1. A battery-free wireless optical mouse, which generally comprises a wireless optical mouse and a mouse pad, includes the following features: the wireless optical mouse is equipped with a mouse electromagnetic coil, a coupler, a circuit rectifier, a circuit voltage stabilizer, a mouse controller, an photo sensing displacement data generator, a circuit modulator, a roller signal generator and a keystroke. The mouse pad is provided with a main electromagnetic coil, an oscillator, a drive, a coupler, a demodulator, a band-pass filter (BPF), a comparator, an electronic switch, an automatic controller and mouse data processor, of which the mouse electromagnetic coil’s coupler obtains electric energy from main electromagnetic coil. After being rectified by circuit rectifier and regulated by voltage stabilizer, the electric energy can achieve the power supply required for the operation of wireless optical mouse. Also, when main electromagnetic coil is coupled to the wireless optical mouse, the operating and status information shall be encoded by mouse controller and then transmitted by means of electromagnetic induction after modulation or load modulation by circuit modulator. The data shall be output to the mouse data processor via demodulator, band-pass filter (BPF) and comparator, then decoded and transmitted to the computer after being converted into the format required by the computer.
2. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, which will send out status information during operation, whereby the mouse data processor can control the electromagnetic energy output by main electromagnetic coil.
3. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, if the mouse data processor has not received data from wireless optical mouse after a preset time limit, the main electromagnetic coil will be controlled to output a preset minimum electromagnetic energy.
4. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, The mouse pad includes a display unit for the operating status of wireless optical mouse.
5. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 4, the display unit of mouse pad is a LED.
6. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, the oscillation frequency of circuit oscillator within the mouse pad can be replaced by the output of mouse data converter.
7. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, the mouse data processor is either a microprocessor incorporating computers data transmission interface or a tailor-made integrated circuit.
8. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, the electronic switch is applied for onoff of oscillator.
9. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 8, the electronic switch’s oscillation frequency is output or otherwise not output by a mouse data converter.
10. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, the mouse pad includes a keystroke used for wake-up or sleep and wake-up of the mouse pad.
11. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, compatible with USB or PS2 interface for the data transmission interface of the mouse data processor, the power supply of mouse pad can be achieved from USB or PS2.
12. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, in addition to power supply accessible from USB or PS2, the mouse pad can also be equipped with a power socket or an external power supply for necessary electric energy.
13. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, the automatic controller is applied to limit the max. output electromagnetic energy of main electromagnetic coil.
14. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, the mouse pad and its main electromagnetic coil can be separated from the electronic unit of mouse pad.
15. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 2 or 3, where either analog or digital mode is used to control the output electromagnetic energy of main electromagnetic coil.
16. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 15, the digital is suitable for pulse width modulation.
17. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 15, the digital is suitable for frequency modulation.
18. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 15, the digital is suitable for variable-frequency pulse width modulation.
19. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, the mouse controller can transmit preset data within every preset time limit during its operation.
20. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, the main electromagnetic coil is equipped with an adjustable inductor for control of its output energy.
21. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, the wireless optical mouse is also equipped with a low-voltage reset unit, which is used to detect the power supplyvoltage level, reset the mouse controller and photo sensing displacement signal generator. Alternatively, it can firstly reset the mouse controller, which, then, reset the photo sensing displacement signal generator.
22. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 21, the low-voltage reset unit can be applied to reset the mouse controller and photo sensing displacement unit as a two-section low-voltage reset unit.
23. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 1, the wireless optical mouse is provided with an over voltage current distributor, which is used to distribute the current from the over voltage energy circuit.
24. A battery-free wireless optical mouse generally comprises a wireless optical mouse and a mouse pad with its major features below: the wireless optical mouse is equipped with a mouse electromagnetic coil, and the mouse pad with a main electromagnetic coil, of which electromagnetic coil’s electromagnetic coupler obtains electric energy from main electromagnetic coil. The wireless optical mouse is also provided with an over voltage circuit distributor, which is used to distribute the over voltage current from the energy circuit.
25. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 24, the over voltage circuit distributor is a Zener diode.
26. A battery-free wireless optical mouse generally comprises a wireless optical mouse and a mouse pad with its major features below: the wireless optical mouse is equipped with a mouse electromagnetic coil, and the mouse pad with a main electromagnetic coil, of which electromagnetic coil’s electromagnetic coupler obtains electric energy from main electromagnetic coil. The mouse pad is provided with a voltage control oscillation frequency VCO to control the energy output of main electromagnetic coil.
27. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 26, a feedback mode is applied to the control of energy output of main electromagnetic coil.
28. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 26, the mouse pad is also provided with a phase comparator, which is used to determine the phase difference of main electromagnetic coil and oscillator so as to control the energy output of main electromagnetic coil.
29. A battery-free wireless optical mouse generally comprises a wireless optical mouse and a mouse pad with its major features below: the wireless optical mouse is equipped with a mouse electromagnetic coil, and the mouse pad with a main electromagnetic coil, of which electromagnetic coil’s electromagnetic coupler obtains electric energy from main electromagnetic coil. The mouse pad consists of an oscillator, which is provided with an integral frequency eliminator to control the energy output of main electromagnetic coil. And, the frequency of oscillator is several times of the resonance frequency of main electromagnetic coil.
30. A battery-free wireless optical mouse generally comprises a wireless optical mouse and a mouse pad with its major features below: the wireless optical mouse is equipped with a mouse electromagnetic coil, and the mouse pad with a main electromagnetic coil, of which electromagnetic coil’s electromagnetic coupler obtains electric energy from main electromagnetic coil. The wireless optical mouse is equipped with a detector and controller for the energy output of main electromagnetic coil.
31. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 30, the detector for the energy output of main electromagnetic coil serves as a resistor unit to detect the output current of main electromagnetic coil.
32. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 30, the mouse pad is also equipped with a data processor, which is used to control the energy output of main electromagnetic coil.
33. A battery-free wireless optical mouse as defined in claim 30, the controller for the energy output of main electromagnetic coil comprises an oscillator and a set of resistor and capacitor for control of the oscillator.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of inhibiting article theft at a location employing at least one self-checkout station and an antitheft security system, each article carrying at least one antitheft security label, said method comprising:
reading identification information from an article;
sensing at least one physical parameter of said article;
retrieving article parameter information from at least one database based on said read identification information;
comparing the sensed at least one physical parameter with the retrieved article parameter information; and
deactivating each antitheft security label carried by the article if the sensed at least one physical parameter generally corresponds with said article parameter information.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the antitheft security label is deactivated if the sensed at least one physical parameter does not deviate from the retrieved article parameter information by more than a threshold amount.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein said threshold amount is a function of the article type.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein during said sensing, at least one of weight, thickness and shape of the article is sensed.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein said reading comprises reading at least one identification label on said article for said identification information.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein during said reading, at least one of a barcode label and a radio frequency identification (RFID) label on said article is read for said identification information.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein during said reading, both a barcode label and an RFID label on said article are read for said identification information.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the identification information read from said barcode label and said RFID label is compared to detect coincidence prior to said retrieving, and wherein said retrieving, comparing and deactivating is performed only upon coincide of the identification information read from said barcode label and said RFID label.
9. The method of claim 1 further comprising, if article parameter information for the article does not exist in the at least one database, storing the sensed at least one physical parameter in the at least one database as the article parameter information and performing said deactivating.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein during said sensing, at least one of weight, thickness and shape of the article is sensed.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein said reading comprises reading at least one identification label on said article for said identification information.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein during said reading, at least one of a barcode label and a radio frequency identification (RFID) label on said article is read for said identification information.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein during said reading, both a barcode label and an RFID label on said article are read for said identification information.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the identification information read from said barcode label and said RFID label is compared to detect coincidence prior to said retrieving, and wherein said retrieving, comparing and deactivating is performed only upon coincidence of the identification information read from said barcode label and said RFID label.
15. The method of claim 1 wherein during said comparing, if the sensed at least one physical parameter does not generally correspond with the article parameter information, determining if the deviation is the result of a likely error in the article parameter information and if so, performing said deactivating.
16. The method of claim 15 further comprising updating the article parameter information using the sensed at least one physical parameter when the deviation is the result of a likely error.
17. The method of claim 15 further comprising recording a suspicious transaction event.
18. The method of claim 17 further comprising, if article parameter information for the article does not exist in the at least one database, storing the sensed at least one physical parameter in the at least one database as the article parameter information and performing said deactivating.
19. The method of claim 18 wherein during said sensing, at least one of weight, thickness and shape of the article is sensed.
20. The method of claim 19 wherein said reading comprises reading at least one identification label on said article for said identification information.
21. The method of claim 20 wherein during said reading, at least one of a barcode label and a radio frequency identification (RFID) label on said article is read for said identification information.
22. The method of claim 21 wherein during said reading, both a barcode label and an RFID label on said article are read for said identification information.
23. The method of claim 22 wherein the identification information read from said barcode label and said RFID label is compared to detect coincidence, prior to said retrieving, and wherein said retrieving, comparing and deactivating is performed only upon coincidence of the identification information read from said barcode label and said RFID label.
24. A self-checkout system comprising:
at least one reader for reading information from an article;
at least one sensor for sensing at least one physical parameter of said article;
processing structure communicating with said at least one reader and said at least one sensor and comparing the sensed at least one physical parameter with article parameter information read from at least one database; and
an antitheft security label deactivator for deactivating an antitheft security label carried by the article when the sensed at least one physical parameter generally corresponds to said article parameter information.
25. The self-checkout system of claim 24 wherein said at least one reader comprises at least one of a barcode label reader, a radio frequency identification (RFID) label reader and an optical character recognition (OCR) reader.
26. The self-checkout system of claim 25 wherein said article is a library asset.
27. The self-checkout system of claim 24 wherein said antitheft security label deactivator is conditioned to deactivate the antitheft security label carried by the article when the sensed at least one physical parameter does not deviate from the retrieved article parameter information by more than a threshold amount.
28. The self-checkout system of claim 24 wherein said at least one sensor senses one of article thickness, weight and shape.
29. The self-checkout system of claim 24 wherein said at least one reader reads at least one identification label on said article.
30. The self-checkout system of claim 29 wherein at least one reader reads at least one of a barcode label and a radio frequency identification (RFID) label on said article.
31. The self-checkout system of claim 24 wherein if article parameter information for the article does not exist in the at least one database, said processing structure stores the sensed at least one physical parameter in the at least one database as the article parameter information.
32. The self-checkout system of claim 24 wherein if the sensed at least one physical parameter does not generally correspond with the article parameter information, the processing structure determines if the deviation is the result of a likely error in the article parameter information.
33. The self-checkout system of claim 32 wherein the processing structure also records a suspicious transaction event.
34. A computer readable medium embodying a computer program, said computer program comprising:
computer program code for causing a reader to read identification information from an article;
computer program code for causing a sensor to sense at least one physical parameter of said article;
computer program code for retrieving article parameter information from at least one database based on said read identification information;
computer program code for comparing the sensed at least one physical parameter with the retrieved article parameter information; and
computer program code for causing a deactivator to deactivate each antitheft security label carried by the article if the sensed at least one physical parameter generally corresponds with said article parameter information.