MUMBAI, India, Oct. 5 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (202641115362 A) filed by Sri Eshwar College Of Engineering on September 24, 2026, for Rfid-Based Smart Shopping Cart System For Real-Time Product Identification, Billing And Expiry Monitoring.
Inventors include Dr P Anbarasu; Raj Thilak K; Harshini T; and Kirubhakaran V.
The application for the patent was published on October 02, 2026, under issue no. 40/2026.
Abstract: In the retail sector, intelligent systems are becoming more popular to minimize waiting time for customers, enhance billing accuracy and provide a better shopping experience. Shopping systems are usually based on the traditional scanning of barcodes and centralized billing in a payment counter that can involve queues and too much reliance on manual procedures, errors in billing, and longer payment times, especially at peak hours. To overcome these drawbacks, a smart cart equipped with RFID technology for the hassle-free shopping and instant billing is proposed to be an embedded retail automation system for real-time identification of product, automatic billing, expiry-date monitoring and electronic bill transmission. The proposed Smart Cart consists of a trolley mounted control unit, Arduino UNO microcontroller, MFRC522 RFID reader, 20×4 LCD display for I2C communication, HC-05 Bluetooth communication module, user input push button and LED indicators and buzzer. A unique identification number (UID) is assigned to each participating product, which is attached to the product. The RFID reader identifies the UID and sends the identification data to the control unit when the customer tags a product to the cart or removes it from the cart. The control unit accesses the associated product information in a locally stored product database, including a product name, unit price and expiry date. The system automatically adjusts the amount of products, the individual price, and the total amount of bills, according to the detected transaction and shows the respective information to the customer instantly. The Smart Cart also features an expiry date monitoring functionality, which gives the right information about the approaching expiry date of the product on time. The control unit compares the date stored in memory with the current date to check if a product is in a preprogrammed expiry warning time and displays an alarm light and/or alarm sound, such as a flashing red LED and LCD warning message. The buzzer gives audible indications corresponding to the system operations and dedicated push buttons are provided for user interaction, such as product removal, transaction reset & finalisation. Once consumer is done shopping, the process can be completed by performing a reset/checkout operation, which produces a digital bill with the details of the products that were purchased and the total amount to be paid. The bill is sent wirelessly to a terminal paired with the HC-05 module and/or to a compatible mobile phone, allowing for paperless billing without an ongoing Internet connection. The system can also provide local transaction storage to work offline and synced later. The prototype developed proves it is possible to combine RFID product identification, real-time billing, product expiration control, user interaction and wireless bill transmission in one smart shopping cart. Results of the experimental studies show that the proposed system is scalable, cost effective, and practical for the automated smart retail environment for reliable RFID transaction processing, accurate billing update and dependable wireless bill transmission.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
