Target Brands, Inc.

Andrew James Wipf

Todd A Hagen

Donnie Scott Tolbert

Josh Michael Dingman

Arne Wilkin

Donald John Armstrong

Daniel Woods

Tomas Kadlec

Christopher Mark Brakob

Clayton Black

Ryan David Siskind

David Pankratz

Joseph C Eckberg

Dylan Essing

Kathleen Jacqueline Roush

Ben Schuster

Elizabeth Feist

Matthew Fevold

Kevin Newland

Susan Yang

Adam Joseph Nawrocki

Craig Ryan Janssen

Francisco Cancino, Iii

The disclosed technology provides for reconstructing products that are added to a shopping cart in three-dimensional space. The reconstructed products can be used for product validation. A shopping cart can include product validation hardware including light emitters and light sensors along a top perimeter of the shopping cart. The shopping cart can activate the light emitters to emit light across a top horizontal plane of the shopping cart, receive, from light sensors on a side of the shopping cart opposite a side where the activated light emitter is located, light intensity data as a product passes through the top horizontal plane and obstructs at least a portion of the emitted light from being detected by the light sensors, identify, from the light intensity data, slices of the product, and reconstruct the product in 3D space based on stitching together the slices.

Shopping cart with infrared product validation

Described herein are systems and methods for validating products that are added to a shopping cart. A shopping cart that can include product validation hardware and a controller, the product validation hardware including motion sensors positioned at least along a top perimeter of the shopping cart and at least one weight sensor positioned inside the shopping cart. The shopping cart can receive, from one or more of the motion sensors, motion data when the product is detected to be entering a top horizontal plane of the shopping cart, receive, from the at least one weight sensor, weight change data that is collected in real-time as the product settles inside the shopping cart, and correlate the weight change data with the motion data to generate a weight signature over time for the product. The weight signature can be used to validate the product that is added to the shopping cart.

Shopping cart with weight bump validation

In one implementation, a method for determining accurate store traffic levels includes receiving, at a computer system, historical store data for a physical store that was generated by internal data sources located within the physical store; generating, by the computer system, a historical store model that correlates values from store data with guest traffic levels within the physical store; receiving, by the computer system, current store data from one or more of the internal data sources; determining, by the computer system, current guest traffic level in the physical store based on the current store data and the historical store model; and outputting, by the computer system, the current guest traffic level in the physical store.

Store traffic indicator

Physical shopping carts can have product detection systems and associate physical shopping carts with mobile computing devices (e.g., smartphones, tablet computing devices, smart watches, wearable computing devices). For example, physical shopping carts can be equipped with one or more product detection systems (e.g., scanners, sensors, cameras) that can electronically tally products that are placed in physical shopping carts. Mobile computing devices can be associated with and mounted on the physical shopping carts to provide a variety of enhanced shopping cart features not possible with conventional physical shopping carts, such as electronically tracking the contents of a shopping cart, checking-out from the mobile computing device (instead of at conventional check-out areas, such as point of sale terminals), and others.

Physical shopping cart having features for use in customer checkout of items placed into the shopping cart

In some implementations, a system for verifying items in a retail environment includes a physical shopping cart including a first set of sensors, and an automated checkout station including a second, different set of sensors. The physical shopping cart receives item verification data for verifying an item, detects the item as it enters the physical shopping cart, and performs a primary verification of the item. The automated checkout station obtains a virtual shopping cart that corresponds to the physical shopping cart. The virtual shopping cart includes a list of items that have been placed in the physical shopping cart, and a verification status of each item. The second, different set of sensors generate station sensor data that represents the physical shopping cart and the items in the physical shopping cart. A secondary verification of the physical shopping cart and its contents is performed by the automated checkout station.

Verification of items by automated checkout system

In some implementations, a system for validating products that are placed in a shopping cart includes a shopping cart configured to retain products and to be operated by a user in a retail environment. The shopping cart includes product validation hardware and a controller. The product validation hardware includes motion sensors positioned along a top perimeter of the shopping cart and at least one sound sensor positioned inside the shopping cart. The shopping cart is configured to receive, from the motion sensors, motion data when a product enters a top horizontal plane of the shopping cart, and to receive, from the sound sensor, audio data that is collected in real-time as the product is placed in the shopping cart. An audio signature is generated for the product, and is used to validate the product that is placed in the shopping cart.

Shopping cart with sound-based validation

In some implementations, a method performed by data processing apparatuses includes receiving, by an item verification engine, a scan notification indicating that a mobile computing device has scanned an item. In response to receiving the scan notification, the item verification engine provides an instruction for a cart computing system to activate item sensors on a shopping cart. The item verification engine receives sensor data collected by the item sensors as a result of the item having been placed in the shopping cart. The item verification engine receives item verification data for verifying the scanned item from the mobile computing device, performs a verification of the item based on the sensor data and the item verification data, and provides verification results for presentation by the mobile computing device.

Verification of items placed in physical shopping cart

A computer-implemented method obtains a transaction log for a transaction at a self-service terminal during which the self-service terminal fails to detect the presence of an item at the self-service terminal. Features are extracted from the transaction log and the features are applied to a model to generate an inference for the transaction. The inference is used to determine whether to issue an alert that improper scanning has occurred at the self-service terminal.

Using transaction logs to determine that an undetected item was not scanned at a self-service terminal

Devices, systems, methods, and computer program products for managing network access control with a build system are disclosed. The build system controls network filtering at retail stores based on identifiers of Point of Sale devices connected to the store's LAN (Local Area Network). This filtering places only authorized devices on a virtual LAN within the LAN that is reserved for POS terminals. The network access control is managed by a process built into the build system.

Point of sale device build security

A physical shopping cart comprises a controller and a sensor array comprising an initial sensor configured to detect possible-items placed into the physical shopping cart and a secondary sensor configured to determine if possible-items detected by the initial sensor is are items-of-interest. The physical shopping cart is configured to maintain the secondary sensor in a low-power state; sense a possible-item placed into the physical shopping cart; determine if the possible-item is an item-of-interest; and transmit a sense-message that identifies the item-of-interest.

Growing community of inventors

Minneapolis, MN, United States of America

Andrew James Wipf