Physical shopping cart having features for use in customer checkout of items placed into the shopping cart

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11059506-B2
Application number	US-201916593837-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 4, 2019
Priority date	Oct 4, 2018
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

Physical shopping carts can have product detection systems and associate physical shopping carts with mobile computing devices (e.g., smartphones, tablet computing devices, smart watches, wearable computing devices). For example, physical shopping carts can be equipped with one or more product detection systems (e.g., scanners, sensors, cameras) that can electronically tally products that are placed in physical shopping carts. Mobile computing devices can be associated with and mounted on the physical shopping carts to provide a variety of enhanced shopping cart features not possible with conventional physical shopping carts, such as electronically tracking the contents of a shopping cart, checking-out from the mobile computing device (instead of at conventional check-out areas, such as point of sale terminals), and others.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A physical shopping cart is configured to transport physical goods around a store, the physical shopping cart comprising:
a basket having an entrance area and a containment area into which the physical goods can be placed by passing the physical goods through the entrance area;
a handle by which a user can push the physical shopping cart around the store; and
one or more first gesture sensors configured to sense gestures passing physical goods through the entrance area when physical goods are placed in the basket;
a second storage area into which physical goods can be placed; and
one or more second gesture sensors configured to sense gestures passing physical goods into the second storage area;
wherein the physical shopping cart is configured to transmit information about the physical goods to a mobile computing device;
wherein the basket comprises a main area and the second storage area in the form of an auxiliary area separated from the main area by a movable partition, wherein:
with the movable partition in a first position, the first gesture sensors senses activity in the main area while the second gesture sensors sense activity in the auxiliary area; and
with the movable partition in a second position, the first gesture sensors senses activity in the main area while the second sensor senses activity in the main area.

2. The physical shopping cart of claim 1 , wherein to sense when physical goods are placed in the basket, the physical shopping cart further comprises a computer-vision sensor configured to capture computer-images of physical goods passing through the entrance area.

3. The physical shopping cart of claim 2 , wherein:
the second storage area is an undercart area that is positioned below the basket, the undercart area including a shelf that is configured to hold goods,
the one or more gesture sensors are an undercart sensor pair that is affixed to an underside of the basket with a vantage point directed downward toward the undercart area.

4. The physical shopping cart of claim 3 , wherein the undercart sensor pair is affixed to the underside of the basket at a front of the shopping cart and the vantage point is directed down and toward a back of the shopping cart.

5. The physical shopping cart of claim 3 , wherein the undercart sensor pair is affixed to the underside of the basket at a back of the shopping cart and the vantage point is directed down and toward a front of the shopping cart.

6. The physical shopping cart of claim 3 , further comprising:
an RFID sensor that is affixed to the underside of the basket; and
a controller device that is configured to receive sensed information from the gesture sensor, the computer-vision sensor, the RFID sensor, and combinations thereof, and to identify products that are currently contained within the shopping cart based on the sensed information, wherein the controller device is affixed to an underside of the shelf for the undercart area.

7. The physical shopping cart of claim 1 , wherein to transmit information about the physical goods to the mobile computing device, the physical shopping cart is configured to transmit a command to update information on a display of the mobile computing device.

8. The physical shopping cart of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more first gesture sensors comprise a first sensor pair comprising a first sensor of a first type and a second sensor of a second type; and
the one or more second gesture sensors comprise a second sensor pair comprising a third sensor of the first type and a fourth sensor of the second type.

9. The physical shopping cart of claim 1 , further comprising a first mounting fixture into which the user can removably mount a mobile computing device in an orientation that causes a display of the mobile computing device to be viewable by the user as the user pushes the handle to push the physical shopping cart around the store.

10. The physical shopping cart of claim 9 , wherein the first mounting fixture is positioned between the handle and the basket.

11. The physical shopping cart of claim 9 , wherein the orientation is generally horizontal.

12. The physical shopping cart of claim 11 , wherein the orientation is within ten degrees of horizontal.

13. The physical shopping cart of claim 9 , wherein the physical shopping cart further comprises a controller device that comprises a computer processer and data transceiver, the controller device configured to:
communicably couple with the mobile computing device; and
communicate with a communicably coupled mobile computing device to provide the mobile computing device with information about a shopping experience in the store using the physical shopping cart.

14. The physical shopping cart of claim 13 , wherein the controller device is installable coupled to the physical shopping cart.

15. The physical shopping cart of claim 14 , wherein the controller device is integral a permanent structure of the physical shopping cart.

16. The physical shopping cart of claim 9 further comprising a second mounting fixture into which the user can removably mount a scanner that is configured to scan barcodes of the physical goods and transmit information about the physical goods to the mobile computing device.

17. The physical shopping cart of claim 9 , further comprising a bag rack within the containment area.

18. A physical shopping cart is configured to transport physical goods around a store, the physical shopping cart comprising:
a basket having an entrance area and a containment area into which the physical goods can be placed by passing the physical goods through the entrance area;
a handle by which a user can push the physical shopping cart around the store; and
one or more gesture sensors configured to sense gestures passing physical goods through the entrance area when physical goods are placed in the basket;
wherein:
the physical shopping cart is configured to transmit information about the physical goods to a mobile computing device;
to sense when physical goods are placed in the basket, the physical shopping cart further comprises a computer-vision sensor configured to capture computer-images of physical goods passing through the entrance area;

the basket comprises a main area and an auxiliary area separated by partition,
the main area includes at least two sensor pairs that are positioned at different locations within the main area, wherein each of the at least two sensor pairs includes at least one gesture sensor and at least one computer-vision sensor, and
the auxiliary area includes at least one sensor pair including at least one gesture sensor and at least one computer-vision sensor.

19. The physical shopping cart of claim 18 , wherein:
a first sensor pair in the main area is positioned along a side of the main area with a first vantage point directed laterally across the main area of the cart, and
a second sensor pair in the main area is positioned in an opposing corner of the main area of the cart with a second vantage point directed diagonally across the main area toward and partially overlapping a field of view of the first sensor pair.

20. The physical shopping cart of claim 18 , wherein a sensor pair in the auxiliary area is positioned along a side of the auxiliary area with a vantage point directed laterally across the auxiliary area of the cart.

Assignees

• Target Brands Inc

Inventors

• Hagen Todd A
• Dingman Josh Michael
• Woods Daniel
• Tolbert Donnie
• Wipf Andrew
• Kadlec Tomas
• Armstrong Donald John

Classifications

• G06Q30/0641

  utilising user interfaces specially adapted for shopping · CPC title

• B62B3/1472

  Supports for specific articles (B62B3/1468 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06Q30/0633 Primary

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

• B62B5/0096 Primary

  Identification of the cart or merchandise, e.g. by barcodes or radio frequency identification [RFID] · CPC title

• G06Q20/306

  using TV related infrastructures (external card used for payment with client device H04N21/4185) · CPC title