On-shelf tracking system

• US 9,727,838 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2012
• Issued: 08/08/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Triangle Strategy Group, LLC
• Original Assignee: Triangle Strategy Group, LLC
• Inventors: Campbell, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Boswell, Beth V
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fields, Benjamin S
• Application Number:
  US13/422,736
• Publication Number:
  US 20120245969A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,971 Days
• Field of Search: 705 711- 742, 700213-218, 700228-229
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A system to be installed on a merchandising unit having one or more inventory zones, one or more units of product, one or more product sensors, a mounting structure, and an electromagnetic signal processor. The one or more inventory zones can present the one or more units of product in several different arrangements. The one or more product sensors, each at least associated operatively with one of the one or more inventory zones, converts a sensed quantity of the one or more units of product into a respective analog electromagnetic signal. The mounting structure secures the one or more product sensors to the merchandising unit relative to the one or more units of product so that the one or more product sensors sense a quantity of the one or more units of product. The electromagnetic signal processor in communication with the one or more product sensors can sample output from the one or more product sensors periodically and converts the analog signal into a digital signal.

Claims

1. A system to be installed on a merchandising unit, comprising:

a plurality of inventory zones, where within the inventory zones, the inventory zones present a plurality of units of product in a container in a geometric pattern of multiple layers deep, and

wherein the container comprises a retail carton;

one or more product sensors located entirely outside of the retail carton, each at least associated operatively with one or more of the inventory zones, and configured to transmit respective electromagnetic signals indicative of quantity of units of product within the retail carton, wherein at least one sensor of the one or more product sensors has a raised actuator concentrating load of at least one of the plurality of units of product onto a load sensitive part of the at least one sensor of the one or more product sensors;

a mounting structure configured to secure the one or more product sensors to the merchandising unit, and including at least one divider configured to act as a boundary of at least one zone of the inventory zones; and

an electromagnetic signal processor in communication with the one or more product sensors,

wherein the one or more product sensors or corresponding circuits are arranged in parallel strips at or abutting the at least one divider, the at least one divider including T or L dividers connected to the mounting structure,

wherein the one or more product sensors are attached on an upward facing surface of the mounting structure or the dividers, so as to align the one or more sensors to contact a location on an underside of the container holding the plurality of units of product,

wherein the mounting structure is adjustable, and

wherein the mounting structure comprises a sliding track that facilitates adjusting the position of the T or the L dividers on the sliding track.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sensor identification and event classification system, configured to:

determine inventory event metrics from an electromagnetic signal, digital signal, or a derivative thereof for types of inventory events, including;

start time, end time, starting load, ending load, difference between the starting and ending load, highest load, lowest load, difference between the highest and lowest load, maximum variance, and cumulative variance over an inventory event;

determine a function for each of the one or more product sensors involved in the inventory event with respect to one or more of the inventory event metrics;

identify each of the one or more product sensors signaling the inventory event; and

based on the one or more inventory event metrics, assign a type of inventory event, including;

one or more pickups of the one or more of the plurality of units of product, one or more returns of the one or more of the plurality of units of product, one or more touches of one or more of the plurality of units of product, a container refill event, and a container removal event.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more proximity zones next to the merchandising unit;

one or more proximity sensors associated operatively with each of the one or more proximity zones measuring one or more of presence of a person, distance of a person from the sensor, two dimensional coordinates of a person within the one or more proximity zones, and, any motion within the one or more proximity zones;

a proximity sensor mounting system associated operatively with the one or more proximity sensors, which secures the one or more proximity sensors to or near the merchandising unit, and which aligns a field of view of the one or more proximity sensors; and

a proximity event detection system that detects a proximity zone event that occurs when an electromagnetic signal outputted by the one or more proximity sensor exceeds a configurable threshold.

4. The system of claim 3, where the one or more proximity sensors are configurable to detect a basket, cart, bag or any other item used for carrying units of product.

5. The system of claim 1, where the one or more product sensors are mounted at a support point of a peg hook so that as load is applied to the peg hook the load is transmitted to the one or more product sensors.

6. The system of claim 1, where the one or more product sensors are one or more of a sensor that relies on sound waves and a sensor that relies on light waves, where the one or more sensors identifies an inventory event by movement of a shopper'"'"'s hand reaching into a curtain of energy in front of the inventory zones, where two or more distance sensing sensors measure a distance from the shopper'"'"'s hand to each of the one or more product sensors, and based on the measured distances, the system locates coordinates of the shopper'"'"'s hand and identifies associated inventory zones and inventory events.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more peripheral inventory zones in communication with the electromagnetic signal processor through a network, where the one or more peripheral inventory zones are not located at the merchandising unit.

8. The system of claim 1, where the one or more sensors are arranged to cover an entire area of a shelf of the merchandising unit, and where a respective circuit of each of the one or more sensors is one or more of the following circuit shapes:

a honeycomb circuit shape, a square circuit shape, and a round circuit shape.

9. The system of claim 8, where the mounting structure is a flexible printed circuit board that can be rolled out into place on a display surface of the merchandising unit.

10. The system of claim 1, where the mounting structure positions of the one or more product sensors on a display surface edge lip perpendicular to a display surface, and where an angle of tilt of the display surface exceeds a configurable display surface tilt angle threshold.

11. The system of claim 1, where the one or more product sensors are connected to a spring or are integrated with a spring to detect removal or addition of a lightweight product.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more video cameras surveying one or more of:

an individual shopper so to identify biometric and demographic information, including approximate age, gender, mood, and ethnicity; and

the merchandising unit to perform remote surveillance of the merchandising unit, and a full set of items that a shopper is purchasing including items from other parts of a store remote from the merchandising unit.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising an anomaly detection system that detects anomalies of the respective electromagnetic signal, where the anomalies include unusually high variability, deactivation, or a sudden large change, and where the anomaly detection system, after detecting an anomaly provides a notification of the anomaly via a local or remote alert.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a retail activation system able to generate or execute one or more of:

sensory stimuli including visual, audio, tactile, and olfactory stimuli;

product sampling;

coupon generation; and

electronic signage.

15. The system of claim 1, where there are more than one merchandising units for possibly executing multiple experiments in parallel, further comprising:

a program management system for managing experiments administered on the more than one merchandising units, configured to;

select one or more of records or fields of a database associated with the system;

determine, from the one or more of the records or the fields, whether a predetermined number of shoppers have passed by the more than one merchandising units to satisfy a statistical validity threshold, which represents a minimum number of shoppers the system must observe to provide a desired level of confidence in respective experimental data;

manage experiment configurations by one or more of;

direct end users of the system via electronic messages to implement the experiment configurations locally or remotely; and

progressively enhance calibration of units by comparing data from the one or more of the records or fields against manual audit results and changing calibration parameters for detection of an inventory event.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a self-calibration system in communication with the electromagnetic signal processor that detects background variability of an electromagnetic signal and therefrom establishes an activity threshold for each of the one or more product sensors, wherein the activity threshold is a configurable multiple of the background variability, and wherein the activity threshold represents sensitivity of an associated product sensor.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising a pickup-event detection system located entirely outside of the retail carton that determines an initiation of an inventory event at one of the inventory zones when variability of a respective analog signal exceeds an activity threshold, where the pickup-event detection system suspends self-calibration during the inventory event, where the pickup-event detection system identifies one or more other product sensors contributing to signaling the inventory event prior to completion of the inventory event, and where the pickup-event detection system determines termination of the inventory event when the variability of the respective analog signal has returned below the activity threshold of each of the contributing product sensors, wherein the pickup-event detection system is configured to detect removal of a single unit of product from the retail carton based on a signal output from the one or more sensors.

18. A system to be installed on a merchandising unit, comprising:

a plurality of inventory zones, where within the inventory zones, the inventory zones present a plurality of units of product in a container in a geometric pattern of multiple layers deep;

one or more product sensors located entirely outside of the container, each at least associated operatively with one or more of the inventory zones, and configured to transmit respective electromagnetic signals indicative of the quantity of units of product within the container;

a mounting structure configured to secure the one or more product sensors to the merchandising unit, and including at least one divider configured to act as a boundary of at least one zone of the inventory zones;

an electromagnetic signal processor in communication with the one or more product sensors;

one or more proximity zones next to the merchandising unit; and

one or more proximity sensors associated operatively with each of the one or more proximity zones measuring one or more of presence of a person, distance of a person from a proximity sensor, two dimensional coordinates of a person within the one or more proximity zones, and, any motion within the one or more proximity zones,

wherein the one or more product sensors or corresponding circuits are arranged in parallel strips at or abutting the at least one divider, the at least one divider including T or L dividers connected to the mounting structure,

wherein the one or more product sensors are attached on an upward facing surface of the mounting structure or the dividers, so as to align the one or more product sensors to contact a location on an underside of the container holding the plurality of units of product,

wherein the mounting structure is adjustable,

wherein the mounting structure comprises a sliding track that facilitates adjusting the position of the T or the L dividers on the sliding track.

19. A system to be installed on a merchandising unit, comprising:

a plurality of inventory zones, where within the inventory zones, the inventory zones present a plurality of units of product in a container in a geometric pattern of multiple layers deep;

one or more product sensors located entirely outside of the container, each at least associated operatively with one or more of the inventory zones, and configured to transmit respective electromagnetic signals indicative of the quantity of units of product within the container; and

a mounting structure configured to secure the one or more product sensors to the merchandising unit, and including at least one divider configured to act as a boundary of at least one zone of the inventory zones,

wherein the mounting structure is modular,

wherein positioning of the one or more product sensors or corresponding circuits includes arranging the one or more product sensors or the corresponding circuits in parallel strips at or abutting dividers, which are T or L dividers connected to the mounting structure,

wherein the one or more product sensors are attached on an upward facing surface of the mounting structure or the dividers, so as to align the one or more sensors to contact a location on an underside of the container holding the units of product,

wherein the mounting structure is adjustable, and

wherein the mounting structure comprises a sliding track that facilitates adjusting the position of the T or the L dividers on the sliding track.

20. The system of claim 19, where the sliding track is readily fastened and unfastened from the mounting structure without hardware tools, and where the adjusting the position of the T or L dividers is readily done without hardware tools.

21. The system of claim 19, where the sliding track is configured to form a channel, where the channel is manufacturable to fit any size shelf, where wires associated with the one or more sensors run within the channel so to conceal the wires, where the wires terminate at a connector on one edge of the mounting structure from where the wires are further wired to an electromagnetic signal processor, and where the one or more product sensors are fixed to respective parts of the sliding track that interlock so as to allow for adjusting a respective position of the one or more product sensors.