Systems and methods for inventory management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12205075-B2
Application number	US-202117196823-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2021
Priority date	Mar 9, 2021
Publication date	Jan 21, 2025
Grant date	Jan 21, 2025

Abstract

In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to inventory management. In some embodiments, an inventory management system comprises a mobile device comprising an image capture device configured to capture an image and a communications transceiver configured to transmit the image, and a control circuit configured to receive, from the mobile device, the image, detect, within the image, the first sign and the second sign, identify, based on the first sign, a product associated with the first sign, identify, based on the second sign, a location of the product storage unit, associate, in a database, an indication of the product associated with the first sign and the location of the product storage unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An inventory management system, the inventory management system comprising:
an application configured to execute on a mobile device, the application when executed on the mobile device configured to:
cause an image capture device of the mobile device to capture an image of a product storage unit, wherein the image capture device comprises a sensor configured to capture an image of a product storage unit; and
cause transmission, via a communications transceiver of the mobile device, of the image of the product storage unit, wherein the image of the product storage unit includes indicia, wherein the indicia indicate a first sign and a second sign included in the image of the product storage unit; and

a control circuit, wherein the control circuit is communicatively coupled to the mobile device via a network, the control circuit configured to:
receive, from the mobile device, the image of the product storage unit;
detect, within the image of the product storage unit, the first sign and the second sign included in the image of the product storage unit;
isolate, from the image of the product storage unit, the first sign and the second sign to remove extraneous portions of the image not including the first sign and the second sign;
create a new data file comprising the first sign and the second sign isolated from the image;
crop, from the first sign, a visual indicator depicting a product identifier, wherein the crop removes all portions of the image outside of the cropped area;
identify, based on the visual indicator depicting a product identifier, a product associated with the first sign;
crop, from the second sign, a visual indicator depicting a product location, wherein the crop removes all portions of the image outside of the cropped area;
identify, based on the visual indicator depicting a product location, a location of the product storage unit; and
associate, in a database, an indication of the product associated with the first sign and the location of the product storage unit.

2. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein the application when executed on the mobile device is further configured to:
generate the indicia; and
augment the image of the product storage unit to include the indicia.

3. The inventory management system of claim 2 , wherein the application when executed on the mobile device is further configured to:
process the image of the product storage unit; and
locate, within the image of the product storage unit, the first sign and the second sign.

4. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein the indicia include one or more of shading, highlighting, and segmentation maps.

5. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein the first sign is a price sign comprising a price indicator and a product indicator, and the second sign is a location tag comprising a barcode, a finder pattern, an alphabetic code, and a numeric code.

6. The inventory management system of claim 5 , wherein the visual indicator comprises a plurality of markers in linear arrangement including a pair of markers, data markers, and timing markers.

7. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit detects the first sign and the second sign via a machine learning algorithm.

8. The inventory management system of claim 7 , wherein the machine learning algorithm recognizes text sections in the image of the product storage unit, and wherein the identification of the product associated with the first sign and the identification of the location of the product storage unit is based on an analysis of the text sections.

9. The inventory management system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
preprocess, before the identification of the product associated with the first sign and the location of the product storage unit, the image of the product storage unit, wherein the preprocessing includes noise reduction of the image of the product storage unit.

10. The inventory management system of claim 9 , wherein the preprocessing includes color adjustment of the image of the product storage unit.

11. A method for inventory management, the method comprising:
causing capture, by an application configured to be executed on a mobile device via a sensor of an image capture device of the mobile device, an image of a product storage unit;
causing transmission, by the application configured to be executed on the mobile device via a communications transceiver, the image of the product storage unit, wherein the image of the product storage unit includes indicia, and wherein the indicia indicate a first sign and a second sign included in the image of the product storage unit;
receiving, from the mobile device via a network at a control circuit, the image of the product storage unit;
detecting, by the control circuit from within the image of the product storage unit, the first sign and the second sign included in the image of the product storage unit;
isolating, from the image of the product storage unit, the first sign and the second sign to remove extraneous portions of the image not including the first sign and the second sign;
create a new data file comprising the first sign and the second sign isolated from the image;
cropping, from the first sign, a visual indicator depicting a product identifier, wherein the cropping removes all portions of the image outside of the cropped area;
identifying, by the control circuit based on the visual indicator depicting a product identifier, a product associated with the first sign;
cropping, from the second sign, a visual indicator depicting a product location, wherein the cropping removes all portions of the image outside of the cropped area;
identifying, by the control circuit based on the visual indicator depicting a product location, a location of the product storage unit; and
associating, by the control circuit in a database, an indication of the product associated with the first sign and the location of the product storage unit.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
generating, by the application configured to be executed on the mobile device, the indicia; and
augmenting, by the application configured to be executed on the mobile device, the image of the product storage unit to the include the indicia.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
processing, by the application configured to be executed on the mobile device, the image of the product storage unit; and
locating, by the application configured to be executed on the mobile device within the image of the product storage unit, the first sign and the second sign.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the indicia include one or more of shading, highlighting, and segmentation maps.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first sign is a price sign comprising a price indicator and a product indicator, and the second sign is a location tag comprising a barcode, a finder pattern, an alphabetic code, and a numeric code.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the visual indicator comprises a plurality of markers in linear arrangement including a pair of markers, data markers, and timing markers.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the control circuit detects the first sign and the second sign via a machine learning algorithm.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the machine learning algorithm recognizes text sections in the image of the product storage unit, and wherein the identification of the product associated with the first sign and the identifi

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Ellison Benjamin R
• Dalal Ravi Kumar
• Elumalai Monisha
• Chen Yilun

Classifications

• G06V20/10

  Terrestrial scenes (scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59) · CPC title

• G06V10/30

  Noise filtering · CPC title

• G06N20/00

  Machine learning · CPC title

• G06V20/62

  Text, e.g. of license plates, overlay texts or captions on TV images · CPC title

• G06V20/52

  Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects (recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69) · CPC title