HK1114821B - Product monitoring system for a shopping cart - Google Patents

Abstract

A detection device is provided for alerting a cashier to the presence of an object located on the lower tray of a shopping cart. The detection device uses a combination of a weight sensor and a presence sensor to trigger a signal, all of which are mounted on the cart. The signal is positioned so as to be visible by the user of the cart and store personnel.

Description

Goods monitoring system for shopping trolleys

Technical Field

The invention relates to a system for monitoring goods in a goods accommodation space on a shopping trolley.

Background

Since the advent of modern shopping trolleys, it has often happened that unpaid goods inadvertently left the retail grocery store through the shopping trolley chassis. The reason is that when a customer pushes the shopping trolley to the checkstand for payment, the cashier often cannot see the chassis of the shopping trolley because the checkstand blocks his view. Thus, in many cases, the customer is not conscious, but takes the item away from the store without paying for the item. Although some dishonest people have deliberately taken advantage of this technical deficiency, the careless one is the most interesting problem.

Some have investigated the shortcomings of point-of-sale designs in a comprehensive manner. It is estimated that on average, 85% of the losses in the retail grocery store industry can be attributed to the goods placed on the bottom tray of the shopping cart. The most obvious solution to this problem is of course to remove this chassis; however, it also represents a significant portion of extra turnover as the chassis can hold large items such as dog food or a box of soda. Without the chassis, customers are generally reluctant to place these large items in a shopping basket.

Occasionally, a cashier or other store employee may find that the chassis has items not paid after the items have been checked and paid. To make a refund, the cashier must pay a little more than the customer. This can be embarrassing for both the cashier and the customer and also delays. In view of this, the cashier often no longer stops the customer after the payment for the checked goods has been completed.

Over the last 35 years, there have been several systems designed and actually tried. Previous techniques for eliminating this problem have used different components and configurations, used mirrors, observers (employees who are momentarily aware of the chassis), and also used infrared sensors with mirrors and mechanical linkages mounted on the cart. But since earlier designs and methods lacked flexibility and were not accurate, a truly practical system has never appeared.

Generally, the process of detecting items on the chassis can be said to be active, since it means that a certain system is activated for the occurrence of a certain event. The true sense of activation is that the cashier is alerted by the device that the goods are placed on the chassis, thereby requiring the customer to pay before the money transaction is completed. This is the effect to be achieved by the present invention. False activation occurs when the reminder mechanism is triggered by other reasons in the event that there is no item on the shopping cart chassis. The number of false activations must be reduced or eliminated altogether, giving the cashier confidence in the system and avoiding the occurrence of an unpleasant situation where there is no goods on the chassis and the cashier requires the customer to pay for the goods on the chassis. The non-activated state is the situation where the cargo is on the chassis but not detected.

Techniques and applications that attempt to overcome the above problems have not been very successful to date. There are many reasons for this, including differences in the design of the shopping cart or the design of the checkstand, differences in the flow of people at the point of sale, problems with the type of technology used, and the unawareness of the cashier himself, etc.

Several systems have been used to activate the signal by detecting the weight of the chassis, but these inventions have either proven to be unreliable or can be easily prevented from activating by the customer by mechanically inserting something into the cart.

Large objects are also a problem for early detection systems. In a typical shopping cart, the chassis is tilted rearward of the cart in a fixed position to prevent the goods on the chassis from rolling forward or sliding out when the cart is suddenly stopped. The result is that the shopping cart frame is positioned at its highest point when the chassis is in its natural or empty condition. This early detection system was not useful if the goods were large and could even be hung across the frame without touching the chassis.

Disclosure of Invention

In a shopping cart having a chassis and a frame, the present invention provides an item detection system comprising:

a) a weight sensor fixed on the chassis,

b) a presence sensor, located on the frame, oriented towards the chassis,

c) a annunciator positioned at a conspicuous location on the shopping cart,

the signal will only be activated if both the weight sensor and the presence sensor are activated.

The presence sensor may comprise a combination of one or more of the following elements: beam radiation, such as: infrared, microwave, or beam radiation; ultrasonic waves, and cermet or piezoelectric elements.

The weight sensor may comprise a combination of one or more of the following elements: mechanical pressure plates, pressure strip, deformation measuring sensors, resistive bending sensors, mechanical spring and weight scale combination, magnetic scales.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a side view of a first embodiment of a system

FIG. 2 is a side view of a second embodiment of the system

Fig. 3 is a wide-angle diagram of signals and a controller for a third embodiment of the system.

Detailed Description

In a first embodiment, shown in figure 1, the shopping trolley 1 has a chassis 2 and a shopping basket 11 attached to the frame 3. The shopping trolley can be fitted with or retrofitted with a weight sensor 4, an infrared sensor 5 and a annunciator 8. When an article is placed in the tray 2, the weight sensor 4 is activated and the infrared beam 6 is blocked, thus activating the infrared sensor 5. When both the weight sensor 4 and the infrared sensor 5 are activated simultaneously, the annunciator 8 is also activated, thus alerting a person next to the shopping trolley, with the goods on the chassis 2, in a striking manner.

The weight sensor 4 and the infrared sensor 5 may be connected to the annunciator 8 and the controller 9 by a wire harness 7 as electric wires.

The controller 9 may be located on the handlebar 10, anywhere on or within the frame 3, or within the annunciator 8, infrared sensor 5, or weight sensor 4. The controller 9 can preferably include a solar cell to power the system and may also include an internal electronic processor. The controller 9 may be used to check the states of the weight sensor 4 and the infrared sensor 5, may generate power to supply power to the annunciator 8 in a case where both the weight sensor 4 and the infrared sensor 5 are in an activated state, and may restore the annunciator to an initial state in a case where the weight sensor 4 or the infrared sensor 5 is deactivated.

The infrared sensor 5 may detect the cargo on the chassis 2 using active pulsed retro-reflected infrared. In a first embodiment, the infrared sensor 5 is activated only when there is a load on the chassis 2 and the weight sensor 4 is activated.

The infrared sensor 5 may also be replaced by any other form of presence sensor that can be activated without object contact, such as a microwave sensor, a light beam sensor, or an ultrasonic sensor. The presence sensor may be placed at any location where the presence of cargo on the chassis 2 can be detected. The infrared sensor 5 may be replaced by a variety of presence sensors, the same or different technologies, provided that it is capable of detecting the presence of goods on the chassis 2.

The weight sensor 4 is preferably comprised of a durable material that can be embedded with one or more pressure plate switches. Alternatively, the weight sensor 4 may be formed by one or more, or a combination of, mechanical pressure plates, pressure strips, strain gauge sensors, resistive buckling sensors, a combination of mechanical springs and scales, magnetic scales, etc. The chassis 2 and the weight sensor 4 may be integrated into the same housing.

The annunciator 8 can be placed anywhere in the shopping cart so long as it is readily visible to a cashier or other employee of the store. Its location also depends on the structure of the shopping cart. Generally speaking, the desired location for annunciator 8 is inside shopping basket 11 in front of shopping cart 1. For a typical shopping cart, this location is generally not encountered by items during stacking of the items, and thus the placement of the annunciator 8 therein prevents damage during stacking. The signal will only light up if a product is pressed against the weight sensor 4 and the beam of the infrared sensor 6 is blocked.

In a second embodiment, shown in FIG. 2, the annunciator 12 may be a frosted acrylic paint bar running along the upper perimeter of the shopping basket 11, the paint bar being illuminated by a high brightness light emitting diode concealed therein.

In a third embodiment, shown in fig. 3, the annunciator 13 and the controller 14 can be integrated into the same housing and be positioned inside the shopping basket 11 in front of the shopping cart 1. In this embodiment, the handle 15 of the cart is located at the rear of the cart.

In a fourth embodiment, the presence sensor may be in the form of a piezo-electric or pressure sensor, placed in any upward position of the frame 3 against the chassis 2, so that it can detect if large goods are hanging above the chassis against the frame. This presence sensor may be a piece of strip material that is stretched out in close proximity to the chassis 2 at any location around the frame. In this embodiment, the annunciator is activated when either or both of the weight sensor 4 or the presence sensor are activated.

The present invention may be mounted or retrofitted on shopping carts of any design, including those having two baskets or trays, stacked against or on either side of a frame. The present invention may have the weight sensor and the infrared sensor mounted on each chassis or only on the one closest to the ground, depending on the situation. The above recommended description of the embodiments is presented only as an example. The implementation of the present invention can have many systematic and methodological differences based on essentially the same principles, which can be seen at a glance by anyone with relevant knowledge in this field. Such differences, whether explicitly mentioned or not, are nevertheless within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (17)

1. An item monitoring system for a shopping cart having a chassis and a frame, the item monitoring system comprising: a weight sensor fixed on the chassis,

a presence sensor, located on the frame, oriented towards the chassis,

a annunciator positioned at a conspicuous location on the shopping cart,

wherein the annunciator is activated only when both the weight sensor and the presence sensor are activated, and wherein the annunciator remains activated only when both the weight sensor and the presence sensor are activated, and otherwise is deactivated.

2. The item monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the presence sensor comprises a beam emission sensor.

3. The item monitoring system of claim 2 wherein the presence sensor is configured to emit or detect infrared emissions, microwave emissions, or light beam emissions, and the presence sensor is configured to be activated when the emitted light beam is blocked from an item present on the tray.

4. The item monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the presence sensor comprises an ultrasonic sensor and the presence sensor is activated when ultrasonic reflections from the ultrasonic sensor are blocked by an item present on the tray.

5. The item monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the presence sensor comprises a plurality of presence sensors, and the presence sensor is activated if any of the presence sensors are activated.

6. The item monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the weight sensor is comprised of one or more of the following: mechanical pressure plates, pressure strip, deformation measuring sensors, resistive bending sensors, mechanical spring and weight scale combinations, magnetic scales, and wherein the weight sensor is activated with an item placed on the weight sensor.

7. The item monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the weight sensor and the chassis are integrated into a common housing.

8. The item monitoring system of claim 1 further comprising circuitry connecting the weight sensor and the presence sensor to the annunciator.

9. The item monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the cart also includes an item basket, the annunciator being positioned within the item basket in front of the cart.

10. The item monitoring system of claim 1 further comprising:

a controller for monitoring the weight sensor and the presence sensor and activating the annunciator, an

A power source.

11. The item monitoring system of claim 10 wherein the power source is a solar cell.

12. The item monitoring system of claim 10 wherein the controller controls the power source.

13. The item monitoring system of claim 10 wherein the controller is configured to monitor the status of the system and to assist in error checking in the event of a system failure by providing system information.

14. The item monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the presence sensor is activated when the weight sensor is activated.

15. The item monitoring system of any one of claims 1 to 14 being retrofittable to existing shopping carts.

16. The item monitoring system of any of claims 1-14 being mountable to a new shopping cart.

17. The item monitoring system of claim 1,

the presence sensor includes at least one pressure sensitive strip, the device being positioned in the frame in close proximity to the chassis, the pressure sensitive side of the at least one pressure sensitive strip being upwardly facing, and wherein activation of any one of the pressure sensitive strips activates the presence sensor.