Xerox Corporation

Conduent Business Services, LLC

Palo Alto Research Center Inc.

Ethan Shen

Wencheng Wu

Dennis Lee Venable

Charles Donahue Rizzolo

Thomas F Wade

Daniel S Hann

Tianxiao Xu

Lee Anne Williams

Peter Paul

Chad Steven Smithson

Yujie Zhu

Nan-Xing Hu

Naveen Chopra

Warren Bruce Jackson

Biby Esther Abraham

Gregory McGuire

Janos Veres

Johann Junginger

Graham Stephen Pennington

Antonio St Clair Lloyd Williams

Yuije Zhu

Lee Anne S Williams

Chad S Smithson

Systems and methods for detecting item placement on a surface are provided. The system includes a pressure-sensitive conductive sheet and a resistive grid connected to the pressure-sensitive conductive sheet. The resistive grid includes an electrically non-conductive polymer. The resistive grid includes one or more lines arranged in a pattern. The lines may include parallel lines, parallel and perpendicular lines, concentric circles, arcs of expanding radius, and/or any other suitable types of lines and/or any combination thereof. The resistive grid may include one or more distinct lines and/or shapes positioned at various points along the pressure-sensitive sheet layer.

Systems and methods for improved sensing performance of pressure-sensitive conductive sheets

A method is disclosed. For example, the method includes applying a clear coat layer on a substrate, drying the clear coat layer to form random microstructures in the clear coat layer, dispensing a printing fluid to print a graphical pattern on the clear coat layer, and generating a physical unclonable function (PUF) pattern by drying the printing fluid that fills the random microstructures formed in the clear coat layer.

Printed physical unclonable function patterns

An example dynamic packaging display includes a plurality of indicator lights, a temperature sensor, an internal clock, a processor, and a power source. The processor is communicatively coupled to the plurality of indicator lights, the temperature sensor, and the internal clock. The processor is to activate one of the plurality of indicator lights in response to an expiration of a period of time tracked by the internal clock or a temperature that is measured by the temperature sensor exceeding a temperature threshold. The power source is to provide power to the plurality of indicator lights, the temperature sensor, the internal clock, and the processor.

Dynamic packaging display with temperature logger

A system and method for coupling is described. The system includes, a printed electronic circuit having one or more conductive traces disposed on a flexible substrate The printed electronic circuit includes one or more magnetic couplers disposed on the flexible substrate. The system includes a magnetic connector having one or more magnets that each magnetically attach to a corresponding one of the one or more magnetic couplers The magnetic connector includes one or more spring-loaded pins each aligned with and electrically coupled to a corresponding one of the one or more conductive traces.

Magnetic connector system and method of using

A system for evaluating human interactions with items, such as products displayed on shelves, includes at least one wireless reader which collects data from a set of associated wireless tags in an interrogation zone. The tags and readers may be based on RFID technology. The collected data includes an identifier for an item that is associated with each wireless tag and a touch sensor status indicating whether the item is being touched. A computer receives and aggregates the collected data and outputs an evaluation of human interactions with the items based on the data.

Inventory tracking system

There is described is described a modular point-of-purchase display, system and method. The modular point of purchase display includes a back wall and a front wall, a bottom wall, at least one side wall, and at least one shelf. A printed electronic device is affixed to a surface of the back wall, the front wall, the bottom wall, the at least one side wall, and the at least one shelf. The display includes a microcontroller electrically coupled to the printed electronic device. The display includes a power supply electrically coupled to the printed electronic device. The display includes a connection device coupled to the printed electronic device. The display includes a modular component coupled to the connection device, wherein the modular component can be removed and replaced with an alternate modular component compatible with the connection device.

Modular point-of-purchase (POP) display

An object printing system printer enables printing of electrical circuits on non-planar areas of objects and the accurate placement of electronic components within the printed circuits. The system includes a direct-to-object printer and an electronic component placement system. The direct-to-object printer is configured to form an electrical circuit on an object secured within the direct-to-object printer. The electronic component placement system is configured to retrieve an electronic component and install the electronic component in the electrical circuit on the object secured within the direct-to-object printer in response to the direct-to-object printer generating a signal for the electronic component placement system that indicates the electronic component is to be installed in the circuit on the object secured within the direct-to-object printer.

System for forming electrical circuits on non-planar objects

A store profile generation system includes a mobile base and an image capture assembly mounted on the base. The assembly includes at least one image capture device for acquiring images of product display units in a retail environment. A control unit acquires the images captured by the at least one image capture device at a sequence of locations of the mobile base in the retail environment. The control unit extracts product-related data from the acquired images and generates a store profile indicating locations of products and their associated tags throughout the retail environment, based on the extracted product-related data. The store profile can be used for generating new product labels for a sale in an appropriate order for a person to match to the appropriate locations in a single pass through the store.

Store shelf imaging system and method

This disclosure provides a retail environment robotic system including a vertically oriented/scanning LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) unit mounted to a mobile base which travels along the aisles of a retail environment such as a store. According to an exemplary embodiment, the LIDAR unit vertically scans product display units along the aisles to generate a depth map associated with detected objects which is further processed to detect missing products, product/shelving tags, shelves, etc.

Store shelf imaging system and method using a vertical LIDAR

A system to detect and maintain retail store promotional price tags (PPTs) includes a heuristic PPT description extractor module, a heuristic rule deriver module, a store shelf image acquisition system, a barcode locator and recognizer module, and a heuristic PPT classifier module. The heuristic PPT description extractor module extracts heuristic descriptions of PPTs. The heuristic rule deriver module derives a set of heuristic parameters for the PPTs. The barcode locator and recognizer module analyzes images acquired by the store shelf image acquisition system to localize and recognize barcodes. The heuristic PPT description classifier module extracts heuristic attributes from the images acquired by the store shelf image acquisition system using the set of PPT parameters supplied by the heuristic rule deriver module.

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Toronto, Canada

Ethan Shen