System and method for onboarding an item collection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9946730-B2
Application number	US-201113289928-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 4, 2011
Priority date	Nov 4, 2011
Publication date	Apr 17, 2018
Grant date	Apr 17, 2018

Abstract

In various example embodiments, a system and method for onboarding a collection of items is provided. In example embodiments, image data containing images of a plurality of items from a client device is received. The image data is parsed to distinguish an item of the plurality of items. The item is then identified. In some embodiments, the item is identified by determining at least one catalog item that matches an identifying feature of the item, providing a verification request indicating the at least one catalog item, and receiving a verification response confirming the identity of the item. An inventory list is compiled by including the identified item in the inventory list.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, from a client device of a user, a single image of a plurality of items to be inventoried, image data of each of the plurality of items being included in the single image;
parsing the single image to distinguish each item of the plurality of items to be inventoried;
identifying each of the parsed items from the single image of the plurality of items;
making a determination between creating a new inventory list and appending to an existing inventory list;
automatically creating, using a processor, the new inventory list for the user that represents a collection of identified items of the user by including each of the identified items parsed from the single image of the plurality of items on the new inventory list in response to a determination that at least one parsed item does not match an item in the existing inventory list representing an existing collection of items;
automatically appending the at least one identified item parsed from the image of the plurality of items to the existing inventory list in response to a determination that the at least one parsed item matches an item in the existing inventory list;
monitoring for news or a change in a trend for a particular identified item;
based on the news or the change in the trend, sending an alert to an owner of the particular identified item to indicate a time period, out of a plurality of possible time periods, for selling the particular identified item; and
based on receiving a response from the owner to sell the particular identified item at the indicated time period, creating and publishing a listing to sell the particular identified item at the indicated time period.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the parsing of the image comprises using edge detection processing to distinguish each of the plurality of item.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying each of the parsed items comprises determining an identifying feature of an item.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
determining at least one catalog item that matches the identifying feature of the item;
providing a verification request indicating the at least one catalog item; and
receiving a verification response from the user confirming an identity of the item based on the at least one catalog item.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying each of the parsed items comprises using at least one selection from the group consisting of optical character recognition, text recognition, pattern recognition, image recognition, and bar code identification.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising publishing the new inventory list or the existing inventory list to a community on a networked environment.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether a user-defined condition for reporting the news or change in the trend is satisfied; and
based on the user-defined condition being satisfied, providing a notification reporting the news or the change in the trend to the owner of the particular identified item.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining the trend for the particular identified item based in part on historical data for the particular identified item and providing a notification of the trend to the owner of the particular identified item.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising associating catalog information for an item of a catalog matching the particular identified item.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising creating a listing to sell the particular identified item using the associated catalog information.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing a search within a community for the particular identified item.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising facilitating a communication between the owner of the particular identified item and another user of a community of owners having similar items based on the collection of identified items.

13. A system comprising:
one or more processors of a machine, the one or more processors implemented at least partially by hardware;
an imaging engine, configure by a processor of the one or more processors, to receive, from a client device of a user a single image of a plurality of items to be inventoried, image data of each of the plurality of items being included in the single image;
a parsing module, configured by a processor of the one or more processors, to parse the single image to distinguish each item of the plurality of items to be inventoried;
an identifier module, configured by a processor of the one or more processors, to identify each of the parsed items from the single image of the plurality of items; and
a maintenance module, configured by a processor of the one or more processors, to:
make a determination between creating a new inventory list and appending to an existing inventory list;
automatically create, using the processor, the new inventory list for the user that represents a collection of identified items of the user by including each of the identified items parsed from the single image of the plurality of items in a new inventory list in response to a determination that at least one parsed item does not match an item in the existing inventory list representing an existing collection of items;
automatically append the at least one identified item parsed from the image of the plurality of items to the existing inventory list in response to a determination that the at least one parsed item matches an item in the existing inventory list;
monitor for news or a change in a trend for a particular identified item;
based on the news or the change in the trend, send an alert to an owner of the particular identified item to indicate a time period, out of a plurality of possible time periods, for selling the particular identified item; and
based on receiving a response from the owner to sell the particular identified item at the indicated time period, create and publish a listing to sell the particular identified item at the indicated time period.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the identifier module is further configured to determine at least one catalog item that matches an identifying feature of the particular identified item, the system further comprising a verification module configured to:
provide a verification request indicating the at least one catalog item, and
receive a verification response from the user confirming an identity of the particular identified item based on the at least one catalog item.

15. The system of claim 13 , further comprising:
a monitoring module configured to determine whether a user-defined condition for reporting the news or the change in the trend is satisfied; and
a notification module configured to provide a notification reporting the news or the change in the trend based on the user-defined condition being satisfied.

16. The system of claim 13 , further comprising a community module configured to maintain a community of users having similar categories of items based on the collection of identified items.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable medium in communication with at least one processor, the non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from a client device of a user, a single image of a plurality of items to be inventoried, image data of each of the plurality of items being included in the single image;
parsing the single image data t

Assignees

• Sacco Nathan
• Schory Guy
• Veres Robert Dean
• Ebay Inc

Inventors

• Sacco Nathan
• Schory Guy
• Veres Robert Dean

Classifications

• G06Q10/08

  Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management · CPC title

• G06F17/30247 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/583 Primary

  using metadata automatically derived from the content · CPC title