Method for identification, tracking, and notification of abandoned items in a store

US7463147B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Christopher M. Laffoon · Durham, US
• Travis M. Grigsby · Austin, US
• Viswanath Srikanth · Chapel Hill, US
• Craig W. Chaney · Apex, US
• Kathryn Jane Lemanski · Raleigh, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 26, 2008
• Grant date: Dec 9, 2008
• Expiry date: Feb 26, 2028

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q10/08
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Identifying abandoned shopping carts, including: providing shopping carts with locators; associating store areas with zone identifications, and providing store aisles with readers for the locators; associating carts with at least one zone; identifying carts and determining that carts entered new zones; determining an amount of time carts are in zones, and when carts are in an unassociated zone for a specified time, designating carts as abandoned and alerting personnel.