Vehicle Arrival Notification via Object Detection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current customer service experiences in retail settings, particularly for pickup transactions, often result in long wait times for customers due to uncertainty about when an associate is ready to assist them.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing a server, video camera, and computing devices to detect vehicle arrivals through image processing and confidence scoring, generating a notification when a vehicle is present, allowing retailers to promptly service customers upon arrival.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If customers park and wait for associate assistance manually, then no additional notification system is needed, but customer wait time increases and service efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual customer service notification with an automated computer vision system using video cameras and machine learning algorithms to detect vehicle arrivals and trigger notifications, eliminating the need for mechanical or manual monitoring processes
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by having the automated detection system independently identify customer arrivals and initiate notification processes without requiring customer action or associate monitoring, allowing the system to serve itself in detecting and responding to arrivals
2Productivity
If no vehicle detection system is used, then system complexity remains low, but retailers cannot be promptly notified of customer arrivals
Solution Approach 1:
The patent substitutes mechanical monitoring with an automated computer vision system that uses video cameras and neural network-based object detection to automatically identify vehicles and trigger notifications, dramatically improving service response speed
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary detection of vehicle arrivals before customers actually arrive at the service counter, allowing the notification to be prepared in advance so that associates can be ready immediately when customers arrive
Data Source
AI summary
A system is provided and generally includes a server and an associate computing device. The server may receive location video data comprising at least one image from a camera directed to a location, such as a designated area of a parking lot. The server may detect one or more objects in the image, and determine a bounding box based on the detected objects. The server may also determine a confidence value corresponding to the bounding box. The confidence value may be determined based on an area of the image defined by the bounding box and a predefined class. The server may then generate an arrival message based on the determined confidence value, and transmit the arrival message to the associate computing device.