Product display rack system and purchasing behavior analysis program

• US 20090153328A1
• Filed: 10/23/2006
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Information Systems Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.), Tana-X-Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Tana-X-Incorporated
• Inventors: Tsutsumimoto, Hirofumi, Kanai, Kiyoshi, Otani, Yoshinori, Kaneko, Tohru, Kishida, Katsumasa
• Granted Patent: US 7,881,988 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/572.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/009 the reader being an RFID reader

Abstract

[OBJECT] To provide system and program for obtaining customers'"'"' purchase behavior information for products.

[MEANS FOR ACHIEVING OBJECT] A system comprising an intelligent shelf (100) having product display shelves (110 to 130) on which the products A to C applied with RFID tags R are displayed, a plurality of antennas (112a to 112c) each having unique antenna numbers and detecting a tag serial number from an RFID tag on a product, a pair of human body sensors S disposed on each end of the product display shelf 120, a tag-product ID registration table storing the tag serial numbers of the RFID tags and the product IDs of the products uniquely given to each kind of product and a control. computer (200) detecting that a particular product is picked up from and/or returned to a particular product display shelf by combining the tag serial number inputted and the antenna number of the antenna detecting the tag serial number and analyzing which direction the detected human body moved in based on the difference of the detection times of the pair of human body sensors.

Claims

1. A product displaying system comprising:

a plurality of product display shelves on which a plurality of kinds of products each applied with RFID tags storing uniquely given tag serial numbers are displayed;

a plurality of antennas disposed on said product display shelves, each having unique antenna numbers and detecting a tag serial number from an RFID tag on a product within a predetermined area;

human body sensors disposed on different positions on the front side of said product display shelves and detecting a human body approaching thereto; and

a control computer having a tag-product ID registration table storing the tag serial numbers of said RFID tags and the product IDs of the products uniquely given to the products, each tag serial number corresponding to each product ID, wherein

the control computer being inputted a tag serial number of an RFID tag detected by said antennas and a detection time of said human body sensors,

detecting that a particular product is picked up from and/or returned to a particular product display shelf by combining the tag serial number of the RFID tag and the antenna number of the antenna detecting the tag serial number, and

analyzing which direction the detected human body moved in based on the difference of the detection times of said human body sensors.

2. The product displaying system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of partitions partitioning said product display shelves into a plurality of areas on each of which said antenna is set, and switches and reader/writers or reader/writers having switching function switching antennas to send the tag serial numbers of said RFID tags to said control computer.

3. The product displaying system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said antennas disposed on predetermined positions of said product display shelves communicate with said RFID tags applied on the surfaces of the products.

4. The product displaying system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said antennas disposed on predetermined positions of said product display shelves communicate with said RFID tags applied on the top of the products.

5. The product displaying system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said control computer comprises a display device, thereby displaying a first bar indication representing in time series the times at which a particular product on a particular product display shelf were picked up and returned thereto and a second bar indication representing in time series the times at which a human body is or is not detected by said human body sensors.

6. The product displaying system as set forth in claim 3, wherein said control computer comprises a display device, thereby displaying a first bar indication representing in time series the times at which a particular product on a particular product display shelf were picked up and returned thereto and a second bar indication representing in time series the times at which a human body is or is not detected by said human body sensors.

7. The product displaying system as set forth in claim 4, wherein said control computer comprises a display device, thereby displaying a first bar indication representing in time series the times at which a particular product on a particular product display shelf were picked up and returned thereto and a second bar indication representing in time series the times at which a human body is or is not detected by said human body sensors.

10. The product displaying system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said antennas disposed on predetermined positions of said product display shelves communicate with said RFID tags applied on the surfaces of the products.

11. The product displaying system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said antennas disposed on predetermined positions of said product display shelves communicate with said RFID tags applied on the top of the products.

12. The product displaying system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said control computer comprises a display device, thereby displaying a first bar indication representing in time series the times at which a particular product on a particular product display shelf were picked up and returned thereto and a second bar indication representing in time series the times at which a human body is or is not detected by said human body sensors.

13. The product displaying system as set forth in claim 10, wherein said control computer comprises a display device, thereby displaying a first bar indication representing in time series the times at which a particular product on a particular product display shelf were picked up and returned thereto and a second bar indication representing in time series the times at which a human body is or is not detected by said human body sensors.

14. The product displaying system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said control computer comprises a display device, thereby displaying a first bar indication representing in time series the times at which a particular product on a particular product display shelf were picked up and returned thereto and a second bar indication representing in time series the times at which a human body is or is not detected by said human body sensors.

8. A purchase behavior analysis program analyzing customers'"'"' purchase behavior for products displayed on product display shelves using RFID tags for use in a product displaying system comprising:

a plurality of product display shelves on which a plurality of kinds of products each applied with RFID tags storing uniquely given tag serial numbers are displayed;

a plurality of antennas disposed on said product display shelves, each having unique antenna numbers and detecting a tag serial number from an RFID tag on a product within a predetermined area;

human body sensors disposed on different positions on the front side of said product display shelves and detecting a human body approaching thereto;

a control computer having a tag-product ID registration table storing the tag serial numbers of said RFID tags and the product IDs of the products uniquely given to the products, each tag serial number corresponding to each product ID, the control computer being inputted a tag serial number of an RFID tag detected by said antennas and a detection time of said human body sensors; and

a display device, wherein

said control computer implements a function of detecting that a particular product is picked up from and/or returned to a particular product display shelf by combining the tag serial number of the RFID tag and the antenna number of the antenna detecting the tag serial number and a function of judging which direction the detected human body moved in based on the difference of the detection times of said human body sensors.

9. The purchase behavior analysis program as set forth in claim 8, wherein said control computer implements a first bar indication function of displaying in said display device the times at which a particular product on a particular product display shelf were picked up and returned thereto in time series and a second bar indication function of displaying in said display device the times at which a human body is or is not detected by said human body sensors in time series.