Personalized Navigation Using RF and Optical Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Shoppers often face frustration due to the inefficiency of navigating within stores to locate specific items, often retracing steps and taking longer paths.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing RF technology and optical imaging to identify and track individuals within a business enterprise, providing personalized navigation by transmitting location information and shopping lists, and displaying routes on mobile devices to efficiently locate items.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If shoppers manually navigate through store aisles to find items, then they can locate products, but they waste time taking long paths and retracing steps
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates optimal routes through the store based on shopping lists before the shopper begins navigating. The controller determines the most efficient path to multiple items in sequence, eliminating the need for shoppers to figure out routes manually during their visit, thus reducing navigation time and improving shopping efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a mobile device as an intermediary between the shopper and the store environment. The mobile device receives real-time location data from optical sensors and provides navigation guidance, acting as a mediator that translates complex store layout information into simple directional instructions for the shopper
2Measurement precision
If the system uses optical devices to track shopper location in real time, then navigation accuracy improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The optical sensors and mobile devices in the system are repurposed for dual use: they continue to serve their original functions (security monitoring, mobile communication) while simultaneously providing location tracking data for navigation. This self-service approach eliminates the need for dedicated tracking infrastructure, reducing system complexity while maintaining high location accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes existing store infrastructure multi-functional by having optical sensors perform both security surveillance and shopper location tracking, and mobile devices serve both as communication tools and navigation guides. This universality reduces the need for additional specialized equipment, thereby lowering system complexity while achieving precise tracking
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances the shopping experience by reducing navigation time and improving efficiency, allowing shoppers to quickly find items on their lists while minimizing retracing and long paths.
Implementation Method 1
one or more radio-frequency (RF) receivers, disposed near an entrance to the business enterprise, receiving RF signals from an RF-transmitting device carried by the person
Implementation Method 2
at least one optical device adapted to capture images of the person identified by the controller and to send the captured images to the controller, the controller determining from the captured images a current location of the person
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for navigating a person through a business enterprise identify the person based on information carried by radio-frequency (RF) signals received from an RF-transmitting device carried by the person, capture images of the identified person, determine from the captured images a current location of the person within the business enterprise, and optically track the current location of the person as the person moves within the business enterprise.