A system for operating shopping basket with an accounting function. Each shopping basket comprises an article registering unit, an accounting control unit (calculator), a display, an alarm, a transmitter, a receiver, and an external memory. The article registering unit includes elements for detecting a moving direction of an article to and from the shopping basket, and elements for reading a status code on the article. The calculator checks a valid/invalid status of articles, registers articles, and performs an accounting operation. The display indicates prices of articles received in the shopping basket, and a sub-total of the articles present therein. The alarm alerts a shopper that a sub-total of articles actually present in the shopping basket does not agree with a sub-total calculated on the basis of identification codes of the articles. The transmitter transmits accounting data of the shopping basket arriving at a cashier's counter to the accounting unit. The receiver receives programs and sale information from a host computer. The external memory stores the data received from the host computer.

The present invention teaches apparatus, method and use for a portable shopper product information remote unit. A plurality of remote units are provided to shoppers within a retail establishment which uses bar code scanners at a cashier's counter to record products of the shopper's purchase. The units are retrieved from each shopper subsequent to a finished purchase and returned to a central maintenance system. The remote units' batteries are recharged and data updated with at least updated pricing information such that the bar code scanners at the cashier's counters and the remote units are provided with the same updated product pricing information. The remote units include, a bar code scanning device capable of scanning bar codes, a microcomputer with database memory capable of storing and retrieving updatable product information related to each of the bar codes, a display for conveying product information, limited user-function control of the microcomputer, a rapidly rechargeable battery for supplying the unit with electrical power, and a data input device through which the database memory can be updated. Security mechanisms are provided so that these remote units can not be removed from the retail establishment by unauthorized persons.

An electronic coupon system handles coupons selected by a customer. The coupons have a product code of the product covered by the coupon and have a corresponding coupon code representing information relating to the value of the coupon. A coupon scanner used by the customer scans the coupons and has a memory for storing data representing the scanned product codes and their corresponding coupon codes. A product scanner at a retail store scans product codes of products to be purchased and provides data representing the scanned codes. A processor credits to the customer the value of the coupon when the data representing the scanned codes corresponds to the data in the coupon scanner memory. The system may also include a kiosk having a processor interfacing with the coupon scanner for providing to the scanner additional data and for providing to the kiosk information stored in the coupon scanner.

Unjust acts such as carrying out a commodity without reading a commodity code, whether it is intentional or accidental are prevented. The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus may include a commodity code reading section for reading a commodity code applied to a commodity and a transportable accommodation section for accommodating therein a commodity whose commodity code has been read. Further, elements for purchasing a commodity (such as a section for receiving a prepaid card, a credit card, a bank card or a similar card) may be fixed to said transportable accommodation section to allow a customer to perform purchasing operations during selection of a commodity when shopping.

Methods and computer readable media for recognizing and identifying items located on the belt of a counter and/or in a shopping cart of a store environment for the purpose of reducing/preventing bottom-of-the-basket loss, checking out the items automatically, reducing the checkout time, preventing consumer fraud, increasing revenue and replacing a conventional UPC scanning system to enhance the checking out speed. The images of the items taken by visual sensors may be analyzed to extract features using the scale-invariant feature-transformation (SIFT) method. Then, the extracted features are compared to those of trained images stored in a database to find a set of matches. Based on the set of matches, the items are recognized and associated with one or more instructions, commands or actions without the need for personnel to visually see the items, such as by having to come out from behind a check out counter or peering over a check out counter.