The smart shopping cart

Since the inception of wireless technology, E-commerce has been elevated to such heights that it can now provide convenience, comfort, and efficiency in day-to-day life. The most important purpose of this project is to provide centralized and automated billing system using RFID. Every product at sup

Project Title

The smart shopping cart

Project Area of Specialization

Internet of Things

Project Summary

Since the inception of wireless technology, E-commerce has been elevated to such heights that it can now provide convenience, comfort, and efficiency in day-to-day life. The most important purpose of this project is to provide centralized and automated billing system using RFID. Every product at super markets and shopping malls will be given (attached) with an RFID tag, to identify it the product. Each cart will have its own PID (Product Identification Device). PID major and important parts are a microcontroller and an RFID reader. We need a dataset where the data set of products of that particular supermarket will be kept. This development in manufacturing technology actually enhances the practical approach for new applications. The RFID technology growth is making an impact on many industries. The dataset will give product information. The products present on the shopping cart will be displayed on the LCD screen, which will help the customer in buying products. The LCD can display numbers, characters, and graphics. LCD also shows the current bill.

Project Objectives

In metropolitan cities we can see huge rush at shopping malls especially on holidays and weekends. This rush in supermarkets and malls gets even more when there are huge offers and discounts for example black Friday. Customers purchase many items, put them in the shopping trolley and when they are done with purchasing they have to approach the counters for billing purpose. On these billing counters the cashier prepares the bill using barcode readers, which is consuming a lots of time and the process is not automated. Work force is required at counters. This process causes customers to stand in long queues that takes most of the time. While shopping most consumers often face different problems like they worry if the amount of money they have brought is not sufficient, incomplete information of the items price and total shopping amount. As the technology is progressing, daily work experiences have been improved significantly, Caused by the emergence of labor saving and intelligent utilities. Still the shopping carts in major stores have changed a very little. The only thing they are used for is to carry different items. The development of new technologies like RFID technology have open many fields where such technologies can be applicable for automation and making a better and time saving systems. RFID technology is becoming advance so rapidly and also the creation of RFID tags is increasing. The size of devices is reducing and becoming easy to handle. On the other hand we have seen a decrement in prices the prices of this technology. So it is one of major purpose of this project to utilize such a clean and effective technology so that it could create easy in human life.

Project Implementation Method

The flow of process starts from obtaining id of RFID and using the RFID reader the identification number will be manipulated and the information of that particular product will be obtained. Using that information the bill calculation and the list of items will be displayed on the screen. When further items will be added and removed the new total will be calculated and the new list will be displayed. The shopping details will be sent to the administration as well. The smart shopping cart can be divided into four parts: 1) RFID Reader and Tag. 2) Processing 3) Data set 4) User interface The existing data set of the store will be connected to the carts in a supermarkets in order to retrieve the required data. The GUI developed for the touch screen LCD will be the users interface. Whenever user will execute any functions though the GUI the user will be able to communicate with the system. The hardware interface includes the interfacing of the LCD, RFID reader and central billing unit at the central hardware component which raspberry pi. The required memory for a cart will be provided within it. As mentioned before the major operations are add item to the cart memory, removing any item and sending a request for bill. There can be many number of user using this system at a time. The immediate stack holders include the customer and administration body.

Benefits of the Project

The development in technology is an ongoing process. New technologies are being invented and innovated. Such an emerging technology will be used in superstores to assist customers that will save a lots of time. RFID technology is being used for the item detection and identification. We are actually implementing and initiating an automated billing system for superstoresmalls. Now this, system resolves the hectic in traditional shopping system. Customers will not be waiting on for bill calculation because whatever their shopping statusdetails they have after purchasing items will be transferred to CBU as shopping information of particular cart in a particular time and date. The billing procedure will be much better, faster and much simpler. Beside these functionalities it performs, this system assures safety and provides a channel to recognize cases of theft. This system is reliable and helping. It will eventually improve the shopping standards and will give a better experience to the customers. The product details e.g. cost of item and name will be displayed on the touch screen embedded on the cart. So it is no more a doubt that automatic billing using smart shopping cart using RFID is feasible choice in the years ahead. The functionalities proposed are completed in the current product model developed. Smart cart is a product that can be developed on a lower cost with passing time. The product can be elevated and improved. The cart can be made smarter that even it will be having the ability to decide in an efficient manner. The smart shopping cart itself can be trained in such a way using AI that it could find easy and efficient shopping methodology, which eventually will help customer to manage time and money. The cart is tested in different trial cases using number of unique tags. RFID Tags attached to the products are water sensitive so cautions must be made to avoid any problems.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The MFRC522 RFID module is based on the MFRC522 IC, a highly integrated read-write 13.56 MHz contactless RFID communication chip that allows you to easily add RFID communication capabilities. The reader extracts binary bits from an RFID card/tag using RF waves hence no wires are needed between the reader and the tag/card. The way the tag sends the data back is di?erent on di?erent types of tag, but the main way is transmitting the data back to the reader on a di?erent frequency. The reader sends out a radio signal, and the tag picks it up using the power in that radio signal to activate a microchip. The microchip then sends back a number of pulses to the reader, which is interpreted as a number. The Raspberry Pi Touch Display is a 7” LCD display which connects to the Raspberry Pi through the DSI connector. It serves as the main interface in our system through which the user is able to see item details and be able to checkout, cancel shopping as displayed in the GUI.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Type of Industry

Food , Others

Technologies

Internet of Things (IoT)

Sustainable Development Goals

Decent Work and Economic Growth

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com