System for tracking physical objects

• US 10,567,912 B2
• Filed: 02/15/2019
• Issued: 02/18/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Jones, Nicholaus Adam, Vasgaard, Aaron, Taylor, Robert James, Jones, Matthew Allen
• Primary Examiner(s): Miah, Liton
• Application Number:
  US16/277,594
• Publication Number:
  US 20190182618A1
• Time in Patent Office: 368 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 2007/10524 Hand-held scanners
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1095 the scanner comprising adaptations for scanning a record carrier that is displayed on a display-screen or the like
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1413 1D bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0081 the reader being a portable scanner or data reader G07G1/009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Described in detail herein are systems and methods for determining in situ locations of physical objects using mobile devices within a facility. Multiple mobile devices may scan different identifiers of different physical objects disposed in a facility. The mobile devices may transmit the identifiers to a distributed computing system. The distributed computing system may query a database to determine the in situ location of the physical objects associated with the identifiers. In response to not being able to retrieve a in situ location of a physical object, the distributed computing system may determine a path of the mobile device which transmitted the identifier associated with the physical object with the unknown in situ location. The distributed computing system may determine the in situ location of the physical object for which the in situ location was unknown based on the path and the known locations of the other physical objects.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a distributed computing system;

one or more mobile devices communicatively coupled to the distributed computing system, including a processor and an optical reader, one or more of the mobile devices being configured to (i) scan a plurality of different identifiers of a plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects, and (ii) transmit the plurality of different identifiers to the distributed computing system;

wherein the distributed computing system is programmed to;

receive the plurality of different identifiers for the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects;

query a database for known locations of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects using the plurality of different identifiers, wherein a location of at least one of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects is unknown;

interpolate each of the known locations of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects as a data point;

retrieve a map of a facility in which the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects are designated to be disposed from the database;

overlay the map including locations at which each physical object of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects are designated to be disposed, over the data points representing each known location of the physical objects;

determine whether the data points representing each of the known locations of each of the physical objects correlate with the designated locations of each physical object;

generate one or more projected paths of the one or more of mobile devices based on the data points, wherein generating the one or more projected paths includes omitting at least one data point determined to be arbitrary, unplanned, or illogical; and

determine the location of the at least one physical object based on a chronological order of each scan each of the plurality of different identifiers of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects and one or more projected paths.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein in response to determining a location of the at least one physical object, verify the location is where the physical object is supposed to be disposed.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the distributed computing system is further configured to determine the location of the at least one physical object based on an intersection of two or more of the projected paths.

4. The system in claim 3, wherein in response to determining the location of the at least one physical object based on an intersection of two or more of the projected paths the distributed computing system triggers an event.

5. The system in claim 4, wherein the event is one or more of:

issuing an alert, storing the determined location of the at least one physical object, determining a new location to move the physical object.

6. The system in claim 1, wherein the mobile device is one or more of:

a mobile phone, a portable digital assistant, a laptop computer, a tablet device, or a wireless portable device.

7. A method comprising:

scanning, via one or more mobile devices communicatively coupled to a distributed computing system, including a processor and an optical reader, a plurality of different identifiers of a plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects;

transmitting, via the one or more mobile devices, the plurality of different identifiers to the distributed computing system;

receiving, via the distributed computing system, the plurality of different identifiers for the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects;

querying, via the distributed computing system, a database for known locations of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects using the plurality of different identifiers, wherein a location of at least one of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects is unknown;

interpolating, via the distributed computing system, each of the known locations of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects as a data point;

retrieving, via the distributed computing system, a map of a facility in which the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects are designated to be disposed from the database;

overlaying, via the distributed computing system, the map including locations at which each physical object of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects are designated to be disposed, over the data points representing each known location of the physical objects;

determining, via the distributed computing system, whether the data points representing each of the known locations of each of the physical objects correlate with the designated locations of each physical object;

generating, via the distributed computing system, one or more projected paths of the one or more of mobile devices based on the data points, wherein generating the one or more projected paths includes omitting at least one data point determined to be arbitrary, unplanned, or illogical; and

determining, via the distributed computing system, the location of the at least one physical object based on a chronological order of each scan of the plurality of different identifiers of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising in response to determining a location of the at least one physical object, verifying, via the distributed computing system, the location is where the physical object is supposed to be disposed.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining, via the computing system, the location of the at least one physical object based on an intersection of two or more of the projected paths.

10. The method in claim 9, further comprising in response to the distributed computing system determining the location of the at least one physical object based on an intersection of two or more of the projected path paths, triggering, via the distributed computing system, an event.

11. The method in claim 10, wherein the event is one or more of:

issuing an alert, storing the determined location of the at least one physical object, determining a new location to move the physical object.

12. The method in claim 7, wherein the mobile device is one or more of:

a mobile phone, a portable digital assistant, a laptop computer, a tablet device, or a wireless portable device.

13. One or more non-transitory computer readable memory media storing instructions, wherein the instructions are executable by one or more processors to:

scan, via one or more mobile devices communicatively coupled to a distributed computing system, including a processor and an optical reader, a plurality of different identifiers of a plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects;

transmit, via the one or more mobile devices, the plurality of different identifiers to the distributed computing system;

receive, via the distributed computing system, the plurality of different identifiers for the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects;

query, via the distributed computing system, a database for known locations of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects using the plurality of different identifiers, wherein a location of at least one of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects is unknown;

interpolate, via the distributed computing system, each of the known locations of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects as a data point;

retrieve, via the distributed computing system, a map of a facility in which the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects are designated to be disposed from the database;

overlay, via the distributed computing system, the map including locations at which each physical object of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects are designated to be disposed, over the data points representing each known location of the physical objects;

determine, via the distributed computing system, whether the data points representing each of the known locations of each of the physical objects correlate with the designated locations of each physical object;

generate, via the distributed computing system, one or more projected paths of the one or more of mobile devices based on the data points, wherein generating the one or more projected paths includes omitting at least one data point determined to be arbitrary, unplanned, or illogical; and

determine, via the distributed computing system, the location of the at least one physical object based on a chronological order of each scan of the plurality of different identifiers of the plurality of different geographically distributed physical objects.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 13, wherein in response to determining a location of the at least one physical object, execution of the instructions by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to verify the location is a where the physical object is supposed to be disposed.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 13, wherein the instructions are executable by one or more processors to determine, via the computing system, the location of the at least one physical object based on an intersection of two or more of the projected paths.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 15, wherein in response to the distributed computing system determining the location of the at least one physical object based on an intersection of two or more of the projected paths, execution of the instructions by the one or more processors causes one or more processors to trigger an event.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 16, wherein the event is one or more of:

issuing an alert, storing the determined location of the at least one physical object, determining a new location to move the physical object.