US-12617445-B2 - Shopping cart

Abstract

Provided is a shopping cart capable of simplifying equipment of a storage area of the shopping cart. A shopping cart allowed to be nested in a front-rear direction, including: a cart body; a battery configured to supply power to an electronic device attached to the cart body for displaying commodity information read by a reading device; a power receiving portion provided on a front side of the cart body and configured to be electrically connectable to an external power supply; and a power transmitting portion provided on a rear surface side of the power receiving portion and configured to supply power to a power receiving portion of another shopping cart nested in the shopping cart. Each of the power receiving portion and the power transmitting portion is provided with a magnet configured for holding a relative position.

Inventors

• Katsuaki SAKURADA
• Tomoyuki KITADA
• Masahiro YASUNO
• Katsuya TAKEDA
• Hachirou SAWADA
• Reiji SUGIKAMI
• Tomonori Sugiyama
• Hiroki Takeda
• Takahiro Okazaki
• Ryoichi Yamamoto

Assignees

• TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
• ENAX, INC.

Dates

Publication Date

20260505

Application Date

20230911

Priority Date

20220913

Claims (9)

1. 1 . A shopping cart configured to be nested in a front-rear direction, comprising: a cart body; a battery configured to supply power to an electronic device attached to the cart body for displaying commodity information read by a reading device; a power receiving portion provided on a front side of the cart body and electrically connectable to an external power supply; and a power transmitting portion provided on a rear surface side of the power receiving portion and configured to supply power to a power receiving portion of another shopping cart nested in the shopping cart, wherein each of the power receiving portion and the power transmitting portion is provided with a magnet for holding a relative position, and the power transmitting portion is movable between a retraction position and a protrusion position and is biased toward a side of the protrusion position by a biasing device.
2. 2 . The shopping cart according to claim 1 , wherein the power transmitting portion has right and left connection portions separately protruding rearward, and a wiring connection terminal is provided on a tip surface of each of the right and left connection portions.
3. 3 . The shopping cart according to claim 2 , wherein the right and left connection portions are integrally formed by a connection member coupling the right and left connection portions, and the connection member is biased rearward by right and left biasing members constituting the biasing device.
4. 4 . The shopping cart according to claim 3 , wherein power supply from the power transmitting portion to the power receiving portion is started based on establishment of a predetermined connection condition.
5. 5 . The shopping cart according to claim 2 , wherein power supply from the power transmitting portion to the power receiving portion is started based on establishment of a predetermined connection condition.
6. 6 . The shopping cart according to claim 1 , wherein a wiring connection terminal extends in a vertical direction on each of the power receiving portion and the power transmitting portion.
7. 7 . The shopping cart according to claim 6 , wherein power supply from the power transmitting portion to the power receiving portion is started based on establishment of a predetermined connection condition.
8. 8 . The shopping cart according to claim 1 , wherein power supply from the power transmitting portion to the power receiving portion is started based on establishment of a predetermined connection condition.
9. 9 . A shopping cart configured to be nested in a front-rear direction, comprising: a cart body; a battery configured to supply power to an electronic device attached to the cart body for displaying commodity information read by a reading device; a power receiving portion provided on a front side of the cart body and electrically connectable to an external power supply; and a power transmitting portion provided on a rear surface side of the power receiving portion and configured to supply power to a power receiving portion of another shopping cart nested in the shopping cart, wherein each of the power receiving portion and the power transmitting portion is provided with a magnet configured for holding a relative position, and a wiring connection terminal extends in a vertical direction on each of the power receiving portion and the power transmitting portion.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-145102, filed Sep. 13, 2022, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. FIELD Embodiments relate to a shopping cart, for example, a shopping cart mainly used in a store such as a supermarket or a shopping mall. BACKGROUND Conventionally, in a store such as a supermarket or a shopping mall, payment is processed by a store clerk or a customer at a cash register provided in the store. Thus, for example, during busy hours, etc., customers waiting for payments are concentrated at the cash register, which not only makes the customers wait for a long time, but also places a heavy workload on the clerk processing the payments. Therefore, a system has been proposed in which payment processing can be performed without going to the cash register by being equipped with electronic devices such as a reading device capable of reading commodity information and a display device capable of displaying payment information, etc. in a shopping cart, and a battery that supplies power to these electronic devices, and reading commodity information on the spot when a customer selects a commodity. In the shopping cart used in this type of system, power is supplied from the battery to the electronic devices, and the battery needs to be charged. For example, while each shopping cart is provided with a power receiving device, a cart storage area in which a plurality of shopping carts is stored is provided with a plurality of power transmitting devices, and when shopping carts are stored in the cart storage area, the power receiving device of each shopping cart faces a power transmitting device in the cart storage area, so that the battery is supplied with power from the power transmitting device via the power receiving device However, in the shopping cart described above, each shopping cart is supplied with power from an individual power transmitting device. Thus, it is necessary to install a plurality of power transmitting devices in parallel on a side of the cart storage area, and there is a problem in that equipment of the cart storage area cannot be simplified. The embodiments have been made by paying attention to such a problem, and an object of the embodiments is to provide a shopping cart capable of simplifying equipment of a storage area of the shopping cart. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGS. 1A and 1B are perspective views illustrating a shopping cart according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a right side view illustrating the shopping cart. FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a state in which an opening/closing portion of a cover is opened. FIG. 4A is a front view illustrating a lower part of a cart body, and FIG. 4B is a rear view illustrating the lower part of the cart body. FIG. 5 is a partially broken plan view illustrating an external power supply device and a front portion of the lower body of the cart. FIG. 6 is a right side view illustrating a state in which a plurality of shopping carts is stored in a cart storage area. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A of FIG. 6. FIG. 8A is a schematic view illustrating a state in which a power transmitting portion of the external power supply device and a power receiving portion of a cart are in contact, FIG. 8B is a schematic view illustrating a state in which the power transmitting portion of the external power supply device moves to a retraction position, and FIG. 8C is a schematic view illustrating a state in which the power transmitting portion of the external power supply device, the power receiving portion of the cart, and a power transmitting portion and a power receiving portion of a following cart are in contact. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Modes for carrying out a shopping cart will be described below on the basis of embodiments. EMBODIMENTS A shopping cart according to an embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8. Note that, in the following description, a diagonally lower left of FIG. 1A is set as a front of the shopping cart, and front, rear, right, and left directions (see the arrows of FIG. 1) when viewing the shopping cart from the front are used as the reference. As illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 5, for example, the shopping cart 1 (hereinafter abbreviated as a cart) is a cart used by customers to a supermarket, a shopping mall, etc. The cart 1 mainly includes a cart body 2, a plurality of (for example, four) casters 3 provided on a lower part of the cart body 2, a handle 4 operated by a user, two upper and lower placing portions 5a and 5b on which baskets (not illustrated) capable of holding commodities can be placed, an electronic device 6 used for payment processing of commodities selected by the user, a battery 7 capable of supplying power to the electronic device 6, a power receiving portion 10 for receiving power, and a power transmitting portion 1