Patent ID: 8292169

Claim:
A cart for moving items within a facility and for use with a database of information associated with the items, each of the items having an item weight to be determined and a unique identification tag, the cart comprising: (a) a mobile carriage assembly adapted to carry and move the items; (b) an onboard scale adapted to measure a cumulative weight of the items carried by the mobile carriage assembly; (c) an identification reader adapted to read the identification tag of one of the items; and (d) one or more processors adapted to automatically determine the item weight of said one of the items: (i) by a change in the cumulative weight after said one of the items is transferred to the mobile carriage assembly; and (ii) by a change in the cumulative weight after said one of the items is transferred from the mobile carriage assembly; and wherein the item weight, determined as aforesaid, is transmitted for storage in the database in association with said one of the items; and wherein attributes for additional charges to the customer are recovered when the item weight, determined as aforesaid, is greater than any said item weight previously stored in the database in association with said one of the items.