Customer Service Request Detection Using Face Images in Stores

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing systems fail to efficiently identify customers who desire to be served by store clerks, leading to inefficiencies in customer service.

Innovation Solution

A customer serving assistance apparatus and method that acquires customer determination information, including face images and serving desire information, and outputs this data to a clerk's terminal for easy identification of customers seeking service.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If a clerk manually monitors all customers in the store, then all customers can receive service, but the clerk's time and effort increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveservice coverageVSAvoidclerk time

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables automatic customer service request detection through image recognition technology. Customers who need service are automatically identified by the imaging apparatus based on their facial expressions or gestures, and the information is transmitted to the clerk terminal without requiring clerk intervention for monitoring each customer.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the mechanical system of manual clerk monitoring with an automated image recognition system. The imaging apparatus captures customer images, the image recognition unit automatically analyzes them to determine service needs, and the information is electronically transmitted to the clerk terminal, substituting human effort with automated technological processes.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Loss of information

If the store uses traditional customer monitoring methods, then all customers are visible to clerks, but clerks cannot efficiently identify customers who desire service

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecustomer service intent informationVSAvoidcustomer identification ease

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces manual observation and judgment with automated image recognition technology. The image recognition unit automatically analyzes customer images to extract service intent information, eliminating the need for clerks to manually interpret customer behavior and significantly improving the ease of identifying customers who need service.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system introduces an intermediary information transmission process between customer behavior and clerk awareness. The imaging apparatus captures images, the image recognition unit processes them to determine service intent, and the clerk terminal receives structured information about customers who need service, creating an efficient intermediary system that bridges customer needs and clerk response.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS12572962B2Customer serving assistance apparatus, customer serving assistance method, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium

Publication Date: 2026.03.10 NEC CORP

AI summary

A customer serving assistance apparatus (20) includes a first acquisition unit (210) and an output unit (220). The first acquisition unit (210) acquires customer determination information and customer serving desire information from a store terminal (10). An example of the customer determination information is a face image of a customer, or customer identification information. The customer serving desire information indicates whether customer serving by a clerk is desired. The output unit (220) determines, in regard to at least customer serving desire information indicating that customer serving is desired, customer determination information related to the customer serving desire information, and determines a face image of a customer related to the customer determination information. Then, the output unit (220) outputs output data including the determined face image. An example of an output destination of the output data is a clerk terminal (30).