JPH0573773A - Product management device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Structure] An input device (16) for inputting a product code, and a storage device (19) for storing product-related character information including the price of the product corresponding to the product code and image information of the product. The output device (13) outputs the product-related character information and the product image information stored in the storage device (19) according to the input of the product code. Desirably, the output device (1
In 3), the product-related character information and the product image information are superimposed and output. [Effect] Since the image of the product is displayed instead of the conventional character display of the product name, it is possible to reduce the difficulty of confirming the display content. In addition, the display contents can be confirmed in a short time by displaying the product price on the same screen or by superimposing it.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a product management device for sales management, inventory management, order management, etc. of a product according to a product code for identifying the type of the product.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a PO has been used as part of a product management device.
S (Point Of Sales) terminal device and EOS (Electronic O
There is a terminal device used for the ordering system).

In the conventional POS terminal device, Hitachi manual [Hitachi store information system T570 / 60 POS terminal system POS terminal system outline],
As described on pages 58 to 59, the bar code attached to the product is read, and the product name and the price corresponding to the bar code are displayed as characters on the display unit.

Further, as described in Hitachi Manual [Hitachi store information system T570 / 100 POS terminal system, explanation of POS terminal for restaurants], page 12, the display area is enlarged and a plurality of product names are used. There is also a POS terminal device that can display the price.

Further, in the terminal device for EOS, the bar code attached to the product or the display shelf is read, and the product name corresponding to the bar code and the number of orders thereof are displayed as characters on the display unit.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the OS terminal device, the product name and its price are displayed in characters, so if a particularly skilled cashier scans the products one after another with a bar code reader, the display time of the product name etc. for each product will be shortened, and the customer will be able to Is difficult to read and confirm.

Further, the displayed product name is the product name stored in the PLU (Price Look Up) file provided in the POS terminal device or the computer or store controller connected to the POS terminal device, and is always recognized by the customer. It does not match the product name that is displayed, which makes it more difficult to confirm the displayed content. On the other hand, there is an operation in which the customer alternately looks at the product scanned by the bar code reader and the display section of the POS terminal device, but the display contents are read and displayed due to the short display time of the product name and the like. The difficulty of confirmation remains. This operation has a further drawback that the line-of-sight direction of the customer is changed for each scan, and this drawback leads to further difficulty in reading and checking the display content.

A problem similar to the problem in the POS terminal device according to the prior art also occurs in the terminal device for EOS. The product name displayed on this terminal device is also the product name stored in the PLU file, and does not necessarily match the product name printed on the product itself. In particular, in the operation of scanning a bar code attached to a display shelf, there is a problem that an error is likely to occur in associating the product name and the actual product by the scanning. This association error results in an incorrect order for the product.

An object of the present invention is to provide a merchandise management device that reduces the difficulty of reading and confirming the displayed contents.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a merchandise management device capable of confirming display contents in a short time.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a product management device which reduces the burden of confirming the display contents.

[0012]

A preferred embodiment of the present invention that achieves the above object is configured as follows. An input device for inputting a product code, a first storage device for storing product-related character information including a price of a product corresponding to the product code, and product-related items stored in the first storage device according to the input of the product code In a product management device including an output device that outputs character information, a second storage device that stores image information of a product is provided, and the output device stores the product-related character information in the second storage device when outputting the product-related character information. The image information that has been displayed is output.

According to one of the modifications of the above-mentioned embodiment, the output device superimposes the product-related character information and the image information and outputs them.

Another modification of the above embodiment is further provided with an image reading device for reading an image of a product and storing the read image information in the second storage device.

Yet another modified example of the above embodiment is the second one.
The storage device is provided in the management device for other products connected to the product management device.

[0016]

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention described above, the product is displayed as an image instead of the conventional character display of the product name.
It is possible to reduce the difficulty of confirming the display content. Further, according to the modified example, the display contents can be confirmed in a short time by displaying the product price on the same screen or displaying the product price in a superimposed manner. According to still another modification, since the image of the current product can be displayed, the effect of reducing the burden of confirming the display content can be obtained. According to yet another variant,
Since the image data is stored in the storage device of the management device relating to the other product to be connected, the required storage device capacity of the product management device can be reduced, and the product management device can be downsized. ..

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external view of a POS terminal device according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram thereof.

The POS terminal device 101 includes an image reading unit 11, a keyboard 12, a display unit 13, a printer 14, a drawer 15, a bar code reading unit 16, a ROM 17 and an R.
An AM 18, a PLU (Price Look Up) file 19 and a CPU 20.

The image reading unit 11 reads an image of a product, and may be a video camera, for example. However,
The video camera continuously inputs images, and the input image does not necessarily capture the product. Therefore, the input image at that time is held by using the read signal of the barcode reading unit 16 as a trigger. Note that the shooting direction of the video camera is adjusted in advance so that the input image at this point includes the product.

The keyboard 12 is provided with numerical keys and control keys such as subtotal and total. These keys are the same as those provided in the conventional POS terminal. The display unit 13 displays an image including the product read by the image reading unit 11 and the price of the product, and is a display device using a CRT or liquid crystal.

The printer 14 is used for printing receipts. The drawer 15 is a storage unit for money. The barcode reading unit 16 is a barcode reader for reading the barcode of a product. The ROM 17 stores various programs for controlling the operation of the POS terminal, and the RAM 18 stores various data such as read image data and total amount. PL
The U file 19 is a file that stores the product name, price, etc. in association with the product code read by the barcode reader.

In the above-mentioned structure of this embodiment, the image reading unit 11 and the display unit 13 are the components that have not been found in the prior art. As a matter of course, the connection between these constituent elements and other constituent elements, the program for controlling these constituent elements, and the like are new.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flow chart of the program for controlling the entire POS terminal device 101 shown in FIG. The control program is executed by the CPU 20.

The bar code input from the bar code reading section 16 and the key input from the keyboard 12 are monitored (step 1001). From the keyboard 12 "Subtotal"
If the key is entered, the total process (step 101
0) is executed, and the process ends. The total processing will be described later.

When there is no key input, the bar code input is monitored (step 1002). In response to the barcode input, the barcode attached to the product is read (step 1003). In addition, with the bar code input as a trigger, the image of the product input by the image reading unit 11 is read (step 1004) and stored in the image area in the RAM 18 (step 1005). The image of the product stored in the RAM 18 is displayed on the display unit 13 (step 10).
06). Since the product image stored in the RAM 18 is displayed in this way, the product image displayed on the display unit 13 is held until a new product image is written in the same area of the RAM 18.

The product name and the price corresponding to the read bar code (product code) are retrieved from the PLU file 19 (step 1007), and the price is displayed on the display unit 13 (step 1008). On the other hand, the retrieved product name and price are associated and stored in the work area in the RAM 18. The work area is sequentially stored for each product.

As shown in FIG. 4, the PLU file 19 is composed of columns of product code, product name and price.
Therefore, it is possible to easily search for the product name and its price using the read barcode (product code) as a key.
The PLU file 19 may store necessary data such as purchase amount in addition to the configuration of FIG. Further, in this embodiment, P
Although the LU file 19 is provided in the POS terminal device 101, it may be provided in a store controller or a host computer connected to the POS terminal device 101.

5 and 6 show examples of display screens on the display unit 13. In FIG. 5, the image display area is displayed on the left, the image of the product is displayed, and the price is displayed on the right in the character display area. The relationship between the position and size of the image display area and the character display area may be arbitrary. In the example of FIG. 9, the display area is not divided and the price is overwritten on the product image.

Thereafter, the price of the product is added to the contents of the total amount area in the RAM 18 (step 1009), and the process returns to step 1001.

A flow chart of the total processing (step 1010) when the total key is input in step 1001 will be described with reference to FIG. The total amount in the RAM 18 is displayed on the display unit 13 (step 1011). Enter the amount from the numeric keypad (the amount received from the customer) (Step 1
012) and display it on the display unit 13 (step 101).
3). The total amount is subtracted from the input amount to calculate the change (step 1014), the change is displayed on the display unit 13 (step 1015), and the drawer 15 is opened (step 1016).
The receipt is printed by the printer 14 (step 10).
17). Then, the closing of the drawer 15 is monitored (step 1018), and by closing the drawer 15,
A series of processing for one customer is completed. It should be noted that the receipt is printed with the product name and price sequentially stored for each product in the work area together with the total price. In addition, in response to the end of the series of processes, the data such as the image of the product, the product name, the price, and the total price stored in the RAM 18 are deleted.

According to the above-described embodiment, since the image of the product is displayed in place of the character display of the product name in the conventional POS terminal device, it is possible to reduce the difficulty of confirming the display content as compared with the related art. In addition, by displaying the image of the product, particularly by displaying the product in combination with the price, the display content can be confirmed in a short time, and the burden of the confirmation can be reduced. This is because, in the conventional character display, a person must read each character one by one, whereas the image display can use the person's pattern recognition ability. Further, since the image of the product itself is displayed, it is consistent with the product recognized by a person, and it is easy to confirm the product. Further, since it is sufficient for a person to fix his or her line of sight to the display unit, and the range of movement of the line of sight is narrow, the burden associated with the movement of the line of sight can be reduced.

In the first embodiment, the image of the product is read and displayed, but as a modification, the image of the product is registered in advance in the PLU file 19A, and the POS for searching and displaying it. The terminal device will be described below.

FIG. 8 shows a modified POS terminal device 101A.
3 is a hardware configuration diagram of FIG. POS terminal device 101A
The difference in the configuration from the POS terminal device 101 shown in the figure is that the image reading unit 11 is not provided and the PLU file 19 is replaced by the PLU file 19A.

The structure of the PLU file 19A is shown in FIG. The PLU file 19A differs from the PLU file 19 shown in FIG. 4 in that a column of image data is added corresponding to each product code. The image data stored here is prepared in advance for each product.

FIG. 10 shows a flow chart of a control program executed by the CPU 20 of this modification. Differences from the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 will be described. After reading the barcode of the product (step 1003),
Using the bar code (product code) as a key, the product name, price and image data are searched from the PLU file 19A (step 1004). RAM1 for product name and price
The storage in the work area in 8 is the same as in the case of the flowchart shown in FIG. Subsequently, other steps such as displaying an image of the product (step 1005) and displaying the price of the product (step 1006) are the same as those in the flowchart shown in FIG.

In this modification, the image of the product is registered in advance in the PLU file 19A, but the POS terminal device 10
An image file storing image data of a product is provided in a store controller or a host computer connected to 1A, and the image data column of the PLU file 19A has an address in the image file storing the image data of the product. May be stored.

In addition to the above, there are many variations of the configuration in which the image data of the product is registered in advance and the data is retrieved.
It will be readily understood from the above description. Also, POS
If the image data of the product is prepared for other purposes in the store controller or the host computer connected to the terminal device 101A, it is used (the address of the image data is stored in the PLU file 19A, You can search.) Further, the use of existing image data may be combined with the image input regarding a product whose image data is not stored in a file. Furthermore, the image data retrieved from the existing image data is used as POS terminal device 10
The search time can be shortened by performing similar control to cache control in which the image data stored in the POS terminal device 101A is searched for in response to the next search request.

In this modified example, since the image data is registered in advance and used or the existing image data is used, the image input processing can be reduced and the processing steps executed by the CPU can be reduced. The load on the POS terminal device is reduced. Further, there is also no need for adjustment such as alignment of the image reading unit in the shooting direction, and there is an effect that installation of the POS terminal device is not complicated despite the addition of the image display function.

FIG. 11 shows a hardware configuration diagram of the EOS terminal device 107 of the second embodiment. The EOS terminal device 107 includes a keyboard 12, a display unit 13, a barcode reading unit 16, a ROM 17, a RAM 18, and a CPU 20.
And an ordering information file 26 and an ordering file 27. Among the constituent elements here, those not included in the configuration of the POS terminal device 101A shown in FIG.
This will be described in the description of the operation of the OS terminal device 107.

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of a control program executed by the CPU 20 of the EOS terminal device 107. Note that the flowchart of FIG. 12 shows the processing for one product. Bar code reader (bar code reader)
A bar code for ordering a shelf label or the like from 16 is input (step 7001). A product name, an order destination, and image data corresponding to the read bar code (product code) are searched from the order information file 26 (described later) (step 70).
02), the searched image is displayed in the image area of the display unit 13 (step 7003), and the searched product name and order destination are displayed in the character area of the display unit 13 (step 70).
04), the message "Please input the order quantity" is displayed (step 7005). The number of orders is input from the keyboard 16 (step 7006), and the display unit 13
The number of orders entered is displayed (step 7007).
A product code, a product name, an order destination, and an order quantity are stored in the order file 27 (described later) (step 7008), and a series of processing is ended.

As shown in FIG. 13, the order information file 26 includes columns of product code, product name, order destination, and product image data. In step 7003, data in other columns are searched using the product code as a key.

FIG. 14 shows a display example of the data displayed in steps 7004 to 7006 and 7008 on the display unit 13. In the display example shown in FIG. 14, the image of the product is displayed in the image display area on the left side, and the character display area on the right side, from the top, the product name, the order destination, and the input order number “20”.
Is displayed.

FIG. 15 shows an example of the configuration of the order file 27 in which the product code, product name, order destination, and order quantity are stored in step 7009. These data are stored for each product in association with the product code.

The structure of the order information file 26 of FIG. 13 and the order file 27 of FIG. 15 depends on the function and file system of the EOS terminal device 107 as a whole, and includes other data. The modification of the file structure is a design matter of the information processing engineer.

According to the present embodiment, in the ordering process of a product, even if the product is not on a predetermined display rack, an image of what the product should be ordered is displayed, so that the ordering person can make less mistakes in ordering.

In the second embodiment, the data about the product is provided in the EOS terminal device 107 in the form of a file, but it is stored in a removable storage medium such as an optical card or an IC card in the EOS terminal device 107. It may be provided. In this case, a driver for reading / writing the data stored / stored in the storage medium is required, but the EOS terminal device 107 can be modified into such a configuration by a known technique. In addition, by providing the EOS terminal device 107 with a wireless communication function, data regarding products may be provided as a file in a store controller or a host computer that is wirelessly connected. The modification of the second embodiment for this purpose can be achieved by a known technique.

Although the embodiments relating to the POS terminal device and the EOS terminal device have been described, the features of the present invention can be applied to the inspection terminal device. The inspection terminal device is used for inspection work for confirming a plurality / types of boxed products. Boxes containing multiple / kind products are convenient for transportation and are often used. In the case of a single type of stored product, a barcode is directly attached to the box for the transportation of such products, and when there are multiple types of the stored products, each of them is stored. A slip printed with a barcode corresponding to the type of product is attached. Corresponding to the bar code (product code), the shipping origin, product name, quantity, etc. are printed and displayed.

It is possible to display the image of the boxed product on the inspection terminal device based on the above data and the image data of the product prepared in advance as a file in the inspection terminal device to facilitate the inspection work. It can be easily inferred from the description of the examples.

Although the product code is input by reading the bar code in the above embodiment, the product code may be input from the keyboard.

In the above embodiments, the image output is displayed on the screen, but it may be printed out by a printer.

[0052]

According to the present invention, since the product is displayed as an image instead of the conventional character display of the product name, it is possible to reduce the difficulty of confirming the display content. In addition, the display contents can be confirmed in a short time by displaying the product price on the same screen or by superimposing it. Further, a secondary effect that the burden for confirming the display content can be reduced can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a POS terminal device.

FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a control flowchart of the POS terminal device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a PLU file used in the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an example of a display screen in the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is another display screen example in the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of summing processing in the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a hardware configuration diagram of a POS terminal device of a modified example of the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of a PLU file according to a modification of the first embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a control flowchart in a modification of the first embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a hardware configuration diagram of an EOS terminal device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a control flowchart of an EOS terminal device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a configuration diagram of an ordering information file used in the second embodiment.

FIG. 14 is an example of a display screen in the second embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a configuration diagram of an ordering file used in the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

101, 10A ... POS terminal device, 11 ... Image reading unit, 12 ... Keyboard, 13 ... Display unit, 14 ... Printer, 15 ... Drawer, 16 ... Bar code reading unit, 17
... ROM, 18 ... RAM, 19 ... PLU file, 20
... CPU, 107 ... EOS terminal device, 26 ... Ordering information file, 27 ... Ordering file.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An input device for inputting a product code, a first storage device for storing product-related character information including a price of a product corresponding to the product code, and the first storage according to the input of the product code. In a product management device including an output device for outputting the product-related character information stored in the device, a second storage device for storing image information of the product is provided, and the output device stores the product-related character information. A product management apparatus, which outputs the image information stored in the second storage device when outputting the image information. 2. The product management device according to claim 1, wherein the output device outputs the product-related character information in superposition with the image information. 3. The product management device according to claim 1, further comprising an image reading device for reading an image of the product and storing the read image information in the second storage device. .. 4. The product management device according to claim 3, wherein the image reading device operates in response to an input signal of the product code from the input device. 5. The product management device according to claim 3, wherein the image reading device inputs an image including a product to which the product code is attached while the input device is inputting the product code. A product management device, characterized in that the input device and the image reading device are arranged. 6. The product management device according to claim 1, wherein the second storage device is provided in a management device for another product connected to the product management device. 7. The product management device according to claim 1, wherein the product code is represented by a bar code.