Image-Augmented Inventory Wayfinding via Mobile Database
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Solution Overview
Problem
Large retail establishments face challenges in efficiently locating products due to changing product locations, leading to time-consuming searches for both customers and employees, which increases labor costs and negatively impacts the shopping experience.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that uses high-resolution images captured by mobile devices to construct an image database, allowing for real-time product identification and location retrieval through image recognition, enabling efficient product retrieval and inventory management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional manual inventory tracking and product location methods are used, then employees can locate products, but it takes significant time and increases labor costs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a digital twin or virtual representation of the physical retail space by capturing images with mobile devices and storing them in a database. This digital copy allows employees to quickly locate products by searching the image database rather than physically searching shelves, dramatically reducing time and improving productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical searching through the retail space with an automated information system. Mobile devices capture and store product location data in an image database, allowing employees to query and retrieve product locations digitally instead of physically searching, thereby reducing time loss and improving productivity
2Adaptability or versatility
If product locations are frequently changed to optimize inventory, then inventory management becomes more flexible, but customers and employees have difficulty locating products
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the image database is continuously updated to reflect current product locations. When products are moved or inventory is reconfigured, new images are captured and stored, ensuring the digital representation remains synchronized with the physical space. This allows the system to adapt to inventory changes while maintaining accurate location information
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary documentation of product locations by capturing and storing images before actual inventory changes occur. This creates a historical record and baseline that can be referenced, while the system is designed to quickly update when changes happen, maintaining information accuracy despite frequent reconfigurations
3Productivity
If comprehensive inventory tracking is implemented, then inventory management is optimized, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes mobile devices perform multiple functions: they serve as cameras for capturing product images, as databases for storing location information, and as communication devices for transmitting data to the central system. This multi-functionality reduces the need for specialized equipment and simplifies the overall system architecture while maintaining comprehensive inventory tracking capabilities
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service inventory tracking where employees use their own mobile devices to capture and upload product images and location data without requiring complex centralized scanning equipment. The mobile devices automatically manage image storage and transmission, reducing the complexity of centralized system management while achieving comprehensive inventory tracking
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods may provide for receiving a query regarding an establishment, retrieving an output image from an image database in response to the query, and transmitting the output image to a mobile device. In one example, image data including a plurality of interior establishment images and a plurality of stocking area images are also received, wherein the image database may be constructed based on the received image data.