Restocking hub with interchangeable buttons mapped to item identifiers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10885496-B2
Application number	US-201816169933-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2018
Priority date	Oct 24, 2017
Publication date	Jan 5, 2021
Grant date	Jan 5, 2021

Abstract

A restocking hub with interchangeable buttons mapped to item identifiers is described herein. In some instances, a local hub may receive an actuation signal from a particular button of a set of interchangeable buttons communicatively coupled with the local hub, the local hub being communicatively coupled with a remote server. The local hub may transmit a signal including a button ID of the particular button to the remote server based on the particular button being activated and the local hub receiving the actuation signal from the particular button. In some implementations, the remote server may determine an item associated with the particular button and attributes of the item based on the button ID of the particular button and a mapping of button IDs to items in a database accessible by the remote server, and execute a defined action using the attributes of the item associated with the particular button.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by a local hub, an actuation signal from a particular button of a set of interchangeable buttons communicatively coupled with the local hub, the actuation signal indicating that the particular button has been pressed, the local hub being communicatively coupled with a remote server;
transmitting, by the local hub, a signal including a button identification code (button ID) of the particular button to the remote server based on the particular button being activated and the local hub receiving the actuation signal from the particular button;
determining, by the remote server, an item associated with the particular button and attributes of the item based on the button ID of the particular button and a mapping of button IDs to items in a database accessible by the remote server; and
executing a defined action using the attributes of the item associated with the particular button.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
receiving, by the remote server, an item description from one or more of a client device and the local hub;
identifying, by the remote server, a particular item based on the item description; and
mapping, by the remote server, a button ID of an unmapped button to the particular item.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , comprising:
transmitting, by the remote server, an electronic instruction to one or more of the client device and the local hub to actuate the unmapped button; and
receiving, by the remote server, the button ID from the unmapped button via the local hub.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , comprising designating the unmapped button as a temporarily mapped button in response to mapping the button ID of the unmapped button to the particular item.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein the temporarily mapped button is the particular button and the item associated with the particular button is the particular item.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , comprising:
in response to mapping the button ID of the unmapped button to the particular item, generating a mailing task to ship a new interchangeable button to an address associated with the local hub in the database, the new interchangeable button having a new button ID; and
in response to receiving a signal including the new button ID of the new interchangeable button from the local hub, mapping the new button ID to the particular item in the database.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , comprising:
in response to receiving a signal relaying the new button ID of the new interchangeable button from the local hub, disassociating the temporarily mapped button from the particular item and designating the temporarily mapped button as an unmapped button in the database.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
receiving, by the local hub, an activation signal from an activation button communicatively coupled with the local hub, the activation signal indicating that the activation button has been pressed; and
activating the set of interchangeable buttons connected to the local hub in response to receiving the activation signal.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
transmitting, by the remote server, an instruction to the local hub causing the local hub to output a notification message confirming the attributes of the item associated with the particular button.

10. A system comprising:
a set of interchangeable buttons;
a local hub communicatively coupled with the set of interchangeable buttons and a remote server, the local hub and the set of interchangeable buttons being located remotely from the remote server, the local hub including a processor and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the local hub to perform operations including:
receiving an actuation signal from a particular button of the set of interchangeable buttons, the actuation signal indicating that the particular button has been pressed, the actuation signal including a button identification code (button ID) of the particular button; and
transmitting a signal relaying the button ID of the particular button to the remote server based on the particular button being activated and the local hub receiving the actuation signal from the particular button; and

the remote server communicatively coupled with the local hub, the remote server determining an item associated with the particular button and attributes of the item based on the button ID and a mapping of button IDs to items stored in a database accessible to the remote server, and executing a defined action based on the attributes of the item associated with the particular button.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the remote server further
receives an item description,
receives an instruction to map to an unmapped button of the set of interchangeable buttons based on the item description,
identifies a particular item matching the item description, and
maps a button ID of the unmapped button to the particular item.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the remote server further transmits an electronic instruction to one or more of a client device or the local hub to actuate the unmapped button, and receives the button ID from the unmapped button via the local hub.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the remote server further maps a new button ID of a new interchangeable button to the particular item in response to receiving a signal relaying the new button ID from the local hub, and disassociates the unmapped button from the particular item.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the instructions further cause the local hub to
receive an activation signal from an activation button communicatively coupled with the local hub, the activation signal indicating that the activation button has been pressed, and
in response to the activation button being pressed, activate the set of interchangeable buttons connected with the local hub.

15. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by a local hub, an actuation signal from a particular button of a set of interchangeable buttons communicatively coupled with the local hub, the actuation signal indicating that the particular button has been pressed, the local hub being communicatively coupled with a remote server;
relaying, by the local hub, a button identification code (button ID) from the particular button to the remote server based on the actuation signal received by the local hub from the particular button, the actuation signal including the button ID of the particular button; and
executing a defined action based on the actuation signal.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , comprising:
receiving, by the local hub, an activation signal from an activation button communicatively coupled with the local hub, the activation signal indicating that the activation button has been pressed; and
in response to receiving the activation signal activating, by the local hub, the set of interchangeable buttons connected with the local hub by permitting actuation signals from the set of interchangeable buttons to be relayed by the local hub to the remote server.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by a server, a signal from a local hub, the signal indicating receipt of an actuation signal by the local hub, the actuation signal indicating actuation of a particular button of a set of interchangeable buttons;
processing, by the server, the signal to determi

Assignees

• Staples Inc

Inventors

• Sonone Ranjeet
• Masud Faisal
• Walker M Steven

Classifications

• G06Q10/0631

  Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations · CPC title

• G06Q10/087 Primary

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

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title