Weighing scales – Computer – Electrical
Patent
1998-08-24
2000-03-14
Gibson, Randy W.
Weighing scales
Computer
Electrical
177124, 177238, 361680, 361685, G01G 1922, G01G 2302, G01G 2128, H05K 500
Patent
active
060375485
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to scales for retail outlets having an electronics box whose topside is covered by a weighing plate and which contains a data processing and control unit, and having an operating area and a display area.
2. Description of the Related Art
Depending on the application, different requirements are made regarding the equipment and operability of scales used in retail outlets. For example, self-service scales in fruit and vegetable departments and service scales are operated by someone standing, while checkout personnel in a retail outlet are seated while operating checkout scales assigned to a cash register. This entails different, in part mutually contradictory ergonomic design principles, which have so far been only imperfectly honored by a single design of scales.
The desire for equipment which satisfies individual applications relates to input means and display means, but also to different memory and identification media, such as drives for floppy disks or CD-ROM, connections for electronic, electro-optical or electromechanical mass storage for example in accordance with the PCMCIA standard, as well as readers for magnetic strip cards or chipcards, by means of which an operator or a maintenance technician identify themselves at the scales. The housing of the scales would have to be changed for each variety of equipment. However, different built-on facilities render scales more expensive.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a design of scales by means of which scales for retail outlets can be adapted by simple measures to different conditions of use.
The object is achieved with scales having an electronics box whose topside is covered by a weighing plate, and which contains a data processing and control unit, and having an operating area and a display area; attached to the front side of the electronics box is a projecting structure whose console-shaped keypad surface can optionally be equipped with a keypad or a combined display/input device; at least one chipcard reader and/or one identity card reader and/or one floppy disk drive and/or one drive for optical memory media and/or one maintenance lock and/or one card receptacle conforming to the PCMCIA standard can be installed in a vertical front wall of a housing situated below the keypad surface; a front area of the keypad surface is bent away downward; and the keypad surface is mounted on the projecting structure of the scales so that it can pivot about a pivot axis, which extends at and is parallel to the rear edge of the keypad surface between a position in which its front, bent-away area latches over the vertical front wall, and a position which exposes.
The possibility of optionally equipping the scale with different keypads or else with a combined display/input device not only permits scales for retail outlets to be designed for specific applications, but also permits them to be easily retrofitted should a change in the application or new input units so require. For example, the use of a flat monitor with a so-called touch screen or a pen computer surface or with soft keys opens up new possibilities of use both where customers are served and in self-service.
Thus, the present invention makes it possible in a simple way, for example, to make use on scales used as service scales of a keypad which is quick to operate, has relatively few keys and a perceptible pressure point and is to be operated blind. The cash register keypad or a second keypad which can be operated in parallel with the latter and has an identical key layout could be permanently arranged in front of scales used as checkout scales. By contrast, in a particularly advantageous way it is possible to use on self-service scales a touch screen on which the goods on offer are represented graphically. The goods to be weighed are identified by simply touching the corresponding image on the display screen. If--as is described in a development of the concept of the inv
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IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 34, No. 9, Feb. 1992, "Combination Keypad/Scale Using Strain Gauge Transducers", p. 77-78.
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Nov. 1985, vol. 28, "Keyboard Support Lifting Assembly With Locking Feature," pp. 1-3.
Baitz Gunter
Burchart Joachim
Kamin Hartmut
Gibson Randy W.
Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG
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