WO2004072762A2

WO2004072762A2 - Product or service selection system

Info

Publication number: WO2004072762A2
Application number: PCT/GB2004/000615
Authority: WO
Inventors: Timothy Hankins; Richard Oke
Original assignee: Information Core Technologies, Limited
Priority date: 2003-02-17
Filing date: 2004-02-17
Publication date: 2004-08-26
Also published as: WO2004072762A3; JP2006518070A; KR20050106440A

Abstract

A selection system and method for advising a user whether or not to select a product or service is disclosed. A processing unit comprises a product or service database including product and/or service data relating to a plurality of products and/or services, selection means for selecting a particular product or service listed in the database and remote user means operable by a user for identifying a product or service and for indicating to the user the suitability of the product or service on the basis of one or more predetermined user preferences. The user means includes an electronic device operable to communicate with the processing unit over a wireless telephony system.

Description

PRODUCT OR SERVICE SELECTION SYSTEM

The present invention relates to a product or service selection system for use, for example, in supermarkets, museums, libraries, visitor attractions, shops and the like.

Supermarket customers are today presented with an enormous range of different food products. For many of the products on sale, such as fresh vegetables, fish, and meat, the content and nature of the food is obvious and easy to identify. If a person is allergic or simply wishes to avoid these types of foods, this can be done easily.

Many food producers now include a nutritional information table on the packaging, in anticipation of a legal requirement or for commercial reasons. All the tables contain four basic items of information. The first is normally the number of calories in each lOOg portion, followed by the amount of fat, the amount of protein and the amount of carbohydrate. Since each figure is provided in grams per lOOg portion, the customer can compare the figures directly with other products. The nutritional information provided can then be used by customers to count the calories they are buying for dieting or for medical conditions, and/or reduce their intake of individual items such as saturated fat or salt.

Systems are known for informing a user of the ingredient content of a product. However, prior art systems are either limited in their use by being limited to the information given to the user or may be expensive, bulky or impractical due to the amount of memory space required to store information on many products.

US-A-5478989 discloses a system for generating personalised nutritional information which includes means for inputting personal data relating to an individual, a barcode reader for inputting data identifying at least one food product, a processor for correlating the personal data with prestored nutritional data pertinent to the food product, and means for outputting information to the person based on the correlation. The prestored nutritional data may include information relating to allergy warnings, pesticide levels and the names of individual stores which carry the foods. US-A-4780599 discloses the use of a hand-held barcode reading device to retrieve product information for users. FR-A-2702583 discloses the use of a hand-held barcode reader which is used to make purchasing decisions based on the price of selected products.

WO-97/46960 discloses an improvement over these prior art systems by the applicant of the present application.

Over the years, the applicant has further developed this technology and the concepts underlying the technology, as described in European patent application number 97921934.2 and 01300195.3, British patent numbers 2,313,940 and 2,313,941, and United States patent number 6,375,077, to name just a few.

The subject matter disclosed in the present application represents further improvements to the technology developed by the applicant which can provide substantial benefits with respect to the prior art.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a selection system for advising a user whether or not to select a product or service, including a processing unit comprising a product or service database including product and/or service data relating to a plurality of products and/or services, selection means for selecting a particular product or service listed in the database and remote user means operable by a user for identifying a product or service and for indicating to the user the suitability of the product or service on the basis of one or more predetermined user preferences, wherein the user means includes an electronic device operable to communicate with a processing unit over a wireless telephony system.

In the preferred embodiment, the remote user means includes a mobile telephone or telephone/modem equipped device, such as a personal digital assistant. Preferably, the communication channel used to communicate between the processing unit and the remote user means is a cellular telephone network.

As is described in the specification, the use of a mobile telephone or other device which can communicate over a mobile telephony network provides significant benefits to a system of this type. For example, it is not necessary for a product or service provider (such as a shop, museum and so on) to have and lend remote user means to users. Users can simply use their standard mobile telephones, set up in the manner described herein. Furthermore, use of a mobile telephone for such an application removes the spatial restrictions previously imposed by such systems, typically within the shop (or other premises of the supplying entity in question). For example, the user is at liberty to use the service outside the premises, if desired.

Furthermore, the use of such remote user means enables the product service selection system to be separated from the product or service provider. For example, since the system can use a device which a user would normally have (such as a mobile telephone) the selection service can be provided by a third party unconnected with a particular product or service supplier. This has the advantage that control over the product and service databases can be removed from product and service providers and, for example, kept in the hands of a trusted third party. It also has the benefit of allowing a common entity to provide the selection service for a plurality of different service and/or product providers, for example for a plurality of different shops, such that the user can make use of his/her mobile telephone or other device in a plurality of different shops and/or other environments such as museums and the like.

This improvement also enables the selection service to be more easily personalised for the particular user or users. For example, as described below, one embodiment envisages using a common mobile telephone for a plurality of people (typically members of the same family). These people may have different needs and/or lifestyle choices. The remote user means could be used by those members individually or collectively so as to ensure that products or services selected are suitable for all members of the group or at least some of them, as desired by them.

In addition, the fact that the remote user means can include a device which can be owned by the user enables the user to use the selection service not just in a location chosen or dictated by the product or service provider but at the user's own point of choice. For example, a user wishing to make a shopping list of food products to buy, can determine at home what to add to that shopping list on the basis of the information provided by the selection service as to the suitability of certain products which the user already has at home.

In the preferred embodiment, the remote user means includes a data entry device operable to enter into the telephone or other unit the identification of the product or service in question, in the preferred embodiment this being a barcode reader suitably connected to the user's telephone. As an alternative, or in addition to, the barcode reader, a radio frequency ID (RFID) tag reader may be connected to the user's telephone for use in stores or areas using RFID technology. The connection may be a physical connection or any other connection such as a wireless connection including infra red, Bluetooth™ and the like.

Communication from the telephone or other unit to the processing unit could be via the voice line, via SMS, via WAP or through the Internet.

It is envisaged in some embodiments that there will be provided means for locating the user's telephone or other communication device, for example with GPS, GPRS or location systems already in existence or contemplated using the mobile telephony signals in cellular networks. This has the advantage of being able to determine the location of the user not only to assist the user in finding products or services in question but also in determining user movement to assist the user and inform the user of other products or services which may be of interest. Examples are described in detail below.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for advising a user whether to select a product or service comprising the steps of: entering data identifying the product or service into a user device; transmitting the data to a remote system using a wireless telephony system; cross-referencing the data at the remote system with a database of products and/or services to obtain attributes associated with the product or service; comparing the attributes with one or more predetermined user preferences; and, transmitting results of the comparison to the user device for output to the user.

The following description is directed to the selection and purchase of food products. However, the system could be used for many other applications, including, for example, directing users around a museum, gallery, library, any shop and so on, on the basis of predetermined user interests.

There are customers who wish to buy certain types of foods, but they may avoid the food product altogether for political or lifestyle reasons, simply because information on the product is not readily available to them at the point of selection. Examples of types of customers interests, amongst others, are:-

• Chemically treated produce,

• The number of miles the food has travelled, • The politics of the country of origin,

• The use of child labour,

• Blacklisted companies,

• Foods avoided for religious reasons,

• Public health warnings, such as recent concerns over eggs and British beef, • Special offers

• Foods or Products regularly purchased or selected on previous visits.

In addition to these basic types of foods, there is an ever increasing number of processed and treated foods which are available today, where it is difficult for customers to identify quickly any individual concerns they may have over a product. This may be due to the fact that the information is simply not on the packaging, or it is listed by an unfamiliar name.

Food producers are obliged by law to list the ingredients of a packaged food product on the packaging of the product in descending order of weight. Since there are presently no legal requirements to list the amount of any ingredient in a product, it is difficult for people who restrict their consumption of certain ingredients to purchase these foods with any confidence. Moreover, there is no legal requirement for listing ingredients for alcoholic beverages (wine, beer etc.) which can also contain colourings and preservatives. Food additives are referred to by their E number or by chemical or common name, some of which may mean very little to the average customer.

It is also accepted that food producers will use their food packaging to sell the product, and unless there is a commercial or goodwill reason for highlighting a customer concern, such as low calorie foods, organic produce etc., it is unlikely to be placed on the packaging in a prominent position, the text is often in a small character size, and due to the different size and shapes of the packaging, the information may be difficult to find.

Embodiments of the present invention are described below, by way of example only, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an example of hand-held scanner and database;

Figure 2 is a schematic flow chart of a simple version of food product selection system;

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of scheme for generating the product or service profiles;

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of scheme for the creation of customer specific profiles;

Figure 5 is an embodiment of remote user unit;

Figure 6 is a schematic diagram showing access to the selection service via the remote user unit; and

Figure 7 shows the remote user unit of Figure 6 in operation.

The preferred embodiment is described with reference to the selection of food products in a supermarket. However, it will be immediately apparent from the disclosure herein that the system can be used in other applications where a user wishes advice on the basis of his/her preferences or lifestyle. For example, the system could be used in a museum-type environment to provide the visitor with an indication as to whether any particular exhibit would be of interest and even, where desired, with details of that exhibit, preferably tailored to the visitor's given preferences or lifestyle.

The examples of system described below are intended to use machine readable identifiers on food products and the like in order to determine predefined ingredients of the food products on a shop shelf and other aspects of the products, such as origin, method of manufacture and the like. The system is ideal for use by customers and organisations interested in identifying calorific values, potential allergic reaction, diabetic problems, other preferences based on lifestyle and so on. The preferred embodiments have been primarily designed for use at the point of selection of food products in supermarkets, where customers can find out quickly whether a food product sought to be purchased contains ingredients which may cause harm or which it is wished to avoid for lifestyle or special dietary reasons.

Figures 1 and 2 show an example of scanner system intended for use by a customer in a supermarket or the like. The system is used to determine and warn of chosen ingredients which the user should or should not consume. Details of this example are covered in the applicant's British patent numbers 2,313,940 and 2,313,941 and European patent application numbers EP-A-0,976,075 and EP- A- 1,117,055

Briefly, system 10 shown is designed to operate on the basis of barcodes provided on packaged foods. For this purpose, the system 10 includes a barcode scanner 12, shown only in schematic form, which is able to read the barcodes on food products under the control of a control system (not shown), such as a microprocessor. Since food products are barcoded on the basis of the European Article Numbering System, such as EAN13 and EAN8 or a derivative thereof, the actual product can be identified from the barcode, irrespective of the shop or food manufacturer.

The system 10 is provided with an input unit 14, which may be of any suitable form, such as an alpha/numeric key pad. A display 16 is also provided, which again may be of any suitable form such as a liquid crystal display or equivalent. The display 16 provides data input information and results of the determination of a particular food product.

Additionally or alternatively, the system 10 may include an acoustic indicator such as a loudspeaker or buzzer to inform the user of the results of its determination of a food product. Similarly, instead of displaying the results on a display such as the display 16, the system 10 may be provided with any other suitable visual indicator, such as one or more LEDs.

The system includes a transmitter 18 for transmitting to a central processing unit (described below) the product identifier and a user identification code. The user identification code may either be specific to the user or related to the unit 10 itself. In the first example, the unit 10 may also be provided with means for receiving a user identifier, such as a card reader for reading a user loyalty card or the like or to receive a user code such as a personal identification number (PIN) via the key pad 14. In the second alternative, the user could be registered when collecting the unit 10 such that an identifier specific to the unit 10 can be correlated with the user registered to use that unit.

The central processing system includes a database (not shown) which is accessed on the basis of the barcodes. The database includes, in the preferred embodiment, a description of the product, for assisting the user, and data relating to the ingredients of the food product. The database may include all the ingredients of each product or only those most likely to be of interest to the user, such as those causing known allergies, those not suitable for people with certain illnesses such as diabetes, and those having "unacceptable" calorific value or fat content. The ingredient data could be stored as code designators which are translated into their actual ingredients for versions where the actual ingredients are notified to the user.

The system could also or in the alternative provide for ingredients which the user should consume, for example for dietary reasons. These may, for example, be iron for a user suffering from anaemia.

For either purpose, the system may be set to take into account ingredient quantities rather than just ingredient presence.

The nature and possible content of the database are described in the above-mentioned patent and patent applications, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

An example of method by which the unit of Figure 1 may operate is described below with reference to Figure 2. This is a simple implementation and the reader is referred to the more detailed examples given below and in the above-mentioned patents and patent applications.

In summary, in the method of Figure 2, the central control and processing unit receives the product identifier and second identifier from the handheld unit 10 and from this decodes the barcode, looks up the appropriate database record and transmits back to the unit 10 infonnation for display or acoustic or visual indication, as to whether it is safe or wise for the user to purchase that food product.

The warning given by the system 10 could be a simple yes/no warning or more specific information as to the particular food product, for example quantity of the ingredient in the product. In the embodiment shown in Figure 2 the system 10 is designed to give a simple yes or no indication as to the existence of the ingredient in the food product tested and calorific data.

The system 10 can advise the user of any product containing "unacceptable" ingredients to the user and the system may be capable of printing a hard copy version of all products selected and/or the total calorific value of the products selected.

In the specific example of Figure 2, the user has programmed into the system an allergy to nuts. When the barcode of the food product having barcode 5012345555559 is scanned, the central control and processing unit accesses the database at a location equivalent to barcode 5012345555559, at which the database has ingredient codes A, Q, W and a calorific value for the product of 500 (preferably normalised to a predetermined product quantity). In this example, ingredient code A refers to nuts, so the system transmits to the handheld unit 10 data to display on display 16 the message "Nut Allergy - No Purchase Advised".

It is envisaged that the simple system described above would be used in other applications, for example to warn the user of particular ingredients, nature or origin of a product.

Full details of the preferred system for setting up the product or service database, registering users and accessing and using the selection system are described in the applicant's earlier patents and patent applications mentioned above. Briefly, referring to Figure 3, the selection system provides a product database 20 which includes details of each product (or service) offered by the product or service provider. These details will include not only information as to the contents, of the products but other details relating to the product not related to the product contents such as lifestyle information, details of sponsored campaigns relating a product, as promotions and the like. With respect to lifestyle choices, these can relate to, for example, to whether the product includes genetically modified components, the origin of the product, whether it is obtained or produced under fair trade conditions, whether the supplier actively pursues animal welfare, whether the product is produced organically and so on.

The system also includes a database of these interests and dietary requirements, shown as database 22. A processing unit 24, shown as a start generator, combines the requirements specified and the human interest database 22 with the product database 20 to produce a database of product profiles stored in a database 26. The human interest database automatically generates and maintains a list of interests which apply to each product. The retailer or other selection service provider 28 is able to create and maintain and add value to the product profile stored in the database 26.

Referring to Figure 4, there is shown an example as to how a customer or user can register with the system. Registration can be carried out within a store or at home by remote access by the customer. Referring to Figure 4, the example shown provides the ability to correlate the human interests stored in the system's database 22 with the interests of customers 30, 32, either within the store location as shown at 34 or on-line as shown at 36. The result of this correlation produces a customer profile 38 which in practice would be a selection from the list of human interests stored on the database 22 which apply to those customers 30 and 32. These typically include dietary interests or requirements and also lifestyle choices. The customer profile 38 can, as will be described in further detail below, be personalised to each individual customer 30, 32 so as to produce individual profiles for those customers and also a collective profile, for example when those customers are shopping for food products together. For example, a customer profile could take into account conditions such as a member of the group having high cholesterol and another having an allergy or being diabetic, for example. Figures 5 to 8 show an embodiment of system which makes use of a mobile telephone or other electronic device which is able to communicate over a wireless telecommunication channel, such as a cellular or satellite telephone network. As is explained below, this implementation provides a significant advance over prior art systems which rely upon specific user devices which are part of and supplied as an integral component of the selection system. For example, it becomes no longer necessary for the selection service provider to have to supply many user remote devices, for example to take around a shop, significantly reducing the set-up cost for the service provider. Additionally, it enables a user to use the selection service not just at the point of purchase of the product (that is within a store) but at the user's point of choice. For example, the user could choose to use the selection service at home with products the user already has to determine whether or not those products are suitable according to the user's profile. Moreover, this feature allows a significant increase in the degree of communication between the selection service provider and the user to give significantly more user choices than possible with prior art systems. For example, it is possible by this method for a user to shop through use of the mobile telephone simply by scanning products in the home which it is desired to purchase. This would be achieved by the selection service provider (possibly the store or a trusted third party) storing details of the products scanned for later collection or delivery by or to a user. It also enables the selection service provider or the store to advise the user of changes in product profiles, new products meeting the user's profile, special offers and the like, by communication to the user's telephone or other electronic device.

In addition, this implementation reduces the dependency of the selection service on the product or service provider. For example, in some embodiments described below, the selection service could be provided by a trusted third party and not by the store or other organisation offering the products or services in question. Not only could this be advantageous in itself by providing users with a trusted source of such information but also enabling such a third party to offer the same service in respect of other organisations, for example other stores, all through the same system.

Referring now to Figure 5, the embodiment shown has as the user remote device a mobile telephone 50, of conventional type, to which is connected a barcode reader 52. There is already available a large number of barcode readers specifically for use with mobile telephones, personal digital assistants and other portable electronic devices so the reader 52 can either be owned by the user or provided by the store.

Where the readers 52 provided by the store, for example a supermarket, it is envisaged in one embodiment that this could be built into a cradle attached to a supermarket trolley, for example to a handle portion of the trolley. In this manner, the user need only place the mobile telephone in the cradle to connect the mobile telephone 50 to the barcode readers 2 and thereby to have access to the selection service. In order to scan a product, the user then simply needs to take the product from the shelves and scan it across the reader's light path adjacent the cradle. This embodiment has the benefit of fixing the barcode reader to a large proprietary item of the store and also to protect the reader 52 itself from damage and also to reduce chance of misuse of reader 52 by users.

In an alternative embodiment, the barcode reader 52 provided for the mobile telephone 50 or other device could have a wireless link to the device, for example a Bluetooth™ capability. This would have the advantage of not requiring a plurality of different connectors to suit a plurality of different types of mobile telephone and of increasing the reliability and longevity of the scanner, particularly when this would be used by a plurality of different users.

Data entry relating to a product need not be carried out by a barcode reader as any other suitable form of data entry into the mobile telephone or other electronic device could be used. One embodiment makes use of a mobile telephone with an in-built camera, of which some models are already on the market, to scan the barcode or any other identifier of the product into the memory of the telephone or other device 50. It has been found that cameras already incorporated into some mobile telephones are suitable for this purpose, although in some instances it has been found necessary to provide an additional focusing lens to the camera as a result of the current low resolutions of such cameras. However, it is expected that further developments of these devices will improve their performance.

Where a camera is used to enter data, this could also simply take an image of a product which is compared to data stored in an image database in the selection system to identify the product itself. Communication between the mobile telephone 50 or other electronic device with the main selection system processing unit could be via the conventional communication channel or via the Internet or WAP services.

When a customer registers with the selection service provider, in the manner shown in Figure 4, the system automatically registers the access to the user's telephone or other device, typically using the telephone's access details, including at least one of the telephone number and access codes for that telephone as used by and provided by the telephone service provider. Furthermore, within the memory of the user's telephone or other electronic device, there is stored the access details for the selection service, for example a telephone number, Internet or other address. Where appropriate, the user is then provided with a barcode reader 52 to attach to the telephone 50 in the conventional manner. For this purpose, the telephone 50 is provided with firmware automatically to recognise the user, if this is already not stored within the telephone's memory.

Referring to Figure 6, the embodiment shown makes use of the Internet for communication between the user's telephone 50 and the selection system's data producer and, of course, the user's profile as stored in the profile database 38. Thus, the user selects the website of the selection service provider on his/her telephone 50 (details of which are conveniently stored in the telephone 50). On accessing the website, a session manager 54 of the system checks the access details of the telephone 50 to ensure that they are of a recognised user, before allowing connection to the system's databases.

Once the session manager 54 determines that the phone access details match those of a registered user, the session manager 52 maintains the connection with the mobile telephone 50 for the duration of the session, as requested by the user. The session is terminated when the user terminates communication or otherwise when the communication link is lost.

The system is provided with render software 56 which is able to convert and format data for the different text displays and protocols used for mobile telephones. Of course, as new telephones are launched, the software 56 would be updated for those telephones. The data producer 58 provides the communication link to the databases 20, 22 and 26 of the system.

The data producer 58 is designed to receive the data of a scanned barcode scanned by the customer by means of the barcode scanner 52, to determine the human interests associated with that product, to compare them with the user's stored interests and then to transmit a result to the user's mobile telephone 50 for advice to that customer. In the described embodiment, the system outputs the results to an Internet file for rendering on the telephone 50. The delivery of this data can be achieved in a matter of seconds from reading the barcode.

Figures 7 and 8 show an example as to how this embodiment could be put into practice.

As shown in Figure 7, the example of telephone 50 is provided with a plurality of keys, such as a Yes key, a No key and a Move & Enter key. The user selects the bookmark on the telephone under the WAP services/bookmarks option provided on the telephone 50. This will open a WAP connection to the selection service provider's website. The first step in the connection is to log-in and to create a session for the customer, ready for use. The log-in procedure could make use solely of the telephone access details but could also provide additional security, for example the requirement to enter a pin number of other secret identifier.

The user can terminate the session by depressing the Move button for a certain amount of time and then to confirm this as appropriate.

Once the session has been established, as shown in Figure 8, the customer simply needs to scan the product by placing the reader 52 over the barcode and press a scan button typically provided on the reader 52. After a few seconds, on the display of the telephone 50 there will be produced a messaged based upon the product and the customer's profile, in some embodiments similar to that shown in Figure 2.

The embodiments of system described above can provide a live updateable system enabling users to be informed of new products, changes of ingredients in the products and also product recalls. It also gives the opportunity to promote food products directly to the individual, wherever that individual may be based at any point in time, based upon the lifestyle profiling of that customer, including seasonal campaigns. It can also promote all products to the individual in accordance with the individual's preferences and can deliver electronic vouchers and promotion tokens. It is also possible to assist a user in providing improved family nutrition not only on the basis of products from a single store but upon the basis of all products which that user purchases or selects for purchase for the user's personal use or use by the user's group. Thus, a user can scan in the barcode of any product, irrespective of its source, and the selection system, in particular the session manager, can determine from the selected products whether the totality of products meets the preferences or requirements of all the users. It can also be used to improve meal planning, for example with a calorie-controlled diet. Overall, the system can provide an improved shopping experience.

The use of a mobile telephone or other such device enables the user to place orders remotely for products, which orders can be fulfilled exactly where products are not available the user can be prompted via the mobile telephone 50 to select one or more alternatives, without leaving the selection up to the product supplier and, in situations as occur at present, where the customer does not know about the alternative or missing product or products until delivery of the goods.

Of course, use of a mobile telephone can facilitate collection and delivery of the goods, for example by automatically advising the customer as to delivery times and the like. Furthermore, payment procedures can be substantially facilitated by use, for example, of charge cards or smart card ordering.

In the preferred embodiment, the selection system, through the product profile database 26 and customer profile database 38 and by means of the session manager 54, is designed to forward cache the products meeting the user's profile, for example in a sub-database specific for the user. Access to the database by a user can thus be substantially facilitated by providing processing through only the products relevant to that particular user. Furthermore, such forward caching could be tied in with previous buying patterns, for example to place most commonly purchased products at the top of the database to speed up the data processing.

In the preferred embodiment, the customer cache or sub-database is retained even after disconnection of a session with a customer. In this embodiment, on reconnection, the customer cache is updated with any changes to the product database (and/or customer profile) which have taken place between sessions.

The preferred embodiment also teaches the provision of a set of rules for determining whether or not to advise on the suitability of a product, for example by specifying certain products which must definitely not be selected or purchased and a set of products which could or might not be purchased. This would have the advantage to menu planning, for example.

As mentioned above, it is preferred that the system allows a single mobile telephone 50 or other electronic device to cater for a plurality of individuals, for example all of the members of a family. In this embodiment, it is envisaged that a specific user profile would be set up for each member of the family and that upon initiation of a session with a selection system, the user would be prompted, through the display on the mobile telephone 50, to indicate for which member or members of the family the session is relevant. For example, each member of the family could be given a number, with the user entering the member number or numbers relevant for that particular session. The system could then advise upon the selection of products for each individual or for the group of individuals. For example, it could advise if there are any products which must definitely not be bought (for example which may contain nuts in a case where one of the members has an allergy to nuts), as it could advise on the suitability of products for one or more members of the group even though the products are not entirely suitable for other members of that group.

The preferred embodiment also provides for determining the location of the mobile telephone 50 and device, by any suitable location determining mechanism, such as GPS, GPRS or by the location mechanisms available through the cellular telephone systems. There are several advantages to being able to determine the location of the mobile telephone 50 or other electronic device, particularly because the device is likely to be proprietary to the user and therefore carried with the user to any desired location. With such a positioning mechanism, the system can determine whether or not the user is actually in the store and therefore ready to select the product or service at that point in time or whether the user is elsewhere, for example at home, and wishes to make the purchase remotely or simply wishes to obtain information. Moreover, when the system is set up to operate in a plurality of different stores, locating the mobile telephone 50 or other device can assist in providing a customer cache with only those relevant products for that particular store and, obviously, suitable alternatives within that store itself or at least an indication of where the alternatives could be obtained if these are at another store.

It is also envisaged that such a location system could provide accurate location and therefore advice to a user within a particular environment, such as a store or museum. For example, forward caching of the customer's sub-database could be made specific to those products in the immediate vicinity of a customer as a customer is moving through the store, thereby providing even faster access to the product information which would otherwise be provided by a sub-database of all of the products within the store relevant to that customer. Moreover, accurate determination of the location of a customer within a store can assist in navigating the customer through the store and in finding products, such as alternative products. For example, the system could provide a shopping list based on the customer profile together with the locations of the products, for example on an aisle by aisle basis.

The system is not limited to reading barcodes or to devices having built in cameras. In some embodiments, the user could be requested simply to input a product code (such as an EAN code) via the telephone or device keypad, they could be provided with separate camera connectable to the telephone, such as a CCT camera, or a tag or smart label reader. Of course, the product database could be provided by any third party, including a mobile telephone company.

It is envisaged that a user could be charged to use the service, for example on a per use basis.

Claims

1. A selection system for advising a user whether or not to select a product or service, including a processing unit comprising a product or service database including product and/or service data relating to a plurality of products and/or services, selection means for selecting a particular product or service listed in the database and remote user means operable by a user for identifying a product or service and for indicating to the user the suitability of the product or service on the basis of one or more predetermined user preferences, wherein the user means includes an electronic device operable to communicate with the processing unit over a wireless telephony system.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the remote user means is a selected one of: a mobile telephone or a personal digital assistant.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the wireless telephony system comprises a cellular telephone network.

4. A system as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the processing unit is independent to the product or service provider.

5. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the remote user means is arranged to provide suitability indications for a plurality of users.

6. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the remote user means further comprises a data entry system operable to enter into the remote user means an identifier for the product or service.

7. A system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the data entry system includes a barcode reader.

8. A system as claimed in claim 6 or 7, wherein the data entry system includes a radio frequency (RFID) tag reader.

9. A system as claimed in claim 6, 7 or 8, wherein the data entry system includes a keypad.

10. A system as claimed in claim 6, 7, 8 or 9, wherein the data entry system includes a camera.

11. A system as claimed in any of claims 6 to 10, wherein the data entry system is integral to the remote user means.

12. A system as claimed in any of claims 6 to 10, wherein the data entry system is connectable to the remote user means.

13. A system as claimed in any of claims 6 to 10, wherein the data entry system is arranged to communicate with the remote user means using a wireless data connection.

14. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, further comprising means for locating the remote user means and a product and/or service location database, the system being arranged to cross-reference the remote user means' location with the product and/or service location database for providing an indication of suitable products or services within a predetermined proximity of the remote user means.

15. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, further comprising a product or service catalogue for use in association with the remote user means for identifying the product or service.

16. A system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the remote user means is arranged to accept a user input to order an identified product or service.

17. A method for advising a user whether to select a product or service comprising the steps of: entering data identifying the product or service into a user device; transmitting the data to a remote system using a wireless telephony system; cross-referencing the data at the remote system with a database of products and/or services to obtain attributes associated with the product or service; comparing the attributes with one or more predetermined user preferences; and, transmitting results of the comparison to the user device for output to the user.