Marked Target Representation for Non-Intrusive Consumer Relation Detection

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Solution Overview

Problem

Surveys designed to gather information on consumer preferences or advertisement effectiveness are often intrusive and fail to capture consumers' attitudes accurately.

Innovation Solution

A system that uses marked QR codes, allowing users to express relations to targets (products, advertisements, etc.) through image capture, generating data structures for real-time sharing among entities, including image analysis and data engines to determine user-target relations, and a relation server for analytics and data distribution.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If surveys are used to gather consumer information, then detailed information can be obtained, but the process becomes intrusive and fails to capture consumer attitudes accurately

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveconsumer attitude informationVSAvoidintrusiveness

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces traditional survey mechanisms (questionnaires, interviews) with an optical recognition system using cameras and QR codes. Consumers naturally point cameras at products during shopping, and the system automatically captures preferences through image recognition rather than requiring deliberate survey responses, eliminating intrusiveness while maintaining data accuracy

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system enables consumers to naturally express preferences through their own actions (pointing cameras at products) without being asked directly. The QR codes on products passively collect data when scanned, allowing consumers to reveal their attitudes indirectly through natural behavior rather than through intrusive questioning

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

2Productivity

If traditional surveys are used to gather consumer data, then information can be collected, but the process is time-consuming and inefficient

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata collection efficiencyVSAvoidtime for data collection

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system operates continuously in the background as consumers naturally interact with products in stores. Every time a camera captures an image of a QR code, data is automatically collected without interrupting shopping activities. This continuous passive collection eliminates the need for dedicated survey time and significantly increases data collection efficiency

Inventive Principle:

Principle #20Continuity of useful action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces manual survey completion processes with automated optical recognition and image processing. The system automatically identifies products, extracts preferences, and stores data without human intervention, dramatically reducing the time and effort required compared to traditional survey methods

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Data Source

PatentUS9275394B2Identifying user-target relation

Publication Date: 2016.03.01 HEWLETT PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LP

AI summary

A marked target representation (100; 200) includes a human-cognizable relation mark (104; 206). The marked target representation represents a target. An image capture device (130; 302) is used to capture (114; 413) an image (112; 304) of the target representation. A data structure (120; 332) indicating a relation between a user (125; 326) of the image capture device and the target is generated (116; 415) using the image.