Moving physical objects from original physical site to user-specified locations at destination physical site

• US 8,380,464 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2008
• Issued: 02/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Correl, Stephen F., Velarde, Debora, Yardley, Brent W., Satyanarayana, Pradeep, McKenney, Paul E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jacob, Mary C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chad, Aniss
• Application Number:
  US12/172,243
• Publication Number:
  US 20100010783A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,682 Days
• Field of Search: 703/1
• US Class Current: 703/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

Dimensions of each physical object to be moved from an original physical site to a destination physical site are at least approximately determined. Each physical object is tagged with an identifier. A virtual layout of the destination physical site and the dimensions and the identifier of each physical object are input into a computer program. A user-specified location of where within the destination physical site each physical object is to be placed when moved to the destination physical site is input using the computer program, based on the virtual layout of the destination physical site and the dimensions and the identifier of each physical object. At the destination physical site, each physical object is looked up using the identifier of the physical object to determine the user-specified location of where to place the physical object within the destination physical site.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

prior to a person moving from an existing home to a new home,

at least approximately determining dimensions of each physical object of a plurality of physical objects located in the existing home and belonging to the person, the physical objects to be moved to the new home;

tagging each physical object with an identifier;

inputting a virtual layout of the new home and the dimensions and the identifier of each physical object to a computer program;

for each physical object, inputting a location specified by the person of where within the new home the physical object is to be placed when moved to the new home, based on the virtual layout of the new home and the dimensions and the identifier of each physical object, using the computer program; and

after the physical objects have been transported from the existing home to the new home,

at the new home, looking up each physical object using the identifier of the physical object to determine the location that the person specified of where the physical object is to be placed within the new home.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least approximately determining the dimensions of each physical object comprises using a three-dimensional scanner to approximately determining the dimensions of the physical object without a user having to manually measure the dimensions of the physical object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein tagging each physical object with the identifier comprises attaching a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, the RFID tag emitting a radio signal corresponding to the identifier of the physical object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein inputting the virtual layout of the new home into the computer program comprises specifying a computer-aided design (CAD) file of the new home for reading by the computer program.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein inputting the dimensions and the identifier of each physical object into the computer program comprises:

at the existing home, inputting the dimensions and the identifier of each physical object into a handheld electronic device; and

,

transmitting the dimensions and the identifier of each physical object from the handheld electronic device to the computer program.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein, for each physical object, inputting the location of where within the new home the physical object is to be placed when moved to the new home comprises the person interacting with a virtual worlds environment using a first computing device communicating over a network with a second computing device on which the computer program is running.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein, at the new home, looking up each physical object using the identifier of the physical object to determine the location of where to place the physical object within the new home comprises, for each physical object:

inputting the identifier of the physical object into a handheld electronic device;

looking up the location of where to place the physical object within the new home by the handheld electronic device, using the identifier of the physical object; and

,

displaying the location of where to place the physical object within the new home by the handheld electronic device to a mover.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising, at the new home, after looking up each physical object to determine the location of where to place the physical object within the new home, placing the physical object at the location within the new home, by the mover.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising, at the new home, verifying that all the physical objects have been correctly placed at the locations for the physical objects within the new home.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein verifying that all the physical objects have been correctly placed at the locations for the physical objects within the new home comprises:

determining a current location of a user of a handheld electronic device within the new home by using global-positioning system (GPS) capabilities of the handheld electronic device;

inputting the identifier of each physical object placed at the current location of the user into the handheld electronic device to yield a collection of one or more physical objects placed at the current location;

determining by the handheld electronic device that the location of each physical object within the collection matches the current location of the user; and

,

where the location of any physical object of the collection does not match the current location of the user, alerting the user by the handheld electronic device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising verifying that all the physical objects have been moved from the existing home to the new home.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein verifying that all the physical objects have been moved from the existing home to the new home comprises:

inputting the identifier of each physical object that has been moved to the new home into a handheld electronic device to yield a collection of identifiers of one or more objects that have been moved to the new home;

for each physical object that was previously tagged with an identifier, determining by handheld electronic device whether the identifier of the physical object is within the collection; and

,

where the identifier of any physical object is not within the collection, alerting a user by the handheld electronic device.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising optimizing an order in which the physical objects are to be loaded into a physical transporter for moving the physical objects from the existing home to the new home based on one or more of:

the dimensions of each physical object; and

,

the location of where within the new home each physical object is to be placed.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein optimizing the order in which the physical objects are to be loaded into the physical transporter at least substantially satisfies one or more constraints, the constraints comprising one or more of:

the physical objects compactly and/or economically fitting into the physical transporter; and

,

the physical objects being unloaded from the physical transporter at the new home so that the physical objects to be placed at locations farther away from an entry point at the new home are unloaded before the physical objects to be placed at locations closer to the entry point.

15. A method comprising:

prior to a worker moving from an existing office location to a new office location,

at least approximately determining dimensions of each physical object of a plurality of physical objects located in the existing office location and belonging to or used by the worker, the physical objects to be moved to the new office location;

tagging each physical object with an identifier;

inputting a virtual layout of the new office location and the dimensions and the identifier of each physical object to a computer program;

for each physical object, inputting a location specified by the worker of where within the new office location the physical object is to be placed when moved to the new office location, based on the virtual layout of the new home and the dimensions and the identifier of each physical object, using the computer program; and

after the physical objects have been transported from the existing office location to the new office location,

at the new office location, looking up each physical object using the identifier of the physical object to determine the location that the worker specified of where the physical object is to be placed within the new office location.

16. A method comprising:

prior to a military personnel moving from an existing military location to a new military location,

at least approximately determining dimensions of each physical object of a plurality of physical objects located in the existing military location and belonging to, used by, or under the responsibility of the military personnel, the physical objects to be moved to the new military location;

tagging each physical object with an identifier;

inputting a virtual layout of the new military location and the dimensions and the identifier of each physical object to a computer program;

for each physical object, inputting a location specified by the military personnel of where within the new military location the physical object is to be placed when moved to the new military location, based on the virtual layout of the new home and the dimensions and the identifier of each physical object, using the computer program; and

after the physical objects have been transported from the existing military location to the new military location,

at the new military location, looking up each physical object using the identifier of the physical object to determine the location that the military personnel specified of where the physical object is to be placed within the new military location.