System and method for verifying surveillance tag deactivation in a self-checkout station

This invention relates generally to article surveillance tags and, more particularly, to the deactivation of article surveillance tags at checkout stations. A system for verifying deactivation of an EAS tag at a self-checkout counter includes an electronic article surveillance (EAS) tag deactivator for deactivating EAS tags attached to articles processed at a checkout station and an EAS tag interrogator associated with the checkout station that generates an electronic checkout disable signal in response to detection of an EAS tag by the EAS tag interrogator. The checkout disable signal may be used to disable the operation of a self-checkout station component so that the consumer is unable to process additional articles until the EAS tag deactivation operation is successful. The generation and use of the checkout disable signal helps ensure that a consumer at a self-checkout station deactivates all EAS tags attached to articles processed at a self-checkout station during checkout. The checkout disable signal may be sent to the processor of the terminal of the self-checkout station to cause the processor to disable components of the self-checkout station. The processor of the self-checkout station terminal may disable operation of the scanner and/or keyboard so the consumer is not able to scan or otherwise submit additional articles for checkout processing. As long as the article with the active EAS tag remains in the EAS deactivator or article discharge area, the selfcheckout station remains disabled. Once the tag becomes deactivated or the article is removed from the checkout process, the checkout disable signal generation is terminated and the checkout process may continue. Other component disabling may include suspending queries of the product database or the accumulation of price data in response to the checkout disable signal.