Smart Cart Using Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Nowadays large grocery stores are used by millions of people for the acquisition of an enlarging number of products. Product acquisition represents a complex process that comprises time spent in corridors, product location and checkout queues. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly difficult for retailers to keep their clients loyal and to predict their needs due to the influence of competition and the lack of tools that discriminate consumption patterns. Purchasing and shopping at big malls is becoming a daily activity in metro cities. We can see huge rush at malls on holidays and weekends, the rush is even more when there are special offers and discount. People purchase different items and put them in trolley, after the total purchase one needs to go to the billing counter for payments. At the billing counter the cashier prepares the bill using bar code reader which is a time-consuming process and results in long queues at billing counters. This project aims at developing a system that can be used in shopping malls to solve the above-mentioned challenge. The system will be placed in all the trolleys with a RFID reader. All the products in the mall will be equipped with RFID tags. When a person puts any product in the trolley, its code will be detected and the price of those products will be stored in memory. As we put the products, the costs will get added to total bill. Thus, the billing will be done in the trolley itself. Item name and its cost will be displayed on LCD SCREEN. Also, the products name and its total cost can be calculated. At the billing counter the total bill data will be transferred to the main server by ZigBee Modules. In this project it presents the proposal of an architecture and solution of an innovative system for the acquisition of products in grocery stores (Smart Cart). The Smart Cart explores emerging mobile technologies and automatic identification technologies (such as RFID) as a way to improve the quality of services provided by retailers and to augment the consumer value thus allowing to save time and money.