US 12,131,288 B1 · Generating tidiness data associated with items at an inventory location

Abstract

Tidiness data associated with an inventory location, such as a shelf, indicates whether an item returned to the inventory location is designated for storage at the inventory location. When an item is returned to the inventory location and a user is determined to be near the inventory location, the weight change detected at the inventory location is compared to a corresponding weight of each item in the custody of the user, such as items within cart state data associated with the user. Differences in weight between the weight change and the corresponding weight of each item in the custody of the user are calculated. Such differences may then be compared to one or more metrics, such as threshold values, to determine how well the top candidate item in the custody of the user matches the type of item designated for storage at the inventory location.

A system comprising:

an inventory location having a first lane designated to hold a first type of item;
a device;
one or more weight sensors associated with the inventory location;
and
a computing device comprising:
a memory storing first computer-executable instructions;
and
a hardware processor to execute the first computer-executable instructions to:
acquire weight data from the one or more weight sensors;
determine a weight change indicative of an increase in weight at the first lane at a first time;
determine an event at the first lane at the first time based on the weight change, the event indicative of a return of an item to the first lane;
determine the device is associated with a user;
acquire a signal from the device at the first time;
determine a signal strength associated with the signal acquired from the device at the first time;
determine a location of the user at the first time based on the signal strength;
determine the location of the user at the first time is within a threshold distance of the inventory location;
associate the event with the user based on the location of the user at the first time being within the threshold distance of the inventory location;
retrieve cart state data associated with the user, the cart state data indicative of two or more item identifiers representative of two or more items in custody of the user prior to the event and a weight associated with each of the two or more item identifiers;
determine, for the each of the two or more item identifiers in the cart state data, a difference value comprising an absolute value of a difference between the weight change and the weight associated with the each of the two or more item identifiers;
sort the two or more item identifiers in ascending order by their respective difference values to produce sorted cart data;
determine, from the sorted cart data, a first candidate item weight comprising the weight of a first item associated with a first position in the sorted cart data;
determine the first candidate item weight is within a first threshold value of the weight change;
designate as a first error value the difference value comprising the absolute value of the difference between the weight change and the weight of the first item associated with the first position in the sorted cart data;
determine, from the sorted cart data, a second candidate item weight comprising the weight of a second item associated with a second position in the sorted cart data;
determine a second error value comprising the difference value comprising the absolute value of the difference between the weight change and the weight of the second item associated with the second position in the sorted cart data;
determine a margin value comprising a difference between the first error value and the second error value;
determine the first error value is less than a second threshold value;
determine the margin value is greater than a third threshold value;
and
generate tidiness data indicative of the item returned to the first lane being of a same type as the first type of item.

27 more elements

Generating tidiness data associated with items at an inventory location

Life of this patent

Generating tidiness data associated with items at an inventory location

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20