Google Inc.

Mark Cummins

Hartmut Neven

Dragomir Dimitrov Anguelov

Hartwig Adam

John Patrick Flynn

Anand Pillai

James William Philbin

Rafael Spring

Ian Cummins

The present disclosure generally relates to a method and a hardware and software system for collecting data from retail point of sale. The hardware connects to a wide variety of barcode scanners and receipt printers. Collected data is transmitted to a cloud-based infrastructure backend system using a wireless internet connection built into the hardware. The collected data can be processed to extract item-level transaction information, and estimate the price and in-stock status of items in particular shops. A search engine can be provided using this data, which allows a customer to discover which nearby shop has an item of interest in stock. A targeted advertising system that complements this search service is also presented. The data can be used by retailers and manufacturers for business analysis and optimization.

System and method for point of sale transaction logging

A method and apparatus for enabling virtual tags is described. The method may include receiving a first digital image data and virtual tag data to be associated with a real-world object in the first digital image data, wherein the first digital image data is captured by a first mobile device, and the virtual tag data includes metadata received from a user of the first mobile device. The method may also include generating a first digital signature from the first digital image data that describes the real-world object, and in response to the generation, inserting in substantially real-time the first digital signature into a searchable index of digital images. The method may also include storing, in a tag database, the virtual tag data and an association between the virtual tag data and the first digital signature inserted into the index of digital images.

Method and apparatus for enabling virtual tags

Growing community of inventors

Santa Monica, CA, United States of America

Mark Cummins