Ambient Commerce Sensing for Entity-Aware Item Notifications
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ambient commerce systems lack advanced features and functionality, limiting their effectiveness in providing enhanced customer experiences and efficient operations.
Innovation Solution
An ambient commerce system equipped with sensors and processors that detect engagement with items based on predetermined criteria, identify entities, determine resource parameters, and generate notifications on electronic devices when certain conditions are met, such as resource availability, to enhance the shopping experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If ambient commerce systems use traditional checkout processes, then customers can complete purchases, but checkout speed is slow and human resources are required
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables customers to shop and checkout automatically without cashier assistance. Sensors detect items taken from shelves, track them in virtual carts, and automatically charge customers when they leave, eliminating the need for traditional checkout processes and human cashiers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual checkout operations with automated sensor-based detection and processing. Optical sensors, weight sensors, and image recognition systems automatically identify items and customers, substituting the mechanical checkout process with electronic detection and automated billing.
2Adaptability or versatility
If ambient commerce systems are deployed with basic functionality, then checkout process is simplified, but features and functionality are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs multiple functions through a unified platform: item detection, customer identification, virtual cart management, payment processing, and personalized notification delivery. This multi-functional approach enhances system versatility without requiring separate dedicated systems for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The system proactively detects customer interest in items and prepares personalized notifications with related product information before customers make purchasing decisions. This preliminary action enhances functionality by providing contextual information that may influence buying behavior.
3Measurement precision
If sensors continuously monitor all items and customers, then detection accuracy is high, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous monitoring, the system uses periodic detection cycles where sensors activate at specific intervals or when triggered by events such as customer entry or item movement. This reduces energy consumption while maintaining adequate detection accuracy for commerce operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from initial detection events to trigger subsequent monitoring actions. When a sensor detects an item movement or customer presence, it activates additional detection mechanisms to confirm and process the event accurately, reducing unnecessary continuous monitoring while maintaining precision when needed.
Data Source
AI summary
According to an aspect there is provided an ambient commerce system. The ambient commerce system may include a sensor at an ambient commerce premises. The ambient commerce system may further include a processor coupled to the sensor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory may store processor-executable instructions which, when executed, cause the processor to: detect, based on an output of the sensor at the ambient commerce premises, engagement of an entity with a first item satisfying first predetermined criteria; identify the entity; determine based on account data for the identified entity, a resource parameter for the identified entity; and when the resource parameter satisfies second predetermined criteria, generate a notification on an electronic device associated with the entity. Identifying the entity may include image recognition, such as facial recognition.