Cart coordinator/deployment manager

• US 7,782,194 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2007
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Media Cart Holdings, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Media Cart Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Stawar, Saul, Singleton, Cody
• Primary Examiner(s): Crosland; Donnie L
• Application Number:
  US11/690,841
• Publication Number:
  US 20080231431A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,248 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.13, 340/568.5, 340/539.32
• US Class Current: 340/539.13
• CPC Class Codes: B62B 2501/065 Plastics
• CPC Class Codes: B62B 3/1408 Display devices mounted on it, e.g. advertisement displays
• CPC Class Codes: B62B 3/142 mounted on the basket
• CPC Class Codes: B62B 3/1424 Electronic display devices
• CPC Class Codes: B62B 5/0096 Identification of the cart or merchandise, e.g. by barcodes or radio frequency identification [RFID]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A media enhanced shopping cart system comprises a shopping cart comprising a frame, a basket, a handle, a base tray, a plurality of wheels, a read component for performing a proximity scan of the shopping cart, a locationing component for determining a location of the shopping cart within a store based on the scan, and a display component for displaying at least one advertisement for a product based on the location of the shopping cart within the store, wherein the locationing component is further operable to determine a location of the product within the store relative to the shopping cart based on the scan, and wherein the display component is further operable to display an indication of the location of the advertised product relative to the location of the shopping cart.

Claims

1. A media enhanced shopping cart, comprising:

a shopping cart comprising a frame, a basket, a handle, and a plurality of wheels; and

an embedded computing device comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a download receiver module, a coordinator module, and a network transceiver configured for wireless communication, the embedded computing device being attached to the shopping cart,

wherein the download receiver module receives and stores in the memory a download via the network transceiver, and

wherein the coordinator module is operable for scheduling periodic communication from the cart.

2. The media enhanced shopping cart according to claim 1, wherein the download comprises a software update, advertising content, new inventory data, price change data, or combinations thereof.

3. The media enhanced shopping cart according to claim 1, wherein when the download comprises a software update and the download receiver module executes the download to install the software update in the embedded computing device.

4. The media enhanced shopping cart according to claim 1, wherein the download receiver module further comprises error correction that detects when download content has been corrupted, such that the download receiver module communicates via the network transceiver to receive the download again until received without corruption.

5. The media enhanced shopping cart according to claim 1, wherein the periodic communication comprises an upload from the cart to the in-store system.

6. The media enhanced shopping cart according to claim 1, wherein the upload comprises mined data for one or more shopping events.

7. The media enhanced shopping cart according to claim 1, wherein the coordinator module determines a health and a status for the cart, determines whether the health or the status indicates need for an update, schedules the update, or combinations thereof.

8. A system comprising:

a store computer system comprising at least a central processing unit, a data server storing store cart-related software, and a deployment manager module, wherein the deployment manager module is operable to convey a download to a media enhanced shopping cart;

a plurality of media enhanced shopping carts, each media enhanced shopping cart comprising;

a shopping cart comprising a frame, a basket, a handle, a plurality of wheels, and a basket;

an embedded computing device comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a coordinator module, a network transceiver configured for wireless communication with the store computer system, wherein the embedded computing device is affixed to the shopping cart;

wherein the embedded computing device receives the download from the deployment manager module,

wherein the coordinator module is operable to schedule periodic communication from the cart;

a locationing component for determining a location of the cart within a store relative to the one or more anchor RFID tags; and

a display component attached to the cart, wherein the display component displays the location of the cart relative to the specific point of store data, advertising, or combinations thereof.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein:

the store system further comprises a fleet cart coordinator to maintain wireless contact with each media enhanced shopping cart to monitor status of each cart in a plurality of carts.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the status of each cart comprises cart health, software versioning, location of each cart, or combinations thereof.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the coordinator module determines a health and a status for the cart, determines whether the health or the status indicates need for an update, schedules the update with the fleet cart coordinator and the deployment manager module, or combinations thereof.

12. A method comprising:

maintaining a cart status for a media enabled shopping cart,

wherein the media enhanced shopping cart comprises a frame, a basket, a handle, a plurality of wheels, and a basket, an embedded computing device comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a coordinator module, a network transceiver configured for wireless communication with the store computer system, wherein the embedded computing device is affixed to the shopping cart;

wherein the cart status comprises cart health, software versioning, location of the cart, or combinations thereof, and wherein the cart coordinator module is operable for scheduling periodic communication from the cart; and

periodically transmitting the cart status from the cart to an in-store system.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising scheduling a download to the cart from the in-store system based on the cart status.

14. The method of claim 13, further executing the download to install the software update in the cart when the download comprises a software update.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining a health and a status for the cart, determining whether the health or the status indicates need for an update, scheduling the update, or combinations thereof.

16. A computer readable storage medium for storing an executable set of software instructions which, when executed by a computer system, are capable of controlling the operation of the computer, said software instructions being operable to maintain a status for the cart in a store system and deploy downloads from the store system to the cart, said software instructions including the method of claim 12.

17. A method comprising:

periodically receiving a cart status from each media enhanced shopping cart in a fleet,

wherein the media enhanced shopping cart comprises a frame, a basket, a handle, a plurality of wheels, and a basket, an embedded computing device comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a coordinator module, a network transceiver configured for wireless communication with the store computer system,

wherein the embedded computing device is affixed to the shopping cart,

wherein the coordinator module is operable for scheduling periodic communication from the cart of the cart status,

wherein the cart status comprises cart health, software versioning, location of each cart, or combinations thereof; and

maintaining a current status database for the fleet comprising the cart status for each cart in the fleet.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising transmitting a download to the cart from the in-store system based on the cart status;

transmitting an executable file to install a software update in the cart when the download comprises a software update;

receiving an upload from the cart to the in-store system based on the cart status;

or combinations thereof.