ITEM SCANNING SYSTEM

The present invention provides an item scanning system in which an appearance of an item is received (e.g., at checkout). The appearance is captured with an image capture device (e.g., still frame camera, video camera, etc.) that can be collocated with a barcode scanner. In being collocated, the image capture device can be positioned proximate (e.g., near, attached to, etc.) the bar code scanner, integrated within a common housing/unit with the barcode scanner, etc. In any event, a search engine will then search a database of items based on the appearance to identify a set of items that potentially match the item. When one of the set of items is selected (e.g., by the checkout clerk), the selection will be received and stored for future investigation/auditing.