SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CUSTOMIZED NAVIGATION

• US 20200132470A1
• Filed: 10/18/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2018
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Xu, Huozhou, Rose, William R., Zhu, Jie, Gong, Bowen, Ye, Yanbin, Liu, Jiankun
• Application Number:
  US16/657,790
• Publication Number:
  US 20200132470A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10099 the directional field being used for pinpointing the location of the record carrier, e.g. for finding or locating an RFID tag amongst a plurality of RFID tags, each RFID tag being associated with an object, e.g. for physically locating the RFID tagged object in a warehouse
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 3/208 Electronic labels, Labels integrating electronic displays
• 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 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings

Abstract

In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to providing customized in-store navigation. In some embodiments, there is provided a system for providing customized in-store navigation including shelving units; shelf electronic shelf labels; product electronic shelf labels; wireless access points (WAPs); one or more databases; a navigation services control circuit configured to transmit location information associated with the product ESLs at a retail store to an in-store navigation interface operable on a portable electronic device when the portable electronic device is inside the retail store; wireless beacons; and the in-store navigation interface configured to: receive an input; identify a target retail product; receive the location information; receive beacon; determine a location of the portable electronic device; determine a location of the target retail product; and display directions to the location of the target retail product on a display device.

Claims

1. A system for providing customized in-store navigation to a user inside a retail store comprising:

a plurality of shelving units in a retail store configured to store a plurality of retail products, each of the plurality of shelving units comprises a plurality of shelves each distributed along a height of and in between at least two support members coupled to each end of the plurality of shelves;

a plurality of shelf electronic shelf labels (shelf ESLs), wherein each shelf ESL of the plurality of shelf ESLs is mounted to a portion of the shelving unit of the plurality of shelving units;

a plurality of product electronic shelf labels (product ESLs) communicatively coupled to at least one of the plurality of shelf ESLs, wherein at least one of the plurality of product ESLs is associated with at least one of the plurality of shelves of the shelving unit, wherein each product ESL being associated with a set of product items belonging to a particular retail product of the plurality of retail products;

a plurality of wireless access points (WAPs) configured to wireless communicate with the at least one of the plurality of shelf ESLs and the plurality of product ESLs, the plurality of WAPs configured to be coupled to an ESL services control circuit;

one or more databases configured to store a plurality of location information associated with the plurality of product ESLs at the retail store relative to a layout of a map of the retail store;

a navigation services control circuit coupled to the WAPs and the one or more databases and configured to transmit the plurality of location information associated with the plurality of product ESLs at the retail store to an in-store navigation interface operable on a portable electronic device when the portable electronic device is inside the retail store;

a plurality of wireless beacons located proximate to the plurality of shelving units and configured to transmit wireless beacon signals; and

the in-store navigation interface configured to;

receive an input from a user associated with the portable electronic device;

identify a target retail product of the plurality of retail products from the input;

receive the plurality of location information associated with the plurality of product ESLs via a transceiver of the portable electronic device;

receive beacon signals transmitted by the plurality of wireless beacons;

determine, in cooperation with a first control circuit of the portable electronic device and based on the beacon signals, a location of the portable electronic device;

determine a location of the target retail product identified from the voice input based on the plurality of location information associated with the plurality of product ESLs; and

display directions to the location of the target retail product on a display device of the portable electronic device, wherein the directions to the location of the target retail product are overlaid on the layout of the map of the retail store.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the shelf ESLs is mounted to each one of the at least two support members.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the shelf ESLs is associated with a particular shelving unit of the plurality of shelving units.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein each wireless beacon signal of the plurality of wireless beacons comprises a beacon identifier.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each wireless beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons is mounted proximate a top edge of the at least one of the at least two support members of the shelving unit.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each wireless beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons that is associated with a first row of a pair of rows of a set of shelving units of the plurality of shelving units is a threshold distance apart from other wireless beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein each wireless beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons that is associated with a second row of the pair of rows of the set of shelving units is located diagonally relative to the plurality of wireless beacons associated with the first row, and wherein each of the plurality of wireless beacons associated the second row is the threshold distance apart from other wireless beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons associated with the second row.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein a first beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons associated with the first row is mounted proximate a top-side edge of the at least one of the at least two support members of an end shelving unit of the plurality of shelving units associated with the first row, wherein the top-side edge is not adjoining another top-side edge of a support member associated with an adjoining shelving unit of the plurality of shelving units associated with the first row.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein a set of beacons of the plurality of beacons is mounted on a ceiling over one or more areas of the retail store, wherein the plurality of shelving units are not located in the one or more areas.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

the ESL services control circuit configured to;

receive the plurality of location information transmitted by the plurality of product ESLs; and

transmit particular pricing information to each of the plurality of product ESLs;

a plurality of databases configured to store one or more of a plurality of pricing data, a plurality of product items data, a plurality of product items sales descriptions, and a plurality of promotional data; and

a core services control circuit coupled to the ESL services control circuit, the plurality of databases, and the navigation services control circuit, the core services control circuit configured to;

receive the plurality of location information of the plurality of product ESLs from the ESL services control circuit; and

transmit the plurality of location information of the plurality of product ESLs to the navigation services control circuit,

wherein the navigation services control circuit is further configured to;

associate each of the plurality of location information of the plurality of product ESLs with one or more floor areas in the retail store; and

transmit the map of the retail store to the in-store navigation interface.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of WAPs comprise WIFI-based access points and the plurality of wireless beacons comprise BLUETOOTH-based beacons.

12. A method for providing customized in-store navigation to a user inside a retail store comprising:

receiving, by an in-store navigation interface operable on a portable electronic device when the portable electronic device is inside a retail store, an input from a user associated with the portable electronic device;

identifying, by the in-store navigation interface, a target retail product of a plurality of retail products from the input;

receiving, by the in-store navigation interface from a navigation services control circuit, a plurality of location information associated with a plurality of product ESLs via a transceiver of the portable electronic device, wherein at least one of the plurality of product ESLs is associated with at least one of a plurality of shelves of a shelving unit of a plurality of shelving units in the retail store, wherein each product ESLs of the plurality of product ESLs is associated with a set of product items belonging to a particular retail product of the plurality of retail products, and wherein each of the plurality of shelving units comprises a plurality of shelves each distributed along a height of and in between at least two support members coupled to each end of the plurality of shelves;

receiving, by the in-store navigation interface, beacon signals transmitted by a plurality of wireless beacons in the retail store;

determining, by the in-store navigation interface in cooperation with a first control circuit of the portable electronic device and based on the beacon signals, a location of the portable electronic device;

determining, by the in-store navigation interface, a location of the target retail product identified from the input based on the plurality of location information associated with the plurality of product ESLs, wherein plurality of location information associated with the plurality of product ESLs is transmitted by a plurality of shelf electronic shelf labels (shelf ESLs) to a plurality of wireless access points (WAPs); and

displaying, by the in-store navigation interface, a direction to the location of the target retail product to a display device of the portable electronic device, wherein the direction to the location of the target retail product is overlaid on a layout of a map of the retail store, and wherein the plurality of location information associated with the plurality of product ESLs at the retail store relative to the layout of the map are stored by one or more databases coupled to the navigation services control circuit.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein each of the shelf ESLs is mounted to each one of the at least two support members.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein each of the shelf ESLs is associated with a particular shelf unit of the plurality of shelving units.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein each wireless beacon signal of the plurality of wireless beacons coupled to the in-store navigation interface comprises a beacon identifier

16. The method of claim 12, wherein each wireless beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons is mounted proximate a top edge of the at least one of the at least two support members of the shelving unit.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein each wireless beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons that is associated with a first row of a pair of rows of a set of shelving units of the plurality of shelving units is a threshold distance apart from other wireless beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein each wireless beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons that is associated with a second row of the pair of rows of the set of shelving units is located diagonally relative to the beacons associated with the first row, and wherein each of the beacons associated the second row is the threshold distance apart from other wireless beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons associated with the second row.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein a first beacon of the plurality of wireless beacons associated with the first row is mounted proximate a top-side edge of the at least one of the at least two support members of an end shelf unit of the plurality of shelving units associated with the first row, wherein the top-side edge is not adjoining another top-side edge of a support member associated with an adjoining shelf unit of the plurality of shelving units associated with the first row.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein a set of beacons of the plurality of beacons is mounted on a ceiling over one or more areas of the retail store, wherein the plurality of shelving units are not located in the one or more areas.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of WAPs comprise WIFI-based access points and the plurality of wireless beacons comprise BLUETOOTH-based beacons.