System and method of tracking short range transmitters

• US 6,236,335 B1
• Filed: 09/17/1996
• Issued: 05/22/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Goodwin, John C. III
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Application Number:
  US08/718,622
• Time in Patent Office: 1,708 Days
• Field of Search: 340/825.69, 340/825.72, 340/825.49, 340/825.36, 340/825.54, 340/825.35, 340/573, 340/539, 340/568, 340/572, 364/516, 395/210, 342/450, 342/451, 342/463, 235/383, 235/385
• US Class Current: 340/8.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02522 The radio-map containing measured values of non-radio values
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0294 Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A system and method of locating a wireless device in a transaction establishment which relies on signal strength measurements and the known positions of receiving antennae. The system includes a number of transceivers each including a transmitter which transmits a first signal to the wireless device, a plurality of receivers including a plurality of antennae located throughout the transaction establishment and at least one signal strength determining circuit for determining signal strengths of second signals received by the antennae, and a control circuit for controlling transmission of the first signal and reception of the second signals. A storage medium contains the locations for each of the antennae. A computer coupled to the control circuit instructs the control circuit to transmit the first signal and determines a location of the wireless device in the transaction establishment from the signal strengths and from the locations of the antennae. Multiple locations of a wireless device may be tracked and analyzed to yield customer shopping patterns.

Claims

1. A system for locating and tracking a pattern of movement of a wireless device in a transaction establishment comprising:

a number of transceivers including

a transmitter which transmits a first signal to the wireless device;

a plurality of receivers, each of said receivers including at least one antenna, the plurality of antennae located throughout the transaction establishment;

at least one signal strength determining circuit for determining signal strengths of second signals received by the antennae; and

a control circuit for controlling transmission of the first signal and reception of the second signals;

a storage medium containing locations for each of the antennae; and

a computer coupled to the control circuit which instructs the control circuit to transmit the first signal, which determines a location of the wireless device in the transaction establishment from the signal strengths and from the locations of the antennae, and which tracks the location of the wireless device as the wireless device moves through the transaction establishment to determine the pattern of movement.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the wireless device is assigned to a customer and wherein the computer determines a plurality of additional locations of the device as the customer moves through the transaction establishment and stores the location and the additional locations to form a record of shopping patterns of the customer.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein each receiver includes a signal determining circuit.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the wireless device to be located comprises one of a plurality of wireless devices, said wireless device being of one of at least two different types of wireless devices employed in the system.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the at least two different types of devices comprise electronic price labels and customer operated wireless data collection devices having a wireless transceiver for communicating with a host computer which may be utilized by a customer to receive price information for a product of interest from the host computer.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein said transmitters transmit price and status messages to a plurality of electronic price labels.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein said transmitters transmit price and article information to a plurality of customer operated wireless data collection devices.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein said transmitters transmit price and article information to a plurality of customer operated wireless data collection devices.

9. The system of claim 5 wherein said plurality of receivers receive acknowledgement or return data messages from electronic price labels.

10. The system of claim 5 wherein said plurality of receivers receive requests for price and article information from customer operated wireless data collection devices.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein said plurality of receivers receive requests for price and article information from customer operated wireless data collection devices.

12. The system of claim 2 wherein the computer executes customer tracking software to determine said plurality of additional locations and stores the record of shopping patterns in a customer information file stored in memory so that the customer'"'"'s habits can be later gleaned from an inspection of the customer information file.

13. The system of claim 2 wherein the device location is displayed on a display as the customer moves with it through the transaction establishment.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the three highest signal strengths received by three of the plurality of receivers and the stored locations of the antennas for those three receivers are employed by the computer which determines the location of the wireless device by triangulation.

15. A method of locating and tribe a sequence of movements of a wireless device transported through a transaction establishment by a customer comprising the steps of:

storing locations of a plurality of receiving antennae in a transaction establishment;

receiving signals from the wireless device as it is transported by the receiving antennae, determining signal strength measurements for the signals;

determining locations of the wireless device from the signal strength measurements; and

determining the sequence of movements of the wireless device as the wireless device moves through the (transaction establishment.

16. A method of tracking customer shipping patterns through a transaction establishment comprising steps of;

storing locations of a plurality of receiving antennae located in the transaction establishment;

identifying a wireless device as being associated with a customer receiving signals from the wireless device as it is transported by the customer by the receiving antennae;

determining signal strength measurements for the signals;

determining locations of the wireless device as the customer moves through the transaction establishment; and

storing the locations as locations of the customer.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising the steps of:

receiving a customer request for price and article information; and

transmitting the price and article information to the wireless device.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of:

storing customer tracking data in a customer information file stored in memory so that the customer'"'"'s habits can be later gleaned from an inspection of the customer tracking data.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the step of storing locations of a plurality of receiving antennae in a transaction further comprises the step of assigning a two-dimensional coordinate reference to each antenna which maps the physical location of each antenna to a two-dimensional coordinate system for the transaction establishment.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said two-dimensional coordinate system is further utilized to map the location of each antenna to a physical placement of shelves within the transaction establishment.