Tracking of members within a group

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10360599-B2
Application number	US-201715691370-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2017
Priority date	Aug 30, 2017
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

A group of consumers are identified before the members of the group enter a frictionless store on an outside premises of the store. In an embodiment, a registered account holder for a member of the group is passed to an indoor tracking system of the frictionless store when the group enters the store. In an embodiment, attributes of a potential group of consumers is passed to an indoor tracking system when the group enters the store without a registered account being identified.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
identifying, by executable instructions that are executed by a hardware processor of a server from a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, a group of consumers for a frictionless store as a plurality of individuals on an outdoor premises associated with a store before any individual of the group enters an inside of the store by processing at least some video tracking and imaging tracking processing that captures images of the individuals in proximity to one another, assigns the individuals to the group, extracts attributes from the images associated with the group as a whole and each individual of the group, and tracks the consumers as belonging to the group through the images using the attributes before the individuals enter the store, wherein at least a portion of a store includes a frictionless store that allows customers to pick specific items from the frictionless store without scanning the specific items for a checkout at the store, and wherein the attributes include for each individual include: a height of that individual, a color of apparel worn by that individual, facial features of that individual, sex of that individual, and ethnicity of that individual; and
providing, by the executable instructions, the attributes that define the group and each individual to an indoor tracking system associated with the frictionless store when at least one individual of the group is detected as entering the inside of the store through the images associated with the outdoor premises, wherein the indoor tracking system picks up tracking of the at least one individual and the group as a whole by analyzing other images received by the indoor tracking system using the attributes and tracking, by the indoor tracking system associations between the group, the individuals, and the specific items through the other images.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying further includes identifying a registered account for a specific member of the group and linking the group to the registered account.

3. The method of claim 2 , where identifying the registered account further includes receiving identifying information for the specific member from a wireless transceiver or sensor that is communicated from a vehicle or mobile device of the specific member in a parking lot of the outdoor premises.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein identifying the registered account further includes identifying registered vehicle image attributes for a vehicle of the specific member one the outdoor premises through video cameras situated on the outdoor premises and image processing algorithms.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying further includes identifying the group through video cameras situated on the outdoor premises when the individuals exit a vehicle on the outdoor premises.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying further includes identifying the group through video cameras situated on the outdoor premises and people tracking algorithms based on proximity of the individuals to one another and detected interactions between the individuals on the outdoor premises.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing further includes providing a total number of individuals in the group and individual video tracking attributes for each individual to the indoor tracking system.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing further includes, assigning, by the indoor tracking system, a registered account to a specific individual of the group when the specific individual checks-in with an interface of the indoor tracking system.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising, providing, by the executable instructions, a notification to the specific individual requesting that specific individual confirm or opt-out of the group.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising, tracking, by the indoor tracking system, items picked up by each of the individuals while within the frictionless store.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising, presenting on a self-checkout station to a first individual that performs a checkout on the self-checkout station an option to pay for all items of the group or to pay for just those items picked up by the first individual.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising, tracking, by the executable instructions, other items picked up or obtained by each of the individuals in an outdoor area associated with the frictionless store.

13. A method, comprising:
tracking, by executable instructions that are executed on a hardware processor of a server from a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, image attributes of members of a potential group detected on an outdoor premises of a store by capturing images from cameras and analyzing initial images of the group on the outdoor premises and extracting the image attributes from the initial images for the potential group as a whole and for each member assigned to the group, wherein at least a portion of a store includes a frictionless store that allows customers to pick specific items from the frictionless store without scanning the specific items for a checkout at the store, and wherein the image attributes include for each member include: a height of that member, a color of apparel worn by that member, facial features of that member, sex of that member, and ethnicity of that member;
providing, by the executable instructions, the image attributes for tracking the group and the members to an indoor tracking system when the group and the members are detected as moving from the outdoor premises to an inside of the store;
monitoring, by the executable instructions, any items acquired through image processing of other images captured for the group and the members by the indoor tracking system using the image attributes and sensor processing by the members in both indoor and outdoor areas associated with the store and the frictionless store; and
permitting, by the executable instructions, one member to elect to checkout from the store through payment for all the items acquired by the members by identification of the one member from the other images using the attributes.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising, processing the executable instructions with the cameras that are located at a fuel station in both the indoor and outdoor areas.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein tracking further includes identifying through the image attributes and/or wireless/sensor communications with a device of the one member a registered account of the one member with the frictionless store without any affirmative action being required of the one member.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein permitting further includes permitting the one member to opt out of the potential group and checkout with just those items acquired by the one member in the indoor and/or outdoor areas.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein permitting further includes tracking each of remaining members individually for those items acquired by each of the remaining members ensuring that each of the remaining members perform a checkout at a self-service checkout for their items before existing the frictionless store.

18. A system, comprising:
a processor;
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having executable instructions;

the executable instructions when executed by the processor cause the processor to:
identify members of a group on an outdoor premises of a store by analyzing images captured by cameras and extract attributes for the group from the initial images, wherein th

Assignees

• Ncr Corp

Inventors

• Costello Christopher John

Classifications

• G06Q30/01

  Customer relationship services · CPC title

• G06Q50/06

  Energy or water supply · CPC title

• G06Q30/0633

  Managing shopping lists, e.g. compiling or processing purchase lists (shipping orders G06Q10/083; order filling G06Q10/087) · CPC title

• G06Q20/18

  involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title