Patent ID: 8584805

Claim:
A method of determining a recommendation for packing an item at a point of sale, said method comprising: a computer at said point of sale receiving a preference that indicates a maximum weight of one or more items to be packed in a bag of a plurality of bags; said computer determining a weight of said item, said item included in a plurality of items to be purchased by a customer; based on said preference that indicates said maximum weight and based on said determined weight of said item, said computer determining said recommendation for packing said item by selecting said bag from said plurality of bags so that a sum of said weight of said item and a weight of zero or more other items packed in said bag does not exceed said maximum weight indicated by said received preference; said computer presenting said recommendation for packing said item in said selected bag; said computer pre-scanning one or more barcodes affixed to a first set of one or more items of said plurality of items to be purchased by said customer, wherein said pre-scanning is performed prior to a scanning of said one or more barcodes affixed to said first set of one or more items to determine an amount to pay for said first set of one or more items, and wherein said computer is included in a point of sale device that is in a fixed position; said computer determining a first set of one or more weights of said first set of one or more items based on said pre-scanned one or more barcodes; said computer attempting and failing to pre-scan one or more barcodes affixed to a second set of one or more items of said plurality of items, wherein said first and second sets of one or more items are mutually exclusive, wherein said attempting and failing to pre-scan is performed prior to a scanning of said one or more barcodes affixed to said second set of one or more items to determine an amount to pay for said second set of one or more items; said computer generating an image that includes said second set of one or more items of said plurality of items; said computer performing object recognition on said generated image to determine a second set of one or more weights of said second set of one or more items of said plurality of items, wherein said weight of said item is included in said first set of one or more weights or said second set of one or more weights; and said computer selecting said item from said plurality of items as a next item to be packed based on said determined weight of said item and based on said determined first and second sets of one or more weights.