Shopping facility assistance systems, devices, and methods to identify security and safety anomalies
First Claim
1. An apparatus comprising:
- a retail shopping facility;
a plurality of motorized transport units that are each configured to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer, the motorized transport units each including at least one video camera;
a central computer system configured to simultaneously task various ones of the plurality of motorized transport units to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in the retail shopping facility in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer while also receiving and analyzing video input provided by the video cameras to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A central computer system is configured to simultaneously task various ones of a plurality of motorized transport units to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in a retail shopping facility in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer while also receiving and analyzing video input provided by video cameras that are included with at least some of the motorized transport units to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility. By one approach, the central computer system identifies security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping center by characterizing contents of images as being either expected or unexpected and as being either potentially harmful or not potentially harmful. So configured the central computer system is able to not only identify anomalies but assess a degree of threat posed by a given anomaly.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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a retail shopping facility; a plurality of motorized transport units that are each configured to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer, the motorized transport units each including at least one video camera; a central computer system configured to simultaneously task various ones of the plurality of motorized transport units to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in the retail shopping facility in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer while also receiving and analyzing video input provided by the video cameras to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method comprising:
by a central computer system for a retail shopping facility; tasking various ones of a plurality of motorized transport units to temporarily attach to a corresponding mobile item container and to move the temporarily-attached mobile item container in the retail shopping facility in correspondence to the movement of an authorized consumer while also receiving and analyzing video input provided by video cameras that are mounted on the plurality of motorized transport units to identify security and safety anomalies in the retail shopping facility. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
Specification