Tiered on-demand location-based tracking service and infrastructure

• US 20060136285A1
• Filed: 12/17/2004
• Published: 06/22/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions Holdings Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pierce, Justin Monroe, Wince, Susan Elizabeth, Alvarez, Julio, Do, Phuc Ky
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,281 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• 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: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers

Abstract

A location-based service includes detecting the relative motion of an on-site resource, detecting the absolute position of the on-site resource, and tracking the position of the on-site resource. The position is tracked by deriving a deduced position based on the detected relative motion and adjusting the deduced position as a function of and in response to the detected absolute position. According to one embodiment, the on-site resource can be a shopping cart and the tracking includes recording a travel pattern of the shopping cart as it moves through a site floor plan such that the travel pattern is reproducible. Preferably, the recorded travel pattern includes travel patterns within an aisle in the site floor plan such that the recorded patterns include travel along the length of the aisle and travel having components which are perpendicular to the length of the aisle.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting the relative motion of an on-site resource;

detecting the absolute position of the on-site resource; and

tracking the position of the on-site resource by;

deriving a deduced position based on said detected relative motion; and

adjusting the deduced position as a function of and in response to said detected absolute position.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said on-site resource is a shopping cart and said tracking further includes recording a travel pattern of the shopping cart as it moves through a site floor plan such that the travel pattern is reproducible.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the recorded travel pattern includes travel patterns within an aisle in the site floor plan, the patterns including travel along the length of the aisle and travel having components which are perpendicular to the length of the aisle.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transitioning battery powered electronics to a reduced power state in response to a detection of relative motion which is below a predetermined value.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining battery powered electronics in a reduced power state and transitioning the battery powered electronics to an increased power state in response to the detection of relative motion.

6. A method comprising:

detecting the relative motion of an on-site resource which is movable within a site and based thereon generate relative motion data;

detecting an absolute positional reference and based thereon generate absolute positional data, the absolute positional reference being indicative of an absolute position within the site;

wirelessly communicating the relative motion, and absolute positional, data between the on-site resource and a server;

tracking the relative motion data to deduce an on-site position for the on-site resource; and

adjusting the deduced position as a function of and in response to the wireless communication of the absolute positional data.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said on-site resource is a shopping cart and said tracking further includes recording a travel pattern of the shopping cart as it moves through a site floor plan such that the travel pattern is reproducible.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the recorded travel pattern includes travel patterns within an aisle in the site floor plan, the patterns including travel along the length of the aisle and travel having components which are perpendicular to the length of the aisle.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

transitioning battery powered electronics to a reduced power state in response to a detection of relative motion which is below a predetermined value.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

maintaining battery powered electronics in a reduced power state and transitioning the battery powered electronics to an increased power state in response to the detection of relative motion.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein the absolute positional reference is a battery powered IR beacon which emits an IR signal into which absolute positional information is encoded, the on-site resource being able to detect the IR signal in response to being brought within a predetermined distance from the beacon, the method further comprising:

reducing power from the IR beacon in response to detecting relative motion of the on-site resource which is below a predetermined value.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein the absolute positional reference is a battery powered IR beacon which conditionally emits an IR signal into which absolute positional information is encoded, the beacon being maintained in a reduced power state in which only a receiver through which a relative motion signal is received is active, the on-site resource being able to detect the IR signal in response to being brought within a predetermined distance from the beacon, the method further comprising:

transitioning the beacon to an increased power state in which the IR signal is transmitted in response to a reception of the relative motion signal.

13. The method of claim 6 wherein the relative motion is detected by capturing consecutive images of a floor and measuring displacement of common image elements between consecutively captured images.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the absolute positional reference is a floor marking.

15. Apparatus comprising:

a processor which executes code stored in an accessible memory;

a storage device which is accessible to said processor and which retains stored data after power is removed from the storage device;

a wireless network interface which is accessible to said processor and through which access to a wireless network is provided;

wherein the processor executes code which is effective to;

receive, through said wireless network interface, relative motion information which relates to an on-site resource;

deduce a position on a site floor plan for the on-site resource by tracking the received relative motion information;

receive, through said wireless network interface, absolute positional information which relates to the absolute position of the on-site resource within the site floor plan; and

adjust the deduced position as a function of and in response to the received absolute positional information.

16. Apparatus according to claim 15 wherein said on-site resource is a shopping cart and said processor executes code which is further effective to record a travel pattern of the shopping cart on said storage device as it moves through a site floor plan such that the travel pattern is reproducible.

17. Apparatus according to claim 16 wherein the recorded travel pattern on said storage device includes a timestamp in association with received relative motion information and received absolute positional information such that a reproduced travel pattern includes pauses and travel patterns within an aisle in the site floor plan, the patterns including travel along the length of the aisle and travel having components which are perpendicular to the length of the aisle.

18. Apparatus comprising:

a shopping cart;

a relative motion detector included on said shopping cart which detects the relative motion of said shopping cart and generates relative motion data;

an absolute position detector attached to said shopping cart which receives absolute positional information with respect to a site floor plan;

a wireless transmitter which is operatively coupled to said relative motion detector and to said absolute position detector and which transmits the relative motion data and the absolute positional information to an on-site server.

19. Apparatus according to claim 18 wherein said relative motion detector includes an image capture device and detects relative motion in at least two dimensions by capturing consecutive images of a floor and measuring displacement of common image elements between consecutively captured images.

20. Apparatus according to claim 18 wherein at least a portion of circuitry associated with the shopping cart transitions to a reduced power state in response to detecting relative motion of the shopping cart which is below a predetermined value, the circuitry being selected from a group consisting of said relative motion detector, said absolute position detector, and said wireless transmitter.

21. Apparatus according to claim 18 wherein at least a portion of circuitry associated with the shopping cart is maintained in a reduced power state and wherein a transition to an increased power state is made in response to the detection of shopping cart relative motion, the circuitry being selected from a group consisting of said relative motion detector, said absolute position detector, and said wireless transmitter.

22. A method comprising:

performing an analysis of a business entity by compiling customer tendencies related to the business entity, the analysis including;

detecting the relative motion of an on-site resource;

detecting the absolute position of the on-site resource; and

tracking the position of the on-site resource by;

deriving a deduced position based on said detected relative motion;

adjusting the deduced position as a function of and in response to said detected absolute position; and

recording a travel pattern of the on-site resource as it moves through the site, the recording being such that the travel pattern is reproducible; and

providing a report to the business entity based on said performed analysis.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein said on-site resource is a shopping cart.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the recorded travel pattern includes travel patterns within an aisle in the site floor plan, the patterns including travel along the length of the aisle and travel having components which are perpendicular to the length of the aisle.

25. A method comprising:

deploying a shopping cart system at a site by;

establishing an absolute positional reference at the site;

outfitting at least one shopping cart at the site with a display and a detector having the capacity to detect the established absolute positional reference and generate absolute positional data and to detect relative motion and generate relative motion data, and to transmit that data to a server; and

providing software for installation on the server having the capability to determine the on-site position of the shopping cart as a function of the relative motion, and absolute positional, data and record a travel pattern of the shopping cart as it moves through the site, the recording being such that the travel pattern is reproducible.

26. A method comprising:

deploying computing infrastructure into a movable on-site resource, the deployed infrastructure provides the on-site resource with the ability to;

detect its relative motion and based thereon generate relative motion data;

detect an absolute positional reference and based thereon generate absolute positional data, the absolute positional reference being provided at the site and being indicative of an absolute position within the site; and

wirelessly transmit the relative motion data and the absolute positional data; and

integrating server executable code into a server which is configurable to wirelessly receive data from and transmit data to said deployed computing infrastructure, wherein the code is executable on the server to;

wirelessly receive the relative motion data and the absolute positional data; and

track the relative motion data to deduce an on-site position for the on-site resource, the deduced position being adjusted as a function of and in response to the wireless reception of the absolute positional data.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein said deployed computing infrastructure is infrastructure selected from the group consisting of hardware, firmware, software, and combinations thereof.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein the absolute positional reference is an IR beacon and wherein the on-site resource is able to detect the absolute positional reference in response to being brought within a predetermined distance from the beacon.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the on-site resource is a shopping cart and the tracking further includes recording a travel pattern of the shopping cart as it moves through the site, the recording being such that the travel pattern is reproducible.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the recorded travel pattern includes travel patterns within an aisle in the site, the patterns including travel along the length of the aisle and travel having components which are perpendicular to the length of the aisle.

31. A product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code stored therein, the computer readable program code in said product being effective to;

detect the relative motion of an on-site resource;

detect the absolute position of the on-site resource; and

track the position of the on-site resource by;

deriving a deduced position based on said detected relative motion; and

adjusting the deduced position as a function of and in response to said detected absolute position.

32. A product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code stored therein, the computer readable program code in said product being effective to;

detect the relative motion of an on-site resource which is movable within a site and based thereon generate relative motion data;

detect an absolute positional reference and based thereon generate absolute positional data, the absolute positional reference being indicative of an absolute position within the site;

wirelessly communicate the relative motion, and absolute positional, data between the on-site resource and a server;

track the relative motion data to deduce an on-site position for the on-site resource;

adjust the deduced position as a function of and in response to the wireless communication of the absolute positional data;

wherein said tracking further includes recording a travel pattern of the on-site resource as it moves through a site floor plan such that the travel pattern is reproducible.