See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/338005470

An Intelligent Shopping Cart with Automatic Product Detection and Secure

Payment System

Conference Paper · December 2019

DOI: 10.1109/INDICON47234.2019.9030331

CITATIONS READS
17 2,015

2 authors, including:

Ponnalagu R N
BITS Pilani, Hyderabad
45 PUBLICATIONS 559 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Ponnalagu R N on 19 March 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 An Intelligent Shopping Cart with Automatic
Product Detection and Secure Payment System
Sudipta Ranjan Subudhi Ponnalagu R. N.
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani Birla Institute of Technology and Science – Pilani,
Pilani, Rajasthan, India Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, India
Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

Abstract— This paper presents a prototype model of RFID has very high throughput in which multiple
an intelligent shopping cart that can be integrated into cards could be read simultaneously, and the products
the super markets. The proposed smart cart can ease the to be read need not necessarily have line of sight with
process of shopping by automatically detecting the items the RFID reader [4]. With the help of wireless
being added to the cart and displaying the related
networks, RFID would make the conventional retail
information on the user interface. It also authenticates
the user through their Unique Identification Number process fast, transparent and efficient [5]. Various
(UID) and biometric fingerprint and allows a secure approaches in the past being proposed to make the
payment of the final amount either through Universal shopping experience smarter and less cumbersome
Payment Interface (UPI) or One-Time password (OTP) have improved features of their own but did not
mode of transaction in the cart itself, thus avoiding the address any faster and secured way of billing and
waiting time in bill payment desks and providing a payment methodology related to their shopping cart
hassle-free shopping experience to the customers. models. The customer has to either pay in cash or
through debit/credit cards for the billed amount at the
Keywords— Intelligent Shopping Cart, Secure
payment, Fingerprint sensor, RFID, UPI, UID,
billing and cash counter available in the shopping
Automation malls [6-12]. This again lead to long queues at the
billing counters with a lot of labor also being involved.
I. INTRODUCTION Better option would be to have the billing and the
payment part of the shopped items in the cart, by a
Digitization has taken over and is on its way to
device in the cart itself.
replace almost everything that is done manually. With
the advent of Internet of Things (IoT) and various In this work, we present the design of an electronic
wireless communication protocols, more complexity module that is attached to the shopping cart to make
and intelligence are being added onto devices to make the cart smart. The proposed design uses an RFID
them smarter and to make the life of the consumer reader to detect various products that are added onto
simpler and easier. In this current scenario, with the cart and also includes a secure payment system for
commodity consumption reaching newer heights due bill payment.
to increase in the standard of living of people in
general, visiting supermarkets and shopping malls II. METHODOLOGY
have become part of daily activity of people to buy The block diagram of the proposed electronic
products. There is a need to have a hassle-free module attached to the shopping cart which contains
experience for the people/customers visiting them, an RFID reader, a microcontroller, a LCD screen, a
starting from selection of products/items to purchase, GSM/GPRS module, a fingerprint sensor, a keypad
adding them to the shopping cart and waiting in the and their specifications is shown in Fig.1. HF (High
checkout queues to pay the bill amount to the retailer. Frequency @ 13.56 MHz) RFID technology is used in
This is a tedious process for the shop keepers also to the proposed module, but it has a drawback of
handle when more customers visit the supermarket in physically showing items close to the RFID reader to
a day. get detected. This can be replaced with UHF (@ 860-
960 MHz) technology as UHF passive tags are quite
The existing methods of identifying the products in
inexpensive and have a longer range ranging from 1 to
the super markets is by reading the barcode using
12 m [5], which automatically identifies the items
barcode readers at the billing counters [1]-[3]. A
added to the cart and does not require a RFID scanner
reliable, robust, less expensive, easily deployable
to physically scan the items. The items being added by
alternative to this is radio frequency identification
the user are displayed
(RFID) technology [4]. Ultra-high frequency (UHF)
 UID of the respective user would be displayed on the
LCD display and the user must select one of them for
the transaction to procced. The user would then
receive an OTP on their registered mobile number.
Once the OTP received is entered using the keypad in
the cart, it is verified and the billed amount is deducted
from the user’s bank account and the transaction is
complete. The mobile verification through OTP from
the bank provides an improved and constructive layer
of authentication and security for the stakeholders.
Once the customer transfers all the shopped products
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the proposed intelligent shopping cart from the cart to their bags, the cart would be ready and
available for the next customer.
on the LCD screen attached to the module, along with
the respective price details. The user can select III. FLOWCHART OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
multiple numbers for the same product or can add This section describes the steps and procedure
multiple products in the cart. When, all the involved during purchasing, using the proposed smart
commodities to be purchased are added to the cart, cart. Fig. 3 illustrates the procedure to add items to the
next is the billing part. The sum total amount of all the smart cart using the RFID tags attached to the cart. The
items is displayed on the LCD screen for final billing.
number of items that can be added onto the cart for one
billing transaction is capped at 50.
In order to provide a trouble-free experience to
both customers’ and the mall’s management, the
billing and the payment of the shopped items in the
cart is handled by the device attached to the cart itself.
A smart and secure payment solution is designed in
which the first step is to authenticate the customer
using their UID for example a universal citizen
number like Aadhar card in India (which is entered
using the alpha-numeric keypad attached to the
module). Second step is biometric verification using
the finger print sensor. Then payment can be initiated
by the customer either by using UPI (an instant real-
time payment system developed by NPCI as used in
India) in which the user would scan the QR code Fig. 3. Model Workflow – 1: To add items to the cart
available in the cart using UPI payment app installed
in his/her mobile device and confirm the amount to be
deducted from his/her bank account or through OTP–
based transaction. In case of user selecting OTP based
transaction, all the banks’ that are being linked to the

Fig. 4. Model Workflow – 2: to enter the UID for authentication

Once the items are added to the cart and total bill
amount is displayed on LCD screen the user initiates
the payment. Fig. 4 details the procedure for entering
Fig. 2. Hardware setup of the electronic module attached to the
the UID for authentication before the start of the
shopping cart payment and Fig. 5 shows the flowchart for biometric
 Fig. 5. Model Workflow – 3: Biometric authentication of users

authentication of the user complete for avoiding Fig. 8. Model Workflow – 6 OTP verification and transaction
transaction by fraudulent users. When the user opts for
UPI based payment the several steps involved in the Fig. 8 shows the workflow model for OTP verification
process is shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 shows the by the bank and completion of the transaction.
detailed procedure when the user selects OTP based IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
payment.
The proposed system developed on breadboard
using off shelf components, sensors and
microcontroller as shown in Fig. 2 is tested and results
obtained from the serial monitor connected to the
microcontroller through UART are presented in this
section. The experimental setup of the proposed
system showed that the RFID tags on the products
were well detected within 5 to 10 cm range and the
fingerprint scanner scans fingerprints with confidence
more than 50, if correct finger is used by the user. Fig.
9 shows the respective product information being
displayed on the user interface when RFID tags are
being detected by the cart and Fig. 10 shows the screen
shot of serial monitor in case of finger print
Fig. 6. Model Workflow – 4: UPI based payment
authentication of the user.

Fig. 7. Model Workflow – 5: OTP based payment

Fig. 9. Items added to the cart: a screen shot of the serial monitor
 Zigbee networks can be used for more fast and reliable
communication to the various servers. It can also be
extended to provide improved anti-theft security
features by using load cells to sense the weight and
trigger an alarm if any unaccounted product is added
to the cart. Fitting the racks with RFID readers that can
screen every single commodity and can send updates
to the central server and automatically asks for a
restock in case they are empty can also be added which
– will be much helpful for the workers in the
Fig. 10. Fingerprint authentication of the user – results obtained
supermarket.
from serial monitor
REFRERENCES
[1] A. Yewatkar, F. Inamdarb, R. Singhc, Ayushya and A.
Bandale, “Smart Cart with Automatic Billing, Product
Information, Product Recommendation Using RFID & Zigbee
with Anti-Theft”, in Elsevier 7th International Conference on
Communication, Computing and Virtualization 2016,
Lonavala, India, pp. 793-800.
[2] P. Chandrasekar and T. Sangeetha ”Smart Shopping Cart with
Automatic Billing System through RFID and ZigBee ”, in
ICICIES, Chennai, India, 2014, pp. 1-4.
[3] Vrinda and Niharika, “Novel Model for Automating Purchases
using Intelligent Cart,” e-ISSN:2278-0661, p- ISSN: 2278-
8727, vol. 16, no. 1, ver. VII, Feb. 2014, pp. 23-30.
[4] N. Pritha, S. Sahana, N. Selvin Stephy, S. Shiny Rose and S.
Unnamalai, “Smart Trolley System for Automated Billing
using RFID and IOT”, in the International Research Journal of
Engineering and Technology, vol. 05, no. 4, Apr. 2018, pp.
230-234.
[5] C. Ying and Z. Fu-Hong, “A System Design for UHF RFID
Fig. 11. UPI Based payment selected by the user – results obtained Reader”, in 11th IEEE International Conference on
from serial monitor Communication Technology Proceedings, 2008, pp. 301-304.
[6] H. Chaing, W. You, S. Lin, W. Shih, Y. Liao, J. Lee and Y.
Fig. 11 shows the steps involved in the UPI payment Chen, “Development of Smart Shopping carts with Customer-
Oriented Service” in the International Conference on System
transaction being displayed on the user interface. Science and Engineering (ICSSE), National Chi Nan
University, Taiwan, July 7-9, 2016.
V. CONCLUSION [7] R. Li, T. Song, N. Capurso, J. Couture and X. Cheng, “IOT
In this paper we propose a smart shopping cart by Applications on Secure Smart Shopping System”, in IEEE
Internet Of Things Journal, vol. 4, no. 6, December 2017, pp.
attaching an intelligent electronic module to the 1945-1954.
available shopping cart in the supermarkets, which [8] Y. Wang and C. Yang, “3S-cart: A Lightweight, Interactive
Sensor-Based Cart for Smart Shopping in Supermarkets”, in
will detect and display the products added to the cart, IEEE Sensors Journal, vol.16, no.17, September, 2016, pp.
rate of the added product, total number of products 6774–6781.
added to the cart and the total amount to be paid. A [9] C. Ezhilazhagan, R. Adithya, Y. L. Burhanuddin, F. Charles,
“Automatic Product Detection and Smart Billing for Shopping
secure payment processing system to pay the bill is using Li-Fi”, in the IEEE International Conference on Recent
also proposed. This reduces the labor involved and the Trends in Electronics Information Communication
Technology, India, May 20-21, 2016, pp. 1723-1726.
waiting time in queue for bill payment and ease the
[10] U. Gangwal, S. Roy and J. Bapat, “Smart Shopping Cart for
shopping process for the buyers. The work presented Automated Billing Purpose using Wireless Sensor Networks”,
can be extended to use tablet sized touchscreen display in the 7th International Conference on Sensor Technologies and
Applications – SENSORCOMM, Bangalore, India, 2013, pp.
units attached to the carts which would further enrich 168-172.
the users’ shopping experience in terms of navigating, [11] R. Li, T. Song, N. Capurso, J. Yu, X. Cheng, “IoT Applications
getting product info, discounts and offers. Removing on Secure Smart Shopping”, in the 2016 IEEE International
Conference on Identificaton, Information, and Knowledge in
an item from the cart can be done manually using full- the Internet of Things, 2016, pp. 238-243.
fledged keypad options or from touchscreen display [12] X. Liu, H. Zhang, J. Fang, G. Guan, Y. Huang, “Intelligent
Shopping Cart with Quick Payment based on Dynamic Target
units attached to the cart. On the communication side, Tracking”, in the IEEE proceedings of CCIS 2016, pp. 88-93.

View publication stats