Operation monitoring and enhanced host communications in systems employing electronic article surveillance and RFID tags

• US 7,527,198 B2
• Filed: 07/02/2003
• Issued: 05/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Datalogic Scanning Incorporated (Datalogic S.p.A.), Sensormatic Electronics LLC (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Original Assignee: Datalogic Scanning Incorporated (Datalogic S.p.A.)
• Inventors: Salim, Mohamed Arif, Guess, Alan Jackson, Paris, Bruce Edward, Clifford, Harold C.
• Primary Examiner(s): WALSH, DANIEL I
• Application Number:
  US10/612,870
• Publication Number:
  US 20040113791A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,134 Days
• Field of Search: 235378-380, 235/385, 340/572.1, 340/572.3, 705/22, 705/20, 705/25, 705/64
• US Class Current: 235/385
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0022 arrangements or provisions for transferring data to distant stations, e.g. from a sensing device "transfer between computer elements G06F13/00 "; data-transmission H04L
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/009 the reader being an RFID reader
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/12 electronically operated digital data processing aspects G06Q20/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 3/00 Alarm indicators, e.g. bells

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring operation and performance of electronic tags such as article surveillance (EAS) tags or radio frequency identification (RFID) tags such as by monitoring and reporting electronic tag readability and operator/system performance levels. The system includes an optical symbol reader and/or electronic tag sensor/deactivator that measures and reports values of reading, detection, or deactivation events during operation which may be indicative of electronic tag operability. The apparatus may further comprise a data accumulation device including memory storage to accumulate the measurement values for each set of electronic tags, and a programmed computing system to analyze the measured values and report on the results of the analysis.

Claims

1. A host notification method for use in an electronic checkout system that includes an optical code reader and electronic article surveillance (EAS) system, the checkout system coupled to an electronic point-of-sale (POS) terminal, the method comprising the following steps:

operating in an automatic activation mode whereby the EAS system is automatically activated in response to a signal from the optical code reader of good read of a product optical code to deactivate an EAS tag of the product;

operating in a manual activation mode whereby the EAS system is manually activated by action of an operator to deactivate an EAS tag;

detecting, by the checkout system, a manual deactivation attempt of the LAS system;

electronically determining whether the manual deactivation attempt was successful;

in response to determining a successful manual deactivation attempt, transmitting notification thereof by mimicking a reading operation of a read product optical code by transmitting a predetermined special optical code data to the POS terminal or host system using a pre-existing interface of the POS terminal or host system that is operative to handle product optical code data;

storing, by the POS terminal or host system, the predetermined special optical code data, wherein the predetermined special optical code data does not identify a product, is of a same format as product optical code data, and is able to be processed via the pre-existing interface.

2. A method according to claim 1 and further comprising:

identifying an operator logged into the POS system at a time the manual activation of the EAS system is detected; and

storing an identifier of the identified operator in association with the stored indication of the manual activation.

3. A method according to claim 1 and further comprising:

determining a date and time when the manual activation, as distinguished from an automatic activation, of the EAS system is detected; and

storing the determined date and time in association with the stored indication of the manual activation.

4. A host notification method according to claim 1 wherein said predetermined machine readable optical code data comprises a specially reserved universal product code.

5. A host notification method according to claim 1 and further comprising, responsive to receiving the indication of the manual deactivation, creating a record of the manual deactivation event.

6. A host notification method according to claim 1 and further comprising, in the POS, responsive to receiving the indication of the manual deactivation, transmitting a record of the manual deactivation event to a server or backroom controller.

7. A host communication method for use in an electronic checkout system that includes a data reader to acquire product identification from optical coded products and an electronic tag system, the checkout system coupled to an electronic host system, the method comprising the following steps:

detecting a selected operational event of the data reader or the electronic tag system;

electronically selecting a predetermined special optical code data corresponding to the selected operational event that has been detected;

transmitting, using a pre-existing interface of the host system that handles product optical code data, the predetermined special optical code data corresponding to the selected operational event of the data reader or electronic tag system, notification of the selected operational event occurring by mimicking a reading operation of a read product optical code by transmitting the selected predetermined special optical code data to the host system, wherein the predetermined special optical code data does not identify a product but identifies the selected operational event; and

storing the predetermined special optical code data at the host system, wherein the predetermined special optical code data is of a same format as product optical code data able to be processed via the pre-existing interface.

8. A host communication method according to claim 7 wherein the host system comprises a point-of-sale (POS) terminal.

9. A host communication method according to claim 7 wherein the host system comprises a host computer.

10. A host communication method according to claim 7 wherein the data reader comprises an optical scanner and the detected event is an indication of a hardware failure.

11. A host communication method according to claim 7 wherein the detected event is a status of the electronic tag system.

12. A host communication method according to claim 11 wherein the detected event comprises an electronic tag deactivation failed event.

13. A host communication method according to claim 11 wherein the detected event comprises a successful deactivation event.

14. A host communication method according to claim 11 wherein the detected event comprises an attempted deactivation event.

15. A host communication method according to claim 11 wherein the detected event comprises a successful manual deactivation event.

16. A host communication method according to claim 7 wherein the data reader comprises a plurality of sensors, and wherein the detected event comprises which of the plurality of sensors acquired the product data.

17. A host communication method according to claim 7 further comprising

providing multiple sensor windows in the data reader;

reading data from an article via the data reader;

determining which of the multiple sensor windows was used to read the data, wherein the detected event comprises which of the multiple sensor windows was used to read the data.

18. A method according to claim 17 and further comprising determining an indication of a position of the article responsive to the indication of which of the multiple sensor windows was used to read the data.

19. A method according to claim 17 and further comprising determining an indication of an orientation of the article responsive to the indication of which of the multiple sensor windows was used to read the data.

20. A method according to claim 17 and further comprising:

selecting a special optical code as a predetermined data code corresponding to the indication of which of the multiple sensor windows was used to read the label data; and

transmitting the selected special optical code to the host system as a special code that identifies which of the multiple sensor windows was used to read the label data.

21. A method according to claim 20 wherein the data reader system includes at least one optical sensor.

22. A method according to claim 20 wherein the data reader system includes at least one RFID sensor.

23. A method according to claim 20 wherein the POS terminal serves as the host.

25. A host communication method according to claim 7 wherein the detected event comprises a hardware failure.

26. A host communication method according to claim 25 wherein the hardware failure comprises a failure in a power supply of the electronic tag system.

24. A method of operation of an electronic checkout system having a point of sale (POS) terminal coupled to an optical code reader and an EAS system, the method comprising:

electronically operating in an automatic activation mode whereby the EAS system is automatically activated in response to a signal from the optical code reader of a good read of a product optical code;

operating in a manual activation mode whereby the EAS system is manually activated by action of an operator;

electronically detecting a manual activation of the EAS system to deactivate an EAS tag of the product; and

electronically storing an indication of the detected manual activation of the EAS system at the POS terminal or host system,

wherein said detecting step occurs in the EAS system and further comprising transmitting an indication of the detected manual activation of the LAS system to the POS terminal or host system using a pre-existing interface of the POS terminal or host system that is operative to handle product optical code data,

wherein the step of transmitting an indication of the detected manual activation of the EAS system to the POS terminal or host system comprises (a) selecting a predetermined special optical code data corresponding to the detected manual activation, wherein the predetermined special optical code data is distinguishable by the POS terminal or host system from a product optical code data and is distinguished from an automatic deactivation optical code data, and (b) transmitting, by mimicking a reading operation of a read product optical code, the predetermined special optical code data from the optical code reader to the POS terminal or host system, wherein the predetermined special optical code data is of a same format as product optical code data and is able to be processed via the pre-existing interface.