Patent Application
20140207660
The invention relates to a tag system. Furthermore, the invention relates to a sellable item. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for facilitating the purchase of a sellable item.
It is known that NFC-enabled mobile devices, such as NFC-enabled smart phones or tablets, can be used to facilitate the purchase of sellable items by performing payment transactions.
U.S. Pa. No. 8,086,497 B1 describes background prior art. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 8,086,497 describes price searching and customer self-checkout on a mobile device. A system for purchasing products comprises at least one subsystem that receives from a mobile device at least price and seller identification data of a product at least the price of said product having been electronically read by the mobile device and at least one subsystem that charges a user for the product based upon the received price and identification data.
US 2010/0082485 A1 describes systems, methods, and devices for conducting sales transactions. Embodiments include handheld, portable, electronic, point of purchase devices configured to acquire identification information from articles to be purchased, to determine a purchase price, and to acquire payment information for the purchase price. The point of purchase devices may include one or more input devices such as a near field communication device, a camera, a scanner, and a biometric sensor for acquiring the identification information and/or the payment information. In some embodiments, the near field communication device may be detachable from the point of purchase device. The point of purchase devices also may contain communication interfaces, such as a near field communication interface, a local area network interface, a short message service interface, and a personal area network interface, for transmitting the information to an external server.
In an embodiment described in US 2010/0082485 A1, a system which allows a customer to scan articles and pay for the articles without the assistance of a salesperson may also operate in conjunction with the merchant's security system to impede the removal of un-purchased articles from the store. For example, the articles may include security tags that can be deactivated after payment to prevent an alarm from sounding when the articles are removed from the store. These security tags are NFC tags encrypted with security information that when activated works in conjunction with the store's security system to sound an alarm if the tags are removed from the store without being deactivated (section [0282]).
The above-mentioned embodiment described in US 2010/0082485 A1 has the disadvantage that it is not designed for use with conventional anti-theft tags, such as anti-theft RF tags.
It is an object of the invention to improve systems, methods, and devices for conducting sales transactions of the kind set forth. More specifically, it is an object of the invention to improve systems, methods, and devices which combine sales transactions with a deactivation of security tags. This object is achieved by a tag system as claimed in claim 1 and by a method for facilitating the purchase of a sellable item as claimed in claim 8.
According to an aspect of the invention, a tag system for facilitating a purchase of a sellable item is conceived, the tag system comprising an anti-theft tag and an NFC tag, wherein said NFC tag is arranged to support a payment transaction for purchasing the sellable item, and wherein the NFC tag is further arranged to deactivate the anti-theft tag when the payment transaction has been completed.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the NFC tag is arranged to deactivate the anti-theft tag by destroying electronic components comprised in said anti-theft tag.
According to a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, the NFC tag is arranged to deactivate the anti-theft tag by driving a current via conductors through a fuse, said fuse forming part of an LC circuit comprised in said anti-theft tag.
According to a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, the NFC tag is arranged to deactivate the anti-theft tag by writing a disable value into a memory unit comprised in said anti-theft tag.
According to a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, the NFC tag is arranged to deactivate the anti-theft tag upon or after receipt of a confirmation signal from an NFC-enabled mobile device, said confirmation signal indicating that the payment transaction has been completed.
According to a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, the NFC tag comprises a storage unit for storing payment transaction data, such as a price value of the sellable item.
According to a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, the tag system extends to a goods tracking system or article database in which the sellable item is marked as sold when the payment transaction has been completed.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a sellable item is conceived which comprises the inventive tag system.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a method for facilitating the purchase of a sellable item comprising a tag system is conceived, the tag system comprising an anti-theft tag and an NFC tag, wherein said NFC tag supports a payment transaction for purchasing the sellable item, and wherein the NFC tag deactivates the anti-theft tag when the payment transaction has been completed.
The invention will be described in more detail with reference to the appended drawings, in which:
Thus, a combined or integrated purchase and anti-theft system is realized which may be based on conventional anti-theft devices. Sellable items can be bought by making use of the capabilities of a personal, networked reader device (typically a mobile phone or a tablet) which communicates with tag systems embedded in or attached to these sellable items, and embodying a combined purchase and anti-theft system of the kind set forth. The integration of purchase and anti-theft functionality assures that a sold item is marked correspondingly and that no anti-theft function will be activated for the sold item. Optionally, the integration may extend to a goods tracking system or an article database in which the sellable item is marked as “sold”. This removes the need of a central cashier desk or point-of-sale (POS).
Hereinafter an exemplary use case will be described. The use case is based on the use of a smart phone or a tablet acting as a personal reader and on-line payment device and equipped with RFID and NFC capabilities. In this exemplary use case the following steps are performed:
The skilled person will appreciate that the inventive tag system may also comprise another type of conventional anti-theft tag instead of the anti-theft RF tag. For example, in case a conventional anti-theft EM tag is used, the anti-theft protection must be disabled by burning a fuse (resulting in a change of resonance frequency) or by destroying anti-theft electronics within the anti-theft EM tag. If the anti-theft RF tag is used, the anti-theft protection may be disabled by burning a fuse which opens an LC circuit and consequently detunes the anti-theft RF tag (as described above), by destroying electronics within the anti-theft RF tag or by writing a disable value into a memory unit comprised in the anti-theft RF tag (i.e. a “soft” deactivation). In all cases the NFC tag deactivates the anti-theft tag, according to the basic principle of the invention.
It is noted that the drawings are schematic. In different drawings, similar or identical elements are provided with the same reference signs. Furthermore, it is noted that in an effort to provide a concise description of the exemplary embodiments, implementation details which fall into the customary practice of the skilled person may not have been described. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill.
The above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention, and the skilled person will be able to design many alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference sign placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The word “comprise(s)” or “comprising” does not exclude the presence of elements or steps other than those listed in a claim.
The word “a” or “an” preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements. The invention may be implemented by means of hardware comprising several distinct elements and/or by means of a suitably programmed processor. In a device claim enumerating several means, several of these means may be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.
10 anti-theft RF tag
11 capacitor
12 RF antenna
13 fuse
14 conductors
15 NFC tag
16 NFC circuit
17 NFC antenna
18 tag system
20 sellable item
21 NFC-enabled mobile phone
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13152588.3 | Jan 2013 | EP | regional |
