SELF-CHECKOUT METHOD AND APPARATUS

• US 20140180857A1
• Filed: 02/28/2014
• Published: 06/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Frontech North America Incorporated (Fujitsu Limited)
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu America, Inc. (Fujitsu Limited)
• Inventors: JACOBS, ERIC L. L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,799,023 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/23
• 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 oars 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. Image processing and voice processing, can also be implemented to assist customers with the purchase of non-scannable items.

Claims

1. A product purchasing method at a point-of-sale self-checkout terminal comprising an image capture device and a touch-sensor customer input device for receipt of data from a customer, the product purchasing method comprising:

capturing an image of a checkout item;

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

displaying a grouping of item images on the touch-sensor customer input device based on the preliminary identification;

receiving from the user a touch input of an item image at the touch-sensor customer input device identifying an item image for purchase from the grouping of item images; and

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

3. 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 and to display an initial group of interactive icons based on the generic group.

6. 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 non-scannable by the reader device;

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 independent of the relative ordering of the plurality of alphanumeric characters 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 products 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.

7. The method of claim 15 wherein for a first one of a plurality of stems, the database comprises a plurality of keywords;

and

determining based on the match comprises comparing the identified alphanumeric 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

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

receiving from a user at the self-checkout terminal an input initiating a purchase of a non-bar-coded item;

receiving from the user an audio input;

querying a database based on the received audio input to determine a query result, the query result comprising one or more identified products based on a match between the processed audio input and keywords associated with the identified one or more 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 processing a purchase transaction for the identified item.

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

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

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

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

a customer input device for receipt of dais 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 non-scannable by the reader device;

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

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.

4. 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.

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