Self-checkout method and apparatus

• US 20020194074A1
• Filed: 05/17/2002
• Published: 12/19/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Frontech North America Incorporated (Fujitsu Limited)
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Frontech North America Incorporated (Fujitsu Limited)
• Inventors: Jacobs, Eric L.L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,845,554 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0054 with control of supplementary check-parameters, e.g. weight or number of articles
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/01 Details for indicating displaying information in general G09F, G09G
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/12 electronically operated digital data processing aspects G06Q20/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/145 PLU-management

Abstract

A point-of-sale self-checkout terminal includes a code reader device for automated entry of a product identification code present on items for purchase and a customer input device for receipt of data from a customer. A customer can initiate a purchase of a non-scannable item and, in response, a database is queried to identify items based on a prediction of purchase of the items, and the identified items are displayed for selection by the customer to purchase the item. Inage processing and voice processing, can also be implemented to assist customers with the purchase of non-scannable items.

Claims

1. A product purchasing method comprising:

at a point-of-sale self-checkout terminal comprising a code reader device for automated entry of a product identification code present on items for purchase and a customer input device for receipt of data from a customer,

receiving from a self-checkout customer a first input at the customer input device initiating a purchase of an item that does not have a product identification code compatible with the reader device present on the item;

querying a database to identify a first plurality of items based on a prediction of purchase of the items;

in response to the first input, displaying to the customer a graphical user interface comprising a first plurality of user-selectable icons each of said icons representing one of the first plurality of items;

receiving from the user a second input selecting one of the first plurality of icons; and

processing a purchase transaction for an item corresponding to the selected icon.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the self-checkout terminal further comprises a scale and processing the purchase transaction comprises computing a purchase price based on weight measured by the scale.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the plurality of items based on a prediction of purchase comprises:

receiving customer identification data;

based on the customer identification data, querying a database to retrieve purchase history information associated with the identified customer; and

processing the purchase history information to determine the plurality of items.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein receiving the data identifying the customer comprises receiving data at an input device from a shopper identification card.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the purchase history information comprises seasonal purchase information and querying the database comprises querying to retrieve purchase history information associated with the identified customer during a seasonal period.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the plurality of items based on a prediction of purchase comprises:

capturing an image of a checkout item;

processing the image using an image identification algorithm to compute a visual characteristics of the checkout item;

executing a matching algorithm to compare the visual characteristics of the checkout item to visual characteristic information stored in a database;

selecting the plurality of items based on the comparison of visual characteristics.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying based on a prediction of purchase comprises querying a database to identify a plurality of frequently-purchased items.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the interface is further configured to receive entry of an input identifying an item that is not represented by one of the first plurality of icons.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the prediction of purchase is based on correlation of items purchased by the customer during a purchasing session.

10. A product purchasing method comprising:

at a point-of-sale self-checkout terminal comprising an image capture device and a customer input device for receipt of data from a customer,

capturing an image of a checkout item;

processing the image using image identification functionality to establish a preliminary identification of the checkout item;

receiving from the user an input at the customer input device identifying an item for purchase; and

generating an alert signal when the identification entered by the user and the preliminary identification do not match.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein generating the alert signal comprises transmitting an image of the checkout item to a supervisor station.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein configuring the product database further comprises configuring a update frequency parameter, said update frequency parameter determine a period between changes to a display of selection icons on a user interface viewed by a self-checkout customer.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising propagating changes in the configuration data to a plurality of other self-checkout systems.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein

for a first one of a plurality of items, the database comprises a plurality of keywords;

and

determining based on the match comprises comparing the identified alpha-numeric characters to each of the keywords associated with the first one of the items and determining that the first item is a matching item when the alpha-numeric characters received from the purchaser match an initial segment of any of the plurality of keywords.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

updating the display of icons as successive ones of the plurality of alpha-numeric characters are entered so as to maintain a match between the entered alpha-numeric characters and the displayed icons.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein refining the display comprises re-querying the database as successive ones of the plurality of alpha-numeric character are received.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein processing the audio input comprises processing using a speaker-independent voice recognition algorithm.

12. A computer-implemented method of configuring a point-of-sale self-checkout terminal system, the method comprising:

initiating a configuration mode upon entry of an administration password;

receiving administer input to configure a best-seller product database by defining a generic group comprising a plurality of products and to configure the database to determine a sales frequency associated with the generic group based on an aggregate of sales of the plurality of products in the group.

15. A product purchasing method comprising:

at a point-of-sale self-checkout terminal comprising a code reader device for automated entry of a product identification code present on items for purchase and a customer input device for receipt of data from a customer,

receiving from a self-checkout customer a first input at the customer input device initiating a purchase of an item that does not have a product identification code compatible with the reader device present on the item;

receiving from a purchaser successive ones of a plurality of alpha-numeric characters;

querying a database based on the received plurality of alpha-numeric characters to determine a query result comprising one or more products identified based on a match between the entered alpha-numeric characters and keywords associated with the identified products;

displaying to the purchaser a graphical user interface comprising a plurality of icons, each icon depicting one of the product based identified in the query result;

receiving from the purchaser a selection of one of the displayed icons; and

recording a purchased transaction for an item associated with the selected icon.

19. A method of self-checkout implemented by a point-of-sale self-checkout terminal, the method comprising:

at the self-checkout terminal,

receiving from a user an input initiating a purchase of a non-bar-coded item,

receiving from the user an audio input,

processing the audio input to identify an item, and

processing a purchase transaction for the identified item.

21. A point-of-sale self-checkout terminal comprising:

a code reader device for automated entry of a product identification code present on items for purchase;

a customer input device for receipt of data from a customer;

a database comprising stored data indicating expectation of purchase of items;

a video display;

a processor coupled to the code reader, the input device, the database, and the video display and a memory comprising stored instructions to configure the processor to;

receive from the self-checkout customer a first input at the customer input device to initiate a purchase of an item that does not have a product identification code compatible with the reader device present on the item;

query the database to identify a first plurality of items based on expectation of purchase;

in response to the first input, display to the customer on the video display a graphical user interface comprising a first plurality of user-selectable icons each of said icons representing one of the first plurality of items;

receive from the user a second input selecting one of the first plurality of icons; and

process a purchase transaction for an item corresponding to the selected icon.

22. A point-of-sale self-checkout apparatus comprising:

an audio input device; and

an audio processing module configured to process an audio signal received from the audio input device and to determine a product identification based on the processed audio signal.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 further comprising:

a processor and a video display, wherein the processor is configured to receive the product identification from the audio module and to display an icon on the video display representing the identified product; and

an input device for selection of the icon displayed on the video display.