Utilization of imaging bar-code scanners for detecting anomalies with user scanning methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10824826-B2
Application number	US-201816232233-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 26, 2018
Priority date	Dec 26, 2018
Publication date	Nov 3, 2020
Grant date	Nov 3, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for detecting anomalies, for instance, user-caused scanning anomalies, which occur during scanning transactions. Scanning-related events may be detected by a scanning device and notifications of such events may be transmitted from the scanning device to a point-of-sale (POS) host device coupled therewith. In aspects, the notifications transmitted to the POS host device include a unique code (e.g., a barcode or label) that is indicative of the corresponding event. Responsive to receipt of the event notifications and the nature thereof, the POS host device may initiate one or more anomaly detection actions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by a point-of-sale host device, the method for detecting scanning anomalies and comprising:
receiving, from a scanning device, item codes responsive to the scanning device detecting and decoding an optical code on an item within a scan volume of the scanning device;
receiving, from the scanning device, a first event notification in a same code format as the item codes sent by the scanning device, the first event notification being a unique code indicative of an item-entry event notification;
initiating one or more first anomaly-detection actions responsive to the received first event notification;
receiving, from the scanning device, a second event notification after the first event notification and in the same code format as the item codes, the second event notification being a unique code indicative of one of a scanned-item-identifier event notification or an item-exit event notification; and
initiating one or more second anomaly-detection actions responsive to the second event notification.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting, to the scanning device, a scanning-device-enable command before receipt of the first event notification.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more first anomaly detection actions include commencement of video recording.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein receiving the second event notification comprises receiving the scanned-item-identifier event notification, and wherein the one or more second anomaly-detection actions include cessation of video recording.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the second event notification comprises receiving the scanned-item-identifier event notification, and wherein the one or more second anomaly-detection action includes transmission of a scanning-device-disable command from the point-of-sale host system to the scanning device.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising receiving a third event notification from the scanning device after the second event notification and in the same code format as the item codes and prior to initiating at least one of the one or more second anomaly-detection actions, the third event notification being a unique code indicative of the item-exit event notification.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the second event notification comprises receiving the item-exit event notification, and wherein the one or more second anomaly-detection actions include:
transmission of a scanning-device-disable command,
generation of a scanning-anomaly notification,
storage of a record indicating the scanned-item-identifier event notification was not received, and
commencement of a fraud analysis.

8. A system for detecting scanning anomalies, the system comprising:
a scanning device; and
a point-of-sale host device,
wherein the scanning device is configured to:
detect and decode an optical code on an item within a field-of-view of the scanning device;
detect events, including item-entry events, item identifier scan events and item-exit events; and
transmit notifications of detected events to the point-of-sale host device in a same code format as a code format of an item code decoded by the scanning device that is transmitted to the scanning device, and wherein the point-of-sale host device is configured to:
receive the event notifications from the scanning device, including item-entry event notifications, scanned-item-identifier event notifications and item-exit event notifications, and
initiate anomaly detection actions responsive to the received event notifications.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein at least one of the item-entry event notification, the scanned-item-identifier event notification and the item-exit event notification comprises a code that is indicative of the corresponding event.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the point-of-sale host device further is configured to transmit scanning-device-enable commands and scanning-device-disable commands to the scanning device.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the anomaly-detection actions include one or more of transmission of a scanning-device-enable command, transmission of a scanning-device-disable command, commencement of video recording, cessation of video recording, generation of a scanning-anomaly notification, storage of a record indicating that a scanned-item-identifier event notification was not received, and commencement of a fraud analysis.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the scanning device includes a camera, and wherein the scanning device is configured to detect an item-entry event responsive to detecting an item has entered a field-of-view of the camera and to detect an item-exit event responsive to detecting the item has exited the field-of-view of the camera.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the point of sale host device is configured to control operation of the scanning device according to the second anomaly-detection actions based on the second event notification.

14. A method for detecting scanning anomalies, the method comprising:
capturing image data from a camera of a scanning device;
detecting entry of an item into a scan volume of the camera responsive to analyzing the image data;
transmitting an item-entry event notification including a first event code from the scanning device to a point-of-sale (POS) host device;
transmitting an item code to the POS host device if the item is identified from observable indicia associated with the item while analyzing the image data;
detecting exit of the item from the scan volume of the camera responsive to analyzing the image data; and
transmitting an item-exit event notification including a second event code from the scanning device to the POS host device, wherein the item code, the first event code, and the second event code are each unique codes of a same code format.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein transmitting the item-exit event notification is subsequent to transmitting the item-entry event notification and without transmitting any intervening event notifications.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the second event code is a different code depending on whether or not the item was identified prior to detecting the item exiting the scan volume of the camera of the scanning device.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
the scanning device entering a wait state in which decoding is disabled; and
the scanning device exiting the wait state and enabling decoding responsive to receiving an enable command from the POS host device.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein entering the wait state is responsive to detecting exit of the item from the scan volume without first identifying the item from the observable indicia.

Assignees

• Datalogic Usa Inc

Inventors

• Guess Alan
• Tam Moses

Classifications

• G06V20/52

  Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects (recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69) · CPC title

• G07G1/0054

  with control of supplementary check-parameters, e.g. weight or number of articles · CPC title

• G06K7/10128 Primary

  the step consisting of detection of the presence of one or more record carriers in the vicinity of the interrogation device · CPC title

• G06F9/542

  Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications · CPC title

• G06Q20/208

  Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing · CPC title