Intelligent shopping cart

• US 5,729,697 A
• Filed: 04/24/1995
• Issued: 03/17/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: von Gutfeld, Robert Jacob, Schkolnick, Mario
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes, Gail O.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yount, Steven R.
• Application Number:
  US08/428,802
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: 364/401 R, 235/383, 395/223, 395/217
• US Class Current: 705/23
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/02 by keys or other credit registering devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0054 with control of supplementary check-parameters, e.g. weight or number of articles
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0081 the reader being a portable scanner or data reader G07G1/009 takes precedence
• 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: G08B 13/2471 Antenna signal processing by receiver or emitter
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/2474 Antenna or antenna activator geometry, arrangement or layout loop antennae H01Q1/22
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/2482 EAS methods, e.g. description of flow chart of the detection procedure

Abstract

The present apparatus is a mobile shopping cart that can automatically keep track of objects selected and carried in the cart and provide a customer using the cart information like the total price of the items carried. The cart has a radio frequency cart base station with a cart antenna connected to a radio frequency cart transceiver. Various novel embodiments of the invention produce a radio frequency field within the shopping cart that is used to communicate with radio frequency tags on objects carried in the cart. The tags contain information about the respective carried object to which the tags are attached. A program function executed by the cart circuit and/or computer controls the cart transceiver to interrogate radio frequency tags within the radio frequency field, i.e. inside the cart to gain information about the carried objects. Tags on objects external to the cart are not interrogated.

Claims

1. A mobile shopping cart comprising:

a. a radio frequency cart base station having a cart antenna connected to a radio frequency cart transceiver, the cart transceiver controlled by a cart computer with a cart memory, the cart antenna capable of creating a radio frequency field within the shopping cart;

b. an interrogator executed by the cart computer that controls the can transceiver to periodically interrogate radio frequency tags within the radio frequency field, one or more of the radio frequency tags being attached to an object in the shopping cart; and

c. a data structure in the cart memory that is periodically updated by the interrogator to have an entry for one or more objects in the shopping cart, where the data structure includes an object price for each of the entries and a running total of the prices for one or more of the objects in the shopping cart and where a paid memory location is located in a memory on each of the radio frequency tags and paid information is written on the paid memory location as a result of one or more cart signals sent from the cart antenna after the shopper pays the running total.

2. A shopping cart, as in claim 1, where the running total is displayed to a shopper on a cart display.

3. A shopping cart, as in claim 1, where the running total is presented to a shopper as a bill by a cart printer connected to the cart computer.

4. A shopping cart, as in claim 1, where a shopper pays the running total through an input device connected to the cart computer.

5. A shopping cart, as in claim 4, where the cart input device is a credit card reader on the base station and the shopper pays the running total by swiping a credit card through the credit card reader.

6. A shopping cart, as in claim 1, where the cart passes by a security base station that interrogates one or more of the radio frequency tags in the cart to determine if there is paid information written on the paid memory location of the tag.

7. A shopping cart, as in claim 6, where the security base station activates an alarm if one or more radio frequency tags in the cart does not have paid information written on the paid memory location of the tag.

8. A shopping cart, as in claim 1, further comprising a display for showing store information to a shopper.

9. A shopping cart, as in claim 8, where the information is a menu of item categories in a store.

10. A shopping cart, as in claim 8, where the information is a menu of items in a store on-sale.

11. A shopping cart, as in claim 8, where the information is a map of the store.