Dynamic alert system in a facility

• US 10,028,094 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2017
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: High, Donald R., Jones, Matthew Allen, Halbrook, Joseph Courtland
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, Brandon J
• Application Number:
  US15/810,683
• Publication Number:
  US 20180167776A1
• Time in Patent Office: 246 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data

Abstract

Described in detail herein are methods and systems for dynamically transmitting alerts. Sensors disposed in a facility can detect mobile devices roaming around the facility when they are within range of the sensor. The sensor can transmit the location an identification information of the mobile devices to a computing system. The computing system can determine physical objects disposed within a predetermined distance to the mobile devices. The computing system can determine if at least one physical object is of interest to the users of the mobile devices. The computing system can transmit an alert including information associated with the physical object and generate a messaging interface on the mobile devices. The computing system can prompt the users of the mobile devices to input information associated with the physical object. The computing system can dynamically update the database based on the information input associated with the physical object.

Claims

1. A dynamic alert system in a facility, the system comprising:

a plurality of mobile devices associated with a plurality of users;

a computing system including a database, the computing system in communication with the plurality of mobile devices, the computing system configured to;

obtain device locations of the plurality of mobile devices;

determine that the device locations coincide with one or more areas within a facility including a plurality of physical objects;

retrieve, from the database, user data associated with the plurality of users of the plurality of mobile devices;

group the users into one or more groups based on the user data;

generate a message for each of the one or more groups, wherein the content of the message is different for each group and includes information associated with at least one of the plurality of physical objects in the facility based on the one or more areas within the facilitate that coincide with the device locations; and

transmit each message to the plurality of mobile devices associated with the plurality of users in each of the one or more groups.

2. The system in claim 1, further comprising a plurality of sensors disposed in the facility and in communication with the computing system and the plurality of mobile devices, at least one of the plurality of sensors configured to:

detect the plurality of mobile devices within a predetermined distance of the at least one of the plurality of sensors;

determine the device locations of the plurality of the mobile devices based on detection by the at least one of the plurality of sensors;

encode the device locations in electrical signals; and

transmit the electrical signals to the computing system.

3. The system in claim 2, wherein the computing system decodes the electrical signals to determine the device locations.

4. The system in claim 3, wherein the at least one of the plurality of physical object is within a predetermined distance of the device locations.

5. The system in claim 1, wherein in response to generating the message for each of the one or more groups, the computing system is further programmed to:

generate a messaging interface on a subset of mobile devices of the plurality of mobile devices associated with a subset of users of the plurality of users in at least one group.

6. The system in claim 5, wherein communications between the subset of mobile devices are established via the messaging interface.

7. The system in claim 6, wherein the communications are associated with information associated with the at least one physical object.

8. The system in claim 7, wherein the computing system is further programmed to dynamically change the information associated with the at least one physical object based on the communications.

9. The system in claim 1, wherein the message is in a Short Messaging Service (SMS) format and is transmitted to the plurality of mobile devices from a proxy telephone number.

10. A dynamic alerting method in a facility, the method comprising:

ascertaining device locations of a plurality of mobile devices associated with a plurality of users via a computing system in communication with the plurality of mobile devices;

determining, via the computing system, that the device locations coincide with one or more areas within a facility including a plurality of physical objects;

retrieving, by the computing system, user data associated with the plurality of users of the plurality of mobile devices from a database;

grouping, via the computing system, the users into one or more groups based on the user data;

generating, via the computing system, a message for each of the one or more groups, wherein the content of the message is different for each group and includes information associated with at least one of the plurality of physical objects in the facility based on the one or more areas within the facilitate that coincide with the device locations; and

transmitting, via the computing system, each message to the plurality of mobile devices associated with the plurality of users in each of the one or more groups.

11. The method in claim 10, further comprising:

detecting the plurality of mobile devices via at least one of a plurality of sensor disposed in the facility;

determining the device locations of the plurality of the mobile devices based on detection of the plurality of mobile devices by the at least one of the plurality of sensors;

encoding, via the at least one sensor, the device locations in electrical signals; and

transmitting, via the at least one sensor, the electrical signals to the computing system.

12. The method in claim 11, further comprising, decoding, via the computing system, the electrical signals to determine the device locations.

13. The method in claim 12, wherein the at least one of the plurality of physical objects is within a predetermined distance of the device locations.

14. The method in claim 10, further comprising generating, via the computing system, a messaging interface on a subset of mobile devices of the plurality of mobile devices associated with a subset of users of the plurality of users in at least one of the one or more groups in response to generating the message for each of the one or more groups.

15. The method in claim 14, wherein communications between the subset of mobile devices are established via the messaging interface.

16. The method in claim 15, wherein the communications are associated with information associated with the at least one physical object.

17. The method in claim 16, further comprising dynamically changing, via the computing system, the information associated with the at least one physical object based on the communications.

18. The method in claim 10, wherein the message is in a Short Messaging Service (SMS) format and is transmitted to the plurality of mobile devices from a proxy telephone number.