POS Terminal Face Detection via Server Inquiry
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems face challenges in acquiring accurate customer attribute information, such as gender and age, from images captured by cameras at POS terminals, especially when customers are not directly facing the camera or wear masks/hats, leading to incomplete data collection.
Innovation Solution
A sales data processing apparatus and method that includes a POS terminal with a camera system that captures images, detects faces using known face detection technology, and associates attribute information with commodity data. If a face cannot be detected, it sends an inquiry to a server for attribute determination, ensuring attribute information is stored and updated even when face detection fails.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If face detection is performed using camera images at POS terminals, then customer attribute information can be acquired, but face detection fails when customers are not directly facing the camera or wear masks/hats
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary between the POS terminal camera and the attribute determination system. When face detection fails at the POS terminal, the system sends captured images to the server, which performs alternative face detection and attribute analysis, then returns the results to the POS terminal. This intermediary approach allows the system to overcome local detection limitations while maintaining operational flow.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a single-point detection approach (POS terminal camera only) to a multi-dimensional detection system by involving the server in the attribute determination process. This dimensional expansion allows the system to access additional computational resources and alternative detection algorithms that can handle challenging cases like masks, hats, or non-frontal poses that the POS terminal camera cannot process alone.
2Productivity
If face detection is performed at POS terminals, then attribute information can be obtained, but incomplete data collection occurs when face detection fails
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the POS terminal sends captured images to the server when face detection fails, and receives attribute information back from the server. This feedback loop ensures that attribute data is not lost but rather recovered through the server's alternative detection capabilities, maintaining information completeness while preserving the efficiency of the POS terminal operations.
3Measurement precision
If a server-based inquiry system is implemented, then attribute data collection accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex attribute determination functionality from the POS terminal and places it on the server. The POS terminal maintains a simple structure for capturing images and sending inquiries, while the server handles the complex face detection and attribute analysis tasks. This extraction reduces the complexity at the POS terminal level while improving attribute data accuracy through the server's computational capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
A sales data processing apparatus configured to: store commodity information of a commodity to which a transaction processing is executed in a storage section; store, if a face from which attribute of a customer who purchases the commodity can be determined is detected from images captured by a camera, attribute information indicating the attribute determined according to face image information of the detected face in the storage section in association with the commodity information; send the stored commodity information to a server if the face from which the attribute of the customer who purchases the commodity can be determined is not detected according to the captured images; and store the attribute information indicating the attribute which is determined according to the face image information of a customer sent from the server which extracts the customer according to the sent commodity information in the storage section in association with the commodity information.