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Cart monitoring system supporting unicast and multicast command transmissions to wheel assemblies

  • US 9,963,162 B1
  • Filed: 02/02/2018
  • Issued: 05/08/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2005
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A system capable of tracking shopping carts, comprising:

  • a plurality of wheel assemblies, each configured for attachment to a respective shopping cart frame, each wheel assembly comprising a wheel, a wireless transceiver, and a programmed controller that controls the wireless transceiver, each wheel assembly configured to communicate bi-directionally on a wireless network and being uniquely addressable on the wireless network, each wheel assembly capable of switching between states; and

    a plurality of access point devices that are configured to be mounted at fixed locations within a shopping cart monitoring area, each access point device comprising a wireless transceiver controlled by a programmed controller, and being capable of communicating bi-directionally with the plurality of wheel assemblies on the wireless network, each access point device being uniquely addressable on the wireless network;

    wherein the access point devices and wheel assemblies are programmed to implement unicast addressing in which an access point device sends, on the wireless network, a command that is addressed to a single one of the wheel assemblies;

    wherein the access point devices and wheel assemblies are additionally programmed to implement state-based multicast addressing in which an access point device sends, on the wireless network, a command that is addressed to all wheel assemblies that are in a specified state.

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