Electronic shopping system including customer relocation recognition
First Claim
1. An electronic personal shopping system for use in a retail facility including a store computer configured to transmit and receive data via the RF spectrum, the electronic personal shopping system comprising:
- a mobile terminal, further including;
a microprocessor based control unit;
an individually addressable RF communication transceiver, connected to the control unit, the transceiver communicating data between the mobile terminal and the store computer;
a portable scanner configured to read item code data, the transceiver transmitting said code data to the store computer on command of the control unit as a customer inputs the code data for items being purchased;
a reader/writer unit for interfacing with a personal memory store;
a memory storage unit; and
a display;
wherein, the personal shopping system includes an item database, the database being organized to hold store merchandise item entries, each merchandise item entry comprising at least a store item indicia and an associated item location information, each merchandise item being identified by said item code data, the location information associated to an item being assigned as a customer'"'"'s current location as the customer inputs the code data of that item, the personal shopping system further including means for calculating a direction and distance to a destination item relative to the customer'"'"'s current location.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic personal shopping system, communicating between a store computer and a mobile terminal, for organizing a consumer'"'"'s movement through a retail facility in accordance with the consumer'"'"'s current location and the locations of desired items on either a shopping list or a recommended replenishment item list. The shopping list and recommended replenishment item list are hosted on a customer IC card and read by a mobile shopping terminal. A price look-up table is maintained in a store database and includes location indicia identified to each merchandise item of the store'"'"'s inventory. As a product is scanned, that item'"'"'s location indicia is assumed to represent a customer'"'"'s current location. A desired destination item is taken from the shopping list or the recommended replenishment item list and a distance and direction metric is calculated based on the customer'"'"'s current location. The system includes a processor capable of developing a recommended replenishment item list from a series of shopping history data records also hosted on the IC card. Each shopping trip results in preparation of a most recent shopping history data record.
682 Citations
51 Claims
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1. An electronic personal shopping system for use in a retail facility including a store computer configured to transmit and receive data via the RF spectrum, the electronic personal shopping system comprising:
a mobile terminal, further including; a microprocessor based control unit; an individually addressable RF communication transceiver, connected to the control unit, the transceiver communicating data between the mobile terminal and the store computer; a portable scanner configured to read item code data, the transceiver transmitting said code data to the store computer on command of the control unit as a customer inputs the code data for items being purchased; a reader/writer unit for interfacing with a personal memory store; a memory storage unit; and a display; wherein, the personal shopping system includes an item database, the database being organized to hold store merchandise item entries, each merchandise item entry comprising at least a store item indicia and an associated item location information, each merchandise item being identified by said item code data, the location information associated to an item being assigned as a customer'"'"'s current location as the customer inputs the code data of that item, the personal shopping system further including means for calculating a direction and distance to a destination item relative to the customer'"'"'s current location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. In an electronic personal shopping system for use in a retail facility including a store computer configured to transmit and receive data via the RF spectrum, a method for tracking a current customer location and for providing directional indicia to a next item, the method comprising:
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providing an item database organized to contain at least an item identification indicia field and a corresponding item location field for each of a multiplicity of store merchandise items; providing a mobile terminal, the mobile terminal including a microprocessor based control unit, an individually addressable RF communication transceiver, a portable scanner configured to read item code data, a reader/writer unit for interfacing with a personal memory store, a memory storage unit and a display; scanning an item code of an item being purchased; matching the item code to an identification indicia field of a merchandise item; mapping the identification indicia field to a corresponding item location; assigning the item location to a current customer location; calculating a direction and distance metric for a destination item from the current customer location; and displaying the direction and distance metric of the destination item on said display. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method for preparing a replenishment item recommendation list from electronically stored shopping history data records, each data record comprising a multiplicity of items and each record associated with a purchase date, the method comprising:
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comparing each respective one of a plurality of shopping history items from a latest shopping history data record with each respective one of a plurality of replenishment items from a prior established replenishment item table; updating the replenishment item table upon detecting a match between a shopping history item from a latest shopping history data record with an existing item from the prior established replenishment item table; comparing each latest shopping history data record item not found in the prior established replenishment item table with each respective one of a plurality of items contained in a previous shopping history data record; adding to the replenishment item table upon detecting a match between a latest shopping history data record item not found in the prior established replenishment item table with a previous shopping history data record item; analyzing purchase dates of each item in the resultant replenishment item table to define items with a purchase interval period exceeding a predetermined maximum purchase interval period; deleting items from the replenishment item table with a purchase interval period exceeding the predetermined maximum purchase interval period; establishing the thus formed replenishment item table as a replenishment item recommendation list; and writing the replenishment item recommendation list to a memory store of an IC card to thereby define a next prior established replenishment item table. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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30. A method of providing location indicia indicating the direction and distance to a desired destination item comprising the steps of:
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determining a current customer location corresponding to a location or a source item, the source item defined as an item scanned by a product bar code scanner; calculating a direction and distance to a desired destination item relative to the current customer location; displaying the direction and distance of the destination item on a display unit; and displaying a store map graphic on the display unit in conjunction with the direction and distance of the desired destination item. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32)
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33. An electronic personal shopping system for use in a retail store, the personal shopping system comprising:
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inputting means for developing purchase item data corresponding to a shopping list; processing means for developing a replenishment item recommendation list from customer shopping history data records; means for defining promotional item recommendations, the promotional item recommendations identified to a specific customer based on profile information hosted on a machine readable personal memory store; scanning means for reading a universal product code of a source item; control means, coupled to the scanning means, for recognizing a first item indicia code of the source item; means coupled to the control means for retrieving a source location of the source item based on the first item indicia code, wherein the source location is assigned to a current customer location; means coupled to the control means for retrieving a destination location of a destination item based on a second item indicia code; processor means for calculating a direction and distance metric to the destination item from the current customer location; and a display unit for displaying the direction and distance metric to a desired destination item. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 51)
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41. A mobile terminal adapted for use in an electronic personal shopping system, the mobile terminal comprising:
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means for reading from an IC card a plurality of shopping history items from a latest shopping history data record, each record being associated with a purchase date, and a prior established replenishment item table holding a plurality of replenishment item entries, the prior established replenishment item table including a purchase interval period for each replenishment item; a memory for storing the latest shopping history data and the prior established replenishment item table; a processor including logic for; comparing each shopping history item with each replenishment item in the prior established replenishment item table; updating the purchase interval period in the prior established replenishment item table based on the purchase date; deleting each replenishment item in the prior established replenishment item table with a purchase interval period exceeding a predetermined maximum purchase interval period; and establishing the resultant prior established replenishment item table as a replenishment item recommendation list; and means for writing the replenishment item recommendation list to the IC card to define a next prior established replenishment item table.
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- 42. An electronic personal shopping system comprising a merchandise table holding merchandise item entries, each entry including an item identifier and information related to the item including item price information and item location information, wherein the item location information of a particular item is used to determine a customer'"'"'s current location and the item location information of another item is used to calculate a direction and metric distance relative to the customer'"'"'s current location.
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48. In an electronic personal shopping system, a mobile terminal comprising:
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a processor; a code reader configured to read item code data; a display unit; and a memory for storing a merchandise table holding merchandise item entries, each entry including an item identifier and location information of an item; wherein, the processor determines a customer'"'"'s current location by retrieving location information of a particular item from the merchandise table based on the code data associated with the particular item and calculates a direction and distance to a destination item relative to the customer'"'"'s current location. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50)
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Specification