Registers – Coded record sensors – Particular sensor structure
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-28
2003-02-18
Le, Thien M. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Coded record sensors
Particular sensor structure
C235S383000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06520412
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to POS (point-of-sales) system, and more particularly to a POS system which can process information regarding discounting.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a system for sales information management, a POS system has been spread widely in retail stores and so forth in recent years. In the POS system, a bar code applied to each commodity is read to decide a sales price. In recent years, services provided by retail stores and so forth have been and are diversified, and above all, a discount service is one of services which are provided frequently.
The following forms are available for provision of a discount service while a POS system is used.
In a first form, an ordinary price is indicated, and a discount seal is adhered to the commodity and its commodity tag. In this instance, an operator who operates a POS apparatus will visually observe the discount seal to confirm a discount amount of money and input the discount amount of money using a keyboard section connected to a POS control section. The POS control section thus searches for pre-discount price information, which is price information before the discount of the commodity, from bar code data, subtracts the inputted discount amount of money from the pre-discount price to decide the discounted price and displays the discounted price.
As a second form, such a discount system as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 212459/1996 is available. In the system, a discount amount of money is indicated in a bar code and discounting processing is performed based on the bar code.
As a third form, such a discount system as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 232133/1988 is available. In the system, when discounting is to be performed, a portable bar code label processing apparatus of the handy type is used to read a label, subtract an amount of money designated by a discounting method from the pre-discount amount of money thus read from the label and re-issue a bar code label based on resulting data.
As a fourth form, such a discount system as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 77256/1996 is available. In the system, information regarding sales conditions which vary depending upon the time, hour or the like such as a discount period, a discount price and a discount rate is marked on a multi-dimensional bar code, and the multi-dimensional bar code is read to provide a discount service or the like.
The conventional POS systems described above have the following problems.
According to the first form, determination of a discount amount of money and so forth upon settlement depends upon inputting of an operator, and an error cannot be eliminated completely and it is cumbersome to perform an inputting operation successively.
In the second form, where the bar code inputting apparatus is of the type which is usually used in a supermarket or the like and wherein a commodity is moved in front of a laser irradiating window of a scanner to read a bar code applied to the commodity, a bar code on which discount information is marked cannot sometimes be read. If a discount bar code cannot be read correctly, then the commodity cannot be discounted, which may result in loss of credit of the customer.
In the third form, since a bar code label produced with new data obtained by discounting calculation based on pre-discount data read by means of a scanner is applied to the commodity, the pre-discount data is not known to the POS system. Consequently, there is a problem that the customer cannot know by what amount of money the commodity is discounted.
According to the fourth form, various information can be written using a multi-dimensional bar code. However, it is not popular to use a multi-dimensional bar code with a POS system, and it is necessary to construct unique hardware. Thus, the system of the fourth form is low in universal use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a POS system which does not make an error in discounting with a simple construction and is high in credit of a customer.
In order to attain the object described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a POS system, comprising a bar code production apparatus for producing a bar code which includes discount information of a commodity, and a POS apparatus for reading information of the bar code produced by the bar code production apparatus and performing settlement processing based on the read information, the bar code production apparatus including bar code reading means for reading a bar code of a commodity before the commodity is discounted, discount money amount inputting means for inputting a discount amount of money for the commodity whose bar code has been read by the bar code reading means, bar code production means for producing a bar code which includes the pre-discount commodity information and the discount money amount information based on the bar code read by the bar code reading means and the discount money amount inputted by the discount money amount inputting means, and bar code outputting means for outputting the bar code produced by the bar code production means, the POS apparatus including POS bar code reading means for reading a bar code, bar code discrimination means for discriminating whether or not the bar code read by the POS bar code reading means has been produced by the bar code production means of the bar code production apparatus and includes discount information, price calculation means for calculating, if it is discriminated by the bar code discrimination means that the bar code read by the bar code reading means includes discount money amount information, a post-discount price of the commodity based on information of the read bar code, and price outputting means for outputting the post-discount price calculated by the price calculation means together with the pre-discount price.
Thus, the POS system comprises the bar code production apparatus for producing a bar code which includes discount information of a commodity, and the POS apparatus for reading information of the bar code produced by the bar code production apparatus and performing settlement processing based on the read information. In the POS system, settlement for a commodity to be purchased by a customer including discounting of the commodity is performed by the POS apparatus. To this end, the bar code reading means of the bar code production apparatus reads a bar code of a commodity before the commodity is discounted, and the discount money amount inputting means inputs a discount amount of money for the commodity whose bar code has been read by the bar code reading means.
After the bar code of the commodity before it is discounted is read by the bar code reading means and the discount amount of money is inputted by the discount money amount inputting means, the bar code production means produces a bar code which includes the pre-discount commodity information and the discount money amount information based on the bar code read by the bar code reading means and the discount money amount inputted by the discount money amount inputting means. After the bar code production means produces the bar code which includes the pre-discount commodity information and the discount money amount information, the bar code outputting means outputs the bar code produced by the bar code production means. Accordingly, if a label of the bar code thus produced is applied to the commodity, then the POS apparatus can process the discount information.
The POS bar code reading means of the POS apparatus reads the bar code, and the bar code discrimination means discriminates whether or not the bar code read by the POS bar code reading means has been produced by the bar code production means of the bar code production apparatus and includes discount information. If it is discriminated by the bar code discrimination means that the bar code read by the bar code reading means includes discount money amount information, then the price calculation means calculat
Dickstein , Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky, LLP
Le Thien M.
NEC Infrontia Corporation
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