circle, and the shield portion 44 may also be a polygon or circle.

(8) The shielding portion may also have a sideways opening. That is, the housing may have 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, 50, and an opening for inserting and removing items may be formed at the top of one of the wall plates 28. In this embodiment, it is preferable that a radio wave reflection sheet 38 is attached to the entire underside of the top plate, and a radio wave absorption sheet 40 is attached to the entire underside of the radio wave reflection sheet 38.

(9) In addition, the opening 30 of the shield portion 44 only needs to be formed in at least one direction, and may be formed in two directions, for example, upward and sideways.

(10) In the above embodiment, the reader/writer 16 and the mobile terminal 22 communicate over a network using their respective WiFi modules 64, 70, but the communication interface is not limited to this and any known wireless communication interface such as a Bluetooth (registered trademark) module can be used.

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

(12) In the above embodiment, clothing was used as an example, but the invention may be used for a variety of products, such as food, home appliances, books, and DVDs.

(13) In the above embodiment, a product has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to a product and may be used for various items such as sample items, cards or documents listing details of a service, etc. In this case, the memory 68 (storage unit 80) of the mobile terminal 22 (information providing terminal) stores an item table in which item information and tag information relating to the item are associated with each other.

The present invention can be implemented in various forms that include improvements, modifications, or variations based on the knowledge of a person skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. In addition, the invention can be implemented in a form in which any of the invention-specific features are replaced with other technologies within the scope of the same action or effect.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 Information provision system 12 RF tag 16 Reader/writer 20 Reading device 22 Mobile terminal (information provision device)
36 ... Storage section 38 ... Radio wave reflective sheet (radio wave reflective layer)
40... Radio wave absorbing sheet (radio wave absorbing layer)
44: Shield section 48: Reader/writer main body 60: Antenna 80: Storage section 82: Acquisition section 84: Information generation section 86: Output section P: Product (article)

Claims (1)

A reader that reads information from an RF tag attached to an item, comprising:
an antenna that emits radio waves for communicating with the RF tag;
a shield portion provided in a housing that is open only upward and that houses the antenna;
Equipped with
The housing and the shield part are configured to be capable of surrounding and removing a shopping basket containing the items with an opening only facing upward, and the reading device is characterized in that it reads information from the RF tag while maintaining this state.

Images