SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CUSTOMER RECOGNITION USING WIRELESS IDENTIFICATION AND VISUAL DATA TRANSMISSION

An electronic shopping system, providing for customer recognition using wireless identification and visual data transmission to point-of-sale terminals and other terminal types located in a commercial establishment. A customer's visual image is taken as a customer enters the establishment and, that customer's identification number is obtained from a customer identification card, if the customer possesses such a card. The visual image data is bundled with the customer's demographic profile data, transaction history data and the customer's current accrued store loyalty or incentive points into a customer data record. The customer data record is forwarded to point-of-sale terminals, store workstations, mobile terminals, or other I/O devices capable of displaying multiple customer records. The establishment staff is able to access each of the customer records in order to visually identify customers as they enter the establishment, without the customers needing to announce themselves or otherwise advertise their presence. A customer's visual image can also be acquired as a customer accesses a check-in kiosk terminal prior to beginning a shopping excursion. The acquired customer visual image is bundled with customer preference data and made available to the establishment's staff for visual recognition of each individual customer.