Qualcomm Incorporated

Ecoatm, LLC

Other

Babak Forutanpour

Brian Lee Momeyer

Ted Ray Gooding

Jeffrey Ploetner

Daniel Scott Baker

David L Bednar

Shivakumar Balasubramanyam

Devender Akira Yamakawa

Shriram Ganesh

William T Frantz

Vitor R Carvalho

Neil Vesco

Andre Gustavo P Schevciw

Roman Tivyan

Joemari Enriquez

Leonid Sheynblat

Louis Dominic Oliveira

Robert J O'Neil

Kurt William Abrahamson

Deepthi Pavagada

David Mersten

Erik Visser

Evan Robert Hildreth

Martin Renschler

John Silva

Samuel Jacob Horodezky

Bennett Michael King

John Forrester

Chandrasekar Srinivasan

Umesh Pandey

Ronen Stern

Homayoun Shahri

Kevin M Beckwith

Harsha Rajendra Prasad

Shyam K Parekh

Lae-Hoon Kim

Kalin Mitkov Atanassov

Hee Jun Park

Szepo Robert Hung

Jonathan Kies

Lin Lu

Ruben Manuel Velarde

Kevin Edward Hunter

Hsiang-Tsun Li

Hau Hwang

Jose Roberto Menendez

Andrew J Everitt

Wade Lyle Heimbigner

Jingqiang Li

Ying Noyes

Jianfeng Ren

Hui-Ya Liao Nelson

Asif Mohammad

Md Sazzadur Rahman

Kexi Liu

Roy Howard Davis

Phuong Lam Ton

Pramod Vasant Argade

Andre Schevciw

Richard Oliver Farley

Dimosthenis Kaleas

Anthony Blow

Sumesh Udayakumaran

Jill Sayuri Iwasaki

Jeffrey D Beckley

Enrico Ros

Jadine Naomi Yee

Andre Gustavo Pucci Schevciw

Sumant Madhav Paranjpe

Wolfgang Frank

Gerald Patrick Joyce, Iii

William Kimberly

Farhan Muhammad Aziz

Steven Dorner

Krishnan Ramachandran

Mazen Labban

Geoffrey C Wenger

Robert O'Neill

Maria Romera Joliff

James P Mason

Selena Salazar

Lawrence T Cleary

William C Ater

Marc L Sands

Maria E Romera Jolliff

Salman Saeed

Paul G Phillips

Ramachandran Rajagopalan

Derchang Chao

Robert O'Neil

Terence William Hampson

Selena M Salazar

Liberty Edward Mann, Iv

Larissa Dantsker

William Thomas Frantz

Roy H Davis

Ronen R Stern

Samuel J Horodezky

Maria Romera Jolliff

Various embodiments of kiosks for purchasing mobile phones and other mobile electronic devices from users are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the kiosks include an apparatus to position an electrical connector for connection to a mobile device. This apparatus enables the kiosk to connect to the mobile device to electrically inspect the mobile device, and the associated electrical connectors and cables are not subjected to repeated pulling and other rough handling that can lead to premature wear and tear. Accordingly, use of connector carriers configured in accordance with the present technology can lead to longer connector/cable service life, reduced maintenance, and greater kiosk up-time. In some embodiments, the apparatus can include a camshaft having one or more cam lobes positioned to act against one or more cam followers, e.g., carrying one or more electrical connectors.

Connector carrier for electronic device kiosk

Described are systems and methods to verify the identity of an evaluated device that has been previously identified and evaluated remotely from a reader device. The reader device obtains from an evaluated device temporally changing information, where the temporally changing information includes a unique identifier associated with the evaluated device and a proximity indication. The reader device verifies the temporally changing information by verifying that the unique identifier is contained in the temporally changing information, that the unique identifier is stored in a database associated with the reader device, and that the temporally changing information includes the proximity indication indicating that the evaluated device and the reader device are proximate to each other. Upon verifying the temporally changing information, the reader device obtains the price of the evaluated device, based on the unique identifier associated with the evaluated device. Upon obtaining the price of the evaluated device, the system compensates a user associated with the evaluated device.

Identifying electronic devices using temporally changing information

Kiosk systems and methods for vending mobile phones and other electronic devices to, and/or for purchasing mobile phones and other electronic devices from, consumers are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, such systems can include subsystems for preparing purchased mobile phones for resale, moving mobile phones between different processing stations, transferring data from, e.g., an old phone to a newly purchased phone, etc. In some embodiments, the kiosk systems disclosed herein can purchase a mobile phone from one consumer, process the mobile phone for resale (e.g., by removing personal data, etc.), and then sell the mobile phone to another consumer.

Systems and methods for vending and/or purchasing mobile phones and other electronic devices

Methods, apparatus, and systems for generating a price of a target device. An evaluator device obtains technical properties associated with the target device. The technical properties include a make and a model of the target device. Physical properties associated with the target device are obtained. The physical properties include information related to wear and tear of the target device. Obtaining the physical properties includes indicating to a user that the user should position the target device in multiple predetermined positions and that the evaluator device records an image of the target device in each of the multiple predetermined positions. A video of the target device is recorded while the target device is positioned in the multiple predetermined positions. The obtained physical properties are evaluated to generate a condition metric value of the target device. Based on the generated condition metric value, the price of the target device is determined.

Evaluating and recycling electronic devices

A consumer-operated kiosk can include an inspection area configured to receive a first device from a user. The kiosk can include an imaging device configured to image the first device when the first device is positioned within the inspection area. In some embodiments, the kiosk includes a vending apparatus configured to store a plurality of second electronic devices for purchase. The kiosk can include one or more release mechanisms configured to directly release any one of the second electronic devices from the vending apparatus. The kiosk includes one or more processors operably connected to the inspection area, the imaging device, the vending apparatus, and the one or more release mechanisms. The one or more processors can be configured to cause the imaging device to capture one or more images of the first electronic device, facilitate purchase of the first electronic device based at least in part on the one or more captured images of the first electronic device, receive a request to vend a selected phone from among the phones in the vending apparatus, and/or cause the one or more release mechanisms to release the selected phone directly from the vending apparatus into a vending bay of the kiosk.

Kiosk for processing electronic devices

Consumer operated kiosks for recycling electronic devices are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the kiosk includes a rotatable inspection plate configured to receive an electronic device when the inspection plate is in a first position. The kiosk can include a camera having a field of view including at least a portion of the inspection plate. The kiosk can include a wired and/or wireless connectivity device configured to connect to the electronic device and one or more processors configured to: receive characteristic information about the electronic device via the wired and/or wireless connectivity device; cause the inspection plate to rotate to a second position; receive one or more images of the electronic device via the camera when the inspection plate is in the second position; and facilitate determination of an offer price for the electronic device based at least in part on the characteristic information and the one or more images.

Kiosk for evaluating and purchasing used electronic devices

Disclosed here are various embodiments to evaluate a device and present a price quote to the user by detecting a presence of a device in proximity to a wireless charger. The system can utilize a wireless charger to obtain information about the device while charging the device. The information can include the make of the device. The system can guide the user to navigate the device to provide additional information such as model, memory capacity, unique identifier, and carrier associated with the device. Based on the unique identifier, the system can determine whether device has been stolen. If the device has not been stolen, the system can determine a price based on information obtained from the device and can facilitate presenting the price to the user. If the user accepts the price, the system can facilitate purchase of the device.

Evaluating an electronic device using a wireless charger

Systems and methods for evaluating the physical and/or cosmetic condition of electronic devices using machine learning techniques are disclosed. In one example aspect, an example system includes a kiosk that comprises an inspection plate configured to hold an electronic device, one or more light sources arranged above the inspection plate configured to direct one or more light beams towards the electronic device, and one or more cameras configured to capture at least one image of a first side of the electronic device. The system also includes one or more processors in communication with the one or more cameras configured to extract a set of features of the electronic device and determine, via a first neural network, a condition of the electronic device based on the set of features.

Neural network based physical condition evaluation of electronic devices, and associated systems and methods

Various embodiments of kiosks for purchasing mobile phones and other mobile electronic devices from users are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the kiosks include an apparatus to turn a mobile phone over on an inspection surface. This apparatus can enable the kiosk to visually inspect both the front and back sides of the mobile device on the inspection surface with an inspection system (e.g., imaging devices, lighting devices, etc.) positioned above the inspection surface, and can eliminate the need to position a second inspection system below a transparent inspection surface to visually inspect, e.g., the back side of the mobile device through the transparent inspection surface. In some embodiments, the kiosk also includes a wireless mobile phone charging device that can be used for, e.g., phone charging and identification.

Kiosk systems and methods for vending mobile phones and other electronic devices to, and/or for purchasing mobile phones and other electronic devices from, consumers are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, such systems can include subsystems for transferring data from, e.g., a purchased phone to a vended phone.

Disclosed herein are various embodiments of systems and methods for evaluating a device and presenting a price quote for the device by using an optical character recognition (OCR) system and/or other associated devices and systems. The system can utilize a wireless charger to obtain information about the device while charging the device. The information can include the make of the device. The system can guide the user to navigate the device to provide additional information such as model, memory capacity, unique identifier, and carrier associated with the device, which can be extracted from the device using OCR. Based on, e.g., the unique identifier, the system can determine whether the device has been stolen. If the device has not been stolen, the system can determine a price based on information obtained from the device and can present the price to the user. If the user accepts the price, the system can facilitate purchase of the device.

Evaluating an electronic device using optical character recognition

Connector carriers (e.g., connector carousels) for use with electronic device processing kiosks, such as mobile phone recycling kiosks, are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a connector carrier includes a chassis and a plurality of electrical connectors fixedly positioned around a periphery of the chassis. In operation, the connector carrier is configured to rotate about a central axis to position a selected one of the electrical connectors in a first position adjacent to an inspection area of the kiosk, and then move toward the inspection area to move the selected electrical connector from the first position to a second position in which a user can connect a mobile phone to the electrical connector.

Systems and methods for detecting the cracks in illuminated electronic device screens are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving an image of an electronic device screen and retrieving a plurality of kernels, each having values corresponding to a line region and a non-line region, with the orientation of the line region and the non-line region differing for each kernel. At least some of the kernels are applied to the image to obtain, at various locations of the image, values corresponding to the line regions and the non-line regions. Based on the values corresponding to the line regions and the non-line regions, cracks are automatically identified in the electronic device screen.

Methods and systems for detecting cracks in illuminated electronic device screens

Growing community of inventors

Carlsbad, CA, United States of America

Babak Forutanpour