Methods and Systems for Monitoring a Facility

Abstract

In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful for monitoring a facility, such as the safety, security, and status of individuals and items within the facility. In one illustrative approach, a retail facility maintains 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, a cart path may be determined, in part, by depositing compounds on a floor surface, provide shopping carts configured to pick up the compounds deposited on the floor of the retail facility, and capture, via a compound detector, the compounds deposited on the cart wheels of a particular shopping cart during a customer checkout at a point of sale terminal, and generate an estimated cart path for the particular one of the plurality of shopping carts.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 - 23 . (canceled) 
     
     
         24 . A facility monitoring system comprising:
 a plurality of compounds disposed on different floors of the facility, the plurality of compounds including at least a first compound with a first light spectra disposed in a first area and a second compound having a second light spectra disposed in a second area, the first and second light spectra absorbing or emitting different spectra of light;   a database of compounds disposed in the facility including at least the first compound and the second compound;   at least one access point with a compound detector configured to detect compounds present on or associated with individuals egressing through the access point; and   a control circuit coupled to the compound detectors and the database of compounds, the control circuit configured to identify areas in the facility visited by the individuals by analyzing the detected compounds present on or associated with the individuals.   
     
     
         25 . The facility monitoring system of  claim 24  wherein the database of compounds further includes compound identifiers associated with dangerous or hazardous compounds and the compound detector configured to scan for these identifiers. 
     
     
         26 . The facility monitoring system of  claim 24  further comprising an image capturing device at the access point to capture images of individuals egressing through the access point and an illumination device proximate the image capturing device. 
     
     
         27 . The facility monitoring system of  claim 24  wherein the control circuit is further configured to send an alert upon identifying a particular individual has visited a restricted area in the facility. 
     
     
         28 . A facility monitoring system comprising:
 a database of individuals and one or more permitted locations associated with at least some of the individuals in the database;   a plurality of compounds disposed in different areas of the facility, the compounds including at least a first compound with a first light spectra disposed in a first area and a second compound having a second light spectra disposed in a second area, the first and second light spectra absorbing or emitting different spectra of light;   at least one access point at the facility with a sensor configured to identify a particular individual egressing through the access point;   a compound detector configured to detect compounds present on or associated with the particular individual;   an image capturing device at the access point to capture images of at least portions of the particular individual; and   a control circuit coupled to the database, the sensor, the compound detector, and the image capturing device, the control circuit configured to:
 identify visited areas that the particular individual accessed in the facility by analyzing the detected compounds present on or associated with the particular individual, and 
 compare the permitted locations of the particular individual in the database with the visited areas or the detected compounds at the access point. 
   
     
     
         29 . The facility monitoring system of  claim 28  wherein the control circuit is further configured to store images captured by the image capturing device when the particular individual lacks a required permission to visit an area with one of the detected compounds and flag the particular individual for consideration by security staff if the visited area associated with the particular individual is not one of the permitted locations for the particular individual. 
     
     
         30 . The facility monitoring system of  claim 28  further comprising a compound cleaning area proximate the compound detector that is configured to remove the detected compounds after detection thereof. 
     
     
         31 . The facility monitoring system of  claim 28  wherein the compound detector is configured to detect the first compound, the second compound, and additional compounds. 
     
     
         32 . The facility monitoring system of  claim 28  wherein the access point is associated with at least one of: a building entrance, a building exit, a compound exit, or a compound entrance. 
     
     
         33 . A facility monitoring system comprising:
 a database of a plurality of items and at least one item location associated with some of the plurality items;   a plurality of compounds deposited on different surfaces of a location, the plurality of compounds including at least a first compound having a first light spectra and a second compound having a second light spectra, the first and second light spectra absorbing or emitting different spectra of light, wherein at least a portion of the first and second compounds are configured to be transferred to articles contacting the surface of the location;   at least one terminal configured to scan a code on at least one item;   a compound detector configured to detect the compounds present on or associated with individuals and associated articles egressing through the location;   an image capturing device proximate the terminal configured to take images of individuals and associated articles egressing through the at least one terminal; and   a control circuit coupled to the database, the terminal, the compound detector, and the image capturing device, the control circuit configured to generate an estimated path for a particular individual by analyzing the detected compounds present on the individuals and the associated articles egressing through the location and capture images of at least a portion of the particular individual egressing through the location.   
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 33  wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
 receive a list of items from the terminal and associate the estimated path for the particular individual with the list of items from the terminal; and 
 compare the associated estimated path and the list of items from the particular individual with other estimated paths and items associated therewith. 
 
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 34  wherein the control circuit is further configured to identify, based at least on the estimated path for the particular individual and terminal data for a list of items, a retrieval location of one of the plurality of items. 
     
     
         36 . The system of  claim 35  wherein the control circuit is further configured to update the database of the plurality of items to include the retrieval location identified for the one of the plurality of items. 
     
     
         37 . The system of  claim 33  further comprising an illumination device disposed proximate the compound detector, the illumination device configured to shine a specific light frequency as the compound detector detects the compounds present. 
     
     
         38 . The system of  claim 33  wherein the control circuit is further configured to analyze the estimated path for the particular individual, the list of items for the particular individual and the database and determine a retrieval location for at least one of the items. 
     
     
         39 . The system of  claim 33  further comprising multiple compound detectors disposed throughout the location. 
     
     
         40 . The system of  claim 33  further comprising a compound cleaning area disposed adjacent an exit of the location, the compound cleaning area configured to remove compounds from surfaces contacting the compound cleaning area. 
     
     
         41 . The system of  claim 33  wherein the compound detector is further configured to detect the order layer of the compounds detected and an amount thereof.