Patent ID: 8113427

Claim:
A product identification unit comprising: a terahertz optical radiation source operative to optically illuminate an area of interest with optical terahertz frequency radiation during a purchase transaction at a point of sale (POS) transaction terminal; a terahertz optical radiation detector operative to detect the illuminated optical terahertz radiation reflected from an object within the area of interest resulting from the optical illumination by the terahertz optical radiation source and operative to generate a detector signal based on the detected optical radiation during the purchase transaction; and a processor operative to receive a command to identify the object within the area of interest, to operate the terahertz optical radiation source and the terahertz optical radiation detector in response to the command, to process information represented by the detector signal to generate indicia, based on the optical characteristics of the object within the area of interest, wherein the indicia comprises spectral information, to compare the generated indicia to stored reference indicia of products offered for sale in a product identification database, and to send a candidate product to the POS transaction terminal for entry into the purchase transaction, wherein the candidate product is determined to optically correspond to the object of interest, and wherein the processor is operative to complete the purchase transaction at the POS transaction terminal, the purchase transaction comprising at least the object of interest.