Market research method and system for collecting retail store and shopper market research data
First Claim
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1. A market research method for a marketing research system including a plurality of cooperating establishments in a market research test area;
- each said cooperating establishment adapted for collecting and storing market research data, said method comprising the steps of;
monitoring retail sales transactions within each said cooperating establishment;
periodically capturing a video image of a retail customer near a POS terminal within each said cooperating establishment;
combining said monitored retail sales transaction data and said captured video image data; and
transferring said combined data to a central computer for use by market researchers.
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Abstract
A market research system and method are provided. A plurality of cooperating establishments are included in a market research test area. Each cooperating establishment is adapted for collecting and storing market research data. A computer system remotely located from the plurality of cooperating establishments stores market research data collected from the cooperating establishments. The collected market research data includes monitored retail sales transactions and captured video images of retail customers.
413 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A market research method for a marketing research system including a plurality of cooperating establishments in a market research test area;
- each said cooperating establishment adapted for collecting and storing market research data, said method comprising the steps of;
monitoring retail sales transactions within each said cooperating establishment; periodically capturing a video image of a retail customer near a POS terminal within each said cooperating establishment; combining said monitored retail sales transaction data and said captured video image data; and transferring said combined data to a central computer for use by market researchers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
- each said cooperating establishment adapted for collecting and storing market research data, said method comprising the steps of;
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5. Apparatus for identifying, at a monitored point of sale within a retail store, a person who is one of a preselected group of people, said apparatus comprising:
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a first identification subsystem including; computer means for storing a plurality of reference facial feature sets, each said reference facial feature set corresponding to one person of said preselected group of people, video camera means for capturing a current image of a person present at said monitored point of sale, image processing means for extracting a current facial image from said captured current image, for transposing said facial image into a standard setting and for extracting from said standardized facial image a current facial feature set, means for comparing said current facial feature set with said stored reference facial feature set to identify a match, thereby identifying said person currently present at said point of sale, means for generating and storing a first current identification record associated with said identified person, a second identification subsystem including; means for receiving an input second identification associated with one person of said preselected group of people, and for generating a reference identification'"'"'data set, computer memory means for storing a plurality of said reference identification data sets, means for generating a second current identification record associated with a person when a reference identification data set corresponding to a received input second identification matches a stored reference identification data set, and means for comparing said first and said second current identification records.
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6. An image recognition system for identifying a shopper at a plurality of monitored locations within a retail store and for measuring a reference time at which each identification occurs, said system comprising:
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a plurality of image data acquisition subsystems each said subsystem comprising, means for capturing 8 video image, said captured video image including a facial image of a shopper, means for digitizing said video image and for extracting from said digitized image a digitized representation of said facial image, means for transposing said digitized representation into a standard setting, means for forming from said digitized representation a facial feature Set corresponding to a shopper, means for identifying a reference time for forming said facial feature set, means for forming an image record comprising, in combination, said facial feature set and said reference time corresponding to said facial feature set, and means for communicating said image record to an identification subsystem comprising; means for storing a plurality of said image records, means for comparing a first said image record with a second said image record and for generating an identification record associated with a shopper when said first image record matches said second image record, and memory means for storing said identification record. - View Dependent Claims (7)
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8. A market research system for collecting data from a retail sales establishment, the retail sales establishment having at least one point-of-sale at which a point-of-sale terminal is located, the market research system comprising:
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first means for monitoring retail sales transactions at the point-of-sale; second means, located at the point-of-sale, for capturing a video image of a retail customer who is in the vicinity of the point-of-sale; and
,third means, connected to the first and second means, for identifying the retail customer in the video image by automatically comparing the video image of the retail customer to a reference image and for storing data related to the retail sales transactions. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A market research system having, within a retail sales establishment, at least one point-of-sale at which a point-of-sale terminal is located and at least one product display, the market research system including:
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first means for monitoring retail sales transactions at the point-of-sale; second means, located at the product display, for capturing a video image of a retail customer who is in the vicinity of the product display; and
,third means, connected to the first and second means, for determining the identity of the retail sales customer in the video image and for storing data related to the retail sales transactions. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification