Inventory management system, inventory management method

Abstract

To provide an article management system and an article management method for automatically measuring the frequency at which articles are picked up with a hand while suppressing data required for communication.SOLUTION: A certain aspect of the present invention is an article management system that includes: a sheet member having a metal film attached to an item; a communication device attached to a holder for holding the item; a wireless apparatus that wirelessly communicates with the communication device; and a measuring apparatus that obtains communication success or failure results according to the passage of time with the communication device by the wireless apparatus, and measures the frequency at which the wireless apparatus can communicate with the communication device based on the communication success or failure results. Here, the communication device is attached to a position where at least part of the communication device is shielded by the sheet member when the item is held by the holder.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an article management system and an article management method. [Background technology]

[0002] 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, systems have been known that are configured to detect whether a customer has picked up a product sample placed in a store for the purpose of product marketing or the like. For example, in the system described in Patent Document 1, product samples with contactless IC tags attached are displayed on a product display shelf, and an IC tag reader having a structure capable of communicating with the contactless IC tag is provided. When the product sample is removed from the product display shelf, the unique information read by the IC tag reader becomes unable to be received, and the information processing device in the system is configured to detect that a shopper has picked up the product sample. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-148884 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Generally, the time when a product sample is not picked up by a shopper in a store is much longer than the time when it is picked up by a shopper. Therefore, in the above-mentioned conventional system, the IC tag reader continues to receive unique information from the contactless IC tag attached to the product sample during the very long time when the product sample is not picked up by a shopper, and the information processing device constantly monitors whether it is no longer able to receive the unique information. As a result, the amount of data required for communication between the IC tag reader and the information processing device in the system becomes enormous, which may cause line capacity congestion. Moreover, the data received by the information processing device during the very long time when the product is not picked up by a shopper does not contribute to product marketing analysis.

[0005] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an item management system and an item management method that automatically measure the frequency with which an item is picked up while reducing the amount of data required for communication. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] One aspect of the present invention is a sheet member having a metal film attached to the article; a communication device attached to a holder that holds the item; a wireless device that wirelessly communicates with the communication device; The item management system includes a measuring device that acquires the results of whether the wireless device can communicate with the communication device over time, and measures the frequency at which the wireless device can communicate with the communication device based on the results of whether the wireless device can communicate with the communication device. Here, the communication device is attached at a position where at least a portion of the communication device is shielded by the sheet member when the article is held by the holder. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to one aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide an item management system and an item management method that automatically measure the frequency with which an item is picked up while reducing the amount of data required for communication. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an application example of a product management system according to an embodiment, showing a state in which products are placed in holders on a product shelf. [Figure 2] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an application example of the product management system according to an embodiment, showing a state in which no product is placed in a holder on a product shelf. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a product to which a name sheet is attached. [Figure 4] 10A and 10B are diagrams showing the holder when a product is placed thereon and when no product is placed thereon; [Figure 5] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a count of the number of times tags are detected within a predetermined period. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of each device of the product management system according to the embodiment. [Figure 7] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of an advertising packet transmitted from an IoT tag. [Figure 8] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of a tag database. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] In this disclosure, the term "item" refers to a tangible object such as a commodity, a finished product, a semi-finished product (a product in an intermediate stage during manufacturing), a mockup, etc. In the following embodiments, an example of an item is a sales promotion item (also referred to as POSM (Point of Sale Material)).

[0010] Hereinafter, a merchandise management system that is an embodiment of an information processing system according to the present disclosure will be described. In one embodiment, the product management system is configured to efficiently obtain useful marketing information by placing promotional products (POSM) in stores so that they can be sampled and automatically measuring the time and frequency at which customers pick up the promotional products. There are no restrictions on promotional products (hereinafter simply referred to as "products"), but they are preferably products that customers will want to pick up and try, such as, but not limited to, electric shavers, digital cameras, video cameras, smartphones, etc. Products can be widely applied to stationery such as pencil cases and fountain pens, cosmetics such as perfumes, lipsticks, and foundations, portable game consoles, home appliances such as handheld cleaners, laundry softeners, and even fragrance samples.

[0011] In one embodiment of the product management system, a sheet member having a metal film is attached to the product. In this system, a holder for holding an item is installed on a product shelf, and a communication device is attached to the holder. The communication device is attached to the holder at a position where at least a portion of the communication device is shielded by a sheet member attached to the item when the item is held in the holder.

[0012] Within the communication range of the communication device, a wireless device for communicating with the communication device is located. The communication device is preferably an IoT tag (an example of a wireless tag) that collects surrounding radio waves, converts them into electricity, and has a capacitor that stores the electricity, since it can be used for a long period of time without requiring maintenance, but is not limited to this and may also be an RFID tag (an example of a wireless tag) that operates in the UHF band, HF band, or microwave band. In either case, the RFID tag may be a passive type (one without a built-in battery) or an active type (one with a built-in battery).

[0013] In one embodiment, the product management system is configured to determine whether a customer has picked up a product and removed it from the holder using a sheet member attached to the product and a communication device attached to the holder. That is, when a product is held in a holder, the sheet member attached to the product shields at least a portion of the communication device, significantly reducing the radio wave radiation performance of the communication device and preventing communication between the communication device and a wireless device or significantly reducing the frequency of communication. On the other hand, when a product is not held in a holder (that is, when a customer has picked up the product), the sheet member does not shield the communication device, and communication between the communication device and the wireless device is possible.

[0014] In one embodiment of the product management system, when a wireless device is able to communicate with a communication device, it receives identification information (e.g., a tag ID, described below) that identifies the communication device and notifies the server of the received identification information via the network, allowing the server to determine that a product to which a communication device corresponding to the identification information is attached has been picked up. Therefore, the server can obtain information about how often customers have picked up the corresponding product by measuring the frequency with which the identification information is received. While a product is not being picked up by a customer, communication between the communication device and the wireless device is either not possible or the frequency of communication drops significantly, so communication between the wireless device and the server is almost non-existent. Therefore, this system can significantly reduce the amount of data required for communication when automatically measuring the frequency with which a product is picked up.

[0015] The product management system of one embodiment will be described in more detail below with reference to the drawings, taking an example in which the product is an electric shaver. Figure 1 shows six electric shaver products 7-1 to 7-6 on display for trial use as POSM. Figure 2 shows the state of Figure 1 with the products removed. As shown in FIG. 1, six holders 30-1 to 30-6 attached to a product shelf 3 hold six products 7-1 to 7-6, respectively, and labels PL1 to PL6 are placed near each holder to explain the products to customers.

[0016] In the following description, when referring to matters common to the products 7-1 to 7-6, they will be referred to as "product 7." When referring to matters common to the holders 30-1 to 30-6, they will be referred to as "holder 30."

[0017] 2, IoT (Internet of Things) tags T1 to T6 (an example of a communication device) are attached to six holders 30-1 to 30-6, respectively. The IoT tag is an example of an energy-harvesting communication device that generates power using radio waves from the surrounding environment and does not have a battery. In the following description, the IoT tags T1 to T6 are referred to as holder tags T1 to T6, respectively.

[0018] The maximum communication distance of the holder tags T1 to T6 is not limited, but is, for example, in the range of 3 to 10 meters. The holder tags T1 to T6 are configured to perform wireless communication with low power consumption, and examples of communication protocols include Bluetooth (registered trademark) Low Energy (hereinafter referred to as BLE), Bluetooth (registered trademark), and ZigBee (registered trademark). The following description will be given taking the case of communication using BLE as an example. When the holder tags T1 to T6 comply with the BLE standard, they broadcast advertising packets (described later) at predetermined intervals (for example, every short time of about 1 to 10 seconds). The packets transmitted by the holder tags T1 to T6 include a tag ID, which is identification information for each tag.

[0019] In the following description, when referring to matters common to the holder tags T1 to T6, they will be referred to as "holder tag T."

[0020] A wireless device 2 is placed near the product shelf 3 for performing BLE communication with each of the holder tags T1 to T6. As will be described later, the wireless device 2 is a gateway device that can communicate with a tag management server (described later) via a network. As shown in FIG. 2, the wireless device 2 is placed in a position where it can receive packets transmitted from each tag when no product is placed in each holder. In other words, the wireless device 2 is placed taking into consideration the radio wave output of each tag. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the wireless device 2 is indicated by a virtual line, and the location of the wireless device 2 can be set arbitrarily.

[0021] 1 and 2, a reference tag Tref is preferably placed on the product shelf 3. The reference tag Tref is a tag for reference, and is a device having the same configuration as the holder tags T1 to T6. The reference tag Tref may be placed anywhere as long as it can communicate with the wireless device 2 regardless of whether the products 7-1 to 7-6 are held in their corresponding holders. The reference tag Tref is provided to determine whether the wireless device 2 is operating normally. In particular, as will be described later, when all of the products 7-1 to 7-6 are held in their holders, the wireless device 2 cannot receive radio waves transmitted from the holder tags T1 to T6. Therefore, if the reference tag Tref were not provided, it would be difficult to determine whether the system is operating normally. Therefore, by providing a reference tag Tref that can communicate with the wireless device 2 regardless of whether the products 7-1 to 7-6 are held in their corresponding holders, it becomes possible to determine whether the system is operating normally.

[0022] 3 is a rear view of an exemplary product 7. As shown in FIG. 3, a name sheet NP is attached to the product 7. The name paper NP (an example of a sheet member) is made by laminating a transparent PET film, an aluminum vapor deposition layer (film) (an example of a metal film), and an adhesive in that order, and is attached to the back of the product 7 by the adhesive. Note that, instead of the name paper NP, foil paper (foil paper) that has the ability to follow curved surfaces may also be used.

[0023] FIG. 4 shows a comparison between a state where the holder 30 does not hold a product 7 and a state where the holder 30 holds a product 7. As shown in Fig. 4, the holder 30 has a support part 31 for supporting the bottom of the product 7, and a backrest part 32. The support part 31 is attached to the surface of the product shelf 3, and has a hole 31h formed therein. The product 7 is supported by the support part 31 when the bottom of the product 7 is received in the hole 31h. The backrest 32 is a plate-like member that extends upward from the support 31, and supports the back of the product 7. As shown in FIG. One end of a wire 8 is attached to each product 7, and the other end (not shown) of the wire 8 is fixed to the product shelf 3 near the holder 30 that holds each product 7. The length of the wire 8 is set to a length that allows a customer to sample the product 7 sufficiently when picking it up.

[0024] As shown in FIG. 4, when a product 7 is held in the holder 30, the name paper NP attached to the back of the product 7 and the holder tag T attached to the backrest 32 of the holder 30 are in contact with or close to each other. In other words, the name paper NP shields at least a portion of the holder tag T. As mentioned above, the name paper NP has an aluminum vapor deposition layer that shields the radio waves emitted from the holder tag T, significantly reducing the radio wave radiation performance from the holder tag T. As a result, the wireless device 2 is unable to receive packets transmitted from the holder tag T, or the reception frequency is significantly reduced. When the wireless device 2 is located on the back side of the holder 30, there is no name paper NP between the wireless device 2 and the holder tag T, but communication is hindered due to the proximity of the holder tag T and the name paper NP. On the other hand, when the holder 30 is not held by the product 7, the radio wave radiation performance from the holder tag T does not deteriorate, and the wireless device 2 can receive packets transmitted from the holder tag T without any problems. Therefore, by measuring the frequency with which the wireless device 2 detects packets from the holder tag T, it is possible to estimate the frequency with which customers have picked up the product 7.

[0025] FIG. 5 shows exemplary measurement results for how often wireless device 2 detects packets from holder tag T. FIG. 5A is a diagram in which points are plotted at the timing when the wireless device 2 detects packets from the holder tags T1 to T3 and the reference tag Tref during the opening hours of the store in one day (10 am to 9 pm). Figure 5B is an enlarged view of the area where points are plotted at the timing when wireless device 2 detects packets from holder tag T1 for the two hours from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. during the store's opening hours shown in Figure 5A.

[0026] Figure 5C corresponds to Figure 5B and shows the number of times holder tag T1 was detected (i.e., the number of times product 7-1 corresponding to holder tag T1 was removed from holder 30-1) counted every 10 minutes over the two hours from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. during the store's opening hours. For example, if holder tag T1 transmits packets at five-second intervals, wireless device 2 receives packets from holder tag T1 (i.e., detects holder tag T1) every five seconds while product 7 is removed from holder 30. Figure 5C shows the number of times holder tag T1 is detected every 10 minutes. In this example, the tag is detected 80 times in the 10 minutes from 6:30 PM to 6:40 PM, which means that customers picked up product 7-1 for 400 seconds (= 80 x 5 seconds). As shown in FIG. 5C, the counting process is performed in a tag management server (described later) connected to the wireless device 2.

[0027] 5A to 5C show an ideal state in which the holder tag T is completely shielded by the name paper NP attached to the product 7 while the product 7 is held by the holder 30, preventing communication between the holder tag T and the wireless device 2. However, if only a portion of the holder tag T is shielded by the name paper NP while the product 7 is held by the holder 30, communication between the holder tag T and the wireless device 2 may be possible at long intervals. For example, if packets are transmitted at five-second intervals when the holder tag T is not shielded by the name paper NP, communication between the holder tag T and the wireless device 2 may be possible at intervals longer than five seconds (for example, several minutes to several hours) when only a portion of the holder tag T is shielded by the name paper NP. Therefore, if the wireless device 2 receives packets at intervals shorter than a predetermined threshold, it may determine that the holder tag T has been detected. For example, the predetermined threshold may be set to a value slightly larger than the interval at which packets are transmitted when the holder tag T is not shielded by the name paper NP.

[0028] Next, the configuration of each device in the product management system 1 according to an embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of each device in the product management system 1 of this embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the configuration of an advertising packet transmitted from the holder tag T.

[0029] 6, the product management system 1 includes a wireless device 2 and a tag management server 5 (an example of a measurement device) that can communicate with the wireless device 2 via a network NW. The network NW is not limited to, but may be, for example, a LAN (Local Area Network), a WAN (Wide Area Network), a mobile communication network, the Internet, etc. The wireless device 2 functions as a BLE wireless terminal that receives packets from the holder tag T and the reference tag Tref via BLE communication. When the wireless device 2 receives a packet from each tag, it transmits the tag ID included in the received packet to the tag management server 5. When the holder tag T and the reference tag Tref are able to transmit packets normally, they transmit packets at predetermined intervals as described above, and in response, the wireless device 2 also transmits its tag ID to the tag management server 5 at predetermined intervals.

[0030] 6, the holder tag T includes, for example, a control unit 11, an antenna 12, a harvesting unit 13, a voltage control unit 14, and an RF transceiver 15. Note that the configuration of the holder tag T will be described below, but the configuration of the reference tag Tref, not shown in FIG. 6, is also the same as that of the holder tag T.

[0031] Although the overall shape of the tag is not shown, it is, for example, a thin-film member in which a conductive metal foil with a predetermined pattern on which an antenna 12 is formed is connected to an IC chip connected to the metal foil. A control unit 11, a harvesting unit 13, a voltage control unit 14, and an RF transceiver 15 are mounted within the IC chip.

[0032] The control unit 11 has a microprocessor and a memory 111, and controls the entire holder tag T. The memory 111 is a RAM (Random Access Memory) or a ROM (Read Only Memory), and stores a tag ID, which is identification information unique to the holder tag T, in addition to programs executed by the microprocessor.

[0033] The harvesting unit 13 harvests energy from radio waves in the surrounding environment (for example, radio waves from surrounding wireless communications) and stores the generated power in an internal energy storage 131. In this embodiment, the harvesting unit 13 converts, for example, a radio signal received by the antenna 12 into a DC voltage and stores it in the energy storage 131. The energy storage 131 is, for example, a capacitor. In the case of a capacitor, it may be configured on a semiconductor chip (i.e., an on-die type capacitor).

[0034] The radio waves used for energy harvesting by the harvesting unit 13 are radio waves in a wide range of different frequency bands, such as radio waves generated by wireless communication in the frequency bands used in so-called mobile communication systems such as 3G to 5G, radio waves generated by wireless communication in the frequency bands used in communication standards such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) and Wi-Fi (registered trademark), radio waves generated by wireless communication in the 2.4 GHz band typified by communication protocols such as ZigBee (registered trademark) and Thread, and radio waves generated by wireless communication in the frequency bands used in RFID (for example, the 900 MHz band and the 13.56 MHz band). The radio waves exemplified here are generally applicable in almost all areas. The holder tag T operates on power obtained by environmental power generation by the harvesting unit 13 based on radio waves in the surrounding environment. This eliminates the need to install a battery in the holder tag T, thereby reducing system costs. Furthermore, since there is no need to install a battery, there is no need to replace the battery, so there is no problem of not being able to obtain the tag ID even though the tag is present.

[0035] The voltage control unit 14 supplies an operating voltage to the control unit 11 and the RF transceiver 15, monitors the voltage of the energy storage 131, and switches the power mode depending on the monitoring result. When the voltage of the energy storage 131 is equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold, the power mode is set to a first mode in which only a minimum number of circuits are operated, and at this time, the control unit 11 and the RF transceiver 15 do not generate packets or transmit radio signals, as described below. When the voltage of the energy storage 131 is charged to a predetermined threshold or higher, the power mode is set to a second mode in which a normal processing routine is executed, and at this time, the control unit 11 and the RF transceiver 15 perform various processes, including generating packets and transmitting radio signals.

[0036] When the power mode is the second mode, the control unit 11 generates an advertising packet in accordance with the BLE protocol. An advertising packet is a packet that is transmitted using an advertising channel to achieve broadcast communication in BLE, and has the packet configuration shown in FIG. 7.

[0037] 7, the preamble and address access are each a predetermined fixed value. The CRC is a cyclic check code, which is check data calculated using a predetermined generating polynomial for the packet payload (i.e., advertising channel PDU (protocol data unit)). An advertising channel PDU (hereinafter simply referred to as "PDU") consists of a header and a payload, and the payload consists of an ADV address and ADV data. The ADV address is the address of the advertiser (i.e., the holder tag T that is the entity that broadcasts), but it may also be a random value set each time a transmission is made so that the sender cannot be identified. The ADV data is the advertiser's data (broadcast data) and includes a tag ID.

[0038] It is preferable that the control unit 11 encrypts the PDU. There are no particular restrictions on the encryption method, but for example, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with a key length of 128 bits can be used.

[0039] The RF transceiver 15 performs a predetermined digital modulation (e.g., Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK)) on the packet (baseband signal) to be transmitted, then performs quadrature modulation, and transmits the high-frequency signal (in the case of BLE, a signal in the 2.4 GHz frequency band) to the antenna 12.

[0040] The antenna 12 includes a transmitting antenna and a power-generating antenna. The transmitting antenna transmits high-frequency radio signals (packets) sent by the RF transceiver 15. On the other hand, the power-generating antenna receives, for example, radio waves from the surrounding environment and functions as a rectenna in cooperation with the harvesting unit 13.

[0041] As shown in FIG. 6, the wireless device 2 includes a control unit 21, an antenna 22, an RF transceiver 23, and a communication unit 24. The control unit 21 is mainly configured with a microprocessor, and controls the entire wireless device 2. For example, the control unit 21 decodes the PDU of the packet received from the holder tag T, performs error detection from the CRC using the same generating polynomial as that on the holder tag T side, extracts broadcast data from the PDU, and controls the communication unit 24 to transmit the broadcast data to the tag management server 5. The RF transceiver 23 detects the radio signal received from the holder tag T by the antenna 22, converts it into a baseband signal, and performs predetermined digital demodulation to receive packets. In addition, in order to transmit a beacon signal from the antenna 22, the RF transceiver 23 quadrature-modulates, for example, a baseband signal of a predetermined pattern and sends it to the antenna 22. The communication unit 24 functions as a communication interface for communicating with the tag management server 5.

[0042] As shown in FIG. 6, the tag management server 5 includes, for example, a control unit 51, a storage 52, and a communication unit 53. The control unit 51 is mainly configured with a microprocessor, and controls the entire tag management server 5. The storage 52 includes a large-scale storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD) and stores a tag database. As shown in Fig. 8, the tag database associates the tag ID of a holder tag T with the product code of a product 7 held in a holder 30 corresponding to the holder tag T. The storage 52 also stores the tag ID of a reference tag Tref. The communication unit 53 functions as a communication interface for communicating with the wireless device 2.

[0043] By executing the server program, when the wireless device 2 receives a packet including a tag ID transmitted by the holder tag T and the reference tag Tref, the control unit 51 acquires the tag ID included in the packet from the wireless device 2. Every time the control unit 51 acquires a tag ID included in the tag database from the wireless device 2, it records the acquired tag ID and the time the tag ID was acquired as a tag detection log in the storage 52. That is, the control unit 51 acquires the result of whether the wireless device 2 can communicate with the holder tag T over time. Note that FIGS. 5A and 5B are plots of the tag detection log. Based on this tag detection log, the control unit 51 performs a counting process of the number of tag detections per predetermined time period, as shown in FIG. 5C, and measures the frequency with which customers pick up products with a specific product code. At this time, the product code corresponding to the tag ID is identified by referring to the tag database. The timing for performing the tallying process can be set arbitrarily. For example, during the store's business hours, the results of whether or not communication between the wireless device 2 and the holder tag T can be performed over time are recorded as a tag detection log, and the tallying process is performed based on the tag detection log after the business hours have passed.

[0044] Similarly, every time the control unit 51 acquires the tag ID of the reference tag Tref from the wireless device 2, it records the acquired tag ID and the time when the tag ID was acquired in the storage 52 as a tag detection log. As shown in Fig. 1, the reference tag Tref is not blocked by the product 7, and therefore, unless the wireless device 2 is malfunctioning, the tag ID of the reference tag Tref can be acquired at predetermined intervals when the reference tag Tref transmits a packet. If the tag ID of the reference tag Tref cannot be acquired at predetermined intervals, the control unit 51 determines that the wireless device 2 is malfunctioning, and notifies an administrator terminal (not shown).

[0045] Although not shown in Fig. 6, it is preferable that a user terminal that can communicate with the tag management server 5 via the network NW obtains and displays the results of the tallying process based on the tag detection log from the tag management server 5, so that the user can view them. For example, when the user terminal and the tag management server 5 communicate via HTTPS, the browser on the user terminal receives display data from the tag management server 5 and displays the tallying process results in the format shown in Fig. 5C on the screen of the user terminal. This allows the user to visually obtain information on the time and frequency at which each product was picked up.

[0046] As explained above, according to the above-mentioned product management system 1, a holder tag T is attached to each holder 30 on a product shelf 3 in a store, and a name sheet NP is attached to the product 7. At this time, when the product 7 is held in the holder 30, at least a portion of the holder tag T is shielded by the name sheet NP, so that communication between the holder tag T and the wireless device 2 is impossible or difficult. When a customer at the store picks up the product 7, communication between the holder tag T and the wireless device 2 becomes possible. Therefore, the tag management server 5 that can communicate with the wireless device 2 acquires from the wireless device 2 the result of whether communication between the wireless device 2 and the holder tag T is possible, and measures the frequency with which the wireless device 2 can communicate with the holder tag T based on the result of whether communication is possible. This makes it possible to obtain information about the frequency with which the corresponding product 7 is picked up by customers. While the product 7 is not picked up by a customer, communication between the holder tag T and the wireless device 2 is not possible, and therefore no communication occurs between the wireless device 2 and the tag management server 5. Therefore, with this system, when automatically measuring the frequency with which the product 7 is picked up, the amount of data required for communication can be significantly reduced.

[0047] Furthermore, the item management method of one embodiment includes the following steps. (1) Steps to attach Name Paper NP to Product 7 (2) attaching the holder tag T to the holder 30 that holds the product 7, so that at least a portion of the holder tag T is shielded by the name paper NP when the product 7 is held in the holder 30; (3) A step of placing the wireless device 2 in a position where wireless communication with the holder tag T is possible. (4) A step of acquiring a result of whether or not the wireless device 2 can communicate with the holder tag T over time, and measuring the frequency at which the wireless device 2 can communicate with the holder tag T based on the result of whether or not the wireless device 2 can communicate with the holder tag T.

[0048] Although the embodiments of the item management system and item management method of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. Furthermore, various improvements and modifications can be made to the above-described embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0049] 1...Product management system T1~T6...Holder tag Tref...Reference tag 11...Control unit 111...Memory 12...Antenna 13...Harvesting section 131...Energy Storage 14...Voltage control section 15...RF transceiver 2...Wireless device 21...Control unit 22...Antenna 23...RF transceiver 24…Communications Department 3…Product shelf 30-1~30-6...Holder 31...Support part 31h…hole 32...Backrest 5...Tag management server 51...Control unit 52…Storage 53…Communications Department 7-1~7-6…Products 8…Wire PL1~PL6...Label NP…Nema Paper NW...Network

Claims

1. a sheet member having a metal film attached to the article; a communication device attached to a holder that holds the item; a wireless device that wirelessly communicates with the communication device; a measurement device that acquires a result of whether the wireless device can communicate with the communication device and measures the frequency at which the wireless device can communicate with the communication device based on the result of whether the wireless device can communicate with the communication device; a reference communication device disposed at a position that is not blocked by the sheet member when the article is held by the holder; the communication device is attached at a position where at least a part of the communication device is shielded by the sheet member when the article is held by the holder; the wireless device communicates with the reference communication device; the measuring device acquires a result of whether the wireless device can communicate with the reference communication device, and measures a frequency at which the wireless device can communicate with the reference communication device based on the result of whether the wireless device can communicate with the reference communication device. Inventory management system.

2. A communication device comprising: a plurality of the communication devices attached to each of the plurality of holders; the reference communication device is a single device; The article management system according to claim 1.

3. The article is a product to be placed in a store for trial use.

3. An article management system according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The communication device is a wireless tag that collects surrounding radio waves, converts them into electricity, and includes a capacitor that stores the electricity. The article management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

5. the communication device is a UHF band wireless tag; The article management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

6. the communication device is a HF band wireless tag; The article management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

7. the communication device is a microwave band wireless tag; The article management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

8. An article management method for managing an article to which a sheet member having a metal film is attached, comprising: a wireless device capable of communicating with a communication device attached to a holder; When the article is held by the holder, at least a part of the communication device is shielded by the sheet member, thereby restricting communication with the communication device; If the article is not held in the holder, communication is performed with the communication device; a measurement device capable of communicating with the wireless device acquires a result of whether the wireless device can communicate with the communication device, and measures the frequency at which the wireless device can communicate with the communication device based on the result of whether the wireless device can communicate with the communication device; the wireless device communicates with a reference communication device that is disposed at a position that is not blocked by the sheet member when the article is held in the holder; the measuring device acquires a result of whether the wireless device can communicate with the reference communication device, and measures a frequency at which the wireless device can communicate with the reference communication device based on the result of whether the wireless device can communicate with the reference communication device. How to manage goods.

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