Apparatus and method for sales data gathering using mobile phone

• US 10,332,128 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2013
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TATA Consultancy Services Limited (Tata Sons Pvt Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: TATA Consultancy Services Limited (Tata Sons Pvt Ltd.)
• Inventors: Seshadri, Guruprasad, Purushothaman, Balamuralidhar, M, Girish Chandra
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Thierry L
• Application Number:
  US14/419,536
• Publication Number:
  US 20150227948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,150 Days
• Field of Search: 704231, 704246, 704257, 704259, 704270, 704275
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/083 Recognition networks G10L15/142, G10L15/16 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

A method and apparatus for performing analysis on data collected at a point of sale is disclosed. The data from the point of sale is collected using voice recognition technique implemented on a mobile communication device. In order to enable this, a limited vocabulary word recognition technique is implemented using a set of libraries storing speech utterances in a memory storage unit present of the mobile communication device. Dynamic updating of module parameters associated with the stored speech utterances is enabled by a speech refinement unit of the mobile communication device. The device further enables local as well as regional data collation and analysis.

Claims

1. An apparatus for executing a plurality of voice triggered commands for cumulative data acquisition of a plurality of retail commodities, the apparatus comprising:

a memory storage unit to store a plurality of speech samples including utterances associated with item details pertaining to a plurality of retail commodities;

a user interface unit to display one or more suggestive data selection options in text-form corresponding to one or more retail commodities matching a received real-time audio signal when model parameters of the stored plurality of speech samples are similar to model parameters of the received real-time audio signal;

a speech refining unit to enhance speech recognition capabilities of the apparatus by dynamically updating the model parameters associated with at least one stored speech sample based on a selection made from the plurality of suggestive data selection options in the text-form; and

a computing unit configured to cumulatively acquire sales data, including a quantity of each commodity selected for each displayed option.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said apparatus is selected from a group of communication devices including a mobile phone, a smart-phone, a PDA, a laptop and a tablet.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said item details include at least one of a name of a retail commodity, a quantity of a retail commodity or the price of a retail commodity.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said apparatus further comprises a speech-to-text mapping module configured to derive text associated with speech samples corresponding to the real-time audio signal.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said computing unit is further configured to generate analytic reports depicting sales trends for a particular retail commodity based on the type of brand, shop of purchase, and a season of purchase.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said plurality of speech samples are captured from plurality of users selling retail commodities in a retail shop.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the sales data further includes price, quantity, and rate; and

the computing unit is further configured to generate a local analysis report which is transmitted to a central server for regional analysis.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computing unit is further configured to:

analyze the sales data; and

generate sales patterns for each commodity sold at the retail store.

9. A method for executing a plurality of voice triggered commands for cumulative data acquisition of a plurality of retail commodities, said method comprising processor implemented steps of:

storing a plurality of speech samples including utterances associated with item details pertaining to a plurality of retail commodities;

dynamically displaying of one or more suggestive data selection options in text-form corresponding to each retail commodity matching a received real-time audio signal when model parameters of the stored plurality of speech samples are similar to model parameters of the received real-time audio signal;

enhancing speech recognition capabilities by dynamically updating the model parameters associated with at least one stored speech sample based on a selection made from the plurality of suggestive data selection options in the text-form; and

acquiring sales data, including a quantity of each commodity selected for each displayed option.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said plurality of speech samples are captured from plurality of users selling retail commodities in a particular region.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said item details include at least one of a name of a retail commodity, a quantity of a retail commodity, or a price of a retail commodity.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein said real-time audio signal is received from a user when a request for new purchase of a commodity is issued.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising analyzing said speech samples to extract model parameters corresponding to each word in the speech samples.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said options displayed in text-form to speech samples whose model parameters match the real-time audio signal.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein enhancing speech recognition capabilities includes improving the ability to identify text corresponding to received real-time audio signals.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the sales data further includes price, quantity, and rate; and

the method further comprises generating a local analysis report which is transmitted to a central server for regional analysis.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

analyzing the sales data to generate a sales pattern of each commodity sold at a retail store.