Product customization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10740501-B2
Application number	US-201715458744-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2017
Priority date	Mar 15, 2016
Publication date	Aug 11, 2020
Grant date	Aug 11, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods for designing and customizing tangible products are disclosed. Examples may include apparel, such as footwear, shirts, or sporting goods, athletic equipment and/or electronic devices, including but not limited to activity monitoring devices or media devices. Aspects relate to customizing products based on visual and tactile properties of the materials to be utilized in the design and construction of the product. Both the visual and tactile property selections may be displayed to the consumer to on an exemplary graphical representation of the product. Embodiments allow a user to select and review both visual and tactile properties of the product, thus the consumer is able to visualize and touch the materials of a customized product.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
one or more processors;
a transceiver that receives wireless signals transmitted from one or more tokens;
a display device that outputs visual representations of products;
an input device that receives user inputs to alter one or more aspects of the visual representations;
a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
receive, at the input device, a user selection of a first product mold representing a first customizable product from a plurality of customizable products, wherein the plurality of customizable products comprise at least on of: an article of footwear, an article of apparel, or a piece of athletic equipment;
detect a first physical token of a plurality of physical tokens within a threshold proximity of the transceiver, wherein each physical token comprises:
a first side comprising a tactile material that permits a user to have a tactile experience when touching the first side, the tactile material being an actual material in a first color available for generating a display of a virtual representation of the customizable product, and wherein the virtual representation indicates products for on-demand construction at the user's instructions with the actual material; and
an electronic identification of the physical token that is electronically received by a product building interface;

determine that the user selected a first actual material for a first portion of the first customizable product;
in response to determining that the user selected the first actual material, output, on the display device, a virtual representation of a model based on the user's selection of the first customizable product and the first physical token, thereby providing the user with a tactile experience of the actual material to be used in a first color as well as a virtual representation of the actual material in depiction of the first color on the selected first customizable product; and
receive electronic instructions from the user to construct the first customizable product with the first portion comprising the tactile material on the first side of at least the first physical token.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of physical tokens is a first plurality of physical tokens that permit the user to selectively customize a first portion of the first customizable product, and wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises computer-executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
detect, via the transceiver, a second plurality of physical tokens for use, wherein the second plurality of physical tokens permit the user to selectively customize a second portion of the first customizable product.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises computer-executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
deactivate a set of physical tokens, of the second plurality of physical tokens, based on user input indicating at least one of: material supply chains, virtual point systems, user price point preferences, or a type of mold.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the transceiver comprises an RFID transceiver.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to:
receive a user selection of a second color to replace the first color without changing the actual material.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of physical tokens is a first plurality of physical tokens that are selectively used by the user to customize a first portion of the first customizable product, and the apparatus further comprising:
a second plurality of physical tokens that are selectively used by the user to customize a second portion of the first customizable product;
wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises computer-executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
deactivate at least one physical token, of the second plurality of physical tokens, based on user section of a physical token from the first plurality of physical tokens.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
receive at the input device, a user selection of a first criteria associated with the first customizable product selected by the user; and
detect one or more physical tokens from the plurality of physical tokens that match the first criteria.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the first criteria is selected from the group consisting of price point, size, product style, and combinations thereof.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the tactile material is selected from the group consisting of: leather, knit, canvas, cotton, polyester, spandex, and combinations thereof.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:
detecting a first product mold of a plurality of product molds within a first threshold proximity of a transceiver, wherein each product mold represents a different style of a product type, and wherein each product mold comprises an embedded transmitter that transmits identification of the product mold to the transceiver;
in response determining that a user has selected the first product mold, detecting a portion of a plurality of physical tokens, each of the physical tokens comprising:
a first side comprising a tactile material, the tactile material being an actual material available for generating a display of a virtual representation of the product type with the selected first product mold, and wherein the virtual representation reflects a physical product for on-demand construction at the user's instructions with the actual material, wherein the physical product comprised at least one of: an article of footwear, an article of apparel, or a piece of athletic equipment; and
a transmitter that automatically transmits an identification of the physical token to a product building interface;

determining a first physical token of the portion of physical tokens within a threshold proximity of the transceiver;
in response to determining that the user has selected the actual material for a first portion of the physical product, outputting via a display device, a virtual representation of a model based on the user's selection of the first product mold and the first physical token; and
receiving electronic instructions from the user to construct the physical product with the tactile material on the first side of at least the first physical token.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the portion of a plurality of physical tokens is a first portion of physical tokens, and each relate to a first portion of the physical product, wherein based upon a confirmation of the actual material and color of the first portion, a second portion of the plurality of physical tokens is detected for use, wherein the second portion of physical tokens each relate to a second portion of the physical product.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the transceiver is an RFID.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
receiving instructions to change a color of the tactile material for the virtual representation of the physical product.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the instr

Assignees

• Nike Inc

Inventors

• Singh Vikrant
• Tenuta Adam
• Coyle Ian

Classifications

• G06F30/00 Primary

  Computer-aided design [CAD] · CPC title

• G06Q30/0621 Primary

  by configuring or customising goods or services · CPC title

• G06Q30/0643

  graphically representing goods, e.g. 3D product representation · CPC title

• G06F2119/18

  Manufacturability analysis or optimisation for manufacturability · CPC title