Various integrated scanner scale arrangements are well known in the art. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,536,668 and 7,997,493 assigned to the assignee of the present application which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. Such integrated units are highly advantageous and have been widely adopted in grocery stores, large box retailers and the like. In these approaches, the weigh plate includes a transparent window through which a scanner unit scans. Because the environment is harsh in the sense that can rims, glass bottle bottoms, grit and the like are rubbed against the transparent surface on an ongoing and repetitive basis, a glass weigh plate or scanning window gets scratched and needs to be replaced. As a result, diamond coated glass or glass with a sapphire laminate is typically employed. These coating approaches are not presently compatible with a clear bright display. Further, as a result of this scratchy environment, approaches to building a touchscreen display into the scanner scale arrangement such as resistive or capacitive touch sensing approaches are not sufficiently robust. In a typical resistive approach, two thin, transparent electrically resistive layers are separated by a thin gap. When the top layer is pressed down a connection is made at the point its bottom surface touches the top surface of the bottom layer. The thin top layer is not sufficiently impervious to scratching. In a typical capacitive approach, a glass screen is coated with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide. Touching this surface changes the capacitance and the change can be analyzed to locate the location of the touch. Again, a suitable transparent conductor coating, such as indium tin oxide, is not sufficiently robust.
One exemplary prior art checkout stand or system 100 for checker assisted checkout using such an integrated scanner and scale flush mounted with a top surface of the checkout stand is shown in FIG. 1. As seen in FIG. 1, a customer wishing to checkout goes to a checker assisted checkout stand 100 comprising a first section of product advancing belt 104, an integrated scanner scale 110, a second section of product advancing belt 106, a bagging area 108, and a point of sale (POS) terminal 120.
Items are removed from a shopping basket or cart and placed on the belt 104 by the customer. The items are removed from the belt by the checker who scans bar codes on the items having bar codes utilizing the scanner of the scanner scale 110. Items that have been scanned are then placed on belt 106 which advances them to bagging area 108. Items to be weighed are placed on the weigh plate of the scanner scale 110, and weighed utilizing the scale of the scanner scale 110.
The checkout stand 100 further comprises a card reader 130 mounted on a pole 132. Card reader 130 may be utilized by the customer to read a magnetic stripe on a credit card used to pay for the customer's purchase. A coupon and receipt printer 150 may be integrated into the card reader 130, or a separate printer may be utilized, as well as, a display 160 to display a running list of items and prices, as well as, the total price for the customer's checked out items. It will be recognized a great many variations on the arrangement of FIG. 1 have been employed.
An exemplary checkout stand 200 for self-checkout is shown in FIG. 2. One known self-checkout terminal 200 used in a supermarket setting is depicted in FIG. 2. The terminal 200 includes integrated scanner scale 210 including a product weigh scale and a scanner associated with the scale. The illustrated scanner includes a vertical scan window 215. A bagging scale 220 is provided adjacent the scanner to support grocery bags 240 into which the customer places each newly scanned item. Each of the scales include at least one weight detector, such as a pressure sensor or a load cell sensor, which is operable to generate a signal in response to the weight of the item or items placed on the scale. The checkout stand 200 also includes a touchscreen, such as a magnetic stripe reader for reading a credit card, including touchscreen display 232, a data input device, and a payment device 230. A computer or processor is resident within the terminal and executes various software routines associated with the self-checkout process. Again, it will be recognized that a great many variations on the arrangement of FIG. 2 have been employed.