System and method for managing retail products

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10489742-B2
Application number	US-201715683260-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 22, 2017
Priority date	Aug 23, 2016
Publication date	Nov 26, 2019
Grant date	Nov 26, 2019

Abstract

In some embodiments, systems, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful for monitoring retail products including: one or more shelf image capturing devices disposed within a retail shopping facility; one or more stock image capturing devices disposed within a stockroom of the retail shopping facility; and a control circuit in communication with the one or more shelf image capturing devices and the one or more stock image capturing devices. The control circuit may configured to: analyze the captured shelf images and associated shelf timestamp to determine a rate of shelf product depletion for a particular retail product; analyze the captured stock images and the associated stock timestamp to determine a rate of stock depletion; compare the rate of shelf product depletion and the rate of stock product depletion; and send a stock depletion warning regarding a particular retail item to a supply chain management server.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
one or more shelf image capturing devices disposed within a retail shopping facility, the one or more shelf image capturing devices configured to capture shelf images of retail store shelves, the captured shelf images having a shelf timestamp associated therewith;
one or more stock image capturing devices disposed within a stockroom of the retail shopping facility and configured to capture stock images of a stock location, one or more captured stock images of the captured stock images having a stock timestamp associated therewith; and
a control circuit in communication with the one or more shelf image capturing devices and the one or more stock image capturing devices, the control circuit configured to:
analyze the captured shelf images and the associated shelf timestamp to determine a rate of shelf product depletion for a particular retail product;
analyze the captured stock images and the associated stock timestamp to determine a rate of stock product depletion;
compare the rate of shelf product depletion and the rate of stock product depletion; and
send a stock depletion warning for a particular stock item to a supply chain management server,
wherein at least one of the captured shelf images or the captured stock images are analyzed by comparing brightness, contrast levels, and luminous intensity at a particular frequency between groups of clustered pixels from two different images of the at least one of the captured shelf images or the captured stock images,
wherein, in response to determining that a number of the particular stock item has reached a threshold based on the comparison of the rate of shelf product depletion with the rate of stock product depletion, the control circuit is further configured to send at least one of a purchase order, a delivery request to a supplier for a predetermined amount of the particular stock item, and a request to a distribution center to restock the particular stock item, and
wherein the control circuit is further configured to, prior to sending the at least one of the purchase order or the delivery request to the supplier, determine whether a distribution center has the predetermined amount of the particular stock item.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to generate a shelf depletion warning, and wherein at least one of the shelf depletion warning or the stock depletion warning is based on at least one of: the rate of shelf product depletion, the rate of stock depletion, a shelf request, a stock request, or historical rate depletion information.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to compare the captured shelf images with a planogram to determine whether the captured shelf images corresponds with the planogram.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to send a signal to an employee management system indicating that one or more shelves in the captured shelf images are to correspond to the planogram.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein, in response to receiving the signal, the employee management system is configured to send at least one of a text message or an audio message to a device associated with a worker of the retail shopping facility, the at least one of the text message or the audio message indicating the one or more shelves that are to correspond to the planogram, and wherein the device comprises at least one of a smartphone, a tablet, a computer, a display device, or a speaker.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to prepare a report of at least one of depletion rates, depletion time, frequency of restocking, customer traffic, or estimated depletion rates.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to process at least one of the captured shelf images or the captured stock images via image contrast enhancement or dynamic range reduction.

8. A computer-implemented method for providing monitoring retail products comprising:
capturing, via one or more shelf image capturing devices disposed within a retail shopping facility, shelf images of retail store shelves, each of the captured shelf images having a shelf timestamp associated therewith;
capturing, via one or more stock image capturing devices disposed within a stockroom of the retail shopping facility, stock images of a stock location, each of the captured stock images having a stock timestamp associated therewith;
analyzing, via a control circuit, the captured shelf images and the associated shelf timestamp to determine a rate of shelf product depletion for a particular retail product;
analyzing, via the control circuit, the captured stock images and the associated stock timestamp to determine a rate of stock depletion;
comparing, via the control circuit, the rate of shelf product depletion and the rate of stock product depletion;
in response to determining that a number of the particular stock item has reached a threshold based on comparing the rate of shelf product depletion with the rate of stock product depletion, sending, via the control circuit, at least one of a purchase order, a delivery request to a supplier for a predetermined amount of the particular stock item, and a request to a distribution center to restock the particular stock item; and
sending, via the control circuit, a stock depletion warning for a particular stock item to a supply chain management server,
wherein at least one of the captured shelf images or the captured stock images are analyzed by comparing brightness, contrast levels, and luminous intensity at a particular frequency between groups of clustered pixels from two different images of the at least one of the captured shelf images or the captured stock images, and
wherein prior to sending the at least one of the purchase order or the delivery request to the supplier, determining, via the control circuit, whether a distribution center has the predetermined amount of the particular stock item.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising generating a shelf depletion warning, wherein at least one of the shelf depletion warning or the stock depletion warning is based on at least one of: the rate of shelf product depletion, the rate of stock depletion, a shelf request, a stock request, or historical rate depletion information.

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Cheruku Aditya R
• Steel Stephen
• Farooq Hamza
• Patri Trinath

Classifications

• G06Q10/087 Primary

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06T7/00

  Image analysis · CPC title

• G07G3/003

  Anti-theft control (theft alarms G08B13/00) · CPC title

• G06Q20/203

  Inventory monitoring · CPC title

• G06Q10/06315

  Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis · CPC title