Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Credit or identification card systems
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-26
2001-03-27
Lee, Michael G (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Credit or identification card systems
C235S383000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06206285
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, generally, to a workstation of a goods invoicing system and, more specifically, to a peripheral device kit for the workstation of a goods invoicing system in which a display and input unit can be mounted either on a printer box or on a base box.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Depending on the application, a workstation of a goods invoicing system for shops is subject to various requirements in terms of its equipment and ease of use. In the following text, the term “workstation” covers both self-service stations used by a customer as well as equipment operated by assistants, such as cash registers, self-service weighing machines, assistant-operated weighing machines and weighing machines for packing and the like which may be free-standing or integrated in a so-called checkout point. For example, self-service weighing machines in fruit and vegetable sections and assistant-operated weighing machines are operated by a person who is standing, whereas a checkout assistant in a shop uses a cash register and an associated checkout weighing machine while sitting down. Up to now, specially designed workstations for the various applications have been used, or independent modules, whose dimensions or shapes frequently do not match one another, have been installed as desired without any spatial relation to one another. In so doing, ergonomic design principles are often followed relatively incompletely.
EP-A-0 380 082 discloses a workstation of a goods invoicing system which includes a casing with a weighing plate on its top side, a display device, an input device, a goods invoicing computer and a printer for cash register slips and/or price labels. The aforementioned peripheral devices are accommodated in a single casing and permanently are associated with one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,081 describes a data acquisition terminal includes a base casing and a keypad unit. The two can be combined or operated separately from one another. The base casing has a recess containing vertical guides and a plug connector, while corresponding guides and a mating plug are provided on the keypad unit. If the keypad unit is to be operated separately from the base casing, an additional cable must be used for their electrical connection as well as a cover for the recess which is then open.
EP-A-0 349 997 describes a cash register with a console-type casing incorporating a keypad, a display device and a printer. The display device is accommodated in a casing part which protrudes beyond the console surface in the shape of a lens and whose front side forms an obtuse angle with the keypad.
The desire for equipment for individual applications relates to manual input means and displays, recording devices for machine-readable information and physical properties of goods. Alternatively, there is a desire for equipment with various storage and identification media, such as drives for floppy disks or CD-ROM, connections for electronic, electro-optical or electromechanical bulk storage devices, for example complying with the PCMCIA standard, and readers for magnetic-strip or chip cards, which can be used to identify an operator or a service technician at the workstation. Each equipment variant would require the structure of an accommodating casing to be changed. Various additional structures make a workstation more expensive, however.
An object of the present invention, therefore, is to propose a peripheral device kit for the workstation of a goods invoicing system which can be used to adapt such a workstation to various application conditions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is based on consideration of the fact that, although a self-service workstation, such as a self-service weighing machine, is used by a large number of people, they use it only from time to time. In this case, the manual input means and displays have to be arranged at a height where the user can read them, and at the same time close to the exit point for printed matter from a label printer so that the user will also spot a label which is dispensed. The weighing machine itself should be installed at table height, however. The same applies to assistant-operated weighing machines. On the other hand, a workstation which is used while sitting down, such as a cash register, requires the manual input means and displays, a cash register slip printer and a checkout weighing machine to be located in a closely confined viewing and handling area, in order to make it possible to work for several hours without tiring.
The arrangement of the manual input means and displays in an independent display and input unit, which can be mounted either on a weighing machine or a printer box, satisfies the requirements of both of the workstation types mentioned above. This also applies with respect to label and cash register slip printers which are constructed in a completely different way, on account of their different manner of operation, but for which it is possible to use a single opening for printed matter.
The option of equipment either with various keypads or else with a combined display/input device makes it possible not only to design a weighing machine for shops so that it is application-specific, but also to adapt it later in a simple manner when this is required by a change of application or new input devices. For example, the use of a flat screen with a so-called touch-screen or pen-computer surface or with soft keys opens up new possibilities for use in the field of both assistant-operation and self-service.
Thus, the present invention makes it possible to use, in a simple manner, for example on a weighing machine used as an assistant-operated weighing machine, a keypad which can be operated quickly, has relatively few keys and a perceptible action point, and which can be operated blind. The cash register keypad, or a second keypad which can be operated in parallel with the latter and has an identical set of keys, could be arranged upstream of a weighing machine used as a checkout weighing machine. On the other hand, in a particularly advantageous manner, a self-service weighing machine can have a touch screen representing the goods on sale by means of pictures. The goods to be weighed are identified simply by touching the appropriate picture on the screen.
Similar options for selecting the equipment of the workstation arise for storage means which have to be used only infrequently, such as floppy disk drives for loading programs, CD-ROM drives for operating a PLU store, chip card readers for registering operators or service technicians, bulk storage devices complying with the PCMCIA standard for electronic journals, etc.
If the goods invoicing computer is installed in the base box, as proposed as a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and if the display and operating unit is mounted on the base box, the storage means connected to the goods invoicing computer can be accommodated particularly advantageously in the display and operating unit. On the other hand, a single PLU store is often sufficient in a self-service workstation. A perforation should always be provided in the casing of the display and operating unit for installing such devices, and perforations which are not used should be sealed for safety reasons. This requirement is satisfied by covering these perforations with the area of the keypad surface which is bent downward. At the same time, the devices are rendered inaccessible to unauthorized persons.
A bearing fixture can be mounted on the base station. This serves for additionally locating an arrangement of further peripheral devices, such as a vertical scanner covering the space above the weighing plate from the side. The bearing fixture is at the same time used for covering a plug panel on the back of the base box. This enables cables to be guided from this point through hollow bars of the bearing fixture to a peripheral device attached to the latter so that the cables are covered. In addition, it is possible to mount, on the upper en
Baitz Gunter
Burchart Joachim
Kamin Hartmut
Lee Michael G
Schiff & Hardin & Waite
Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme Aktiengesellschaft
Taylor Larry
LandOfFree
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