Mobile automated shopping system

An improved automated shopping system means for the purchasing of line-encoded identified products and articles utilized in stores of the type having shopping carts having associated therewith apparatuses providing product code indicia scanning means and weight sensing means utilized in conjunction and communication with a governing central computer, having stored product information related to said line-encoded indicia, by means of radio transmitting and receiving units wherein the improvement comprises:

• a control panel and associated visual display unit affixed to said shopping cart for operation of a cart of said shopping system and for indication by display of said line-encoded product representative indicia;
• a first line-encoded indicia scanner releasably mounted upon and connected with said control panel to read said line-encoded indicia upon said products having means responsive to said first scanner to decode and to display upon said visual display said product information derived by said first scanner from said products by means of transmission and reception of said product information with said central computer;
• a second line-encoded scanner mounted within said control panel having means to decode and to cause display upon said visual display of said product line-encoded information derived from said products by means of transmission and reception of said information with said central computer;
• a plurality of photocell sensing units positioned about the perimeter of the opening of said shopping cart to direct a plane of light across said cart opening to sense certain entries into said cart, said sensing units being responsive to said second scanner and decoding means such that said photocell sensing units deactivate for a predetermined period of time after said second scanner reads and decodes said line-encoded information to allow the insertion of a product or article in said cart and after said time period reactivates to provide a warning if an article is attempted to be inserted within said cart without first being scanned by said second scanner;
• and
• said weight-sensing means being within the bottom of said cart and having an associated comparator circuit in said control panel in communication with said central computer to provide a means of comparison of actual and computer stored product weights and to provide a warning if said weights do not correspond.