SHOPPING FACILITY ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS, DEVICES AND METHODS PERTAINING TO MOVEMENT OF A MOBILE RETAIL PRODUCT DISPLAY

• US 20160255969A1
• Filed: 03/04/2016
• Published: 09/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores Texas LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: High, Donald R., Atchley, Michael D., Winkle, David C.
• Application Number:
  US15/061,805
• Publication Number:
  US 20160255969A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
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• CPC Class Codes: A47F 2010/005 using RFID elements
• CPC Class Codes: A47F 2010/025 using stock management systems
• CPC Class Codes: A47F 3/08 with arrangements for continuously or intermittently moving the merchandise
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4011 Regulation of the cleaning machine by electric means; Control systems and remote control systems therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/04 Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 2501/0045 Return vending of articles, e.g. bottles
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 2501/0054 Sorting of waste or refuse
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 2501/0063 Using robots
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 5/28 using electrical control means
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 5/3422 using video scanning devices, e.g. TV-cameras
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• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/63 in response to network capacity
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• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0061 : for transition from automatic pilot to manual pilot and vice versa
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• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/021 : specially adapted to land vehicles
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• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0291 : Fleet control monitoring fleets in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/127, G08G1/127
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• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10821 : further details of bar or optical code scanning devices
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• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 : Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 : Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
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• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 : Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 : Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 : Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 : Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 : Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/30 : Administration of product recycling or disposal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 : specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
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• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 : Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 : Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 : Supply or demand aggregation
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• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 : Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
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• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 : Item locations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 : Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 : Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10028 : Range image; Depth image; 3D point clouds
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/593 : from stereo images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/74 : involving reference images or patches
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/20 : in augmented reality scenes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/40 : in video content extracting overlay text G06V20/62; video retrieval G06F16/70; processing of video elementary streams in video servers H04N21/234; processing of video elementary streams in video clients H04N21/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/44 : Event detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 : Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 : exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 : Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/647 : by matching two-dimensional images to three-dimensional objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 : of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 : Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 : Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 : Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
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• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 : Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 : Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 : acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0071 : with a programmable schedule
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/38 : Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/116 : Visible light communication
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• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 : for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0846 : using time-dependent-passwords, e.g. periodically changing passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 : Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/143 : Termination or inactivation of sessions, e.g. event-controlled end of session
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• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 : between a recording apparatus and a television camera
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• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 : for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 : from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 : Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 : Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 : Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 : for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
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• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 : Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 : Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
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• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 30/82 : Recycling of waste of electrical or electronic equipment [WEEE]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 90/00 : Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 90/10 : Bio-packaging, e.g. packing containers made from renewable resources or bio-plastics
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 : Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 : Mobile robot

Abstract

A motorized transport unit is configured to temporarily attach to a mobile retail product display and a central computer system is configured to task that motorized transport unit to move such a mobile retail product display. This movement can be from a customer-inaccessible area to a customer-accessible area and/or vice versa. The mobile retail product displays can include refrigerated-product displays and heated-product displays. By one approach such tasking is based, at least in part, upon detecting one or more predetermined states such as a predetermined temporal state, a detected customer demographic, local weather conditions, and/or a societal observation.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a retail shopping facility;

at least one mobile retail product display that is disposed at the retail shopping facility;

at least one motorized transport unit;

a central computer system in wireless communications with the at least one motorized transport unit, the central computer system being configured to task the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the mobile retail product display comprises a refrigerated-product mobile retail product display.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the mobile retail product display comprises a heated-product mobile retail product display.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the motorized transport unit is configured to move the mobile retail product display by temporarily attaching to the mobile retail product display.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is configured to task the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display in order to place the mobile retail product display in a customer-accessible area.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the central computer system is configured to task the at least one motorized transport unit two place the mobile retail product display and a customer-accessible area by moving the mobile retail product display from a customer-inaccessible area.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is configured to task the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display in order to move the mobile retail product display from a customer-accessible area to a customer-inaccessible area.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is configured to task the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display in order to restock the mobile retail product display with retail product.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is configured to task the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display as a function, at least in part, of a predetermined temporal state.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the predetermined temporal state comprises at least one of:

a time of day;

a day of the week;

a day of the year.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is configured to task the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display as a function, at least in part, of a detected customer demographic.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is configured to task the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display as a function, at least in part, of local weather conditions.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the local weather conditions comprise at least one of recent local weather conditions, current local weather conditions, and near-term predicted local weather conditions.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the central computer system is configured to task the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display as a function, at least in part, of a societal observation.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the societal observation comprises at least one of a holiday, a sports event, and a cultural celebration.

16. A method for use with a retail shopping facility having at least one mobile retail product display and at least one motorized transport unit, comprising:

by a central computer system in wireless communications with the at least one motorized transport unit;

tasking the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein tasking the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display comprises tasking the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display from a customer-inaccessible area to a customer-accessible area.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein tasking the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display comprises tasking the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display from a customer-accessible area to a customer-inaccessible area.

19. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

detecting a predetermined temporal state;

and wherein tasking the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display comprises tasking the at least one motorized transport unit in response to detecting the predetermined temporal state.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

detecting a predetermined societal observation;

and wherein tasking the at least one motorized transport unit to move the at least one mobile retail product display comprises tasking the at least one motorized transport unit in response to detecting the predetermined societal observation.