CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR RECORDING DEVICE, CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR RECORDING METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20110199486A1
• Filed: 11/10/2009
• Published: 08/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Moriya, Atsushi
• Application Number:
  US13/125,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20110199486A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/150
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A customer behavior recording device includes: an entrance camera (13) which is arranged at the entrance of a facility, such as a store, and images a person who enters the store; an in-facility (in-store) camera (14) which is arranged in the facility and images a person who moves in the facility; and an accounting area camera (15) which is arranged in an accounting area of the facility and images a person who pays money for a commodity. Moreover, the customer behavior recording device includes: an attribute estimation unit which estimates an attribute of the person in accordance with the person imaged by the entrance camera (13); and a personal information recording unit having a file which has imaged the person and a file for recording the time when the image was captured and the attribute estimated by the attribute estimation unit.

Claims

1. A customer behavior recording device, comprising:

an entrance camera which is arranged at an entrance of a facility and which images a person entering the facility;

in-facility cameras which are arranged inside the facility and which image a person moving inside the facility; and

an accounting area camera which is arranged in the accounting area of the facility and which images a person paying to purchase merchandise.

2. The customer behavior recording device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an attribute estimation unit that estimates the attributes of a person on the basis of images of the person imaged by the entrance camera; and

a personal information recording unit that has files where images captured of the person, the time the image is captured and attributes estimated by the attribute estimation unit are recorded.

3. The customer behavior recording device according to claim 1, wherein the entrance camera is camera-equipped digital signage arranged at an entrance of the facility.

4. The customer behavior recording device according to claim 2, further comprising an image reference unit wherein images of people captured by the entrance camera are compared to images captured previously and recorded in the personal information recording unit, and when said person is the same person as the person in an image recorded in the personal information recording unit, the time said person was imaged is recorded in the file of the person considered the same person in the personal information recording unit, and when there is no image of a person matching said person in the images captured previously, a new file is created in the customer behavior recording device and the image captured of said person, the time the image was captured and attributes estimated by the attribute estimation unit are recorded.

5. The customer behavior recording device according to claim 4, wherein the image reference unit compares images of people captured by the in-facility camera to images recorded in the personal information recording unit, and records the time a person was imaged by the in-facility cameras in the file of a person considered to be the same person as that person of the personal information recording unit.

6. The customer behavior recording device according to claim 5, wherein the in-facility camera is a camera on camera-equipped digital signage arranged in the facility and captures images of a person viewing the camera-equipped digital signage, and

records in the personal information recording unit information relating to advertising images on the digital signage watched by said person.

7. The customer behavior recording device according to claim 5, wherein the image reference unit compares images of people captured by the accounting area camera to images recorded in the personal information recording unit, and records the time a person was imaged by the accounting area camera in the file of a person considered to be the same person as said person of the personal information recording unit.

8. The customer behavior recording device according to claim 5, wherein the accounting area camera is a camera attached to a POS register device, and

information relating to merchandise purchased by a person imaged by the accounting area camera is input from the POS register device and is recorded in the file of said person in the personal information recording unit.

9. A customer behavior recording method that:

receives images from an entrance camera that images a person entering an entrance of a facility;

receives images from an in-facility camera that images a person moving in the facility;

receives images from an accounting area camera that images a person accomplishing a payment process in an accounting area;

specifies attributes of a person from various images received from the entrance camera, and records customer information including identifying information and determined attribute information; and

specifies a customer from images from the in-facility camera and the accounting area camera and appends information indicating the movement history of the specified customer to customer information corresponding to the customer specified.

10. A computer-readable recording medium on which is recorded a program characterized in executing a process that:

receives images from an entrance camera that images a person entering an entrance of a facility;

receives images from an in-facility camera that images a person moving in the facility;

receives images from an accounting area camera that images a person accomplishing a payment process in an accounting area;

specifies attributes of a person from various images received from the entrance camera, and records customer information including identifying information and determined attribute information; and

specifies a customer from images from the in-facility camera and the accounting area camera and appends information indicating the movement history of the specified customer to customer information corresponding to the customer specified.