System and method for customer recognition using wireless identification and visual data transmission

In an electronic shopping system for use in a retail facility, a method for assisting the facility's sales staff to identify particular customers as they enter/leave the facility and to recognize such customers visually, the method comprising:

• positioning an entrance/exit sensor in proximity to the entrance/exit of a retail facility, so as to identify the presence of a customer as the customer moves through the entrance/exit;
• capturing a visual image of a customer as they pass through the entrance/exit of the retail facility, the customer's image recorded in response to a trigger signal provided by the entrance/exit sensor;
• providing an interrogator unit, including an antenna, positioned in proximity to the entrance/exit of the retail facility, each interrogator defining an interrogation area characterized by a radiation field;
• providing a portable customer ID card including at least a memory storage area, the memory storage area holding at least a customer indicia, the customer indicia being communicated to the interrogator unit when a customer moves in proximity to the interrogation area;
• receiving the customer indicia;
• bundling the captured visual image of the customer together with the customer indicia into a customer specific data set;
• providing at least one in-store terminal, the in-store terminal including communication means for receiving customer specific data sets and a display;
• and
• displaying a customer's recorded visual image on the in-store terminal's display such that a store employee may recognize that customer from their recorded image.

A customer identification system for use in a particular facility, the system comprising:

• a sensor positioned to identify a presence of a customer as the customer passes through an entrance/exit of the facility;
• an image recorder capturing an image of the customer as the customer passes through the entrance/exit of the facility, the image recorder capturing the image in response to a trigger signal provided by the sensor;
• an interrogator positioned in proximity to the entrance/exit of the facility, the interrogator communicating with a customer ID card when the customer ID card is in proximity to the interrogator unit, the customer ID card having a memory storage area storing a customer indicia;
• a processor coupled to the interrogator, sensor, and image recorder, the processor receiving the customer indicia from the interrogator and the captured image from the image recorder, the processor further associating the customer indicia with the captured image and transmitting the customer indicia and the captured image;
• and
• an in-store terminal including a display, the in-store terminal displaying the recorded image of the customer on the display for allowing a store employee to visually recognize the customer.