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US 10,121,137 B2Granted
Methods and apparatus for self-service checkout
AssigneeNCR Corporation
InventorThomas V Edwards
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A context aware process is utilized to speed self-checkout. In one aspect, such a process is utilized to simplify response to a weight mismatch condition where a produce scale weight and a bagging scale weight for an item differs by more than a predetermined amount. Other examples of the application of such a process to other aspects of self-checkout are provided.
Claims12
A context aware process of self-checkout comprising:
- detecting a first error condition requiring intervention by a processor controlling a self-checkout terminal while a customer is operating the self-checkout terminal for a transaction, and detecting the first error condition from a context agent of the self-checkout terminal that monitors a baggage scale of the self-checkout terminal and providing context for the baggage scale relevant to first error condition;
- displaying, by the processor, a notification of the first error condition on a display where the display is not attached to the self-checkout terminal, wherein the notification is wirelessly sent to the display of an operator terminal, wherein the operator terminal is remote from the self-checkout terminal and, wherein displaying further includes producing an audio notification at the self-checkout terminal for guiding an operator of the operator terminal to the self-checkout terminal and lighting at the self-checkout terminal a light to further guide the operator to the self-checkout terminal;
- detecting, by the processor, a first response of the operator to the first error condition;
- detecting, by the processor, a second condition linked with the first condition, the second condition occurring during resolution of the first error condition by the operator, wherein detecting further includes identifying the second condition by detecting a Radio Frequency (RF) Identifier (ID) sensed by an RFID reader when the operator is within a predetermined distance of the RFID reader;
- recognizing, by the processor, a context of a combination of the detection of the first condition and the second condition;
- displaying, by the processor, a context aware screen associated with the context which simplifies a second response of the operator to recognize the context by displaying a recommendation that can actively resolve the first condition, wherein displaying further includes presenting during the transaction, when the first condition is a weight mismatch, the context aware screen for requesting whether a previous weight mismatched item for a particular item should be voided and resold at a weight determined from a produce scale at the self-checkout terminal;
- and
- automatically processing, by the processor, a resolution step in response to a single button press to accept the recommendation as the second response and continuing with the transaction.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.