METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MONITORING UNIT DEPLETION IN AN INDEPENDENT REAL-TIME MASS STORAGE UNIT SYSTEM BY USING AN ESTIMATED TARE MASS OF THE ITEM

• US 20080052037A1
• Filed: 08/25/2006
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maplebear Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Watt, Stephen James, Bodin, William Kress, Masterson, Michael Lee
• Granted Patent: US 7,937,289 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for estimating, refining, and using the tare mass for an item to determine and monitor item depletion. In response to detecting an initial presence of an item in the storage unit, a controller collects data about the item. The controller then searches a database for a recorded item containing the same item identification. The tare mass of the item is set equal to the refined tare mass of the recorded item retrieved from the database. The tare mass is then used to calculate a depletion threshold for the item.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for obtaining a tare mass for an item in a storage unit, the computer implemented method comprising:

responsive to detecting an initial presence of an item in the storage unit, collecting data about the item, wherein the data include an item identification, a product type, and an initial mass;

searching a database for a recorded item containing the same item identification;

retrieving a total mass of the recorded item from a database;

comparing the initial mass of the item with the total mass of the recorded item; and

responsive to a difference of less than a predetermined amount between the initial mass of the item and the total mass of the recorded item, setting a tare mass of the item equal to a tare mass of the recorded item retrieved from the database.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a difference between the initial mass of the item and the total mass of the recorded item that is greater than a predetermined amount, prompting a user to confirm the identity of the item; and

responsive to a positive confirmation of the item, calculating the tare mass of the item as (Tr/R_tot)/Ii, wherein Tr is a tare of the recorded item, R_tot is a total mass of the recorded item and Ii is the initial mass of the item.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to an absence of the recorded item in the database, prompting a user to provide a net weight of the item, an instruction to search for a similar item, or an instruction to estimate the tare mass of the item.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein responsive to the user providing the net weight of the item, the tare mass of the item is set equal to the initial mass of the item minus the net weight of the item.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein based on the system finding a similar item, the tare mass of the item is set equal to a tare mass of the similar item, provided that the difference between the initial mass of the item and the total mass of the similar item is less than a predetermined amount.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the difference between the initial mass of the item and the total mass of the similar item is greater than a predetermined amount, the system calculates the new tare mass of the item as follows:

((Ts/S_tot)*Ii), wherein Ts is a tare mass of the similar item, S_tot is a total mass of the similar item, and Ii is the initial mass of the item.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein responsive to the user providing the instruction to estimate the tare mass of the item, calculating the tare mass of the item as a predetermined percentage of the initial weight of the item.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to an absence of the recorded item, searching for a recorded similar item.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to reaching a threshold depletion, alerting a user.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to detecting the last current mass of the item, setting the recorded tare mass of the item equal to a simple average, the last current mass of the item, or ((No* Tr+I1)/(No+1), wherein No is the number of occurrences of the item, Tr is the recorded tare mass of the item, and I1 is the last current mass of the item.

11. A computer program product for obtaining a tare mass for an item in a storage unit, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code tangibly embodied thereon, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code for collecting data about the item, wherein the data include an item identification, a product type, an initial footprint, and an initial mass, responsive to detecting an initial presence of an item in the storage unit;

computer usable program code for searching a database for a recorded item containing the same item identification;

computer usable program code for retrieving a total mass of the recorded item from a database;

computer usable program code for comparing the initial mass of the item with the total mass of the recorded item; and

computer usable program code for setting a tare mass of the item equal to a tare mass of the recorded item retrieved from the database, responsive to a difference of less than a predetermined amount between the initial mass of the item and the total mass of the recorded item.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

computer usable program code for prompting a user to confirm the identity of the item, responsive to a difference between the initial mass of the item and the total mass of the recorded item that is greater than a predetermined amount; and

computer usable program code for calculating Tm=(Tr/R_tot)*Ii, wherein, Tm is the tare mass of the item, Tr is a tare of the recorded item, R_tot is a total mass of the recorded item, and Ii is the initial mass of the item, responsive to a positive confirmation of the item identity.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

computer usable program code for prompting the user to provide a net weight of the item, an instruction to search for a similar item, or an instruction to estimate the tare mass of the item, responsive to an absence of the recorded item in the database.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

computer usable program code for setting the tare mass of the item equal to the initial mass of the item minus the net weight of the item, responsive to the user providing the net weight of the item.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

computer usable program code for setting the tare mass of the item equal to a tare mass of the similar item, provided that the difference between the initial mass of the item and the total mass of the similar item is less than a predetermined amount, responsive to the system finding a similar item.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

computer usable program code for calculating T=Ts/S_tot)*Ii, wherein T is the tare mass of the item, Ts is a tare mass of the similar item, S_tot is a total mass of the similar item, and Ii is the initial mass of the item, responsive to the difference greater than a predetermined amount between the initial mass of the item and the total mass of the similar item.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

computer usable program code for calculating the tare mass of the item as a predetermined percentage of the initial weight of the item, responsive to receiving the instruction to estimate the tare mass of the item.

18. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

computer usable program code setting the recorded tare mass of the item equal to a simple average, the last current mass of the item, or (No*Tr+I1)/No+1, wherein, No is the number of occurrences of the item, Tr is the recorded tare mass of the item, and I1 is the last current mass of the item, responsive to detecting the last current mass of an item.

19. An apparatus for obtaining a tare mass for an item in an independent storage system, the apparatus comprising:

a user interface;

a tag reader; and

a controller, wherein the controller further comprises;

a bus;

a storage device connected to the bus, wherein the storage device contains a computer usable program product; and

a processor unit, wherein the processor unit executes the computer usable program product to collect data about the item, wherein the data include an item identification, a product type, an initial footprint, and an initial mass, responsive to detecting an initial presence of an item in the storage unit;

search a database for a recorded item containing the same item identification;

retrieve a total mass of the recorded item from a database;

compare the initial mass of the item with the total mass of the recorded item; and

responsive to a difference of less than a predetermined amount between the initial mass of the item and the total mass of the recorded item, set a tare mass of the item equal to a tare mass of the recorded item retrieved from the database.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the processor unit executes the computer usable program product to set the recorded tare mass of the item equal to a simple average, the last current mass of the item, or (No*Tr+I1)/No+1, wherein, No is the number of occurrences of the item, Tr is the recorded tare mass of the item, and I1 is the last current mass of the item, responsive to detecting the last current mass of an item.