Balance and a method for operating a balance

• US 6,810,355 B1
• Filed: 02/28/2003
• Issued: 10/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mettler Toledo GmbH
• Original Assignee: Mettler-Toledo Incorporated (Mettler-Toledo International Inc.)
• Inventors: Schmid, Karl-Heinz, Weber, Klaus, Kreidler, Sabine
• Primary Examiner(s): Barlow, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): LE, JOHN H
• Application Number:
  US10/363,091
• Time in Patent Office: 606 Days
• Field of Search: 702/101, 702/173, 702/174, 177/25.11, 177/25.12, 177/25.13, 177/25.14, 177/48, 177/136, 177/137, 705/21, 705/409, 705/414, 380/51
• US Class Current: 702/173
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 19/4144 for controlling weight of goods in commercial establishments, e.g. supermarket, P.O.S. systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 23/3728 with wireless means
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR

Abstract

In a scale with a weighing cell, which can generate weight signals representing the weight of a load each time something is weighed, and with a signal processing system which receives the weight signals and generates:

weight data on the basis of the weight signals,

information determined on the basis of the weight data such as purchase prices, and/or

weighing data containing identification data designating the weighing operation or group of associated weighing operations in question,

an elaboration is proposed, according to which the signal processing system has an encryption unit, which can generate encryption data on the basis of at least some of the weighing data, where the signal processing system can transmit a data record containing at least the portion of the weighing data used to generate the encryption data together with the encryption data.

Claims

1. Scale with a weighing cell, which can generate weight signals representing the weight of a load each time something is weighed, and with a signal processing system which receives the weight signals and generates:

weight data on the basis of the weight signals,

information determined on the basis of the weight data and/or

weighing data containing identification data designating the weighing operation or group of associated weighing operations in question,

wherein the signal processing system has an encryption unit, by means of which encryption data can be generated on the basis of at least some of the weighing data, and in that the signal processing system can transmit a data record containing the portion of the weighing data used to generate the encryption data together with the encryption data, wherein the signal processing system is designed to receive with weighing data and the associated encryption data from an additional program and/or another scale.

2. Scale according to claim 1, wherein a display unit which can be actuated by the signal processing system to display visually at least some of the weighing data.

3. Scale according to claim 1, wherein a printer, which can be driven by the signal processing unit to print out at least some of the weighing data.

4. Scale according to claim 1, wherein the encryption unit can be used to encrypt the received weighing data and to compare the encryption data thus obtained with the received encryption data, the received weighing data being released for further processing only if these two sets of encryption data agree.

5. Scale according to claim 1, wherein the signal processing system can be used to compare the received weighing data, especially the header data, with the data stored in the printer memory area, the received data being released for further processing if the received data and the data stored in the printer memory area do not agree.

6. Scale, especially according to claim 1, with a weighing cell, which can generate weight signals representing the weight of a load each time something is weighed, and with a signal processing system which receives the weight signals and generates:

weight data on the basis of the weight signals,

information determined on the basis of the weight data and/or

weighing data containing identification data designating the weighing operation or group of associated weighing operations in question,

and with a display unit, which can be driven by the signal processing system visually to display at least some of the weighing data, characterized in that the signal processing system has a monitoring unit which can monitor the visual display of the weighing data.

7. Scale according to claim 6, wherein the signal processing system has an activation unit, which activates the monitoring unit as soon as the additional checking routine finds that the signal processing unit has been released for transmitting weight data.

8. Scale according to claim 1, wherein an input unit for entering identification data and/or for entering the data required for processing the weight data and/or for entering additional data.

9. Method for operating a scale according to claim 8, in which weight signals representing the weight of a load are generated each time an item is weighed, these signals then being sent to a signal processing system, which can generate weight data, information derived from the weight data, and/or weighing data comprising identification data, characterized in that at least some of the weighing data is encrypted and transmitted in the form of a data record together with the encryption data thus obtained and/or stored in a memory unit.

10. Method, especially according to claim 9, in which weight signals representing the weight of a load are generated each time an item is weighed, these signals then being sent to a signal processing system, which can generate weight data, information derived from the weight data, and/or weighing data comprising identification data, and a display unit is driven to generate a visual display of at least some of the weighing data, wherein the visual display of the weighing data is monitored.

11. Interconnected system with at least one scale according to claim 1 and at least one additional machine, preferably a sales device, especially a scale, and a data transmission unit which can be used to transmit data records between these machines.

12. Interconnected system according to claim 11, wherein the data transmission unit comprises a network selected from the group consisting of a LAN, an intranet, or the Internet.

13. Interconnected system according to claim 11, wherein the data transmission unit has at least one transmitter and at least one receiver for the wireless transmission of the data records.

14. Method for operating an interconnected system according to claim 11, in which weighing data and data records containing encryption data generated from the weighing data are transmitted between the individual machines of the interconnected system, wherein the weighing data of the transmitted data records are encrypted, and the encryption data thus obtained are compared with the transmitted encryption data of the data records, where the transmitted data records are released for further processing only if it is found that these two sets of encryption data agree.

15. Scale with a weighing cell, which can generate weight signals representing the weight of a load each time something is weighed, and with a signal processing system which receives the weight signals and generates:

weight data on the basis of the weight signals,

information determined on the basis of the weight data, and/or

weighing data containing identification data designating the weighing operation or group of associated weighing operations in question,

wherein the signal processing system has an encryption unit, by means of which encryption data can be generated on the basis of at least some of the weighing data, and in that the signal processing system can transmit a data record containing the portion of the weighing data used to generate the encryption data together with the encryption data, wherein the signal processing system has a signal processing unit, which can generate the weight data on the basis of the weight signals and machine-specific parameters, and a data processing unit separate from the signal processing unit, which data process unit receives the weight data and generates the other weighing data, wherein the data processing system can run a default program, by means of which the weight data are generated, received, and/or processed, and wherein the default program has a checking routine, which, every time this program is called up, first generates additional encryption data on the basis of the program data and/or on the basis of the parameters generated to generate the weight data and then compares these encryption data with the default checking data.

16. Scale according to claim 15, wherein, when the default program is called up, the data processing unit can send a password to the signal processing unit, and in that the signal processing unit comprises a comparison unit, which can compare this password with a password stored in the signal processing unit.

17. Scale according to claim 15, wherein the data processing unit can run an additional program, which can call up, if desired, the records generated by the default program.

18. Scale according to claim 17, wherein only the default program can drive the display unit visually to display information content generated by the additional program.

19. Scale according to claim 18, wherein the default program has a checking routine, which checks to see whether the signal processing unit has been released to transmit weight data and releases the visual display or printout of the information content generated by the additional program only if the transmission of weight data from the signal processing unit has not been released.

20. Scale according to claim 17, wherein only the default program can drive the printer to print out information content generated by the additional program.

21. Scale according to one of claim 15, wherein the default program has a third checking routine, which compares a password transmitted by the additional programs with a password contained in the default program, and in that the transmission of the data records is allowed only if agreement is established between these two passwords.

25. Scale according to claim 23 or claim 16, wherein the memory unit has a printer memory area, in which the header data, possibly together with additional data, are stored when the corresponding bookkeeping data are to be printed out.

26. Scale according to claim 25, wherein the signal processing system has a fourth checking routine, which compares the header data of the bookkeeping data to be printed out with the header data stored in the printer memory area and allows the printout only if these two sets of data do not agree.

22. Scale with a weighing cell, which can generate weight signals representing the weight of a load each time something is weighed, and with a signal processing system which receives the weight signals and generates:

weight data on the basis of the weight signals,

information determined on the basis of the weight data, and/or weighing data containing identification data designating the weighing operation or group of associated weighing operations in question,

wherein the signal processing system has an encryption unit, by means of which encryption data can be generated on the basis of at least some of the weighing data, and in that the signal processing system can transmit a data record containing the portion of the weighing data used to generate the-encryption data together with the encryption data, wherein the signal processing system has a memory unit for storing the weight data and the associated encryption data, wherein the memory unit has a plurality of default memory areas, each of which is designed for the storage of bookkeeping data and the associated encryption data, the bookkeeping data comprising the weighing data generated in the course of a bookkeeping operation comprising a plurality of weighing operations.

23. Scale according to claim 22, wherein the default memory areas are designed so that the identification data designating the bookkeeping operation in question and the encryption data generated therefrom can be stored in the form of header data for the bookkeeping data.

24. Scale according to claim 23, wherein the header data comprise the number of the machine on which the first set of weighing data of the bookkeeping operation was generated, the time and the date on which the first bookkeeping entry was made, and/or a check sum determined on the basis of these data.