US 12,061,950 B1Granted

Systems and methods of identifying products through portable scanning

AssigneeWalmart Apollo, LLC

InventorsDavid W. Sica, Thiago Pereira Rocha, Jeffrey Lui, Lars C. Rehder, John C. Liedtke, Adil Ansari, Pin Jui Huang, Suk Wai Theda Chong, Khasan Shirmatov, Sheetal Patel, Matheus K. Iser

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Abstract

Some embodiments product identifying systems comprising: a scanner control circuit; an imaging system; a display; and a memory storing a product identifier module executed by the control circuit to: detect, through a series of images, a machine-readable identifier pattern; control the display to render the series of images on the display; activate a scan timer having a scan duration; render, on the display, a scan timer graphic overlaid on a subset of the series of images and corresponding to a changing remaining time of the scan duration as the remaining time expires; confirm that the identifier pattern was maintained within a threshold distance of the center of the field of view over at least a threshold read duration of the scan duration; extract identifying information; and obtain a product identifier corresponding to the identifying information and add the product identifier to a virtual shopping cart.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A mobile product identifying system, comprising:

a scanner control circuit;
an imaging system communicatively coupled with the scanner control circuit;
a display communicatively coupled with the scanner control circuit;
and
a memory communicatively coupled with the scanner control circuit and storing local code comprising a product identifier module configured to be executed by the scanner control circuit to:
detect, through a first series of images captured by the imaging system, multiple identifier patterns within each of the first series of images, the multiple identifier patterns being machine-readable, the multiple identifier patterns including a first identifier pattern and a second identifier pattern;
control the display to render the first series of images on the display as the respective images of the first series of images are captured;
determine that the first identifier pattern and the second identifier pattern are both of a first identifier pattern type;
determine that the first identifier pattern detected has a distance relationship to a center of a field of view of the imaging system;
determine that within the first series of images the first identifier pattern is closer to a reference point than the second identifier pattern;
activate a scan timer having a scan duration;
prioritize the first identifier pattern as an identifier pattern of interest based on the determination that the first identifier pattern is closer to the reference point than the second identifier pattern;
confirm that the first identifier pattern was maintained within a threshold distance of the center of the field of view over at least a threshold read duration of the scan duration;
extract identifying information based on the first identifier pattern in response to confirming that the first identifier pattern was maintained within the threshold distance of the center of the field of view over at least the threshold read duration of the scan duration;
and
obtain a product identifier corresponding to the identifying information and add the product identifier to a virtual shopping cart.

13 more elements

A method of identifying products, comprising:

detecting, through a first series of images captured by an imaging system of a scanner system, a first identifier pattern and a second identifier pattern, the first identifier pattern determined to have a distance relationship to a center of a field of view of the imaging system;
controlling a display of the scanner system to render the first series of images on the display as the respective images of the first series of images are captured;
determining that the first identifier pattern and the second identifier pattern are both of a first identifier pattern type;
determining that the first identifier pattern detected has a distance relationship to a center of a field of view of the imaging system;
determining that within the first series of images the first identifier pattern is closer to a reference point than the second identifier pattern;
activating a scan timer having a scan duration;
prioritizing the first identifier pattern as an identifier pattern of interest based on the determination that the first identifier pattern is closer to the reference point than the second identifier pattern;
confirming that the first identifier pattern was maintained within a threshold distance of the center of the field of view over at least a threshold read duration of the scan duration;
extracting identifying information from based on the first identifier pattern in response to confirming that the first identifier pattern was maintained within the threshold distance of the center of the field of view over at least the threshold read duration of the scan duration;
and
obtaining a product identifier corresponding to the identifying information and adding the product identifier to a virtual shopping cart.

8 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions that, upon execution by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

detecting, through a first series of images captured by an imaging system of a scanner system, a first identifier pattern and a second identifier pattern, the first identifier pattern determined to have a distance relationship to a center of a field of view of the imaging system;
controlling a display of the scanner system to render the first series of images on the display as the respective images of the first series of images are captured;
determining that the first identifier pattern and the second identifier pattern are both of a first identifier pattern type;
determining that the first identifier pattern detected has a distance relationship to a center of a field of view of the imaging system;
determining that within the first series of images the first identifier pattern is closer to a reference point than the second identifier pattern;
activating a scan timer having a scan duration;
prioritizing the first identifier pattern as an identifier pattern of interest based on the determination that the first identifier pattern is closer to the reference point than the second identifier pattern;
confirming that the first identifier pattern was maintained within a threshold distance of the center of the field of view over at least a threshold read duration of the scan duration;
extracting identifying information from based on the first identifier pattern in response to confirming that the first identifier pattern was maintained within the threshold distance of the center of the field of view over at least the threshold read duration of the scan duration;
and
obtaining a product identifier corresponding to the identifying information and adding the product identifier to a virtual shopping cart.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 18/203,433Filed 30 May 2023
Granted: 13 Aug 2024
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

G06K 7/10861
Further details of bar or optical code scanning devices: sensing of data fields affixed to objects or articles, e.g. coded labels
G06K 7/10881
Further details of bar or optical code scanning devices: constructional details of hand-held scanners
G06K 7/1093
Further details of bar or optical code scanning devices: sensing, after transfer of the image of the data-field to an intermediate store, e.g.…
G06K 7/1095
Further details of bar or optical code scanning devices: the scanner comprising adaptations for scanning a record carrier that is displayed on a…