CA1280188C - Article security system - Google Patents

Abstract

Article Security System Abstract Or the Disclosure A person desiring to check out articles protected by security tags deposits these articles at one end of a check-out aisle. From there, they are transported to the opposite end of the check-out aisle as part of the check-out procedure. The person who deposited the articles is restrained from accompanying these articles all the way through the check-out aisle, but is able to reach its opposite end only via a path which is separate from the check-out aisle itself. That separate path is equipped with an electronic article surveillance system. The same separate path and its associated electronic article surveillance system serve several check-out aisles

Description

S~ecification ~Oi88 This invention relates to so-ealled eleetronie artiele surveillance systems, and particularly to such systems which are especially useful in their application to stores in which the cheeking out of merehandise takQ~ plaee via a multiplieity of check-out aisle~

Electronic article surveillance ~and its aeronym "EAS") is the general term which has beeome commonly used to designate a variety of techniques employed to lectronically deteet the unauthorized removal of merehandls- from a store EAS iB practiced by means of a variety of different detection ~y~tem~ However, the~e system~ all have in common two essential eompon-nt~ One eomponent i~ ~om- form o~ ~peeial seeurity tag ar~ix d to aeh piee- of merehandise whieh is to be proteeted from unauthoriz-d r-moval Th- other component i8 some form of eleetronie guipment whieh i~ capabl- of detecting the proximity of on- of the apeeial ~eeurity tags For example, the tag may be provided with an eleetrieal eircuit which i~
configured 80 as to be re~onant at a particular radio ~requency, and the deteeting eguipm nt may be in the form of two ant~nnas, one radiating eleetrieal signals in a band of frequeneies which include~ ~aid resonant fr-gueney and th- other ree-iving these signal~ These antenna~ ar- po-itioned on opposite side~ of a check-out aisle When merchandise with such a tag attached passes between the antennas, the received signal~ are distorted by the tag's presenee; eleetronie signal proeessing eireuity ~.:

lZ8~188 connected to the r~ceiving antenna senses this distortion and triggQrs an alarm In the prQssncQ of such an EAS system, it obviously becomes nece~sary to distinguish betwQen merchandise whose removal is authorized (e g because it has been paid ror) and that whieh is not The EAS system itsQlr is not inherently capable Or making that distinction It causQs an alarm when a sQcurity tag i8 detectQd, regardlQs~ Or the authorized or unauthorized state of the article one way to deal with this situation has be~n to disable the tag at th- tlm- that the corresponding item of merchandise beeom-s authorlzed rOr removal In the radlo-~reguency systQm exampl- glv-n prevlously, this ean be aeeompllshed elthQr by physleally r-movlng th- tag at th- tlmo the merehandlse 18 properly eh-eked out, or by l-¢tronieally d-aetivatlng the tag at that tlme, ~o that it- subsequent passag- between the antennas ceasQs to be det-etabl- by th- EAS sy~tem An entlrely dl~erent approaeh is to leave th- sQcurity tag ln place and undeaetivated and provlde two separate paths ror exiting rrom the store, one ror the authorized mQrehandise, and the other ~or the eu-tom-r Th- eustomQr exit path leads through the EAS systom (e g between the two radio-~requency system antenna~), whlle the merehandise exlt path does not In praetlee, thls lnvolvQs provldlng a eheek-out alsl- at one end Or whlch the merehandise 18 deposltQd before the eustomer pas~os through the EAS system lnstalled in the aislQ The eustomer then passes through that system on the way to the oppo~ite end Or the ~ 21~0~8 check-out aisle, w"~reas the merchandise is m~ed along the aisle on a path which parallels the customer's path but doe~ not pass through the EAS system. The customer then retrieves the merchandise and leavQs. In this way, any alarm from the EAS
system is presumptivQly attributable to the presencQ of tagged merchandise still in the possesslon of the customer, rather than having been properly checked-out. ~y such separation o~ paths, the distinction can readily be made between properly checked-out merchandise and any which is being removed (whether intentionally or not) wlthout proper check-out.

In stores in which there are multiple check-out aisles, such as supormarket~ which typically ~eature a row o~ ~evsral such aisle~ (sometime~ a~ many as 10, 20, or even more) it has been the practice to lnstall a separate EAS system in each aisle.

More recently, it ha~ been proposQd to sub~tantlally reduce the cost o~ using EAg ~ystem~ to protect stores having multiple check-out ai~le- by stablishing a traf~ic pattern in the check-out and exit area- which would make it pos~ible to greatly reduce the number o~ separat- EAS ~ystems needod.

To that end, it ha- r-cently been proposQd to aispense with the installation o~ separat- EAS systems in the individual check-out aisles, and to install only a sinqle EAS system, at a common store exit location, through which all cu~tomers must pass, after having pas~ed through their respective check-out aislQs and paid ~or their purcha~e~.

This type o~ arrangement iB proposed, fer example in U.S.

1c:8018~3 Patent No. 4,583,0~, issued April 15, 1986.

Such a proposal is supQrficially very attractive, because it would save the cost of multiple EAS system installations. An EAS
system currently costs on the order of several thousand dollars.
Therefore, savings of multiples of that amount could be realized by that proposal, both in initial equipment and al~o in continued maintenance, updating, etc. Moreover, particularly in supermarkets, it i~ already conventional to provide a single passageway, crossing the outlet ends of the individual check-out aisles, and leading to a common exit door. It i8 at this common exit door that it wa~ proposed to place the single EAS systQm.

Although attraetive from the standpoint of reduced EAS
system cost~, that proposal also had some ramifications which significantly detraet from its potential advantage~. First, unllke in tho~e (eonventional) prlor arrangements which have a separato EAS oystem in each check-out aisle, in the arrangement proposed in ~aid Patent No. 4,583,083 it is no longer pos~ible to permit the eu~tomer to r-gain possession of the checked-out merchandi~e at the check-out aisle itself. If that were permitted, then the eustomer would again have possession of tagged merchandise when passing through the EAS system stationed at the common exit door. Therefore, an alarm would occur even though this merchandise had been properly checked out and thus authorized for r~moval from the store. Moreover, the presence of such authorized merchandi~e at the EAS-eguipped exit would mask the potential pre~enee of unauthorized merchandi~e. In other words, each exiting customer would create a false alarms conversely, valid alarms would be masked by these false alarms.

i~80i88 The cure for this problem seems rather obviou5 provide some other way to transport this checXed-out merchandise out of the store, and give ~t back to the customer only after the customQr has passed through the single EAS system at the common exit door Unfortunately, that is easier said than done There are only two ways to perform the merchandise transport required One i~ by store employees assigned to that task (that is the way proposed in said U S Patent No 4,S83,083) The other i8 by mechanical equipment, such as conveyors and the like The USQ of employees turns this into a labor-lntensive ~ituation, which can easily mor- than offset th- savings duo to the reduced number o~ EAS
systems For example, in a supermarket having 10 check-out aisles, the annualized ~avings from using only one EAS system at the exit door, rather than a separate one at each check-out aisle, could b- on the order of Slo,ooo. Even one additional employee needed to p-rform th- merchandis6 transport funetlon requlred by ~aid Pat-nt No 4,583,083 could easily offset that saving ln praetie-, on- employ-e eould not serve 10 aisles in this way, w$thout creatlng ~er$ou~ délays in customer departures Mechanical equipm nt, for transport wlthout human intervention, would manifestly be still more co~tly Moreover, provi~ion~ would have to be mad- for reliably reuniting each customer with that customQr's specific merchandise beyond the exit door In a busy stor-, with any given customer's purchases often ln sQveral s-parat- bag-, this eould easily lead to mass confusion and dis~atisfaction Looked at f~om a different perspeetive, that proposed 30~88 arrangement would ~eprive the ~tore--especially the ~upermarket--of one of its more important economlc advantage~, which is that the customer~, rather than storQ personnel or expen,sive machinery, perform virtually all merchandise handling and transport ~unctions Thus, what superficially loo~ed li~e a very attractive proposal in reality is fraught with problQms, which threaten to nullify its practical u~e~ulnQss Accordingly, it is an ob~ect of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks o~ the recently proposed arrangement di~cu~sed abov-It i~ another ob~ect to provide an arrangement which retainsthe cost ~aving o~ r-ducing th- number Or EA~ ~y~tem~ relativo to the number o2 ch-ck-out ai~le~, without creatlng the n~ed for merchandi~e tran~port by ~tore employQes or by mechanical means It is still anoth~r ob~ect to provide such an arrangement which is highly flQxib}e and adaptable to a variety o~ store exit traffic pattQrns It is stlll another ob~ect to provide such an arrangement which is ~imple and lnexpensive to implement It i~ still another ob~oct to provide such an arrangemQnt which requires minimal departure~ from currently conventional check-out structure~ and procQdures These and oth~ ob~Qcts which will appQa~ are achieved in accordance with the present invention as follows With the Qxceptions noted below, a conventional multi-aisle check-out arranqemQnt i~ used Its sQvQral check-out aisles all face at one end toward the store interior, and at the other end toward a common passagQway, which in turn leads to the store exit In such a conventional arrangement, the merchandise i8 transported from one end of the check-out aisle to the other during the check-out procedure The customer is able to accompany the merchandise all the way through the aisle and retrieve the merchandisQ at the passageway end In accordance with the present invention, the merchandise still movQs from one end to th- oth-r Or th- ch-ck-out ai~le, but the customer does not accompany it all the way to the retrieval end Rather, means are provided to cause the cu~tomor to essentially reverse direction and roent-r th- interior o~ th- ~tore ad~acent to th- check-out ai~le~, i e the ~ame ar-a of merchandise display and selection ~rom which the customer had origlnally approached th- check-out aisles From that interior area, there is then provided a path which also lead~ to the common passageway, but which is separate from any of the chock-out aisle~ This separate path is equipped with an EAS 6y~tem, wherea~ the check-out aisles, themselves, ara not Through thi~ ~eparate EAS-equipped path, and the common passagQway to which it leads, the customer is able to return to whichever check-out aisle that same customer had used, but now at the end of that aisle which face~ toward the common p~ssageway There, the customer's checked-out merchandise iB waiting for retrieval and ~ubsequent removal by the cu~tomer through tho storQ exit ~2ao~ss For further d~_ails, reference is mada t~ che discussion which follows, in light of the accompanying drawings wherein Figure 1 io a diagrammatic illustration of an arrangement constituting a prererred embodiment o~ the present invention; and Figure 2 i8 a dlagrammatic illustration o~ an alternative embodiment The same re~erence numerala are uaed to designate sim$1ar elementa in the two rigures Re~erring to Figur- 1, thi~ i~ a layout diagram of a portion o~ a typical supermarX-t in th- viclnity o~ the exit ~rom the store Tn thi- diagram, th- r-~er-nce numeral 10 designates the overall ~tor- boundary A door 11 1~ provlded, which ~erv-~ as th- xit ~or ¢uatom-r- An adioinlng door lla servs~ as the entranc-, with an int-rnal barrler llb preventing the mixing Or entering and xitlng tra~lc A o-t o~ check-out aisles 12, 13 and 14 i~ de~ined by th-ir respectlve ch-ck-out counters 12a, 13a and 14a and th- ~pac- in ~ront o~ ach o~ thos- count-r~ On-end o~ each alsle 12, 13 and 14 ~ac-~ th- stor- int-rior The other end ~ac-~ a common passageway 16 which ioin~ th-se aisle enda to each oth-r and to exlt 11 In th- arrangement diagram~ed in Figure 1, the cl-rks (not shown) serving these check-out aisles are positioned on th- l-~t-hand sid-o o~ th- respective eountera 12a, 13a and 14a, whil- the cuotom-rs position themaelvea along the rlght-hand sidea o~ countero 12a, 13a and 14a :,, ~28~88 In accordance ~ith the preQent invention, a barrier 17 is provided in eaeh check-out aisle 12, 13 and 14 ThesQ barriers 17 are ~o constructed and arranged that a customer can no longer conveniently reaeh merehandise plaeed on a given ehecXout counter by that 6ame customQr, once that merchandise has been procQssed by the check-out clerk and has been moved toward the end of the counter facing common passageway 16 SUch barriers 17 are not present in conventional store layouts It should be noted that somQ conventional check-out aislQs include what appear to be such barriers, formed by swinging gatQs which are part of EAS systems assoeiated with thesQ aisles ~8e~ the above-refereneed U S
Patent No 4,583,083) However, the purposQ of such prior-art gatQs was not to bar the customQr from ultimately passing eompletQly through the ch-ek-out aisle In eontrast, that i~ the purposQ of each barrier 17 in Figure 1 Furth-r in accordanc- wlth th- pre-ent invention, the check-out ai~ th-m~-lv-~ ar- not equipped with their own EAS
sy~tQm~ Rather, a ~ingl- EAS ~y~to~ 18 servQs all three eheek-out aisl-~ 12, 13 and 14 In thi~ respeet, the prQsent invention resQmbl-a th- proposal de~erib-d in said U S Patent No 4,583,083 How-ver, unlike in ~aid Pat-nt, that single EAS
system 18 i~ not located at the store exit, but rather along a separate path 19 l-ading from the merehandise dlsplay and seleetion area lS to th- eommon passageway 16 Thu~, in order to ultimately exit from the ~tore, all customer~ must flr~t pas~ through th- same path 19 In ~o doing, they will all be ~ub~ected to the operation of the EAS aystem 18 asQociated with path 19, and thi~ will oecur while they are 1~801;88 separated from the merchandise which they have previously deposited at the rQspectlve check-out counter Consequently, an alarm given by EA8 system 18 will presumably be due to merchandise which is in the posses~ion o~ a customer without having been sub~ected to proper check-out Once through path 19, each customer uses common passageway 16 to return to the same chock-out aisle 12, 13 or 14 which had been used by that particular customQr There, that customer's merchandisQ is waiting, at the end Or that aisle which ~aces the common paasagQway 16 The customer is now free to retrieve the waiting, checked-out merchandis- and take it out Or the store via common pa--ageway 16 and exit door 11 It will b- recognizQd that numerouo advantageo are achieved by the arrangement Or Figur- 1 8peci~ically, EAS is used to examin- all cu-tom r- l-aving th- ~tore, but only on- EAS y~tem 18 1~ n--ded to ervlc- -veral check-out aisle~ 12, 13 and 14 The gQneral patt-rn Or tor- layout remain~ very similar to that heretorore used Only on- additional path 19 needs to be created Thls path 19 may b- relatively narrow, since it serves primarily ~or the unlmpeded paooage o~ one custom~r at a time, without merchandi~- Thus, this additional path 19 consumes little ~loor spac- withln th tore Anoth-r advantage i~ that the check-out ¢l-rX- no longer need to react to EAS alarms, as is the casQ when each check-out alsle ha~ lt~ own EAS ~ystem Rather, this task can be concentrated in a single person, stationed at or near the EAS ~y~tem 18 a~soclated wlth path 19 This path 19 may be suitably placed in relation to other store functions to ~acilitate the per~ormance o~ that tasX, e g close ~ .

..

iZ~8~3 to the ~tore managbr'~ position BQst of all, the desirQd reduction in numbers of EAS ~ystems used in the storQ is achieved without having to resort to the use o~ additional ~tore per~onnel or o~ complicated mechanisms to reunite properly checked-out merchandise with the customer who purchased it The individual components o~ the arrangement illustrated in Figure 1 may take various conventional forms The check-out aisles 12, 13 and 14 may be o~ any conventional typ-, including, ror example, a caah register, a conveyor belt rOr moving the merchandise pa~t the check-out clerk, a merchandise accumulation area at the end o~ the ai~le ~acing common pa~sageway 16, provision~ ~or ~acilitating bagging, and 80 rorth, all a~ appropriat- to the type Or merchandise being processod.

The barrier 17 which is associated with each check-out aisle 12, 13 or 14 may also tak- any do-ired ~orm, suitable ~or performing its simpl- runction Or separatinq the customer ~rom the properly ch cked-out merchandise, until a~ter the customQr has pa~ed th- EAS ystem 18 associated with path 19 Ir the store using th- pre--nt invention i~ on- in which shopping cart~
are customarily utilized, then tho barrier 17 may b- placed high enough to prevent tho passage Or people, while permitting the shopping cart which brought the merchandise to the check-out aisle to pa~s beneath the barrier In that way, this shopping cart again become~ available to the cu~tomer for use in , .. ..

ultimately retriev~ g the merchandise and remo lng it from the store via passageway 16 and exit door 11 If ~afety regulations prohibit the U8Q of a barrier 17 which completely bar~ the way to people, then that barrier can be made yieldlng, e g in the form of a spring-loaded swinging arm Indeed, ln somo ca~es, th- barrier 17 may be intangible, in the form of a sign which instruct~ th- customer to not proceed beyond a given point, but to first return into the store interior 15 and then u~e path 19 and common passageway 16 for merchandise retrleval Path 19 m~y b- deflnsd ln any practlcal manner, e g between a wall forming the storQ boundary 10 and a guide rail 20, a~
diagrammatically shown in Figur- 1, or by other path-defining structure~ In any ca~e, th-s- ~tructure~ ar- pr-ferably ~uch that the cu~tomor is able to k-ep the properly checked-out merchandlso ln view whll- tran~iting path 19 and common passageway 16 It is also d--irabl- that th- number of check-out ai~le~
served by a ~lngl- EAS--quipped path 19 be limited sufficiently 80 that th- trafflc through that path 19 doe~ not become congested, nor th- tim- delay eXC-~BiVe between the customer'~
reentry into th- store area 15 and return to th- check-out ai~le for merchandise retrieval Therefore, a~ the numb-r o~ check-out aisles increases, it may be neces~ary to provid- additional paths 19, each of course equipp-d with it~ own EAS sy~tem 18 If 80, these paths 19 are pre~erably di~tributed along the series of check-out aisle~, 80 that any given check-out aiBle iB not more ~a~a than three or four _~ch aisles away from a pat 19 The EAS syotem 18 associatad with path 19 may also take any of several well-known forms, e g that so}d under the name Checkpoint Mark III, by Checkpoint System~, Inc , o~ Thorofare, NQW Jersey, U S A

Ro~erring now to Figure 2 o~ the drawings, this show~ a ~tore portion whlch hao the samo layout as in Figure 1, excQpt as expla$ned below In Flguro 2, tho three check-out counters shown are do~ignatod, reop~ctively, by reference numQrals 12b, 13b and 14b The addition of theoo ~b" surfixes indicateo that these count-r- ar- not quite th- ~am a- the check-out counters 12a, 13a and 14a o~ Figur- 1 The dirrorence i9 that th~ countQrs 12b, 13b and 14b o~ Figure 2 lack money handllng racllltle~, such ao cash r-gloter~ Thoy have th- oame (or at least oqulvalent) keyboard and display racllltl~-, for entering the prices and r-lated information for the merchandl~e being checkod-out However, th~ actual payment i8 carried out at a separate pay station 21, which ~srve~ all three check-out aisles 12, 13 and 14 At each check-out al~ls, the cuatomer recelve~ a print-out o~ tha merchandise tran~actlons, which may be similar to the so-called "tapeH currently provided by cash registQrs On the way to path 19, th- customsr th-n otopo at pay station 21 and pays the bill on th- basio o~ the print-out This centralizsd payment arrangement fito ln well with the other featureo of the pre~ent invention It providso a further substantial simplification of ~tore procedure~, as well a~
reducing the pot~ntial Or error~ which ~tem ~rom having cash 1~80~88-handling performed dt each check-out aisle, b~ a clerk who also has a variety of other tasks to perform Furthermore, the embodiment of Figure 2 lends itself well to use in eon~unetion with a teehnique whieh 18 eurrently being proposed, involving further automation of th- eheek-out proees~
In this teehniquo, the eustomer would perform personally the manipulative stQps involved in eheeXing out, using an optical scanner to read th- so-eallod UPC code on the itom~ of merchandise boing cheekod out A~ in Figuro 2, the eu~tomer would then proeeed to a separate pay station to mako payment for tho aeeumulated purchases It will b- understood that a varioty of modifieations may be made without departing from th- pr-sont invontive concept Indo-d, th~ lnv-ntion i~ not limited ln applieation to rotail ~tore- at all, but ean bo u~ed in other situations with similar eireum~tanc-~, g ln lending libario~ Aeeordingly, it is desired that th- ~cop- of th- invontive concept be dofined only by the appended claim~

Claims (10)

1. In a check-out system for premises having an interior area which houses articles protected against unauthorized removal from said premises, said articles having affixed thereto security tags which are detectable by an electronic article surveillance system, said premises being provided with a plurality of check-out aisles for said articles, each aisle having one end facing said interior area and an opposite and facing a common passageway connecting all of said opposite ends to each other and to an exit from said premises, the improvement which comprises:

means for barring persons desiring to remove articles from said premises via said check-out aisles from accompanying said articles through said aisles to their said opposite ends;

at least one path separate from said check-out aisles and leading from said interior area to said common passageway, through which path said persons are able to reach said opposite ends of the check-out aisles for article retrieval; and an electronic article surveillance system associated with said at least one separate path for detecting security tags carried through said separate path

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the check-out aisles themselves do not have associated electronic article surveillance systems.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein there is a plurality of said separate paths, each having an associated electronic article surveillance system, the number of said check-out aisles being greater than the number of said separate paths.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein different ones of said separate paths are separated from each other by a plurality of said check-out aisles.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said barring means is in the form of a physical barrier across each check-out aisle.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said barring means is in the form of a notice prohibiting passage.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said separate path is so constructed and arranged that persons using it can maintain visual contact with article at said opposite ends of the check-out aisles.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said separate path is so constructed and arranged that only one person at a time can pass by the electronic article surveillance system associated with said path.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said premises are those of a retail store and the articles are merchandise for sale in that store.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said check-out aisles lack provisions for payment for said merchandise, and further comprising means separate from said aisles for effecting such payment.