Patent · US9875502B2 · B2 · US
Shopping facility assistance systems, devices, and methods to identify security and safety anomalies
- (11) Publication number
- US9875502B2
- (21) Application number
- 15/061,025
- (22) Filing date
- 2016-03-04
- (30) Priority date
- 2015-03-06
- (43) Publication date
- 2018-01-23
- (45) Date of grant
- 2018-01-23
- (51) IPC
- A47F 3/08; B60P 3/06; B62B 5/00; E01H 5/06; E01H 5/12; G01C 21/20; G01S 1/02; G01S 1/70; G01S 1/72; G05D 1/00; G05D 1/02; G06Q 10/02; G06Q 10/06; G06Q 10/08; G06Q 30/00; G06Q 30/02; G06Q 30/06; G06T 7/593; G06T 7/73; G06V 30/224; H04N 5/77; H04N 7/18; H04W 4/02; H04W 4/021; H04W 4/029; H04W 4/30; H04W 4/33; H04W 4/40; H04W 4/80
- (52) CPC
- E01H Street cleaning; cleaning of permanent ways; cleaning beaches; dispersing {or preventing} fog in general {cleaning street or railway furniture or tunnel walls}: 5/061, 5/12
- A47F Special furniture, fittings, or accessories for shops, storehouses, bars, restaurants or the like; paying counters: 10/04, 13/00, 2010/005, 2010/025, 3/08
- A47L Domestic washing or cleaning; suction cleaners in general: 11/4011, 2201/04
- B07C Postal sorting; sorting individual articles, or bulk material fit to be sorted piece-meal, e.g. by picking: 2501/0045, 2501/0054, 2501/0063, 5/28, 5/3422
- B60L Propulsion of electrically-propelled vehicles; supplying electric power for auxiliary equipment of electrically-propelled vehicles; electrodynamic brake systems for vehicles in general; magnetic suspension or levitation for vehicles; monitoring operating variables of electrically-propelled vehicles; electric safety devices for electrically-propelled vehicles: 53/36, 53/63
- B60P Vehicles adapted for load transportation or to transport, to carry, or to comprise special loads or objects: 3/06
- B60Y Indexing scheme relating to aspects cross-cutting vehicle technology: 2410/10
- B62B Hand-propelled vehicles, e.g. hand carts or perambulators; sledges: 5/0026, 5/0069, 5/0076
- B65F Gathering or removal of domestic or like refuse: 2210/168, 3/00
- B66F Hoisting, lifting, hauling or pushing, not otherwise provided for, e.g. devices which apply a lifting or pushing force directly to the surface of a load: 9/063
- G01C Measuring distances, levels or bearings; surveying; navigation; gyroscopic instruments; photogrammetry or videogrammetry: 21/206
- G01S Radio direction-finding; radio navigation; determining distance or velocity by use of radio waves; locating or presence-detecting by use of the reflection or reradiation of radio waves; analogous arrangements using other waves: 1/02, 1/70, 1/7034, 1/7038, 1/72, 2201/02
- G05B Control or regulating systems in general; functional elements of such systems; monitoring or testing arrangements for such systems or elements: 19/048, 19/124, 2219/23363, 2219/39107
- G05D Systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables: 1/0011, 1/0016, 1/0022, 1/0027, 1/0061, 1/0088, 1/021, 1/0214, 1/0219, 1/0234, 1/0246, 1/0255, 1/0276, 1/028, 1/0289, 1/0291, 1/0293, 1/0297, 1/04, 2201/0216
- G06F Electric digital data processing: 16/90335, 18/214, 21/606, 3/017
- G06K Graphical data reading; presentation of data; record carriers; handling record carriers: 7/10297, 7/10821, 7/1413
- G06Q Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes; systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not otherwise provided for: 10/02, 10/0283, 10/0631, 10/06311, 10/06315, 10/08, 10/083, 10/087, 10/1093, 10/30, 20/12, 30/016, 30/0281, 30/0601, 30/0605, 30/0613, 30/0617, 30/0619, 30/0631, 30/0633, 30/0635, 30/0639, 30/0641, 50/28, 50/30, 50/40
- G06T Image data processing or generation, in general: 2207/10028, 7/593, 7/74
- G06V Image or video recognition or understanding: 20/20, 20/40, 20/44, 20/52, 20/56, 20/58, 20/647, 30/224
- G08G Traffic control systems: 1/20
- G10L Speech analysis techniques or speech synthesis; speech recognition; speech or voice processing techniques; speech or audio coding or decoding: 13/00, 15/22, 17/22, 2015/223
- H02J Electric power networks; circuit arrangements or systems for supplying or distributing electric power; systems for storing electric energy: 7/42, 7/50, 7/92
- H04B Transmission: 1/38, 10/116
- H04L Transmission of digital information, e.g. telegraphic communication: 63/06, 63/08, 63/0846, 67/12, 67/141, 67/143
- H04N Pictorial communication, e.g. television: 13/282, 5/77, 7/18, 7/183, 7/185
- H04W Wireless communication networks: 4/02, 4/021, 4/029, 4/043, 4/30, 4/33, 4/40, 4/80
- Y02P Climate change mitigation technologies in the production or processing of goods: 90/02
- Y02T Climate change mitigation technologies related to transportation: 10/70, 10/7072, 90/12
- Y02W Climate change mitigation technologies related to wastewater treatment or waste management: 30/82, 90/00, 90/10
- Y04S Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation, communication or information technologies for improving the electrical power generation, transmission, distribution, management or usage, i.e. smart grids: 10/50
- Y10S Technical subjects covered by former uspc cross-reference art collections [xracs] and digests: 901/01
- (73) Assignee
- Wal Mart Stores Inc
- (72) Inventors
- Karl Kay; Donald R. High; Michael D. Atchley
- (54) Title
- Shopping facility assistance systems, devices, and methods to identify security and safety anomalies
- (57) Abstract
A central computer system is configured to simultaneously task various ones of a plurality of motorized transport units to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in a retail shopping facility in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer while also receiving and analyzing video input provided by video cameras that are included with at least some of the motorized transport units to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility. By one approach, the central computer system identifies security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping center by characterizing contents of images as being either expected or unexpected and as being either potentially harmful or not potentially harmful. So configured the central computer system is able to not only identify anomalies but assess a degree of threat posed by a given anomaly.
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Claims (18)
- An apparatus comprising: a retail shopping facility; a plurality of motorized transport units that are each configured to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer, the motorized transport units each including at least one video camera; a central computer system configured to simultaneously task various ones of the plurality of motorized transport units to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in the retail shopping facility in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer while also receiving and analyzing video input provided by the video cameras to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.
- The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is configured to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility by characterizing contents of images as being either expected or unexpected.
- The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the central computer system is further configured to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility by also characterizing contents of images as being either potentially harmful or not potentially harmful.
- The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the central computer system is configured to treat image content that is both expected and potentially harmful as posing a lesser threat to security and safety than image content that is both unexpected and potentially harmful.
- The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the central computer system is configured to learn over time by experience at least some image contents that are properly characterized as being expected.
- The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is configured to employ object recognition to identify the security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility using the video input provided by the video cameras.
- The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is further configured to also receive and analyze video input provided by video cameras that comprise fixed infrastructure for the retail shopping facility to identify the security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.
- The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is further configured to automatically contact non-retail shopping facility authorities in response to identifying certain security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.
- The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the security and safety anomalies include both customer-only security and safety anomalies and facility-only security and safety anomalies.
- A method comprising: by a central computer system for a retail shopping facility: tasking various ones of a plurality of motorized transport units to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in the retail shopping facility in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer while also receiving and analyzing video input provided by video cameras that are mounted on the plurality of motorized transport units to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.
- The method of claim 10 wherein identifying security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility includes characterizing contents of images as being either expected or unexpected.
- The method of claim 11 wherein identifying security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility also includes characterizing contents of images as being either potentially harmful or not potentially harmful.
- The method of claim 12 further comprising: treating image content that is both expected and potentially harmful as posing a lesser threat to security and safety than image content that is both unexpected and potentially harmful.
- The method of claim 11 further comprising: learning over time by experience at least some image contents that are properly characterized as being expected.
- The method of claim 10 wherein identifying security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility comprises employing object recognition to identify the security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.
- The method of claim 10 further comprising: also receiving and analyzing video input provided by video cameras that comprise fixed infrastructure for the retail shopping facility to identify the security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.
- The method of claim 10 further comprising: automatically contacting non-retail shopping facility authorities in response to identifying certain security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.
- The method of claim 10 wherein the security and safety anomalies include both customer-only security and safety anomalies and facility-only security and safety anomalies.
Description
These teachings relate generally to shopping environments and more particularly to devices, systems, and methods for assisting customers and/or workers in those shopping environments.
In a modern retail store environment, there is a need to improve the customer experience and/or convenience for the customer. A modern retail shopping facility can constitute a large physical structure filled with various product displays, service areas, associate staging and work areas, and so forth. At any given moment any number of anomalies can occur in such a facility. (As used herein, the word anomaly will be understood to refer to something that constitutes a deviation from that which is ordinarily expected or normal.) It can be helpful to identify anomalies sooner rather than later, and timeliness can be particularly important when the anomaly presents at least a potential threat to security and or safety as regards any of the retail shopping facility, customers in the retail shopping facility, and/or associates of the retail shopping facility. Unfortunately, the very size and complexity of a modern retail shopping facility, in combination with the very physically dynamic nature of such an application setting, makes it very difficult to identify anomalies let alone assess what level of concern or response might reasonably be raised by any given anomaly.
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- US9607285B1
- US9649766B2
- US20160274586A1
- US20160300291A1
- US20160355337A1
- US20160364785A1
- US20160364786A1
- US20170107055A1
Record as JSON
{
"publication_number": "US9875502B2",
"country": "US",
"kind": "B2",
"title": "Shopping facility assistance systems, devices, and methods to identify security and safety anomalies",
"abstract": "A central computer system is configured to simultaneously task various ones of a plurality of motorized transport units to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in a retail shopping facility in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer while also receiving and analyzing video input provided by video cameras that are included with at least some of the motorized transport units to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility. By one approach, the central computer system identifies security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping center by characterizing contents of images as being either expected or unexpected and as being either potentially harmful or not potentially harmful. So configured the central computer system is able to not only identify anomalies but assess a degree of threat posed by a given anomaly.",
"claims": [
"1. An apparatus comprising: a retail shopping facility; a plurality of motorized transport units that are each configured to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer, the motorized transport units each including at least one video camera; a central computer system configured to simultaneously task various ones of the plurality of motorized transport units to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in the retail shopping facility in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer while also receiving and analyzing video input provided by the video cameras to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.",
"2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is configured to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility by characterizing contents of images as being either expected or unexpected.",
"3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the central computer system is further configured to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility by also characterizing contents of images as being either potentially harmful or not potentially harmful.",
"4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the central computer system is configured to treat image content that is both expected and potentially harmful as posing a lesser threat to security and safety than image content that is both unexpected and potentially harmful.",
"5. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the central computer system is configured to learn over time by experience at least some image contents that are properly characterized as being expected.",
"6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is configured to employ object recognition to identify the security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility using the video input provided by the video cameras.",
"7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is further configured to also receive and analyze video input provided by video cameras that comprise fixed infrastructure for the retail shopping facility to identify the security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.",
"8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is further configured to automatically contact non-retail shopping facility authorities in response to identifying certain security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.",
"9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the security and safety anomalies include both customer-only security and safety anomalies and facility-only security and safety anomalies.",
"10. A method comprising: by a central computer system for a retail shopping facility: tasking various ones of a plurality of motorized transport units to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in the retail shopping facility in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer while also receiving and analyzing video input provided by video cameras that are mounted on the plurality of motorized transport units to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.",
"11. The method of claim 10 wherein identifying security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility includes characterizing contents of images as being either expected or unexpected.",
"12. The method of claim 11 wherein identifying security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility also includes characterizing contents of images as being either potentially harmful or not potentially harmful.",
"13. The method of claim 12 further comprising: treating image content that is both expected and potentially harmful as posing a lesser threat to security and safety than image content that is both unexpected and potentially harmful.",
"14. The method of claim 11 further comprising: learning over time by experience at least some image contents that are properly characterized as being expected.",
"15. The method of claim 10 wherein identifying security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility comprises employing object recognition to identify the security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.",
"16. The method of claim 10 further comprising: also receiving and analyzing video input provided by video cameras that comprise fixed infrastructure for the retail shopping facility to identify the security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.",
"17. The method of claim 10 further comprising: automatically contacting non-retail shopping facility authorities in response to identifying certain security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.",
"18. The method of claim 10 wherein the security and safety anomalies include both customer-only security and safety anomalies and facility-only security and safety anomalies."
],
"description_excerpt": "These teachings relate generally to shopping environments and more particularly to devices, systems, and methods for assisting customers and/or workers in those shopping environments.\n\nIn a modern retail store environment, there is a need to improve the customer experience and/or convenience for the customer. A modern retail shopping facility can constitute a large physical structure filled with various product displays, service areas, associate staging and work areas, and so forth. At any given moment any number of anomalies can occur in such a facility. (As used herein, the word anomaly will be understood to refer to something that constitutes a deviation from that which is ordinarily expected or normal.) It can be helpful to identify anomalies sooner rather than later, and timeliness can be particularly important when the anomaly presents at least a potential threat to security and or safety as regards any of the retail shopping facility, customers in the retail shopping facility, and/or associates of the retail shopping facility. Unfortunately, the very size and complexity of a modern retail shopping facility, in combination with the very physically dynamic nature of such an application setting, makes it very difficult to identify anomalies let alone assess what level of concern or response might reasonably be raised by any given anomaly.",
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"assignees": [
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"inventors": [
"Karl Kay",
"Donald R. High",
"Michael D. Atchley"
],
"filing_date": "2016-03-04",
"publication_date": "2018-01-23",
"grant_date": "2018-01-23",
"priority_date": "2015-03-06",
"application_number": "US-201615061025-A",
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Record 3,620 of 8,000 in Patents full text (MLC-0201). Request the full dataset.