Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07G—REGISTERING THE RECEIPT OF CASH, VALUABLES, OR TOKENS
  • G07G3/00—Alarm indicators, e.g. bells
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A47—FURNITURE; DOMESTIC ARTICLES OR APPLIANCES; COFFEE MILLS; SPICE MILLS; SUCTION CLEANERS IN GENERAL
  • A47F—SPECIAL FURNITURE, FITTINGS, OR ACCESSORIES FOR SHOPS, STOREHOUSES, BARS, RESTAURANTS OR THE LIKE; PAYING COUNTERS
  • A47F9/00—Shop, bar, bank or like counters
  • A47F9/02—Paying counters
  • A47F9/04—Check-out counters, e.g. for self-service stores
  • A47F9/045—Handling of baskets or shopping trolleys at check-out counters, e.g. unloading, checking
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
  • G06Q20/38—Payment protocols; Details thereof
  • G06Q20/387—Payment using discounts or coupons
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
  • G06Q30/0207—Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
  • G06Q30/0226—Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
  • G06Q30/0241—Advertisements
  • G06Q30/0251—Targeted advertisements
  • G06Q30/0253—During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F7/00—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus
  • G07F7/06—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus by returnable containers, i.e. reverse vending systems in which a user is rewarded for returning a container that serves as a token of value, e.g. bottles
  • G07F7/0618—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus by returnable containers, i.e. reverse vending systems in which a user is rewarded for returning a container that serves as a token of value, e.g. bottles by carts
  • G07F7/0636—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus by returnable containers, i.e. reverse vending systems in which a user is rewarded for returning a container that serves as a token of value, e.g. bottles by carts in which the trolleys or carts are kept in a restricted zone such as a coral-like enclosure, or are passing a gate before use is possible
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F7/00—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus
  • G07F7/06—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus by returnable containers, i.e. reverse vending systems in which a user is rewarded for returning a container that serves as a token of value, e.g. bottles
  • G07F7/0618—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus by returnable containers, i.e. reverse vending systems in which a user is rewarded for returning a container that serves as a token of value, e.g. bottles by carts
  • G07F7/0672—Special lock-activating tokens, serving as replacement of a payment or of a coin
  • G07F7/0681—Special lock-activating tokens, serving as replacement of a payment or of a coin in which a card, pay-card or card-like object is used as the special token required to get permission or activate the lock to use the trolley or cart

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method and a system for detecting and rewarding the use of a shopping cart in a shopping market, the presence of a shopping cart in the shopping market being detected automatically and without contact. Available for this are in the system, a number of shopping carts as well as in a ⁇ purchase market-mounted detection means forêtenj contactless Erfas ⁇ sen the presence of the shopping cart.
• the above-mentioned detection means for automatically and prestigelo ⁇ sen detecting the presence of a shopping cart in the supermarket are ei ⁇ nem different context - purchase wagens a reward for the return of a one ⁇ in the designated collection - known from WO 98/51 197:
• each shopping cart ⁇ with an electronic transmitting-receiving device is provided.
• de ⁇ ren Help the shopping cart, which can be from the collection point entnom ⁇ men deposit-free are identified electronically.
• a first signal A is generated when a certain shopping cart passes the checkout of the supermarket. leads and is recognized electronically.
• a second signal B is generated when the same wagon is placed in a collection point, where it is also identified electronically and recognized in this way.
• a central data processing device in the supermarket receives both signals A and B, correlates them and issues a bonus.
• the present invention has for its object to provide a method and a system for detecting and rewarding the use of a shopping cart in a supermarket, which increases the frequency of use of shopping carts with little installation and maintenance effort.
• the shopping carts are thus provided with an optically identifiable, individual identification, by means of which the presence of the shopping carts in the shopping market can be optically recognized.
• this can be done, for example, by providing each shopping cart with a bar code or a sequence of numbers and / or letters as an optically readable identifier, so that a digital image processing camera, such as a CCD camera, and / or a scanner working preferably with laser light, can reliably identify each shopping cart.
• the invention uses the principle that an optical signal - in the case of the camera the ambient light - reflects in a manner that is characteristic of each shopping cart and the reflected signal is recognized by an optical detector.
• the shopping trolleys can therefore be designed as purely passive reflectors and therefore do not have to be equipped with a signal transmitter or a detector. Even retrofitting existing shopping carts is possible at any time with the least effort.
• This principle can also be implemented in other ways than with a bar code or the like: For example, a polarization or frequency shift of the reflected signal that is characteristic of the respective shopping cart is conceivable.
• the measures according to the invention thus enable automatic detection, using the simplest means that can be retrofitted in every supermarket, as to whether a customer is using a shopping cart or not, in order to convert this fact into the issue of a bonus.
• This bonus can consist, for example, of a discount that is credited directly to the customer at the checkout.
• it can be useful to network a plurality of acquisition means arranged in a distributed manner in the shopping market with a central data processing device in order to record the local and / or temporal course of the route of each shopping cart through the shopping market; because in this way the issue of the bonus can be linked to the length of stay of the customer in the market or to the presence of the customer in sales areas or the like.
• the system according to the invention can also be used to organize a kind of raffle: only those who use a shopping cart accept Contest and has the chance to win a prize. As a rule, this should offer sufficient incentive to convince customers to use a shopping cart. Only randomly selected shopping carts are assigned a bonus or a lottery prize.
• the random selection of the shopping cart can be weighted by taking into account the local and / or temporal route data of the shopping cart by the shopping market, i.e. in the simplest case that the chances of winning increase, the more means of detection are passed and / or the slower a shopping cart passes through the shopping market is pushed.
• a terminal for displaying and issuing the bonus or the lottery prize is preferably provided, which can be arranged in particular in the area of the cash registers.
• a large illuminated display with the content "wagon number ... receives a profit, which is available here at the terminal" is conceivable.
• the shopping carts may be advantageous to provide the shopping carts with additional optical receiving devices and the detection means attached to the market with optical sending devices so that the shopping carts can receive and store or display optically transmitted signals.
• This measure can make the competition just described more interesting for the customer: when the detection means detects a passing shopping cart, the transmitting devices can emit optical signals by means of a random generator or counting pulses or the like, which are received by the shopping cart and stored or displayed. If the signals are displayed immediately, this can be recognized immediately by the customer, which increases the incentive to stay longer in the supermarket.
• a winning point system is conceivable, in which the signals emitted by the transmitting devices are registered as winning points on the shopping cart by the receiving device, and in which the customer knows that he For example, if you collect five winning points, you will win a lottery.
• advertising information for example the content: "Our special offer to the left of you " can be sent to the shopping cart by the optical transmitter and displayed to customers there.
• these signals can also be passed on to a customer's own data carrier, in particular to a chip card. If the same chip card is used at the checkout to make cashless purchases, the bonus or lottery winnings issued can be automatically taken into account when paying.
• the additional optical transmission devices that are preferably present in the detection means can be formed from IR light sources, which makes them invisible to the customer, but - which is particularly simple - they can also be formed by a light signal modulated onto the usual lighting of the shopping market. The latter does not require installations of additional light sources in the supermarket.
• a particularly preferred variant of the invention is obtained when further optical detection means for recognizing each shopping cart are provided at a collection point for shopping carts and are designed such that when a shopping cart previously recognized in the supermarket is put back, they issue a reward or a signal for output generate a reward.
• This reward can in turn be a lucky point for taking part in a competition; it is also conceivable to issue a voucher for offsetting against a later purchase.
• This variant of the invention has the great advantage that not only the use of a shopping cart is made more attractive for the customer, but also the tidying up, that is to say the returning of the shopping cart to the collection points provided for this purpose, is promoted. Experience has shown that customers' motivation to return a used shopping cart to the collection point after the purchase has been made is very low.
• Figure 1 is a schematic side view of a cash register of a supermarket
• FIG. 2 shows a schematic side view of a collection point with a row of shopping trolleys
• Figure 3 is a schematic representation of the handle area of a shopping cart
• Figure 4 examples of an optically readable identifier of a shopping cart.
• FIG. 1 shows schematically how a shopping cart 1 is guided past a checkout 2 of a supermarket.
• the cash register 2 is provided in the usual way with a reader 3 and a display 4.
• a CCD camera 5 is arranged above the checkout area and can reliably identify the shopping cart 1 by means of a bar code (not shown here).
• a transmission device 6 is also arranged above the checkout area, and the shopping cart 1 is additionally provided with a detector 7 which is attached to the handle 8.
• the transmitting device 6 emits a light signal 9 in the infrared range, which is picked up by the detector 7.
• FIG. 2 schematically shows a collection point 10 with a stack row 11 of shopping trolleys into which the shopping cart 1 is to be placed.
• a further CCD camera 12 is arranged above the stack row 1 1 and, like the first CCD camera 5 from FIG. 1, is able to identify the shopping carts 1 on the basis of their identifications (not visible here).
• the CCD camera 12 is able to grasp the handles 8 of the shopping trolleys 1 standing in the stack row 1 1 in their orientation and in their spacing from one another and to recognize whether the last shopping trolley 1 is properly inserted into the stack row 1 1 has been. So that this detection works even when the first shopping cart 1 of the stack row 1 1 is placed in the collection point 10, is the Rear wall of the collection point 10 arranged a kind of dummy handle.
• the CCD camera 12 is networked together with the CCD camera 5 with a central data processing device (not shown) which has stored that the shopping cart 1 has passed the cash register 2 and this now with that of the CCD camera 12 received signal that the shopping cart 1 has been properly placed in the collection point 10 correlated.
• An output device 13 at the entrance to the collection point 10 is also connected to the central data processing device and issues a bonus for the use and proper resetting of the shopping trolley 1 in the form of a credit to be redeemed during the next purchase.
• FIG. 3 shows the detector 7 already shown in FIG. 1 on the handle 8 of the shopping cart 1 in more detail: the light signal 9 emitted by the transmitting device 6 strikes a converging lens 14 of the detector 7 and is directed by this onto a photodiode 15.
• the photodiode 15 works together with evaluation electronics 16, which can differentiate between different light signals 9 and store them for a certain period of time.
• a chip card 18 of the customer can be inserted into a read / write device 17 of the detector 7, for example a customer card which is also used for cashless payment at the cash register 2. If the shopping cart 1 equipped with this detector 7 is passed through a supermarket with several (not shown) transmission devices in the manner of the transmission device 6 from FIG.
• FIG. 4 shows a schematic side view of a shopping trolley 1 of another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the FIGS.
• FIGS. 4a and 4b showing the detail A in a top view in two different embodiments.
• This is a shopping cart 1 without detector 7, which differs from commercially available shopping carts only by a bar code 19, 20 shown in FIGS. 4a and 4b.
• the bar code 19 is in a corner of the shopping cart 1, and in the case of FIG. 4 b the bar code 20 is attached to the front of the shopping cart 1.
• the particularly simple retrofitting of such identifiers in the form of bar codes 19, 20 and the easy readability by means of a CCD camera 5 (FIG. 1) or a CCD camera 12 (FIG. 2) is immediately apparent.

Landscapes

• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
• Finance (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Strategic Management (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Development Economics (AREA)
• General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Game Theory and Decision Science (AREA)
• Economics (AREA)
• Marketing (AREA)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
• Cash Registers Or Receiving Machines (AREA)
• Handcart (AREA)
• Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)
• Train Traffic Observation, Control, And Security (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (7)

Publications (1)

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ID=27213815

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Family Applications Before (1)

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• 2001
  • 2001-04-20 BR BR0106076-7A patent/BR0106076A/pt not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2001-04-20 EP EP01936256A patent/EP1285412B1/fr not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2001-04-20 US US10/019,142 patent/US7292158B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2001-04-20 AT AT01936256T patent/ATE313128T1/de active
  • 2001-04-20 WO PCT/EP2001/004513 patent/WO2001082241A2/fr not_active Ceased
  • 2001-04-20 ES ES01936256T patent/ES2254426T3/es not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2001-04-20 EP EP01931631A patent/EP1287497A2/fr not_active Withdrawn
  • 2001-04-20 US US10/019,069 patent/US20020121547A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-04-20 BR BRPI0106078-3A patent/BR0106078B1/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2001-04-20 DE DE50108389T patent/DE50108389D1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2001-04-20 AU AU62215/01A patent/AU6221501A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-04-20 WO PCT/EP2001/004512 patent/WO2001082240A2/fr not_active Ceased
  • 2001-04-23 AU AU58356/01A patent/AU5835601A/en not_active Abandoned
• 2007
  • 2007-09-05 US US11/850,198 patent/US7579967B2/en not_active Expired - Lifetime

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