Nec Corporation

Nec Laboratories America, Inc.

Mustafa Arslan

Sampath Rangarajan

Mohammad Ali Khojastepour

Karthikeyan Sundaresan

Narayan Prasad

Eugene Chai

Carlos Bocanegra

Meilong Jiang

Rajesh Mahindra

Ramanujan Sheshadri

Jongwon Yoon

Vaibhav Singh

Rajarajan Sivaraj

Hariharasudhan Viswanathan

Cheng Liu

Shasha Li

Mohammad Khojastepour

Systems and methods for self-checkout at a point-of-sale are provided. The system and method includes using a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) transceivers within a store, and an RFID reader configured to receive an RFID code from an RFID tag activated by the plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) transceivers. The system and method also includes using a classifier configured to determine whether the RFID tag is inside or outside a designated area, wherein the classifier is trained in a manner that a number of items incorrectly identified as being purchased is below a threshold to minimize customer dissatisfaction (CDS) determined as the ratio of the value of items charged to the customer but not purchased by a customer to the total charge to the customer.

Neural network classifier trained for purchasing differentiation

Systems and methods for is provided for self-checkout at a point-of-sale. The system and method includes a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) transceivers, an RFID reader, wherein the RFID reader is configured to receive a response with an RFID code from each of a plurality of RFID tags activated simultaneously by at least one of the plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) transceivers, and decode the RFID code from the response received from each of the RFID tags, and a classifier configured to determine whether each of the plurality of RFID tags is inside or outside a walk-through checkout area inside a store, wherein the system calculates an amount charged to a customer based on the cost of the items identified as within the walk-through checkout area.

Self checkout system

Systems and methods for determining radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag proximity groups are provided. The method includes receiving RFID tag readings from multiple RFID tags. The method includes determining signal strengths of the RFID tag readings. The method includes determining pairs of RFID tags based on the RFID tag readings. The method also includes implementing a twin recurrent neural network (RNN) to determine proximity groups of RFID tags based on distance similarity over time between each of the pairs of the RFID tags.

Tracking RFID groups with spatio-temporal proximity

Devices and systems for implementing a walk-through gate are provided. The devices include a walk-through gate structure having boundaries that have curved inner surfaces on each side of a cavity. The curved inner surfaces are partially covered by a reflective material. The devices include radio frequency (RF) signal transmitters positioned tangent to the curved inner surfaces and RF signal receivers. The devices also include apertures that provide access to the cavity of the walk-through gate structure.

Walk-through gate with signal separation

A method for employing cycle counting is presented. The method includes interrogating, by an RFID reader, RFID tags by using a plurality of antenna ports, determining, by an activation sequencer, an activation sequence of the plurality of antenna ports that have been enabled, collecting RFID tag responses from each of the RFID tags, and matching one or more of the RFID tag responses to a particular antenna port of the plurality of antenna ports in an activation cycle.

RFID-based self-checkout systems using cycle counting

A walk-through gate is provided. The walk-through gate includes a first semi-transparent side wall and a second semi-transparent side wall encapsulating a walk-through gate volume having an ingress portion and an egress portion. The walk-through gate further includes a plurality of antennas for wirelessly receiving product identifiers for wireless checkout. At least one of the plurality of antennas is made of a semi-transparent conductive material.

Transparent walk-through gate

A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) localization system is provided. The system includes a set of passive RFID tags, each for reflecting transmitted signals. The system further includes an RFID reader for detecting the reflected signals by the passive RFID tags. The system also includes a processor for localizing an object in an area based on the reflected signals by computing signatures using probabilistic macro-channels between the RFID reader and locations of the passive RFID tags. The transmitted signals form inputs to the probabilistic macro-channels, and the signatures form outputs from the probabilistic macro-channels.

Signature-based RFID localization

Systems and methods for sequential detection-based classifications of radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags in three-dimensional space are provided. The methods include modeling a response from RFID tags as a probabilistic macro-channel and interrogating an RFID tag by transmitting a series of packets. Each packet is a transmit symbol and a first series of packet is a transmitted codeword. The method includes receiving, from the RFID tag, a second series of packets that is a received codeword in response to the transmitted codeword and finding a jointly typical transmit and receive codeword across all classes of macro-channels. The method also includes declaring a class of the RFID tag based on a largest likelihood between the transmitted codeword and the received codeword.

Sequential detection based classifications of RFID tags in three-dimensional space

Systems and methods for implementing a radio frequency identifier (RFID) system are provided. The methods include transmitting a radio frequency (RF) signal, by an RFID interrogator with multiple antennas. The methods include receiving a superimposed received signal. The superimposed received signal includes replies from a first RFID tag and a second RFID tag that are overlapping in time. The methods also include separating the replies from the first RFID tag and second RFID tag though spatial processing of the superimposed received signal.

Walk-through checkout station

A walk-though gate (WTG) is presented. The WTG includes a WTG structure including a first wall and a second wall, the first and second walls defining a walk though pass way between an entrance and exit, at least one sensor located at the entrance and the exit of a cavity defined by the walk though pass way, at least one first antenna facing toward an inside region of the WTG structure, at least one second antenna facing away from the inside region of the WTG structure, an RFID reader connected to the at least one first and second antennas, and a judgement module to judge if an RFID tag is located inside or outside the walk though gate structure.

Physical structure, state machine, and concepts of a RFID walk-through gate

A method includes constructing a WTG structure including a first wall and a second wall, the first and second walls defining a walk though pass way between an entrance and an exit, positioning at least one sensor at the entrance and the exit of a cavity defined by the walk though pass way, positioning at least one first antenna facing toward an inside region of the WTG structure, positioning at least one second antenna facing away from the inside region of the WTG structure, connecting an RFID reader to the at least one first and second antennas, and, judging, via a judgement module, if an RFID tag is located inside or outside the walk though gate structure.

Method for employing a RFID walk-through gate

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for estimating a distance to an object. The system includes a transmitter for transmitting RF signals from a location of an object. The system further includes measurement equipment, including a receiver, for receiving the transmitted RF signals as corresponding received RF signals and measuring a plurality of phase differences at different frequencies between the transmitted RF signals and the corresponding received RF signals. The system also includes a processor. The processor is configured to calculate normalized phases from the plurality of phase differences. The processor is further configured to calculate corrected phases by resolving one or more ambiguities from the normalized phases. The processor is also configured to obtain a characteristic curve using the corrected phases. The processor is additionally configured to provide an estimate of the distance based on the characteristic curve and the corrected phases.

Distance estimation using phase information

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for estimating a distance to an object. The system includes a transmitter for transmitting RF signals from a location of an object. The system further includes measurement equipment, including a receiver, for receiving the transmitted RF signals as corresponding received RF signals and measuring a plurality of phase differences at different frequencies between the transmitted RF signals and the corresponding received RF signals. The system also includes a processor. The processor is configured to calculate corrected phases by resolving one or more ambiguities from the plurality of phase differences. The processor is further configured to obtain a characteristic curve using the corrected phases. The processor is also configured to provide an estimate of the distance based on the characteristic curve and the corrected phases.

Distance estimation using multiple phase differences

A system is provided for resolving ambiguity in a phase measurement used in a distance estimation for an object. The system includes a transmitter for transmitting RF signals from an object location. The system includes measurement equipment for receiving the transmitted RF signals as corresponding received RF signals and measuring a plurality of phases at different frequencies between the transmitted RF signals and the corresponding received RF signals. The system includes a processor. The processor is configured to calculate normalized phases from the plurality of measured phases. The processor is configured to perform an intra-frequency ambiguity resolution process that resolves an ambiguity for the normalized phases for a single frequency using an ambiguity factor. The processor is configured to perform an inter-frequency ambiguity resolution process that resolves an ambiguity for the normalized phases across multiple tones using a characteristic curve to provide a resolved phase measurement for the distance estimation.

Ambiguity resolution from the phase measurement in distance estimation based on radio frequency signals

In a wireless communications system including a first transmission point and a second transmission point, a wireless communications method implemented in the first transmission point supporting coordinated multi-point transmission and reception (CoMP) is disclosed. The wireless communications method comprises transmitting to the second transmission point one or more CoMP hypothesis sets, and transmitting to the second transmission point a benefit metric corresponding to each CoMP hypothesis set, wherein the benefit metric can be a negative value. Other methods, systems, and apparatuses also are disclosed.

Growing community of inventors

Princeton, NJ, United States of America

Mustafa Arslan