Novel Model for Automating Purchases using Intelligent Cart

IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE) e-ISSN: 2278-0661, p- ISSN: 2278-8727Volume 16, Issue 1, Ver. VII (Feb. 2014), PP 23-30 www.iosrjournals.org

Novel Model for Automating Purchases using Intelligent Cart 1

Ms. Vrinda, 2Niharika

Department of Computer Science ITM University, Gurgaon Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science ITM University, Gurgaon

2

Abstract: A novel commodity with societal approval is the one that abets comfort, benefit and effectiveness in everyday life. Large retail outlets are nowadays used by millions of people for the procurement of a large number of items. Commodity acquisition is an intricate process comprising of time wasted in arcade, commodity position and checkout queues. Additionally, it is becoming increasingly troublesome for retailers to keep the customers loyal and to anticipate the customer needs because of the impact of competition and the scarcity of tools that differentiate consumption scheme. In this paper, the proposal of a framework and solution of an innovative system for the procurement of items in grocery stores (Smart Cart) is presented. The Smart Cart uses emerging mobile technologies and automatic recognition technologies, such as RFID as a method to revamp the standard of services given by the retailers and to elevate the consumer value, thus saving time and money. The main objective of this proposed model is to present a technology-oriented, easily scalable, low-priced, and robust system for assisting a person while shopping. The framework has following key modules (a) Server Communication Module (SCM) (b) Customer Interface and display component (CIDC), and (c) Automatic billing Module (ABM). SCM initiates and sustains the link of the cart with the main server. CIDC delivers the user interface and ABM conducts the billing in association with SCM. These components are implanted into an embedded system and are tested to check the functionality. This fixture makes shelf indirectly smart, making sure that commodity is restocked. The prototype presented is for commercial deployment with proper heed to network and security issues. Keywords: RFID, Intelligent cart, Smart cart, RF Tag, RF readers, ZigBee Module.

I.

Introduction

The advances in scattering of information merged with the urbanization of modern society have generated a so-called new customer. Today’s customer has got a deeper understanding in equating product costs; has great expectations in services and client regard.RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID) technology accredits recognition and relation of an article to a unique recognition code on the RFID tag attached on the object [1]. RFID and wireless networks are emerging technologies, making the conventional retail process fast, self evident, transparent and effective. This technology represents to retailers a chance to decrease costs and to enhance services, permitting to attend consumers quickly and bestowing personalized services. The main technological aim for our proposed model is use of RFID technology for the automatic product recognition inside the cart, thus abolishing customer intervention in the procedure of item reading for payment. Nowadays, the use of barcode for commodity detection presents several shortcomings: 1. Information is static 2. Permits one single reading at a time 3. Entails line-of sight 4. Low range and security. RFID technology is safer, can give other types of information, can make concurrent readings, with no need line-of-sight. Extending these concepts, it possible to form a system that automatically categorize every item, also automating purchases and eliminating the long queues and boosting time efficiency. The model of an intelligent shopping cart (embedded system) is presented which can be used in grocery stores and shopping malls to solve the existing problems. The intelligent Shopping Cart is endowed with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader for product recognition and a tag so that this cart can be identified. Besides, it also has an LCD display that notifies the customers about item costs, offers, discounts and the total bill. As soon as the item is dropped into or removed from this smart cart, the reader identifies the tagID of product and the respective price of the item and updates the bill. When the customer has completed buying stuff, he can check out after paying the bill without the need to stand in queues. This proposed model is easily scalable, robust and requires no special training. The smart cart’s automatic billing system makes shopping a sinecure as it frees the staff from tedious checkout scanning, reducing total number of employee’s required and elevating operational effectiveness of the system. In this paper, the model presented appreciably lowers the overhead of the earlier proposed models. Even when there are a lot of customers in the store, there will not be any decline in the working of the system. The organisation of this paper is as follows: Section II presents the system design in detail, Section III gives the www.iosrjournals.org

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Novel Model for Automating Purchases using Intelligent Cart working of the proposed smart shopping system, Section IV presents the process flow charts, Section V presents a performance analysis of the system model and Section VI gives the conclusion of the paper.

II.

DESIGN IDEA AND BLOCK DIAGRAM

The model features a cart equipped with an RFID reader, a ZigBee transceiver and an LCD display. The cart is initially deactivated. Upon entering in the specific area, the store’s main reader would trigger the respective passive RFID tag on the cart that entered, thus activating it, and turning ON all the components such as RFID reader, micro controller and ZigBee The reader on the cart sends the tagID of the item being dropped into or removed from the cart and price against it to the main reader which updates the bill for the respective cart. It scans products when customer picks up from the shelf and puts in the cart. The cartID, tagID of the item and the corresponding price is transmitted by the cart’s reader to the main reader using the IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee Protocol). This smart shopping cart keeps an account of the bill made by keeping running total of their purchases. LCD screen will show the total bill of the items present in the cart. The main reader is consistently connected with the database via server and is equipped with ZigBee transceiver to receive from the cart’s reader cartID, tagID and price of the data item which is being put into or removed from the cart. This main reader is also in communication with reader on the exit door which detects a particular cart at the checkout time. This exit door reader has a ZigBee transceiver so as to send the information of detected cart to the main reader [2]. It also communicates with the server via the main reader, which is being constantly updated by the main reader for every cart that entered the store area. The server is connected to the database. All the changes intended to be made in the database are made with help of the server via main reader. The database entry change when the server is invoked by the main reader. Then the server makes the changes in the database and its table. The exit door reader detects the cart at the exit, communicates with the database via main reader for the bill against a particular cart. At the exit, the customer is assisted by an attendant. Bill is ready, just the payment is made. Also, the database can be refined as the data is gathered from various carts as it comes from the exit reader. When there is a change in environment, detection can be made by the database that is self-refining. The model makes sure that the system gives the same conduct even when many customers are shopping at the same instance in the store. The Fig 1,Fig 2and Fig.3 give a detailed view about the model being presented and the basic parts of the system and how the system components communicate with each other and how information travel.

Fig.1. The block diagram of cart section

Fig. 2. Block Diagram for the Billing section

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Novel Model for Automating Purchases using Intelligent Cart

Fig. 3. Block Diagram for a major part of Server Communication Module The proposed model consists of 3 key modules: 1. Consumer Interface and display component (CIDC) This part of the system has the LCD screen on the cart to aid the customer to see the transaction and the running bill of the items being purchased. This is supervised by controller. 2. Automatic Billing Module (ABM) Automatic Billing Module and Inventory Management component handles the billing of articles in association with the SCC. The cart is detected by reader at the exit. Then this cart’s bill is attained from the database. 3. Server Communication Module (SCM) SCM initiates and maintains the connection of the smart shopping cart with the main server. The main reader is connected with the server and is equipped with ZigBee transceiver to receive from the cart’s reader tagID and price of the data item which is being put into or removed from the cart and update the database for the respective cart. The Central Database is a made by combining a server system and multiple tables and which have a connection with each other. The central database contains: a) The information of the shelf comprising of quantity of item and price of item. b) The Database also consists of tables having the information of different carts in the mall area. The cart’s reader range should not be extended beyond the horizontal cart limits; this is done so that the reader does not do the reading of the items inside other shopping carts or the items on shelves. However, reader’s range should not be less than the cart’s limits with consequence of items not being identified that are present inside the smart shopping cart. Vertically, the cart’s reader should be able to recognize the commodity down to the ground, since there are some carts where products can be placed approximately 20 cm above the ground [3]. The RFID cart reader should be able to read all the tags irrespective of the material.

III.

WORKING OF SMART SHOPPING SYSTEM MODEL

When a customer enters the store with the cart, the main reader activates the cart by triggering the passive tag on the cart. When any item from the shelf is dropped in into the smart cart, RFID reader of the cart reads the tag on the item and the information, comprising tagID and the price of the item, is extracted and corresponding bill is displayed consistently on the LCD screen. At the same time the cart reader sends a packet having the cartID, tagID and the price of the item to the main reader. Here the main reader updates the billing info against the cartID in the database via server. Similar procedure is followed when an item is removed from the cart and kept back on the shelf. When the information is attained that a particular cart has picked the following items, the subtraction of the quantity of items picked from the ones presents on the shelf is done. Quantity record is made earlier manually on the database. Similarly, addition of the items that were put back on the shelf is done to the quantity of the ones present already present. A tag has a unique recognition number. When interrogation is done by the cart reader, the tag will send the tagID to the cart reader, then sending this tagID and cartID to the main reader. A backend server that maintains a database of all valid tagID’s against other items kept on the shelf. On receiving data from the main reader, it searches its database or corresponding tables in the database for the tagID of the items. A main reader, that connects to the server, to further check for tagID in its database. After checking, it creates a table corresponding to the cartID, and items in the cart [4]. The table in database with items in the mart is updated according to the items put in the cart as shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5.

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Novel Model for Automating Purchases using Intelligent Cart

Fig. 4. Changes in database when item put into the cart.

Fig. 5. Changes in database when item removed from the cart. A table as shown in table II is recorded in the database for a specific cart, for illustration considering a cartA. A table as table I is made keeping the details of the items present in the mart and their price and quantity. Depending on table II, changes are made in table I that is updating the inventory. Table III shows the new table made after items have been put into the cart, thus changes introduced into the database. Inventory status of the products is also updated by changes in database during shopping, thus informing to restock the items on the shelf. The entries of the table are cleared, after exiting from the mall area as shown in Table VI.

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Novel Model for Automating Purchases using Intelligent Cart Table I: TABLE FOR MAIN DATABASE

Table II: TABLE FORMED IN DATABASE FOR A PARTICULAR CART

Table III: TABLE FORMED AFTER THE ITEMS PUT INTO THE CART

Table VI: THE TABLE CLEARED AFTER EXITING FROM THE DATABASE.

Since the inventory status of the items is consistently being updated, so this smart shopping model is making the shelf indirectly smart with the use of smart cart. The attendants can be informed to restock particular items, when items cross their safety stock limit. When the person proceeds to the checkout counter for the payment of the bill, a reader here detaches the cartID and sends this information to the main reader. The main reader after getting the info, checks the database for the bill of the respective cart. The information from the database for this cartID is removed as shown in Table VI. Later cleaning the database with no Cart A table. This billing information is sent to the exit reader. The bill is displayed, the payment is received and the persons checks out.

IV.

PROCESS FLOW CHARTS FOR THE SYSTEM PROPOSED

The working of the Smart/Intelligent Shopping Cart can be illustrated with the following steps: 1)When shoppers enter the mall area with the cart, the tagged carts are activated by the main reader and this turns ON all components such as RFID reader, micro controller and ZigBee as shown in Fig 6. 2) Every item has an RFID tag containing unique id. Item Ids are fed in the database allotted to the respective items. 3) When the customer puts any product in the cart from the shelf then the cart’s reader reads the tag and extracts the information of the item i.e. itemID and price. The running bill is displayed on the LCD [5]. The cart’s reader sends a packet to the main reader. This packet consists of cartID, itemID and price of the item dropped. The main reader updates the database for a particular cart. This is outlined in Fig 7. 4) When the customer removes any product from the cart back to the shelf then the similar process is followed. The cart’s reader reads the tag and extracts the information of the item i.e. itemID and price. The running bill is displayed on the LCD by subtracting the price of the item from the bill. The cart’s reader sends a packet to the main reader. This packet consists of cartID, itemID and price of the item dropped [6]. The main reader updates the database for a particular cart and the bill is made for a particular cart. This is outlined in Fig8. 5) When a person is done with buying things from the store, he/she proceed to the checkout counter ,the exit reader reads the tag on the cart, detects it and sends the cartID to the main reader. The main reader sees the www.iosrjournals.org

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Novel Model for Automating Purchases using Intelligent Cart database for the bill generated against this cart and this billing information is sent to the exit door reader. This is depicted in Fig 9. 6) The payments can be made by card/cash, this goes by the customer choice. Now the customer can straight away pay the bill and leave 7) Inventory status of the products is also updated during shopping. This makes the shelf indirectly smart using the smart cart and the main reader [7].

Fig. 6. The cart’s status

Fig.7. Shopper puts article in the cart

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Novel Model for Automating Purchases using Intelligent Cart

Fig. 8. Shopper removes the article from the cart

Fig. 9. At the billing section

V.

COST AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

The feasibility agenda for this model has increased to a great extent, since this proposed system is improving cost complexity and time efficiency. Table V compares the existing system with the proposed system, thus analyzing the performance of the proposed system. Table VI compares the two models, thus analyzing the costs of the system [8].

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Novel Model for Automating Purchases using Intelligent Cart Table V: Performance analysis

Table VI: Cost Analysis

VI.

CONCLUSION

The intended goal is being successfully achieved in the prototype system proposed. The proposed model is easy to use, low-priced and does not require any special training. This model keeps an account and uses of the existing developments and various types of radio frequency identification and detection technologies which are used for item recognition, billing and inventory update. The benefits of using this scheme in terms of cost complexity and time efficiency can be summed up as: 

As the whole system is becoming smart, the requirement of manpower will decrease, thus benefiting the retailers.  Theft in the mall will be controlled using this smart system, which further adds to the cost efficiency.  The time efficiency will increase phenomenally since this system will eliminate the waiting queues.  More customers can be served in same time thus benefiting the retailers and customers as well. This system proposed does not make use of intricate routing system architecture. Rather it uses simple algorithms in order to banish existing problems. Model can be further extended, to prevent the loosing of the intelligent/smart shopping cart [9]. It can be concluded that the initial cost of the model may be high but the in subsequent years the model will be beneficial as compared to the system using barcode or manual system. Further, a more advanced micro controller, larger display module and a service to pay the bill within the cart by using swapping card can be used, thus providing the customers better services, improved consumer experience and improving time complexity to a great extent.

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