Method and apparatus for inventorying substances

• US 6,450,406 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2001
• Issued: 09/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Christopher P. Brown
• Original Assignee: Christopher P. Brown
• Inventors: Brown, Christopher P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pitts, Harold I.
• Application Number:
  US09/788,647
• Publication Number:
  US 20010007982A1
• Time in Patent Office: 573 Days
• Field of Search: 235/375, 235/462.45
• US Class Current: 235/462.45
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/28 using differential sensing or reference cells, e.g. dummy cells
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 2216/20 Suspension of programming or erasing cells in an array in order to read other cells in it

Abstract

A portable, integrated scanner/scale apparatus capable of scanning and weighing articles of inventory and particularly intended for use with a method of inventorying bottled liquids, specifically liquor at a bar, or pharmaceuticals. The integrated scanner/scale apparatus is defined by a housing containing a scanner, a weighing scale, and a plurality of other components used by the scanner/scale apparatus for gathering, recording, and distributing inventory data. Housed inside the integrated scanner/scale apparatus is a memory device for storing information obtained from the scanner/scale apparatus, a display device for displaying data either generated by the scanner or scale or entered by the key pad, and a serial port or RF communications devices for enabling interconnection between the memory device and a personal computer having a software program for calculating inventory stock amounts and profits, etc.

Claims

1. A portable system for collecting data for inventory

analysis and report preparation comprising:

a housing being defined by an outer housing wall for housing all components of the system;

a scanner formed in said outer housing wall for scanning coded articles of inventory;

a scale formed in said outer housing wall for weighing articles of inventory;

a memory device housed inside of said outer housing wall and operatively connected to both said scanner and to said scale for storing information read by said scanner;

a display device formed in said outer housing wall and operatively connected to said scanner device for displaying data; and

means for transferring data to a remote computer.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein said scanner is an infrared scanner.

3. The system according to claim 1 wherein said scanner is a laser scanner.

4. The system according to claim 1 wherein said means for transferring data is an RF transmitter.

5. The system according to claim 1 wherein said means for transferring data is a serial port.

6. The system according to claim 1 wherein said housing is constructed of plastic material.

7. The system according to claim 1 wherein said housing is constructed of metal material.

8. The system according to claim 1 further including means to receive data from a remote computer.

9. The system according to claim 8 wherein said means to receive data is an RF receiver.

10. An inventory management system comprising:

a portable system for collecting data for inventory analysis and report preparation including;

a housing being defined by an outer housing wall;

a scanner formed in said outer housing wall for scanning coded articles of inventory;

a scale formed in said outer housing wall for weighing articles of inventory;

a memory device housed inside of said outer housing wall and operatively connected to both said scanner and to said scale for storing information read by said scanner;

a display device formed in said outer housing wall and operatively connected to said scanner device and said key pad for displaying data; and

means for transferring data to a remote computer; and

a remotely-located computer which can be operatively connected to said means for transferring data.

11. The management system of claim 10 wherein said computer can run any type of inventory management or report generation software available.

12. The management system of claim 10 further including software for inventory management and report generation.

13. The system according to claim 10 wherein said scanner is an infrared scanner.

14. The system according to claim 10 wherein said scanner is a laser scanner.

15. The system according to claim 10 wherein said means for transferring data is an RF transmitter.

16. The system according to claim 10 wherein said means for transferring data is a serial port.

17. The system according to claim 10 further including means to receive data from said remote computer.

18. The system according to claim 17 wherein said means to receive data is an RF receiver.

19. A method of inventorying bar coded articles comprising:

(a) creating an electronic database of information including fields of entry of the description of an article, the weight of the article, and data encoded by machine readable labels attached to the article;

(b) scanning a bar code label of the article;

(c) weighing the article after scanning is complete; and

(d) transmitting data obtained from said scanning and said weighing to a remotely-located computer for analysis and report preparation.

20. The method of claim 19 further including the step of operating software on the remotely-located computer which analyzes the results of said scanning and weighing.