Method of merchandising for checkout lanes
First Claim
1. A method of increasing a rate of revenue at a point-of-sale, comprising:
- (a) moving in a substantially horizontal direction an object past a visual sensor;
(b) receiving visual image data of the object;
(c) comparing the visual image data with data stored in a database to find a set of matches;
(d) determining if the set of matches is found; and
(e) sending a recognition alert, wherein the set of matches is used to expedite a transaction process at the point-of-sale.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and computer readable media for recognizing and identifying items located on the belt of a counter and/or in a shopping cart of a store environment for the purpose of reducing/preventing bottom-of-the-basket loss, checking out the items automatically, reducing the checkout time, preventing consumer fraud, increasing revenue and replacing a conventional UPC scanning system to enhance the checking out speed. The images of the items taken by visual sensors may be analyzed to extract features using the scale-invariant feature-transformation (SIFT) method. Then, the extracted features are compared to those of trained images stored in a database to find a set of matches. Based on the set of matches, the items are recognized and associated with one or more instructions, commands or actions without the need for personnel to visually see the items, such as by having to come out from behind a check out counter or peering over a check out counter.
-
Citations
101 Claims
-
1. A method of increasing a rate of revenue at a point-of-sale, comprising:
-
(a) moving in a substantially horizontal direction an object past a visual sensor;
(b) receiving visual image data of the object;
(c) comparing the visual image data with data stored in a database to find a set of matches;
(d) determining if the set of matches is found; and
(e) sending a recognition alert, wherein the set of matches is used to expedite a transaction process at the point-of-sale. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A computer readable medium embodying program code with instructions for increasing a rate of revenue at a point-of-sale, said computer readable medium comprising:
-
program code for moving in a substantially horizontal direction an object past a visual sensor;
program code for receiving visual image data of the object;
program code for comparing the visual image data with data stored in a database to find a set of matches;
program code for determining if the set of matches is found; and
program code for sending a recognition alert, wherein the set of matches is used to expedite a transaction process at the point-of-sale. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
-
-
14. A method of preventing merchandise fraud, comprising:
-
(a) receiving visual image data of merchandise to be checked out, said merchandise located in a shopping cart;
(b) comparing the visual image data with data stored in a database to find a set of matches;
(c) determining if the set of matches is found; and
(d) sending a recognition alert to a point-of-sale, wherein the recognition alert is used to prevent bottom-of-the-basket (BoB) fraud. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
-
-
27. A computer readable medium embodying program code with instructions for preventing merchandise fraud, said computer readable medium comprising:
-
program code for receiving visual image data of merchandise to be checked out, said merchandise located in a shopping cart;
program code for comparing the visual image data with data stored in a database to find a set of matches;
program code for determining if the set of matches is found; and
program code for sending a recognition alert to a point-of-sale, wherein the recognition alert is used to prevent bottom-of-the-basket (BoB) fraud. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
-
-
31. A method of automatically including merchandise in a checkout sale transaction to reduce checkout waiting in line time for a store customer, comprising:
-
(a) receiving visual image data of merchandise to be checked out, said merchandise located in a shopping cart;
(b) comparing the visual image data with data stored in a first database to find a set of matches;
(c) determining if the set of matches is found;
(d) retrieving merchandise information from a second database; and
(e) sending the merchandise information to a point-of-sale, wherein the merchandise information is included in a sale transaction automatically. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
-
-
43. A computer readable medium embodying program code with instructions for automatically including merchandise in a checkout sale transaction to reduce checkout waiting in line time for a store customer, said computer readable medium comprising:
-
program code for receiving visual image data of merchandise to be checked out, said merchandise located in a shopping cart;
program code for comparing the visual image data with data stored in a first database to find a set of matches;
program code for determining if the set of matches is found;
program code for retrieving merchandise information from a second database; and
program code for sending the merchandise information to a point-of-sale, wherein the merchandise information is included in a sale transaction automatically. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46)
-
-
47. A method of monitoring behavior of a cashier, comprising:
-
comparing a detection log of one or more bottom-of-the basket (BoB) items with a transaction log of the one or more BoB items;
recording an action taken by the cashier to process each of the one or more BoB items; and
correlating the action over a predetermined period to characterize the behavior of the cashier.
-
-
48. A computer readable medium embodying program code with instructions for monitoring behavior of a cashier, said computer readable medium comprising:
-
program code for comparing a detection log of one or more bottom-of-the basket (BoB) items with a transaction log of the one or more BoB items;
program code for recording an action taken by the cashier to process each of the one or more BoB items; and
program code for correlating the action over a predetermined period to characterize the behavior of the cashier.
-
-
49. A method for processing at least one bottom-of-the-basket (BoB) item at a point-of-sale, comprising:
-
(a) receiving match data;
(b) displaying a BoB list using the match data, the BoB list including at least one BoB item;
(c) selecting a particular BoB item from the BoB list;
(d) determining if quantity of the particular BoB item needs to be changed;
(e) determining if the particular BoB item needs to be deleted from the BoB list;
(f) adding the particular BoB item to a transaction log;
(g) sending the particular BoB item to a transaction;
(h) deleting the particular BoB item from the BoB list; and
(i) determining if the transaction is finished. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53)
-
-
54. A computer readable medium embodying program code with instructions for processing bottom-of-the-basket (BoB) items at a point-of-sale, said computer readable medium comprising:
-
program code for receiving match data;
program code for displaying a BoB list using the match data, the BoB list including at least one BoB item;
program code for selecting a particular BoB item from the BoB list;
program code for determining if quantity of the particular BoB item needs to be changed;
program code for determining if the particular BoB item needs to be deleted from the BoB list;
program code for adding the particular BoB item to a transaction log;
program code for sending the particular BoB item to a transaction;
program code for deleting the particular BoB item from the BoB list; and
program code for determining if the transaction is finished. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56)
-
-
57. A method of automatically including merchandise in a checkout sale transaction to increase revenue, comprising:
-
(a) receiving visual image data of merchandise to be checked out;
(b) analyzing the visual image data to extract one or more visual features;
(c) comparing the one or more visual features with feature data stored in a database to find a set of matches;
(d) determining if the set of matches is found;
(e) sending a recognition alert to a point of sale, wherein the recognition alert is used to prevent bottom-of-the-basket fraud; and
(f) sending merchandise information to the point-of-sale, wherein the merchandise information is included in a checkout sale transaction automatically. - View Dependent Claims (58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70)
-
-
71. A computer readable medium embodying program code with instructions for automatically including merchandise in a checkout sale transaction to increase revenue, said computer readable medium comprising:
-
program code for receiving visual image data of merchandise to be checked out;
program code for analyzing the visual image data to extract one or more visual features;
program code for comparing the one or more visual features with feature data stored in a database to find a set of matches;
program code for determining if the set of matches is found;
program code for sending a recognition alert to a point of sale, wherein the recognition alert is used to prevent bottom-of-the-basket fraud; and
program code for sending merchandise information to the point-of-sale, wherein the merchandise information is included in a checkout sale transaction automatically. - View Dependent Claims (72, 73)
-
-
74. A method of increasing accuracy in including merchandise in a checkout sale transaction to account for a store inventory, comprising:
-
(a) receiving visual image data of merchandise to be checked out;
(b) comparing the visual image data with data stored in a database to find a set of matches;
(c) determining if the set of matches is found; and
(d) sending a recognition alert to a point of sale, wherein the recognition alert is used to prevent bottom-of-the-basket fraud. - View Dependent Claims (75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84)
-
-
85. A computer readable medium embodying program code with instructions for increasing accuracy in including merchandise in a checkout sale transaction to account for a store inventory, said computer readable medium comprising:
-
program code for receiving visual image data of merchandise to be checked out;
program code for comparing the visual image data with data stored in a database to find a set of matches;
program code for determining if the set of matches is found; and
program code for sending a recognition alert to a point of sale, wherein the recognition alert is used to prevent bottom-of-the-basket fraud. - View Dependent Claims (86, 87, 88)
-
-
89. A method of linking a visual image of merchandise to a checkout sale transaction, comprising:
-
(a) receiving visual image data of merchandise to be checked out;
(b) identifying the merchandise using the visual image data; and
(c) sending merchandise information to the point-of-sale, wherein the merchandise information is included in a checkout sale transaction automatically. - View Dependent Claims (90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96)
-
-
97. A computer readable medium embodying program code with instructions for linking a visual image of merchandise to a checkout sale transaction, said computer readable medium comprising:
-
program code for receiving visual image data of merchandise to be checked out;
program code for identifying the merchandise using the visual image data; and
program code for sending merchandise information to the point-of-sale, wherein the merchandise information is included in a checkout sale transaction automatically.
-
-
98. The computer readable medium 97, further comprising:
program code for analyzing the visual image data to extract one or more visual features based on a scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) method.
-
99. The computer readable medium 97, further comprising:
-
program code for checking if each element of the set of matches is reliable; and
program code for repeating operation of the program code for receiving visual image data to the program code for checking if each element of the set of matches is reliable.
-
-
100. A method for processing at least one bottom-of-the-basket (BoB) item at a point-of-sale, comprising:
-
(a) receiving visual image data of at least one BoB item;
(b) receiving match data;
(c) displaying a BoB list using the match data, the BoB list including at least one BoB item; and
(d) freezing a sale transaction until a human intervention is performed to include the BoB item in the transaction.
-
-
101. A computer readable medium embodying program code with instructions for processing at least one bottom-of-the-basket (BoB) item at a point-of-sale, said computer readable medium comprising:
-
program code for receiving visual image data of merchandise to be checked out;
program code for receiving match data program code for displaying a BoB list using the match data, the BoB list including at least one BoB item; and
program code for freezing a sale transaction until a human intervention is performed to include the BoB item in the transaction.
-
Specification