JPH0581523A - Unattended store system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To eliminate the work of reading the product code at the time of payment processing and to realize unmanned stores and shorten the payment processing time. [Composition] A scanner 25 is provided in a cart 10 handled by a customer, and a product code read for each customer is transmitted by a transmitter 2
3 to the centralized control device 11, and the CPU 51 of the centralized control device 11 creates a customer-specific file based on the cart identification code and the product code.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an unmanned store system that eliminates the work of a store clerk in selling merchandise and producing charges in a store.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a large store that handles a large amount of products, if a production place is provided for each sales floor, the space efficiency in the store is reduced. Therefore, in large stores such as supermarkets and convenience stores, multiple cash registers are installed near the entrance of the sales floor, and customers are asked to carry the purchased product to the settlement position, and the staff operates the cash register to set the price of each product. Registered one by one. In addition, POS is used to facilitate the determination of product purchase quantity and product lineup.
In many cases, the system is applied, and the registration work in the cash register at the settlement position is performed by the staff reading the bar code attached to the product with a scanner.

[0003]

However, in the conventional large-scale store, it takes a long time to read the bar code in the cash register, and there is a problem that the settlement process is delayed and the service to the customer is deteriorated. In addition, since the position where the barcode is attached varies depending on the product, it may be difficult to read the barcode accurately with a scanner, registration errors are likely to occur, and accurate settlement processing cannot be performed.

An object of the present invention is to allow a customer to read a bar code of a product in a cart (shopping trolley) used by the customer to move the product in the sales floor, so that the product can be read intensively at the checkout position. Without doing this, the customer can perform accurate reading work, shorten the settlement process and realize accurate registration of product data, eliminate the need for staff work in the settlement process, and arrange store staff at the sales floor. It is to provide an unattended store system that can be made unnecessary.

[0005]

In the unmanned store system of the present invention, an individual identification code is assigned, a product code reading means for reading the product code of the product, and a transmitting means for transmitting the product code together with the identification code. , A receiving means for receiving the product code and the identification code transmitted from the cart, and a customer file creating means for creating a file for each customer based on the product code and the identification code received by the receiving means, It is characterized by comprising a transaction processing device provided with a settlement means for retrieving a customer-specific file based on the cart identification code and performing a settlement process based on the content of the corresponding customer-specific file.

[0006] Further, a weighing means for weighing the weight of the goods loaded in the cart, a weight calculating means for calculating the total weight of the purchased goods based on the contents of the file for each customer, and a weighing result and weight calculation of the weighing means. The transaction processing device is provided with a comparison means for comparing the calculation results of the means and a traffic regulation means for permitting the cart to pass when the comparison means match each other.

That is, in the invention described in claim 1, as shown in FIG. 1, the cart is provided with the reading means and the transmitting means, and the transaction processing apparatus is provided with the receiving means, the customer-specific file creating means and the settlement means. ..

In addition to the above configuration, the invention described in claim 2 is such that a weighing means for weighing the weight of the goods in the cart, a weight calculation means, a comparison means, and a traffic regulation means are added.

[0009]

In the present invention, the commodity code of the commodity purchased by the customer is read by the reading means provided in the cart, and is transmitted to the transaction processing apparatus by the transmitting means together with the identification code of the cart. The transaction processing device reads the product code and the identification code by the receiving means, creates a customer-specific file according to the contents, searches the customer-specific file by the cart identification code during the payment processing, and performs the payment processing according to the content of the corresponding file. To do. Therefore, the product code is read for each customer in the cart,
The work of reading the product code is not concentrated at the settlement position, and the settlement process is shortened.

Further, the weight of the product loaded in the cart is measured by the measuring means, and the weight of the product is calculated by the weight calculating means according to the contents of the file for each customer. The weighing result of the weighing means and the calculation result of the weight calculation means are compared by the comparison means, and when the two match, the cart can be taken out together with the product. In this way, the illegal take-out of the product is regulated by checking the product weight.

[0011]

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a store to which the unmanned store system of the present invention is applied and a side view of a main part. Store 1
A customer who enters from the entrance 2 of the store takes out the cart parked in the cart storage space 3, moves it into the display shelf 4 provided in the sales floor, and stores the desired product in the cart. A plurality of transaction terminal devices 7 are installed in the vicinity of the exit 6, and a weighing device 8 and a gate 9 are provided in the vicinity of the transaction terminal device 7, respectively. Transaction terminal device 7
Performs settlement processing of purchased products with customers. Cash, a cash card, a prepaid card, and the like are used in this settlement process. Among them, the prepaid card is issued by the prepaid card issuing device 13 provided in the store 1. The weighing device 8 weighs the products stored in the cart 10. Further, the gate 9 is opened only when the settlement process is properly completed. The plurality of transaction terminal devices 7 are connected to the centralized control device 11 and are centrally controlled by the centralized control device 11. A wireless relay device 5 is provided on the ceiling of the sales floor, and a crime prevention monitoring device 12 is attached to the ceiling of the settlement position where the transaction processing device 7 is installed. The wireless repeater 5 is connected to the centralized control device 11, and the centralized control device 1
1 wirelessly transmits / receives data to / from the cart 10 via the wireless repeater 5. Further, the crime prevention monitoring device 12 monitors the cart which has not been subjected to the settlement processing so as not to be illegally taken out from the settlement position.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing the construction of a cart applied to the unmanned store system and a plan view of the main part. The cart 10 includes a display unit 21, a control unit 22, and a transmitter 2.
3, power supply device 24, scanner 25, and key panel 26
Is equipped with. Start counting button 3 on the key panel 26
1, a return button 32, a repeat button 33, and a correction button 34 are provided. After entering from the entrance 2, the customer takes out the cart from the cart storage area 3 and picks up the product from the display shelf 4. The scanner 25 reads the barcode attached to this product. At this time, the customer operates the counting start button 31 on the key panel 26. When returning the merchandise that has been read once, the bar code of the merchandise is read again by the scanner 25 after operating the return button 32. When purchasing the same product more than once, the repeat button 33 is used after reading with the scanner 25.
Operate as many times as necessary. Further, the read contents are displayed on the display unit 21 at the time of reading, but if there is an error, the read data can be erased by the correction button 34. The control unit 22 of the cart 10 sends the product code read by the scanner 25 together with its own identification code to the transmitter 2
Send from 3.

FIG. 4 is an external view of a transaction terminal device applied to the unmanned store system. A display device 41, a card reader 42, a bill insertion slot 4 are provided on the device surface of the transaction terminal device 7.
3, a coin slot 44, a printer 45 and a change dispense port 46 are provided. The display 41 displays the purchase price of the product at the time of payment. The card reader 42 accepts a cash card or a prepaid card, and performs settlement processing with these cards. Further, the bill insertion slot 43 and the coin insertion slot 44 accept the cash input from the customer, and perform the settlement process with the input cash. The printer 45 issues a receipt on which the contents of the settlement process are printed. The change change outlet 46 discharges the change amount obtained by subtracting the purchase amount from the input amount.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the unmanned store system. The centralized control device 11 includes a CPU 51 having a ROM 52 and a RAM 53, and a receiver 54 connected to the CPU 51. CPU5
A transaction terminal device 7, a weighing device 8, a gate 9 and a crime prevention monitoring device 12 provided at a settlement position 13 are connected to the device 1. The CPU 11 receives the data transmitted from the transmitter 23 of the cart 10 by the receiver 54 directly or via the wireless relay device 5, and creates the customer-specific file shown in FIG. 6 in the RAM 53. This customer-specific file is created for each customer using the cart identification code as an inlex, and stores the product code (PLU code) read by the customer by the scanner 25 of the cart 10. The CPU 51 retrieves the PLU file from the PLU file using the PLU code, reads the product attribute, weight, and unit price of the specific product and writes it in the customer-specific file. The PLU file is stored in a predetermined memory area of the RAM 53 or a host computer (not shown).

The transaction terminal device 7 includes a control unit 47 and a cash processing device 48 inside. The control unit 47 controls each input / output device in accordance with the control data output from the CPU 51 of the centralized control device 11, and sends to the CPU 51 the card data read by the card reader 42 and the data such as the deposit amount detected by the cash processing device 48. Output. Also, C
The PU 51 receives the weighing data of the weighing device 8 and the detection data of the security monitoring device 12, and the CPU 51
Outputs the opening / closing data to the gate 9.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the control unit of the cart in the unmanned store system.
The control unit 22 of the cart 10 has a counting start button 31.
The power is turned on by the operation of, and the scanner 25 waits for the reading of the product code or the operation of other buttons (n1 to n4). When the product code is input from the scanner 25, it is determined whether or not the data is normally read (n5). If the data is normal, the PLU code is written together with the identification code unique to the cart. It is transmitted as data to be processed (n6). On the other hand, when the data reading is not normally performed, a reading error message is displayed on the display 21 (n
7).

When the return button 32 is operated, the input of the product code from the scanner 25 is waited (n8), and when a normal PLU code is read, this is used as data to be erased together with the identification code. Send (n
9, n10). If the data is not normally read by the scanner 25, the process proceeds to n7 to display a read error message. When the repeat button 33 is operated, the PLU code transmitted last time is transmitted again together with the identification code as data to be written (n
12). When the correction button 34 is operated, the PLU code transmitted last time is transmitted together with the identification code as data to be deleted (n13). n6, n10, n1
After transmitting the data in 2 and n3, the product data concerning the transmitting process is displayed on the display 21. The exaggeratedly displayed product data is, for example, a product name and its price, which may be searched by a PLU code from a PLU file provided in the control unit 22 and transmitted from a central control device 11 described later. The received data may be received and displayed. In this case, a transmitter / receiver must be provided instead of the transmitter 23.

8 and 9 are flow charts showing the processing procedure of the control unit of the centralized control device of the unmanned store system. FIG. 8 shows the processing of the CPU 51 of the centralized control device 11 in the file processing mode. The CPU 51 waits for the transmission of the PLU code and the identification code from the cart 10, and when these transmission data are received, some customer-specific files currently set in the RAM 53 have the same identification code as the received identification code. Whether or not it is determined (n22). If the customer-specific file having the same identification code as the one received this time does not exist in the RAM 53, the customer-specific file is set in a new memory area (n
23). Next, the PLU file is searched by the received PLU code, product data such as product attributes, price, and weight are read (n24), and these product data are PLU.
The code is written in the newly set file for each customer (n25). On the other hand, if a customer-specific file having the same identification code as the received one already exists, it is determined whether or not the same PLU code is stored in the file (n26), and if the same PLU code is present. Increments the quantity data of the product (n2
7). If the same PLU code is not stored in the file, the product data is retrieved from the PLU file by the PLU code (n28), and this product data is newly written to the customer-specific file together with the PLU code (n29). ..

If the received data is data to be erased, the corresponding customer-specific file is searched by the identification code (n30, n31), and the PLU code and the product data received this time are retrieved from the corresponding customer-specific file. Erase (n32).

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the processing procedure in the transaction processing mode in the CPU 51 of the centralized control device 11. The CPU 51 waits for the input of the identification code from the transaction terminal device 7 (n41), and searches the customer-specific file by the input identification code (n42). Then, the total N of the weight data is calculated in the customer-specific file corresponding to the input identification code (n43), and the weighing data M is read from the weighing device 8 (n44). The weighing device 8 subtracts the weight of only the cart 10 from the total weight of the cart 10 in which the products are stored and outputs it as the weighing data M. Then
The calculation data N and the measurement data M are compared (n45), and when they match each other, the cumulative total of the product prices in the customer-specific files is output as the amount data (n45). At this time, the transaction terminal device 7 displays this amount on the display 41. Furthermore, waiting for the insertion of a card into the card reader 42 or the insertion of cash into the bill insertion slot 43 or the like (n46, n4
7) If the card is inserted, the payment process by the card is performed (n48), and if the cash is inserted, the payment process by cash is performed (n49). In this settlement process, a receipt is issued and change is released, the gate 9 is opened and the cart 10 is passed. On the other hand, when the calculation data N and the weighing data M do not match at n45, a confirmation message of the product is displayed on the display 41 (n51).

As described above, according to this embodiment, the customer is identified by the identification code individually assigned to the cart 10, and the customer-specific file for storing the purchased product is created for each customer. PL for creating this customer-specific file
Since the U code is read for each customer through the scanner 25 of the cart 10, it is not necessary to read the PLU code by a process such as reading the bar code attached to the product at the time of the payment processing at the payment position 13, and the payment processing is performed. It can be automated and completed in a short time.

Further, by comparing the total weight of the purchased commodities with the weight of the commodities stored in the cart at the time of the settlement processing, it is possible to reliably prevent the illegal commodities from being taken out.

In this embodiment, the weighing device 8 is provided at the settlement position 13 together with the transaction terminal device 8. However, the weighing device 8 is provided inside the cart 10, and the weight measured by the weighing device 8 is controlled by the weighing control device. 11 may be transmitted. Further, the processing of FIGS. 8 and 9 may be executed by the CPU 51 by multitask processing, or the main routine of FIG. 9 may be subjected to a subroutine processing of FIG.

[0024]

According to the present invention, it is possible to eliminate the need to read the product code at the time of payment processing, automate the payment processing, and contribute to the unmanned store, and to improve the customer service by shortening the payment processing. There is an advantage that can be achieved.

Further, there is an advantage that it is possible to surely prevent the illegal take-out of the product by comparing the total weight of the product whose product code is read and the weight of the product stored in the cart.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view and a side view of a main part of a store to which an unmanned store system according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a side view of a cart used in the unmanned store system and a plan view of a main part.

FIG. 4 is an external view of a transaction terminal device applied to the unmanned store system.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the unmanned store system.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a customer-specific file created in the unmanned store system.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a control unit of the cart.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a centralized control device provided in the unmanned store system.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of the same.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1-Store 7-Transaction Terminal Device 8-Weighing Device 9-Gate 10-Cart 11-Centralized Control Device 25-Scanner

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A cart provided with a product code reading means to which a unique identification code is assigned and which reads a product code of a product, and a transmitting means for transmitting the product code together with the identification code. Receiving means for receiving the product code and identification code, customer file creating means for creating a customer-specific file based on the product code and identification code received by the receiving means, and searching for the customer file based on the cart identification code. An unattended store system, comprising: a transaction processing device provided with a settlement means for performing settlement processing based on the contents of a corresponding customer file. 2. The transaction processing device, weighing means for weighing the weight of the products loaded in the cart, and the weight is read from the product files based on the product code stored for each customer file to calculate the total. Only when the weight calculation means, the comparison means for comparing the calculation result of the weight calculation means and the measurement result of the weighing means, and the both in the comparison means,
The unmanned store system according to claim 1, further comprising: a route regulation means for opening a route of the cart.