Authors:
Susan Brosnan, Jessica Snead, Patricia Hogan, Daniel Goins
Abstract:
The present invention relates to spreading checkout opportunities throughout the Retail Store. To accomplish this retailers need to ensure that bags packed at alternative checkouts are not subsequently tampered with on the way out of the store. This solution allows them to quickly audit that the customer has not tampered with the bags by using sealing material that releases fine particles.
Background:
Retailers would like to spread checkout locations throughout the retail environment, both to help with the appearance/frustration of long lines at the front of the store and to design the store layout more effectively and aesthetically. The difficulty with having alternative checkout locations is that nefarious actors could leave with more in their shopping bags than they purchased. After packing the bag (or having it packed for them), a nefarious actor could toss in some razor blades and caviar on their stroll out of the store.
It is already done to have cameras at checkout locations watching the customer and verifying that product is being purchased. But it is not at all cost effective or easy to track a customer through the store after they have finished the purchase in an aisle. Cameras can be employed to do this in every aisle, but that is expensive to retrofit cameras everywhere and requires high processing costs to track customers and watch their movements. There needs to be a cheaper way to audit customers leaving the store more effectively.
Description:
The solution is to be able to verify at the point of exit that the bags packed by the customer (or employee) at the alternative checkout site were not opened. To do this, a sticker could be printed at the point-of-sale alternative location for the customer to use to seal the bag closed. This sticker could be created like those "shredded stickers" that tear as they are removed from the product. Or the sticker could be created on a substrate that includes a fine particle on the backing or some other method to include a fine, but non-toxic, particulate matter.
The alternative POS solution would use cameras to verify that the customer has indeed sealed all the bags with these stickers. Then, if the customer tears or removes the sticker to open a bag and add items from the aisles that were not part of the purchase, the customer and bags would get dusted in a sufficient quantity of these fine particles that, while they would not be visible to the naked eye, the appropriate sensor/camera would be able to detect the quantity of that matter. Because the matter is fine and non-toxic, it will not cause any harm when a customer opens their bags at home after the shopping trip.
If, at the exit, the camera (mounted in the ceiling, at the exit gates, held by a human, etc.) detects enough particles it could then flag the customer for an audit to determine if the customer did anything improper.
Alternatively, instead of releasing a non-toxic fine particle spray, the tearing of the sticker could instead release a slight scent (e.g., cumin, lavender, or hibiscus - something the store doesn't sell unpackaged), like a scratch-and-sniff sticker. An electronic nose could be used at the point of exit to "look" for the scents used in this process and alert for an audit if one of them is sensed. The electronic nose technology could be embedded in a security arch or gate that the shopper passes through on their way to the store exit.
Claims:
A sticker used to seal a bag of purchases, where the sticker if torn releases fine machine detectable particles or scent. Equipment to detect the absence or presence of particles or scent on the bag or on the shopper as they approach the store exit. If the particles or scent are detected, an audit of what is in the shopping bag can be triggered to check if the shopper placed additional items in the shopping bag that have not been paid for.
TGCS Reference 4013
