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One popular way that convenience stores use when a customer pays for a car wash is to print out a receipt with a four-digit code. The person pulls their car up to a control panel, and punches in the code, telling the carwash that they have already paid. This is difficult on people who have trouble
reaching out to the panel, such as the very small, elderly, or obese. I propose that the cash register print a barcode on the receipt instead. The barcode scanner would have to be pretty widespread, but it could be done. The person simply pulls up to the carwash, and flashes the receipt. A green light tells them that they are acknowledged, and they drive on through.
(Later) If a scanner that was very spread out wouldn't do, perhaps a single wide beam angled in the driver's windows. Shirley someone would see a red glowing beam. The keypad would still remain, just in case.
Some "image scanner/camera reader" info buried in here
http://searchcio.te...9_gci857995,00.html
[half, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]
Short name, e.g., Bob's Coffee
Destination URL.
E.g., http://www.coffee.com/
Description (displayed with the short name and URL.)
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Great! When that catches on I'll sell an LCD display device that graphically sequences through all the possibly barcode combinations until the laser scanner passes over the one that enables the carwash. Almost as convenient as the auto-code sequencing garage door opener. :) |
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Is there anyway you could sell your barcode invention as a bank vault opening convenience? |
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Voice recognition can handle this... just say the number. |
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At most of the car washes here, you buy a reusable card which stores the information of what type of wash you want, and ya stick it in a slot before entering. |
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[jutta(Your Majesty)],[Helium] I beleive the cards defeat the entire purpose, as one still has to reach out to swipe them. |
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Re: the amended idea - sounds doable. Not sure exactly what you mean by "barcode scanner would have to be pretty widespread". Personally, I'd abandon the laser completely. Those red beams are barely visible in daylight. Even with equipment that uses a mode known as a "spotting beam" the beam can be difficult to see in bright light. |
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I have worked with some hardware that used a camera to capture the image optically and decode a 2D barcode and I'm sure it handled other symbologies as well. A similar camera could point at the drivers window and a monitor could show the driver what the camera sees. The driver could hold the ticket up and move it around until it was in the field of view of the camera. I think there might still be some scanning issues (camera focus, tinted windows, dirty windows, glare, customers with no clue of what they're supposed to be doing, etc.) but I guess it could technically be done. |
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Linked to some relevant information. |
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If you're striving for practical you'd use a reuseable customer badge with a passive RFID (radio frequency ID) system. You let them scan your keychain badge at the checkout (barcoded so you don't read everyone's RFID badge in the cashier's queue) and then you just drive up to the carwash and it reads your badge. Most people will know of RFID technology as "Toll Tags" |
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Requiring the customer to carry a card doesn't necessarily strike me as practical. But, I wash my car at home so maybe I'm not the best judge. I'm also looking at this from the "pay at the pump" perspective where no cashier is involved. I have purchased a car wash that way one time. |
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RFID is definatly the way to go. It's going to be in everything. It may already be in everything, since the tags are nearly invisible (conspiricy theorists rejoice...) Anyway, if RFID was encoded into debit cards, ID cards (not corperate, thought that is one way), and all manner of plastic wallet stuffers, it shouldn't be hard to find one on you to swipe so you can get your car washed. |
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I use my company ID to unlock my house as well as get into work. The tech is pretty simple. RFID is a pretty universal standerd at the moment, so regardless of whose tag it is, the conveniance store should be able to read it. |
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Or, maybe we should all just get speed passes from Mobil/Exxon. If you can pay at the pump, why cant they just set up another scanner at the carwash, and pay seperatley for the carwash. Yes you'd have to reach out the car, but you wouldn't have to get as close, or if the range were incressed, the car wash could sense a speedpass in the area, and charge it automaticly, no need to stop if the car wash were empty. |
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I've seen these. My local BP has a carwash that just prints out a receipt with a barcode at the bottom (much like the ePay machines that exist. What's ePay? It's a system for buying things like Cellular recharge/topups without needing to actually have stock in the store. The machine just prints a receipt with barcode for the store and the activation number for the phone to get its credit) |
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So anyhow, it's baked. Sorry. |
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