Self-Checkout Terminal Beacon Authentication for Theft Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing retail self-checkout systems face issues of insecurity and slowness due to manual authentication steps, leading to potential theft and long queues, especially when using large shopping carts or baskets that can be easily confused or stolen.
Innovation Solution
A method utilizing beacons to determine customer proximity to checkout terminals and a server to verify time intervals between check-in and payment requests, enabling secure and fast transactions without manual authentication by linking customer identity to payment through their portable devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual authentication steps are used in self-checkout systems, then security can be maintained through verification, but the checkout process becomes slow and creates long queues
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs authentication and customer identification in advance by requiring customers to check in at the entrance using their portable devices. This preliminary action stores customer identity information before checkout, allowing the actual payment process to skip verification steps and proceed directly to transaction completion, thus maintaining security while improving checkout speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a digital copy of customer identity information through the portable device check-in process. Instead of requiring manual verification of physical identification documents at checkout, the system uses this digital copy to automatically identify and authenticate customers during the payment process, eliminating time-consuming manual steps while maintaining security.
2Reliability
If manual authentication steps are implemented, then theft can be prevented through verification, but the checkout process becomes complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
Customers perform the authentication process themselves by checking in at the entrance using their own portable devices. The system automatically captures and stores their identity information without requiring staff intervention or complex manual verification procedures at checkout. This self-service approach simplifies the overall process while maintaining theft prevention capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces manual authentication mechanisms (such as staff verification of physical ID documents) with an automated digital system. Portable devices communicate with the system via wireless communication, and the server automatically processes identity verification and links it to payment transactions, eliminating the need for complex manual authentication procedures.
3Ease of operation
If shopping carts or baskets are used for customer convenience, then ease of shopping is improved, but the risk of confusion or theft increases due to easy misplacement
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces portable devices as an intermediary between the customer and the shopping cart/basket. The portable device stores the customer's identity information and serves as a secure link to their account. When payment is initiated, the system uses this intermediary to verify customer identity and ensure that items in the cart are correctly charged to the rightful owner, preventing confusion and theft while maintaining shopping convenience.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs customer identification and authentication in advance at the entrance before the customer even picks up a shopping cart or basket. This preliminary action ensures that the customer's identity is already verified and linked to their shopping session, so that when they proceed to checkout, the system can immediately associate the cart contents with the authenticated customer, preventing misplacement or theft.
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
Ensures secure and efficient self-checkout by eliminating the need for manual authentication, reducing queue times, and preventing theft by ensuring that payment transactions are accurately assigned to the correct customer based on spatial and temporal proximity.
Implementation Method 1
a plurality of beacons per checkout-terminal, wherein a beacon is a hardware transmitter configured to broadcast a signal to nearby portable telecommunication devices for enabling the portable telecommunication devices to determine their position based on the signals
Implementation Method 2
reading, by the scanning unit of the one checkout-terminal, information from (electronic) tags attached to goods positioned in and/or within a predefined distance to a cavity of the scanning unit
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a method executed by an electronic retail self-checkout system, the method comprising: receiving (102), by a server computer (612), a terminal-check-in request from the portable telecommunication device of a customer, the terminal-check-in request comprising a customer-ID of the customer and comprising beacon signal information indicative of the one of the one or more checkout-terminals where the customer tries to perform the terminal-check-in; reading (104), by a scanning unit of a checkout-terminal, information from product tags attached to goods positioned in and/or within a predefined distance to a cavity of the scanning unit; upon determining (106), by the checkout-terminal via a person-presence-sensor, that a person is present in and/or moves within an area (210, 212) within a predefined spatial proximity of the checkout-terminal, sending (108) a payment request to the server computer, the payment request comprising the read tag information and the terminal-ID of the one checkout-terminal; receiving (110), by the server computer, the payment request from the checkout-terminal; verifying (112), by the server computer, whether a time interval between receiving the terminal-check-in request and the payment request for the same one of the one or more checkout-terminals is below a threshold value; and only if the time interval is below the threshold, initializing (114) a payment transaction.