Patent ID: 8452660

Claim:
A self-checkout security system for verifying a total weight of a plurality of items in a container, comprising: a weighing unit that measures the total weight of the plurality of the items in the container; a memory storing a list of identification data, including at least a first set of identification data respectively associated with corresponding ones of a first set of items in the container; a storage unit that stores weight data associated with the first set of identification data; and a processing unit communicatively coupled with the weighing unit and the storage unit to compare a predicted weight of the plurality of the items identified in the list to the total weight of the plurality of items in the container, wherein the processing unit is configured to process each of the identification data from the list including: receive from the storage unit the weight data associated with the first set of identification data; compute a mean and a standard deviation for the weight data associated with the first set of identification data; reject from the weight data associated with the first set of identification data, weight data that is more than the computed standard deviation from the computed mean; compute a first predicted weight associated with the first set of identification data as the mean of the weight data associated with the first set of identification data excluding the rejected weight data; compute a second predicted weight associated with at least a corresponding one of a second set of items in the container not having weight data in the storage unit, using a negligible weight as a weight for the at least a corresponding one of the second set of items in the container; compute the predicted weight of the plurality of the items in the container as a sum of the computed first and second predicted weights; comparing the computed predicted weight and the total weight and providing a signal responsive to the comparing; and an indicator coupled to the processing unit so as to be responsive to the signal.