Semi-transparent walk-through gate

Abstract

A walk-through gate is provided. The walk-through gate includes at least a first semi-transparent side wall and a second semi-transparent side wall encapsulating a walk-through gate volume having an ingress portion and an egress portion. The walk-through gate further includes a plurality of antennas for wirelessly receiving product identifiers for wireless checkout. At least one of the plurality of antennas is made of a semi-transparent conductive material.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A walk-through gate, comprising:
 at least a first semi-transparent side wall and a second semi-transparent side wall encapsulating a walk-through gate volume having an ingress portion and an egress portion; and   a plurality of antennas for wirelessly receiving product identifiers for wireless checkout.   
     
     
         2 . The walk-through gate of  claim 1 , where at least one of the first and second semi-transparent side walls comprises a two layer wall having a first wall separated from a second wall by a predetermined wall-to-wall separation for signal attenuation outside of the walk-through gate volume. 
     
     
         3 . The walk-through gate of  claim 2 , wherein each of the first and second walls comprise conductive particles. 
     
     
         4 . The walk-through gate of  claim 3 , wherein the conductive particles are arranged as respective sheets in each of the first and second walls. 
     
     
         5 . The walk-through gate of  claim 1 , wherein an innermost one of the first and second walls is at least partially curved for signal attenuation outside of the walk-through gate volume. 
     
     
         6 . The walk-through gate of  claim 1 , wherein an edge of at least one of the first and second semi-transparent side walls comprises an opaque material for mounting at least one of the plurality of antennas thereon and for signal attenuation beyond the walk-through gate volume. 
     
     
         7 . The walk-through gate of  claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of antennas is partially encapsulated in a shield configured to attenuate antenna leakage in other than an intended direction. 
     
     
         8 . The walk-through gate of  claim 1 , further comprising a movable semi-transparent slider at at least one of the ingress portion and egress portion. 
     
     
         9 . The walk-through gate of  claim 8 , wherein the movable semi-transparent slider comprises conductive particles configured to attenuate antenna leakage outside of the walk-through gate volume. 
     
     
         10 . The walk-through gate of  claim 1 , wherein the walk-through gate is disposed at a stadium and performs an application selected from the group consisting of a checkout application, an entrance application, and an exit application. 
     
     
         11 . The walk-through gate of  claim 1 , wherein the walk-through gate is disposed at a theater and performs an application selected from the group consisting of a checkout application, an entrance application, and an exit application. 
     
     
         12 . The walk-through gate of  claim 1 , wherein the walk-through gate is disposed at a department storage and comprised in a theft detection system. 
     
     
         13 . A method for walk-through gate checkout, comprising:
 encapsulating, by at least a first and a second semi-transparent side wall, a walk-through gate volume having an ingress portion and an egress portion;   wirelessly reading, by a plurality of antennas, product identifiers of products and signal attributes of the product identifier signals; and   judging, for a given checkout session responsive to the signal attributes, whether any of the products should be included in the given checkout session and whether any of the products should be excluded from the given checkout session.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising providing one of a late charge or a late credit to a bill for the given checkout session responsive to a given judgement for the given checkout session. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the given judgment is based on at least a reading of a product identifier after a duration of the given checkout session and the signal attributes of the reading. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the given judgement is based on at least a reading of a product identifier before a start of the given checkout session and the signal attributes of the reading. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the reading of the product identifier and its signal attributes are used as a prior knowledge about the product. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the prior knowledge comprises a likelihood value. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising performing a first reading of a first product identifier for a first product and a second reading of a second product identifier for a second product prior to a start of the given checkout session, and calculating a proximity metric between the first and second products based on the first and the second readings and the signal attributes of the first and the second readings. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising performing a first reading of a first product identifier for a first product and a second reading of a second product identifier for a second product after a duration of the checkout session, and calculating a proximity metric between the first and second products based on the first and the second readings and the signal attributes of the first and the second readings.