Abstract: A checkout station for a retail store is configurable between an employee-assisted mode and a self-service mode. In the employee-assisted mode, the checkout station is positioned on a checkout lane and a merchant operates the checkout station to checkout a customer from the store. In the self-service mode, the checkout station is positioned on the opposite side of the checkout lane and the customer performs the checkout functions with little or no help from the merchant. A motor in the checkout station is controlled to move the entire checkout station laterally across the checkout lane in response to receiving reconfiguration commands from the merchant. The reconfiguration commands may also control the checkout station to raise or lower its vertical height.

Abstract: A checkout station for a retail store is configurable between an employee-assisted mode and a self-service mode. In the employee-assisted mode, the checkout station is positioned on a checkout lane and a merchant operates the checkout station to checkout a customer from the store. In the self-service mode, the checkout station is positioned on the opposite side of the checkout lane and the customer performs the checkout functions with little or no help from the merchant. A motor in the checkout station is controlled to move the entire checkout station laterally across the checkout lane in response to receiving reconfiguration commands from the merchant. The reconfiguration commands may also control the checkout station to raise or lower its vertical height.

Abstract: The invention concerns a method of managing traffic for a virtual connection of a packet-based communications network, said method consisting in: transmitting packets from source customer-premises equipment to destination customer-premises equipment; time-division multiplexing the packets coming from the various source customer-premises equipment; measuring the data-rate of the multiplexed packets; temporarily storing the multiplexed packets in a queue; transmitting the stored packets over the virtual connection; determining a channel utilization factor related to the rate at which packets are transmitted over the virtual connection towards the destination customer-premises equipment; and transmitting the channel utilization factor to data-rate management means so as to control the send information rate upstream from the multiplexing; the channel utilization factor taking into account the length of the queue and the time taken to transmit the factor to the data-rate management means so as to prevent the qu