Using radio frequency identification with customer loyalty cards to detect and/or prevent theft and shoplifting
First Claim
1. A method of preparing information usable in theft detection using radio frequency identification (“
- RFID”
) technology, comprising steps of;
reading a customer identifier from a customer loyalty card; and
storing the customer identifier in an RFID tag affixed to each of one or more items presented for purchase in a current transaction.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques are disclosed for detecting shoplifting or theft, particularly in a retail environment, using radio-frequency identification (“RFID”). Preferred embodiments leverage RFID tags on merchandise and RFID data that is written at the point of sale on the merchandise-borne RFID tags themselves, on the customer'"'"'s receipt, or both. Some embodiments also leverage RFID tags on customer identification or “loyalty” cards. After writing RFID data on the merchandise-borne tags and/or receipt, a matching operation is performed at an RFID reader when the shopper and his merchandise exit the premises, in order to determine whether the shopper has paid for the items in his possession.
42 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method of preparing information usable in theft detection using radio frequency identification (“
- RFID”
) technology, comprising steps of;
reading a customer identifier from a customer loyalty card; and
storing the customer identifier in an RFID tag affixed to each of one or more items presented for purchase in a current transaction. - View Dependent Claims (3)
- RFID”
-
4. A method of detecting potential theft using radio frequency identification (“
- RFID”
) technology, comprising steps of;
reading, from a customer loyalty card, a customer identifier; and
concluding that at least some of one or more items possessed by a shopper were not paid for if the customer identifier is not present in an RFID tag affixed to each such item. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6)
- RFID”
- 7. The method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of remembering each item that was in the shopper'"'"'s possession when the shopper entered an establishment in which a transaction represented by the receipt was conducted, and wherein the searching and concluding steps do not apply to the remembered items.
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7-1. A system for preparing information usable in theft detection using radio frequency identification (“
- RFID”
) technology, comprising;
means for reading a customer identifier from a customer loyalty card; and
means for storing the customer identifier in an RFID tag affixed to each of one or more items presented for purchase in a current transaction.
- RFID”
-
9-2. The system according to claim 7, further comprising:
means for concluding that at least some of one or more items possessed by a shopper were not paid for in the current transaction if the customer identifier is not present in an RFID tag affixed to each such item.
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10. A system for detecting potential theft using radio frequency identification (“
- RFID”
) technology, comprising;
means for reading, from a customer loyalty card, a customer identifier; and
means for concluding that at least some of one or more items possessed by a shopper were not paid for if the customer identifier is not present in an RFID tag affixed to each such item. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
- RFID”
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13. A computer program product for preparing information usable in theft detection using radio frequency identification (“
- RFID”
) technology, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising;
computer-readable program code means for reading a customer identifier from a customer loyalty card; and
computer-readable program code means for storing the customer identifier in an RFID tag affixed to each of one or more items presented for purchase in a current transaction. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
- RFID”
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16. A computer program product for detecting potential theft using radio frequency identification (“
- RFID”
) technology, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising;
computer-readable program code means for reading, from a customer loyalty card, a customer identifier; and
computer-readable program code means for concluding that at least some of one or more items possessed by a shopper were not paid for if the customer identifier is not present in an RFID tag affixed to each such item. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
- RFID”
-
19. A customer loyalty card bearing identifying information about a customer, wherein the card is augmented with a radio-frequency identification (“
- RFID”
) tag in which the identifying information is stored, thereby enabling the identifying information to be read from the card with an RFID reader device.
- RFID”
Specification