System and method for detecting and storing the position of articles in a sales point

Abstract

A system (10) for detecting and storing the position of articles (80) in a sales point, which comprises at least one longitudinally extended shelf (14) which is adapted to support and display the articles (80), and a processing device (30). The system (10) comprises a longitudinally extended sensitive bar (16) which is coupled to the at least one shelf (14), the sensitive bar (16) comprising a touch sensor and being configured to detect a touch by a user (90) and to generate longitudinal coordinates that define a portion of the sensitive bar (16) touched by the user (90), the sensitive bar (16) comprising a transceiver (18) which is configured to transmit an identification code of the sensitive bar (16) and the longitudinal coordinates to the processing device (30), over a telematic communications network (25). The processing device (30) comprises a transceiver (34), a database (36) and a data entry module (38), the data entry module (38) being configured to generate pairing information between an article (80), identified by a corresponding barcode, and an area of the at least one shelf (14) on which the article (80) is arranged, identified by the identification code of the sensitive bar (16) coupled to the at least one shelf (14) and by the longitudinal coordinates corresponding to the portion of the sensitive bar (16), and the database (36) being configured to store the pairing information.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a system and method for detecting and storing the location of items in a point of sale, particularly but not exclusively, in managing and optionally sharing shelving units ( The location aspects of various commercial products on the shelvingunit are useful and practical. [0002] In this specification, the term "item" denotes any product or any commodity available in any point of sale, which is offered to potential shoppers and intended to satisfy personal, household or business needs. Background technique [0003] In the commercial world today, the trend that is more and more widespread is to reproduce in "physical (bricks and mortar)" stores (that is to say, at the point of sale) similar to purchasing users (that is, potential buyers) using "virtual ” or the interactive buying experience you have when you shop online. [0004] In this context, one aspect of interest is managing the "orientation" of items, where "ori...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0009] But such conventional solutions are not without drawbacks, among them the fact that commercial operators (i.e. sales customers) are not in any way allowed to manage the available orientation of the product

[0010] Another disadvantage of the traditional solution is that it does not ensure a fast enough exchange of information about the product, thus it does not give the purchasing user a degree of interactivity similar to the shopping experience given in a virtual store

[0011] Another disadvantage of traditional solutions is that they require an overly laborious set-up process, usually by navigating through complex menus, with the result that the commercial operator (i.e. the sales user) loses valuable time

[0012] Another disadvantage of traditional solutions (especially the aforementioned geolocation systems) is that they have a certain level of uncertainty about the location of the product, making them too inaccurate for this application

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