Shopping Cart Computing Device for Automatic Commodity Registration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current self-service checkout systems in retail stores lack efficiency in registering commodities placed in shopping carts, as customers often forget to register items or insert them into the cart, leading to increased burden on attendants for confirmation and potential errors in payment processing.
Innovation Solution
A portable computing device mounted on a shopping cart with a camera and processor that captures images, performs object recognition, and communicates with a hand-held registration apparatus to ensure accurate registration and notification of items removed or inserted, displaying messages to customers to cancel or confirm registrations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If self-service checkout systems are introduced to improve payment processing efficiency, then payment speed is improved, but commodity registration accuracy deteriorates because customers often forget to register items
Solution Approach 1:
The shopping cart system enables customers to automatically register commodities by simply placing them in the cart. The camera captures images of inserted items, the processor identifies them, and registration information is automatically generated and transmitted to the checkout terminal without requiring customer manual input. This self-service mechanism resolves the contradiction by making the registration process as automatic as the payment process.
Solution Approach 2:
The manual mechanical process of customers scanning barcodes and inputting item information is replaced with an automated optical system. A camera mounted on the cart captures images of commodities, image processing algorithms automatically identify the items, and the system electronically transmits registration data. This substitution eliminates human error while maintaining high-speed processing.
2Reliability
If manual commodity registration is required to ensure accurate payment processing, then registration accuracy is improved, but the burden on attendants increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system transfers the registration function from attendants to the shopping cart itself. Each cart is equipped with a camera and processor that automatically perform commodity identification and registration. This eliminates the need for attendants to manually verify items while maintaining high accuracy, thereby improving overall checkout efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The shopping cart acts as an intermediary device between the customer and the checkout system. Instead of customers directly interacting with checkout terminals or attendants manually checking items, the cart's integrated camera and processing system serves as an automatic mediator that captures, identifies, and transmits commodity information, reducing attendant burden while ensuring accuracy.
3Reliability
If customers manually register each commodity to ensure accurate tracking, then registration completeness is improved, but the time required for shopping and checkout increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs commodity registration in advance, automatically as customers place items in their carts during shopping. The camera continuously captures images, the processor identifies items in real-time, and registration information is stored and transmitted before checkout. This preliminary automatic registration eliminates the need for time-consuming manual scanning at the checkout counter.
Solution Approach 2:
The camera and processing system operate continuously throughout the customer's shopping trip, constantly monitoring the cart contents and automatically registering items as they are added. This continuous automatic registration ensures completeness without requiring intermittent customer actions, thereby saving time while maintaining reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A computing device installed in or mountable on a shopping cart includes a display, a camera that faces a basket of the shopping cart, and a processor configured to acquire registration information through a connection with another computing device, the registration information indicating one or more commodities that have been registered for purchase, control the camera to capture an image and generate image data therefrom, performing object recognition on the image data to determine whether a commodity has been removed from the basket, upon determining that a commodity has been removed from the basket, determine based on the registration information whether the removed commodity is one of the registered commodities, and upon determining that the removed commodity is one of the registered commodities, control the display to display a message to cancel registration of the removed commodity.