Patent ID: 7672871

Claim:
A customer self-checkout system for processing article purchases of articles, the system comprising: a self-checkout station comprising: an input device configured to receive product code input designating an article for purchase; a deactivation device configured to produce a deactivation region effecting deactivation of a security tag attached to the article for purchase; a sensor for sensing the presence of the article within the deactivation region; a database system coupled to the self-checkout station and comprising stored data identifying articles having attached security tags and articles not having attached security tags; a processor configured to receive product code input from the input device and to query the database to determine whether the article designated by said received product code input has an attached security tag; a prompting system configured to present a deactivation prompt to direct a user to position the article for purchase within the deactivation region to effect the security tag deactivation, wherein the prompting system is configured to present the deactivation prompt after the receipt of the product code by the input device and prior to deactivation of the article; and wherein the prompting system is configured to present the deactivation prompt when the article has an attached security tag and to (i) not present the deactivation prompt and (ii) present a prompt to ignore the deactivation area, when the article does not have an attached security tag.