LOSS PREVENTION IN SELF-SERVICE RETAIL CHECKOUT USING SMART ALARMS

• US 20180096331A1
• Filed: 09/30/2016
• Published: 04/05/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Inventors: PATIL, Mangesh B., VYAS, Megha, KEOGH, John J., AMBROZIE, Mihail A., EFSTATHIOU, James N., ADAMS, Mathew G.
• Granted Patent: US 10,460,303 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0045 with a code reader for reading of an identifying code of the article to be registered, e.g. barcode reader or radio-frequency identity [RFID] reader
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/009 the reader being an RFID reader
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/246 Check out systems combined with EAS, e.g. price information stored on EAS tag anti-theft systems in point of sale systems G07G3/003
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for performing an operation comprising receiving, from a self-checkout platform and as part of a purchase transaction for a first product, a data value of a barcode of the first product, storing an indication in a product store that the first product has been purchased, receiving a first item-specific identifier stored in a first radio frequency identification (RFID) tag associated with the first product, cross-referencing the first item-specific identifier with the indication in the product store to verify the purchase transaction of the first product via the self-checkout platform, receiving a second item-specific identifier stored in a second RFID tag associated with a second product, cross-referencing the product store to determine the second product has not been purchased via the self-checkout platform, and emitting a security notification related to the second product.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, from a self-checkout platform and as part of a purchase transaction for a first product, a data value of a barcode of the first product;

storing an indication in a product store that the first product has been purchased;

receiving a first item-specific identifier stored in a first radio frequency identification (RFID) tag associated with the first product;

cross-referencing the first item-specific identifier with the indication in the product store to verify the purchase transaction of the first product via the self-checkout platform;

receiving a second item-specific identifier stored in a second RFID tag associated with a second product;

cross-referencing the product store to determine the second product has not been purchased via the self-checkout platform; and

emitting a security notification related to the second product.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the item-specific identifiers are received by an RFID reader, wherein cross-referencing the data store comprises determining whether at least one of:

(i) the item-specific identifiers, and (ii) a data value of a barcode of the products, are associated with a respective indication specifying that the products have been purchased by a customer associated with a unique customer identifier, wherein the unique customer identifier is associated with a mobile device executing the self-checkout platform.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the item-specific identifiers comprise a concatenation of:

(i) a data value of a barcode of the respective product, and (ii) a value of an RFID identifier stored in the RFID tag associated with the respective product.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

deconstructing the received item-specific product identifier of the first product to identify the data value of the barcode of the first product and the value of the RFID identifier stored in the first RFID tag; and

deconstructing the received item-specific product identifier of the second product to identify the data value of the barcode of the second product and the value of the RFID identifier stored in the second RFID tag.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the security notification is emitted while the first and second RFID tags associated with the first and second products are active and without having to remove and disable the first RFID tag associated with the first product subsequent to the purchase of the first product.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising prior to receiving the item-specific identifiers:

associating the first RFID tag with the first product;

storing the item-specific identifier of the first product in the first RFID tag;

associating the second RFID tag with the second product;

storing the item-specific identifier of the second product in the second RFID tag; and

storing an indication in the data store that the first and second products have not been purchased.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the unique customer identifier of the self-checkout platform via at least one of;

(i) a Bluetooth interface, and (ii) a wireless local area network (WLAN) connection.

8. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code executable by a processor to perform an operation comprising;

receiving, from a self-checkout platform and as part of a purchase transaction for a first product, a data value of a barcode of the first product;

storing an indication in a product store that the first product has been purchased;

receiving a first item-specific identifier stored in a first radio frequency identification (RFID) tag associated with the first product;

cross-referencing the first item-specific identifier with the indication in the product store to verify the purchase transaction of the first product via the self-checkout platform;

receiving a second item-specific identifier stored in a second RFID tag associated with a second product;

cross-referencing the product store to determine the second product has not been purchased via the self-checkout platform; and

emitting a security notification related to the second product.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the item-specific identifiers are received by an RFID reader, wherein cross-referencing the data store comprises determining whether at least one of:

(i) the item-specific identifiers, and (ii) a data value of a barcode of the products, are associated with a respective indication specifying that the products have been purchased by a customer associated with a unique customer identifier, wherein the unique customer identifier is associated with a mobile device executing the self-checkout platform.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the item-specific identifiers comprise a concatenation of:

(i) a data value of a barcode of the respective product, and (ii) a value of an RFID identifier stored in the RFID tag associated with the respective product.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, the operation further comprising:

deconstructing the received item-specific product identifier of the first product to identify the data value of the barcode of the first product and the value of the RFID identifier stored in the first RFID tag; and

deconstructing the received item-specific product identifier of the second product to identify the data value of the barcode of the second product and the value of the RFID identifier stored in the second RFID tag.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the security notification is emitted while the first and second RFID tags associated with the first and second products are active and without having to remove and disable the first RFID tag associated with the first product subsequent to the purchase of the first product .

13. The computer program product of claim 8, the operation further comprising prior to receiving the item-specific identifiers:

associating the first RFID tag with the first product;

storing the item-specific identifier of the first product in the first RFID tag;

associating the second RFID tag with the second product;

storing the item-specific identifier of the second product in the second RFID tag; and

storing an indication in the data store that the first and second products have not been purchased.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the first product is of a plurality of products, wherein each of the plurality of products is associated with a respective RFID tag, wherein each RFID tag stores a unique identifier associated with each respective product.

15. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory containing a program, which when executed by the processor, performs an operation comprising;

receiving, from a self-checkout platform and as part of a purchase transaction for a first product, a data value of a barcode of the first product;

storing an indication in a product store that the first product has been purchased;

receiving a first item-specific identifier stored in a first radio frequency identification (RFID) tag associated with the first product;

cross-referencing the first item-specific identifier with the indication in the product store to verify the purchase transaction of the first product via the self-checkout platform;

receiving a second item-specific identifier stored in a second RFID tag associated with a second product;

cross-referencing the product store to determine the second product has not been purchased via the self-checkout platform; and

emitting a security notification related to the second product.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the item-specific identifiers are received by an RFID reader, wherein cross-referencing the data store comprises determining whether at least one of:

(i) the item-specific identifiers, and (ii) a data value of a barcode of the products, are associated with a respective indication specifying that the products have been purchased by a customer associated with a unique customer identifier, wherein the unique customer identifier is associated with a mobile device executing the self-checkout platform.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the item-specific identifiers comprise a concatenation of:

(i) a data value of a barcode of the respective product, and (ii) a value of an RFID identifier stored in the RFID tag associated with the respective product.

18. The system of claim 17, the operation further comprising:

deconstructing the received item-specific product identifier of the first product to identify the data value of the barcode of the first product and the value of the RFID identifier stored in the first RFID tag; and

deconstructing the received item-specific product identifier of the second product to identify the data value of the barcode of the second product and the value of the RFID identifier stored in the second RFID tag.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the security notification is emitted while the first and second RFID tags associated with the first and second products are active and without having to remove and disable the first RFID tag associated with the first product subsequent to the purchase of the first product.

20. The system of claim 17, the operation further comprising prior to receiving the item-specific identifiers:

associating the first RFID tag with the first product;

storing the item-specific identifier of the first product in the first RFID tag;

associating the second RFID tag with the second product;

storing the item-specific identifier of the second product in the second RFID tag; and

storing an indication in the data store that the first and second products have not been purchased.