Appeal No. 2002-0015 Page 2
Application No. 09/164,098
then places the scanned items into a grocery bag. He pays for the purchase at the
terminal or at a central payment area staffed by a store employee. (Id. at 1-2.)
While operating a self-service checkout terminal, a customer may scan an item,
e.g., tobacco or alcohol, that requires verification of his age. Typically, such verification
requires the intervention of a store employee. The employee must approach the
customer and verify his age, e.g., by checking his driver's license. (Id. at 2.) Having an
employee present to verify the age of a customer, however, increases labor costs. (Id.
at 3.)
In contrast, the appellants’ assert that their self-service checkout terminal verifies
a customer’s age without the intervention of an employee. (Id. at 4.) More particularly,
when a customer inserts a card or enters a code in the terminal, the latter retrieves his
biometric profile. (Appeal Br. at 3.) After that, the terminal detects a biometric
characteristic of the customer and compares it the retrieved profile to detect if the
customer is who he claims to be. The biometric characteristic may be a fingerprint
pattern, an iris pattern, a facial pattern, a hand pattern, or a voice pattern. (Id.)
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