Shopping Cart Weight Detection for Accurate POS Registration
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Solution Overview
Problem
In POS systems where shopping carts are equipped with a POS apparatus or smartphones, customers may forget to scan product barcodes or return products to shelves, leading to store losses and customer misconduct.
Innovation Solution
An information processing terminal and recording medium that includes a weighing apparatus in the shopping cart, a POS terminal, and an attendant terminal, connected via a network, to detect weight changes and determine appropriate user operations, providing notifications for unauthorized actions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If customers manually register products using a POS terminal or smartphone, then the system is easy to operate, but customers may forget to scan barcodes or return products, causing store losses
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors weight changes in the shopping cart and provides real-time feedback by notifying customers when products are added or removed. This feedback loop ensures customers are aware of their registration actions, preventing forgotten scans or returns while maintaining manual operation simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the purely manual mechanical process of product registration with an automated weight detection system. The weighing apparatus automatically detects product additions/removals, substituting human memory and attention with mechanical sensing to improve registration accuracy.
2Reliability
If the system monitors all product movements to prevent losses, then product registration accuracy improves, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The shopping cart serves as an intermediary device that combines weighing functionality with customer interaction. By placing the weighing apparatus in the cart rather than at fixed POS stations, the system achieves comprehensive monitoring through a mobile, integrated platform that simplifies overall system architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service monitoring where the shopping cart automatically tracks its own weight changes and notifies the customer. This self-monitoring capability eliminates the need for complex centralized surveillance systems while maintaining high registration accuracy.
3Reliability
If real-time weight detection is implemented, then unauthorized operations are detected promptly, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs weight detection at periodic intervals rather than continuously, triggering measurements based on motion detection or time-based cycles. This periodic operation maintains detection accuracy for unauthorized actions while significantly reducing energy consumption compared to continuous monitoring.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Prevents store losses and customer misconduct by ensuring accurate product registration through real-time weight detection and notification of unauthorized operations, enhancing shopping integrity.
Implementation Method 1
an acquisition unit that acquires a detection result of a change in weight of products placed in a cart
Data Source
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AI summary
An information processing terminal includes an acquisition unit, a determination unit, and an output unit. The acquisition unit acquires a detection result of a change in weight of products placed in a cart. The determination unit determines whether or not a user operation according to the detection result has been performed. The output unit outputs notification based on the determination result by the determination unit.