Retail Object Location via Camera-Device Coordinate Association
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Solution Overview
Problem
In retail stores, determining the location of customers or objects within aisles is typically manual or relies on monitoring cameras, lacking an efficient automated solution.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing cameras and portable electronic devices to capture images and transmit signals, associating store coordinates with frame coordinates, allowing for the automatic determination of object locations within the store through a database lookup.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual verification by associates is used to determine customer location, then measurement precision is maintained, but productivity decreases and loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical verification by associates with an automated optical system using cameras and image processing. The control circuit automatically captures images, detects objects, determines locations, and communicates with the portable electronic device, eliminating the need for manual aisle verification and significantly improving productivity while reducing time loss.
2Productivity
If monitoring cameras are installed to verify customer location, then productivity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the camera system multi-functional by integrating it with a portable electronic device that associates with the customer. The same camera infrastructure serves both traditional monitoring purposes and automated location determination, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining productivity improvements.
Solution Approach 2:
The portable electronic device acts as an intermediary between the camera system and the location determination process. It receives camera data, performs image processing, determines object locations, and communicates results, simplifying the overall system architecture compared to a fully centralized complex monitoring system.
3Productivity
If automated location determination is implemented, then productivity increases and loss of time is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The portable electronic device performs self-service by automatically processing images from the camera, detecting objects, determining their locations using coordinate systems, and communicating results without requiring external complex processing systems. This distributed intelligence approach increases productivity while managing system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to automatically determining location of an object. In some embodiments, there is provided a system for automatically determining location of an object inside a retail store via one or more cameras including: a plurality of locations inside a retail store; a first camera capturing a first image of a first location; a portable electronic device configured to transmit a signal used to determine an absolute location of a test object; one or more first receiver circuits configured to receive transmitted first signals from the portable electronic device; and a control circuit configured to: associate a first set of store coordinates of a first coordinate system associated with an entire area inside the retail store with a first set of frame coordinates of a second coordinate system associated with the plurality of cameras; and cause a database to store the association.