Methods and Apparatus for Product Price Verification and Information Display

• US 20110000963A1
• Filed: 07/02/2009
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NCR Voyix Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Mercado, Brennan Eul I., Claessen, Albertus Maria Geradus
• Granted Patent: US 9,311,665 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/383
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering

Abstract

Systems and techniques for automated customer display of product information. A price verification and product information station broadcasts a radiofrequency identification (RFID) interrogation signal and receives an RFID return message from an RFID tag affixed to a product in the immediate vicinity of the station. The station relays the return message to a server, which generates information responsive to the return message, for example, by decoding the RFID return message to extract product information included in the RFID return message. The server organizes and formats the product information extracted from the return message, and the retrieved information, and transmits it to the station, which displays the information.

Claims

1. A customer price verification and information display station comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader for broadcasting an RFID interrogation signal affixed to a product presented at the station and receiving an RFID return message from an RFID tag storing information relating to the product;

a communication interface for communicating with a remote data processing server;

a processor for controlling the communication interface to relay the RFID return message to the server and to receive a transmission from the server including decoded data representing the RFID return message, organized and formatted for display; and

a display for displaying the decoded data received from the server.

2. The station of claim 1, further comprising a bar code scanner for reading a bar code affixed to the product to extract bar code data identifying a product category to which the product belongs, wherein the processor further controls the communication interface to relay the bar code data to the server wherein the transmission received from the server further includes product description and price information centrally stored by the server and retrieved by the server in response to the bar code data, and wherein the display displays the retrieved data together with the bar code data.

4. The station of claim 2, wherein the processor activates the RFID reader after the bar code reader has read the bar code.

5. The station of claim 1, wherein the communication interface acts as part of a low power mesh network.

6. The station of claim 1, wherein the RFID reader has a receiving range of no more than five inches.

7. The station of claim 1, wherein the RFID return message includes a product category identifier for the product and wherein the product category is included in the message relayed to the server for comparison against the bar code data.

3. The price verification and information display station of claim 3, wherein the transmission received from the server includes a display map defining placement and characteristic information for each pixel making up the display and wherein the processor directs presentation of a display conforming to the display map.

8. A customer price verification and information display station comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader for transmitting RFID interrogation signals and receiving an RFID return message from an RFID tag affixed to a product presented by the customer;

a processor for processing the RFID return message to extract product description and price information for a product to which the RFID tag is affixed, the processor being further operative to extract information relating to the specific product specimen presented; and

a display for displaying the extracted information.

9. The station of claim 8, wherein the RFID reader has a receiving range of no more than five inches.

11. The station of claim 8, wherein the RFID return message includes a general product category identifier for the product being presented, and wherein the processor refers to stored general category information to organize and format the data for display according to the general category to which the product belongs.

12. A method of customer price verification and product information display, comprising the steps of:

controlling a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader to transmit an RFID interrogation signal and receive an RFID return message from an RFID tag storing information relating to the product presented for verification, the RFID return message including information relating to the product specimen presented for verification;

controlling a radio frequency communication module to relay the RFID) return message to a data processing server for decoding;

controlling the radio frequency communication module to receive a transmission from the server including the decoded data organized and formatted for display; and

controlling a processor to display the information provided by the transmission.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising a step of scanning a bar code affixed to the product and relaying the bar code data to the server, and wherein the transmission received from the server includes product description and price information retrieved by the server in response to the bar code data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of scanning the bar code and relaying the bar code data to the server is followed by a step of controlling the server to compare product data associated with the bar code against product data indicated by the RFID return message to determine if the bar code data and the RFID data indicate the same product and transmitting an indication to present the product again if the bar code data and the RFID data do not indicate the same product.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the RFID return message includes a product identifier and wherein the step of controlling the radio frequency communication module to relay the RFID return message to the server includes relaying the product identifier to the server for comparison with the bar code data.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the transmission received from the server includes a display map defining placement and characteristic information for each pixel making up the display and wherein the processor directs presentation of a display conforming to the display map.