Store Floor Map with Product Icons for Layout Adaptability

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Solution Overview

Problem

In clothing stores, it is challenging for consumers and clerks alike to locate desired products due to frequent changes in product layouts, which are influenced by weather demands.

Innovation Solution

An information processing device that receives product designations from users and displays thumbnail images along with a floor map featuring icons indicating the positions of the designated products, allowing users to identify corresponding product locations.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If product layouts are frequently changed to respond to weather demands, then product adaptability is improved, but product location difficulty increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveproduct layout adaptabilityVSAvoidproduct location difficulty

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-acquiring and storing position information of products in the database before users need to locate them. When users search for products, the system can immediately retrieve and display their locations without requiring real-time physical inspection of the store layout, thus resolving the difficulty caused by frequent layout changes.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an information processing device as an intermediary between users and products. This device includes a database that stores position information and a display unit that shows product locations on a floor map. The intermediary translates physical product positions into visual information that users can easily interpret, solving the problem of locating products in frequently changing layouts.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Measurement precision

If detailed product position information is provided, then product location accuracy is improved, but information processing complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveproduct position accuracyVSAvoidinformation processing complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system creates a virtual copy of the physical store layout through a floor map displayed on the display unit. This floor map includes icons representing products at their actual positions, providing accurate location information without requiring complex physical tracking systems. The virtual copy simplifies the information processing while maintaining position accuracy.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The patent segments the store layout into discrete positional units that can be individually tracked and displayed. Each product's position is stored as separate information in the database, allowing the system to provide precise location data for individual products while keeping the overall information processing manageable through modular data structure.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS12204738B2Information processing device, information processing method, storage medium, and guide system

Publication Date: 2025.01.21 FAST RETAILING

AI summary

An information processing device includes a reception unit configured to receive designation of a plurality of products by a user, and a display control unit configured to display thumbnail images corresponding to at least a part of the plurality of products and a floor map on which icons indicating pieces of positional information of at least two or more products of the plurality of products are displayed in an identifiable manner. The display control unit displays the icons and the thumbnail images in such a way that the correspondence between them can be identified.