Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Benjamin Hong Yee

Robert M Riggs

Graham Cyril Jordan

Nathan Pius O'Neill

Paul Eugene Munger

James Stephanick

Andrew James Pierce

Alexander Eugene Choi

Sergio Alfredo Phan Lung Li

Alan Akiyoshi Nonaka

Ali Rahimi

Sarang Sandeep Bhadsavle

Matthew Zimmer

David Bryan Michelman

An apparatus comprising an array of electrical conductors connected to circuitry that determines data indicative of objects at particular locations based on capacitance at junctions of conductors in the array. The apparatus comprises a first set of conductors arranged on a first substrate and a second set of conductors arranged on a second substrate to form an array. The first and second substrates are separated by an air gap within which the electrical conductors are positioned. Each conductor may be independently addressable, having a proximal end connected to readout electronics and a distal end that is not. The apparatus may be cut, at the ends distal to where the conductors connect to the circuitry, to fit a desired location, such as on a store shelf, while remaining operational.

Field-configurable capacitive mat

A load sensor compares generated values of load signals to predicted values of the load signals. Where an error between a generated value and a predicted value is less than a threshold, a value of zero is transmitted by the load sensor to an external systems, in an encoded stream of bits, and the error are used to calculate a predicated value of a next load signal, such that insubstantial changes in loading resulting in small errors are not transmitted to the external system. Where an error between the generated value and the predicted value exceeds the threshold, however, a value representative of the error is transmitted to the external system, in an encoded stream of bits. The external system processes the stream of bits to calculate the error, to determine that an item has been placed on a storage system or removed therefrom, or to identify the item.

Compressing load signal transmissions

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Benjamin Hong Yee