Systems, methods, and apparatuses for tracking status of time-sensitive articles

• US 10,198,701 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2017
• Issued: 02/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Viveo Labs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Viveo Labs, Inc.
• Inventors: Romanoff, Harris Gabriel, Dwivedula, Ravi Shankar Venkata
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, An T
• Application Number:
  US15/681,012
• Publication Number:
  US 20180096266A1
• Time in Patent Office: 536 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

One aspect of the application provides a cueing device. The device is configured to alert a user to a perishable item associated with the cueing device based on one or more cueing parameters indicative of an urgency of the perishable item and a context for alerting the user to a status of the perishable item. The device includes a visual output capable of providing multiple levels of visual alert. The device further includes an input capable of receiving, from the user, an acknowledgement to an alert, or a cueing parameter. The device further includes one or more sensors configured to detect environmental characteristics affecting the perishable item. The device further includes a wireless communication interface.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a smart hub, the smart hub comprising an optical imaging device, an output configured to alert a user, and one or more processors, and the method comprising:

identifying a perishable item to be tracked, and a user of a plurality of users to be alerted regarding a status of the perishable item;

obtaining information indicative of one or more cueing parameters, the one or more cueing parameters indicating, at least, a time associated with expiration of the perishable item; and

generating an alert, for output to the user, based on the obtained information, the alert being adapted to increase user responsiveness to the alert, and the adaptation being based on user information associated with the user that indicates user responses to prior alerts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more cueing parameters further indicate environmental characteristics affecting the perishable item.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the environmental characteristics are obtained from a cueing device comprising sensors that detect the environmental characteristics, and the cueing device being proximally associated with the perishable item.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the sensors comprise one or more of a camera, a microphone, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a pressure sensor, an ambient light sensor, an air quality sensor, a spectrophotometric sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, or infrared sensor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a perishable item comprises:

obtaining images of the perishable item from the optical imaging device, and identifying the perishable item based on the images.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the user, an acknowledgement to the alert, wherein receiving comprises one or more of;

receiving an interaction, from the user, with a touch-screen display of the system, the interaction representing an acknowledgement, or

receiving images, from the optical imaging device of the system, illustrating a gesture performed by the user, the gesture representing an acknowledgement; and

updating the user profile associated with the user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating trend information associated with use of the perishable item by the user, wherein the trend information is provided to an outside system for aggregation with trend information associated with one or more other users.

8. A system configured to alert a user of a plurality of users to a perishable item, the system comprising:

an optical imaging device configured to obtain images of persons or perishable items;

an output configured to alert the user; and

one or more processors and non-transitory computer storage media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising;

identifying a perishable item to be tracked, and the user of the plurality of users to be alerted regarding a status of the perishable item;

obtaining information indicative of one or more cueing parameters, the one or more cueing parameters indicating, at least, a time associated with expiration of the perishable item; and

generating an alert, to be provided via the output, based on the obtained information, wherein the alert is configured to be adapted based on user information associated with the user to increase responsiveness to the alert by the user, the user information indicating user responses to prior alerts.

9. The cueing device of claim 8, wherein the system is part of a refrigerator.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more cueing parameters further indicate environmental characteristics affecting an inside of the refrigerator.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the system is in communication with a cueing device associated with the perishable item, and wherein the cueing device comprises sensors configured to detect environmental characteristics affecting the perishable item.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the perishable item is identified based on images, obtained via the optical imaging device, of the perishable item.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the perishable item is identified based on receipt of verbal or textual identification, from the user, of the perishable item.

14. The system of claim 8, further comprising an input capable of receiving, from the user, an acknowledgement of the alert.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the input is received from a user device of the user.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the input comprises a microphone.

17. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise setting, based on voice recognition input via a microphone, the time associated with expiration of the perishable item.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the input comprises a touch-sensitive display.

19. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying, based on images of the user illustrating one or more gestures, that the user acknowledged the alert.

20. The system of claim 8, wherein a plurality of perishable items are tracked.

21. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining an identify of the user, and obtaining user information associated with the identified user.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein determining an identity of the user comprises:

obtaining, via the optical imaging device, one or more images of a person; and

identifying, based on facial recognition, the person as corresponding to the user.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein determining an identity of the user is based on detecting information associated with a user device utilized by the user.

24. The system of claim 8, wherein the output comprises a display, and wherein the alert is presented on the display.

25. The system of claim 8, wherein the output comprises a display, and wherein status information associated with the perishable item is presented on the display.

26. The system of claim 8, wherein the output is an aural output.

27. The system of claim 8, wherein generating an alert is further based on one or more cueing parameters indicative of an urgency associated with the perishable item.

28. A system comprising:

a plurality of cueing devices associated with a plurality of users, the cueing devices being proximally associated with perishable items, and the cueing devices tracking interactions by users with the perishable items; and

a system of one or more computers, the system centrally aggregating information obtained from the cueing devices, wherein the one or more computers perform operations comprising;

obtaining information associated with use of a type perishable item by one or more of the plurality of users;

aggregating the obtained information and generating trend information associated with the type of perishable item; and

providing, for presentation, the trend information,

wherein each cueing device is configured to generate alerts associated with perishable items, the alerts being generated based on environmental characteristics affecting the perishable items, and the alerts being adapted to users based on user profiles indicating monitored user responses to prior alerts.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the trend information describes consumption of the type of perishable item.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the trend information indicates a ratio between times associated with consumption of the type of perishable item and/or times associated with discarding the type of perishable item.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the trend information is associated with a particular demographic of user.

32. The system of claim 28, wherein the operations further comprise:

prior to aggregation, anonymizing the obtained information to remove user information.

33. The system of claim 28, wherein the alerts are generated based on environmental characteristics affecting the perishable items and one or more cueing parameters indicative of urgencies associated with the perishable items.