Methods and Systems for Tracking Carts and Retail Products in a Shopping Space

Abstract

In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful for a retail facility to maintain information regarding product location, in part, from correlating a shopper's cart path and their purchased items with those of other shoppers. In some approaches, the methods and apparatuses may determine a cart path for a particular shopping cart by analyzing aisle markers captured by an image capturing device in the shopping cart, associate that cart path with the purchased items from that shopping cart, and compare the associated cart path and purchased items with similar information from other customers. In some examples, by comparing the associated cart paths and purchased items form a plurality of customers, an aisle location of one of the retail items is identified and the database of aisle locations and retail items may be updated accordingly.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A shopping system comprising:
 a database of a plurality of retail items disposed within a retail location and an aisle location associated with some of the plurality retail items;   a plurality of shopping aisles within the retail location and aisle markers disposed within at least several of the plurality of shopping aisles;   a plurality of shopping carts, each of the plurality of shopping carts having an image capturing device attached thereto, the image capturing device configured to record the aisle markers by which the shopping cart travels during customer use; and   a control circuit coupled to the database and at least one point of sale terminal in the retail location, the control circuit configured to:
 detect a cart path for a particular one of the plurality of shopping carts by receiving the recorded aisle markers from the particular shopping cart; 
 receive, from the point of sale terminal, a list of purchased items from the particular shopping cart and associate the list of purchased items from the particular shopping cart with the cart path for the particular shopping cart; 
 compare the associated cart path and list of purchased items from the particular shopping cart with other customer cart paths and purchased items associated therewith; 
 identify a particular aisle location of one of the plurality of retail items based on overlap between the associated cart path and list of purchased items and other customer cart paths and purchased items associated therewith; and 
 update the database of the plurality of retail items to include the particular aisle location identified for the one of the plurality of retail items. 
   
     
     
         2 . The shopping system of  claim 1  wherein the database includes a plurality of aisle locations for some of the retail items. 
     
     
         3 . The shopping system of  claim 2  wherein the control circuit is further configured to update the database to include the particular aisle location identified as an additional aisle location or a primary aisle location if no other aisle location is stored within the database. 
     
     
         4 . The shopping system of  claim 1  wherein the control circuit is further configured to analyze the associated cart path and list of purchased items for the particular shopping cart and determine a retrieval location for at least one of the purchased items. 
     
     
         5 . The shopping system of  claim 4  wherein the control circuit is further configured to identify a likely retrieval location for at least one of the purchased items. 
     
     
         6 . The shopping system of  claim 4  further comprising an associate electronic device in communication with the control circuit and database, the associate electronic device configured to display the aisle location of the retail items. 
     
     
         7 . The shopping system of  claim 6  wherein the associate electronic device is further configured to update the database including at least one of: adding a retail item into the database, adding an aisle location of one of the plurality of retail items, and updating at least one of the retail items or the aisle location associated therewith. 
     
     
         8 . The shopping system of  claim 6  wherein the control circuit is further configured to determine a low shelf supply based upon receipt of a predetermined number of identical retrieval locations and send the associate electronic device a notification of low shelf supply. 
     
     
         9 . The shopping system of  claim 1  wherein the aisle markers are disposed at predetermined intervals along the shopping aisles. 
     
     
         10 . The shopping system of  claim 9  wherein the control circuit is further configured to estimate a continuous cart path based on the aisle markers recorded by the image capturing device and an order of recordation. 
     
     
         11 . The shopping system of  claim 10  wherein the control circuit is further configured to estimate a time spent at a specific location along the continuous cart path based on time lapse between recordation of the aisle markers or repeatedly capturing a particular aisle marker. 
     
     
         12 . The shopping system of  claim 1  wherein the image capturing device comprises a camera mounted to a handle of the shopping cart, the camera configured to record pictures or video images. 
     
     
         13 . The shopping system of  claim 1  wherein the recorded aisle markers are cleared from the image capturing device of the shopping cart after detection of the cart path by the control circuit. 
     
     
         14 . The shopping system of  claim 1  wherein the image capturing device is configured to record shelf space and product placement on the shelf space during customer use. 
     
     
         15 . A method of locating and monitoring items within a retail location, the method comprising:
 maintaining a database of aisle locations associated with retail items located within the retail location;   capturing, through an image detection device mounted in a shopping cart, pathway images of aisle markers disposed within at least several of a plurality of shopping aisles within the retail location;   receiving the pathway images of the aisle markers from the shopping cart at a point of sale terminal;   receiving a list of purchased retail items from the point of sale terminal and associating the list of purchased retail items with the pathway images;   identifying a particular aisle location of one the purchased retail items by comparing the associated list of purchased retail items and pathway images with other customer pathways and purchased items associated therewith; and   updating the database according to the particular aisle location of the purchased retail item identified by comparing the associated list of purchased retail items and pathway images with other customer pathways and purchases items associated therewith.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein updating the database comprises adding the particular aisle location as an additional aisle location or a primary aisle location if no other aisle location information is stored within the database. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising notifying an associate of a plurality of aisle locations for one of the retail items. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising extracting a retrieval location of at least one of the purchased items by analyzing the associated purchased retail items and pathway images. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  further comprising at least one of:
 determining a low shelf supply based on the extraction of identical retrieval locations a predetermined number of times in a predetermined amount of time; and 
 removing a stored aisle location from the database if the stored aisle location is infrequently found in pathway images correlating to purchased retail items. 
 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising estimating a continuous cart path based upon the aisle markers recorded by the image capturing device and the time lapse between recordation of the aisle markers or repeatedly capturing a particular aisle marker.