Normalizing universal product codes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9576310-B2
Application number	US-201314092842-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 27, 2013
Priority date	Nov 27, 2013
Publication date	Feb 21, 2017
Grant date	Feb 21, 2017

Abstract

The current disclosure extends to normalizing UPCs so the normalized UPCs can be readily compared against each other and used for item lookups in a local cache. Embodiments of the present disclosure include a UPC cache on a user's mobile device, such as a smartphone. In such embodiments, a UPC that is normalized following processes set forth in the present disclosure may act as a cache key for related product information stored in the cache. By conducting item lookups in a local cache, requests for that data can be served faster than if the data were stored on a remote server.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for normalizing an item UPC comprising:
receiving, at a user computing device, a product code, wherein the product code follows a code schema;
at a UPC identification module of the user computing device, identifying the code schema;
at a UPC normalization module of the user computing device, converting the product code to a normalized UPC by converting the code schema associated with the product code to a normalized UPC code schema;
querying a cache storage of the user computing device using the entire normalized UPC as a cache lookup key;
if querying the cache storage results in a cache miss, querying a UPC database using the entire normalized UPC as the cache lookup key;
at a cache query module of the user computing device, receiving a query result corresponding to the normalized UPC; and
at a display of the user computing device, rendering product information corresponding to the product code.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving a product code comprises scanning a product bar code with a mobile device camera.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user computing device comprises a mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the UPC database comprises a remote database.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein converting the product code to a normalized UPC comprises: expanding the product code; and padding the product code.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising trimming a check digit from the product code.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising initiating a purchase of a product corresponding to the product information.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding the normalized UPC and the query result corresponding to the normalized UPC to the cache storage.

9. A system for conducting a UPC item query, comprising:
a mobile device, further comprising:
a UPC identification module adapted to identifying a code schema of an inputted product code;
a UPC normalization module adapted to convert the product code to a normalized UPC by converting the code schema associated with the product code to a normalized UPC code schema;
a cache query module adapted to:
query a cache storage of the user computing device using the entire normalized UPC as a cache lookup key;
query a remote UPC database using the entire normalized UPC as the cache lookup key;
receive a query result corresponding to the normalized UPC; and
add the normalized UPC and the query result corresponding to the normalized UPC to the cache storage;
the cache storage comprising the entire normalized UPC as the cache lookup key; and

a user interface presentation module adapted to generate data and computer-readable instructions to present various user interfaces to a display of the mobile device.

10. The system of claim 9 , further comprising a remote UPC database.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the mobile device comprises a camera adapted to scan a product bar code.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the UPC normalization module is adapted to: expand the product code; and pad the product code.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the UPC normalization module is adapted to trim a check digit from the product code.

Assignees

• Wal Mart Stores Inc

Inventors

• Cancro Richard Neil
• Pedley Douglas James
• Acker Jr Joel Bennett

Classifications

• G06Q30/0623 Primary

  by investigating goods or services · CPC title