Apparel shopping method

• US 8,827,148 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2013
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Platt, Victoria B.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAIL, ALLYSON NEEL
• Application Number:
  US13/742,617
• Publication Number:
  US 20140197231A1
• Time in Patent Office: 601 Days
• Field of Search: 235/375, 235/385, 235/488, 705/14.53, 705/26.1
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements

Abstract

A marketing method for apparel shopping that provides a potential customer via a wireless device, the ability to choose a desired piece of clothing for purchase. The piece of clothing is embedded with a unique infrared thread. The thread, when read by a wireless device, provides a unique brand like SKU. This information is compared with data in a cloud databases. This provides data containing images, specifications, pricing, and retail distribution areas to the potential customer.

Claims

1. A marketing method, comprising the steps of:

reading, by a portable handheld device, an infrared coded thread that is woven into a fabric that comprises the majority of an article of manufacture, the infrared coded thread including a plurality of banded regions that respectively include infrared dyes that reflect or absorb a specific selection of infrared light wavelengths such that a stock keeping unit (SKU) for that article of manufacture can be determined using the wavelengths of reflected infrared light that result from the reading;

determining, by the portable handheld device and using a first database, a stock keeping unit (SKU) based on the wavelengths of reflected infrared light that resulted from the reading;

retrieving, based on the determined SKU, images, specifications, pricing, and retail distribution areas for the article of manufacture from a second database; and

displaying, based on the determined SKU, said retrieved images, or said retrieved specifications, or said retrieved pricing, or said retrieved retail distribution areas.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the portable handheld device sending an infrared beam toward said article of clothing and reading the returned infrared image to determine the specific selection of infrared light wavelengths that are reflected or absorbed.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the portable handheld device is in wireless communication with the first database and second database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said images, specifications, pricing, and retail distribution areas are presented to a potential customer on a personal digital assistant or smartphone.

5. A system for marketing an article of manufacture, comprising:

a portable infrared reader that is programmed to, read an infrared coded thread that is woven into a fabric that comprises the majority of an article of manufacture, the infrared coded thread including a plurality of banded regions of infrared dye that reflect or absorb a specific selection of infrared light wavelengths such that a stock keeping unit (SKU) for that article of manufacture can be determined using the wavelengths of reflected infrared light that result from the reading;

a first database residing on a remote server in communication with the portable infrared reader, having a plurality of SKUs and specific selections of infrared light wavelengths that identify those SKUs respectively;

a second database having images, pricing, specifications, and retail distribution areas for an article of manufacture associated with an identified SKU included in the plurality of SKUs; and

a portable handheld device for accessing the first database to match a specific selection of infrared light wavelengths to a specific SKU, the matched SKU being subsequently used by the portable handheld device to access the second database to retrieve images, pricing, specifications, and retail distribution areas for the article of manufacture, and for displaying the retrieved images, or specifications, or pricing, or retail distribution areas.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the portable infrared reader is an internet enabled device that sends an infrared beam to the article of manufacture that includes the infrared coded thread and subsequently receives the specific selection of infrared light wavelengths.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein said first and second databases are stored in a cloud storage system.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein said portable infrared reader includes the portable handheld device.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein said retail distribution areas include a retail store nearest to the portable handheld device, which has in stock, the article of manufacture identified by the matched SKU.

10. A computer program product for marketing an article of manufacture, said computer program product comprising program instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium;

said program instructions comprising;

program instructions to read, by a portable handheld device, an infrared coded thread that is woven into a fabric that comprises the majority of an article of manufacture, the infrared coded thread including a plurality of banded regions of infrared dye that reflect or absorb a specific selection of infrared light wavelengths such that a stock keeping unit (SKU) for that article of manufacture can be determined using the wavelengths of reflected infrared light that result from the reading;

program instructions to determine, by the handheld device and using a first database, a stock keeping unit (SKU) based on the wavelengths of reflected infrared light that resulted;

program instructions to retrieve, based on the determined SKU, images, specifications, pricing, and retail distribution areas for the article of manufacture from a second database; and

program instructions to display, by the portable device, based on the determined SKU, the retrieved images, or the retrieved specifications, or the retrieved pricing, or the retail distribution areas.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the portable infrared reader is an internet enabled device that sends an infrared beam to the infrared coded thread that is woven into the fabric of the article of manufacture and subsequently receives the specific selection of infrared light wavelengths.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein said first and second databases are stored in a cloud storage system.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein said portable infrared reader includes the portable handheld device.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein said retail distribution areas includes a retail store nearest to said portable handheld device, which has in stock, the article of manufacture identified by the matched SKU.

15. The system of claim 10, the program instructions further comprising:

program instructions to retrieve the images, specifications, pricing, and retail distribution areas from the second database using a wireless communication system.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the program instructions are included as part of a portable RFID reader device.