Granted Patent B2

US 12,651,289 · App. 17/731,796 · Granted Jun 9, 2026

Inventor: Christian Lee McDaniel (Atlanta, GA)

Assignee: NCR Voyix Corporation

G06Q30/0635G06F3/016G06F3/167G06Q30/0613G06Q30/0639

Abstract

Claims (63)

1 . A method, comprising:

obtaining a current item from a list of items to pick within a store along a route within the store for picking the list of items;

monitoring sensor data on a user device;

determining the current item was picked by a user based on the sensor data without the user affirmatively indicating the current item was picked through a user interface of the user device,

obtaining a next item from the list of items; and

providing route guidance through the user device for the user to travel from the current item within the store to the next item;

wherein providing further includes:

providing the route guidance as spoken speech to the user through a speaker of the user device or through a headset interfaced to the user device;

wherein determining further includes:

monitoring fine-grain details about the user with respect to the current item that is being picked through the sensor data;

obtaining location data from location services of the user device, obtaining accelerometer data from an accelerometer of the user device, and obtaining compass data from a compass of the user device;

detecting from the location data and the accelerometer data that the user has stopped in a predefined location of the store associated with the current item;

detecting from the accelerometer data that the user is reaching or bending at the predefined location;

detecting from the accelerometer data and the compass data that the user has turned away from the current item at the predefined location in a direction towards the next item on the route; and

immediately beginning to provide the route guidance for the next item in response to the detecting that the user has turned away from the current item at the predefined location.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining further includes obtaining the list of items from a third-party picking network service of a retail ordering network service.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein obtaining further includes using a store identifier for the store and the list of items and obtaining the route from a cloud service.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein monitoring further includes obtaining location data from location services of the user device, obtaining accelerometer data from an accelerometer of the user device, and obtaining compass data from a compass of the user device, wherein the sensor data comprises the location data, the accelerometer data, and the compass data.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein determining further includes detecting from the location data and the accelerometer data that the user has stopped in a predefined location of the store associated with current item.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein detecting further includes detecting from the accelerometer data that the user is reaching or bending at the predefined location.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein detecting further includes detecting from the accelerometer data and the compass data that the user has turned away from the current item at the predefined location in a direction towards the next item on the route.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein detecting further includes assuming or inferring that the current item is in possession of the user based on the detecting that the user has turned away from the current item at the predefined location towards the next item on the route.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining further includes causing the user device to provide an audible or a tactile alert indicating the user picked the current item from the list of items.

10 . The method of claim 1 further comprising, iterating back to the monitoring until a last item of the list of items is determined to have been picked by the user.

11 . The method of claim 1 further comprising, identifying a predefined route guidance command based on user movement of the user device detected in accelerometer data from an accelerometer sensor of the user device.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising, processing the predefined route guidance command to alter the route guidance based on the identifying.

13 . A method, comprising:

activating a picking session with a user for picking items of a list within a store based on a route through the store for each of the items;

providing route guidance to a user through a user device for each of the items using the route guidance and current locations of the user within the store;

inferring a current item is picked for the list based on sensor data provided by the user device during the picking session and without the user affirmatively providing any input through a user-interface of the user device; and

automatically obtaining a next item as the current item from the list based on the route and iterating back to the providing to continue with the picking session until a last item is inferred as being picked by the user based on the sensor data;

wherein providing further includes:

providing the route guidance as spoken speech through a speaker of the user device indicating particular guidance to the user along the route; and

wherein inferring further includes:

the user not being required to actively interact with or affirmatively operate an application during the picking session;

monitoring fine-grain details about the user with respect to the current item that is being picked through the sensor data;

obtaining location data from location services of the user device, obtaining accelerometer data from an accelerometer of the user device, and obtaining compass data from a compass of the user device;

detecting from the location data and the accelerometer data that the user has stopped in a predefined location along the route within the store that is associated with the current item;

detecting from the accelerometer data that the user is reaching or bending at the predefined location;

detecting from the accelerometer data and the compass data that the user has turned away from the current item at the predefined location in a direction towards a next item on the route; and

immediately beginning to provide the route guidance for the next item in response to the detecting that the user has turned away from the current item at the predefined location.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein providing further includes providing the route guidance as spoken speech to the user through a speaker of the user device or through a headset interfaced to the user device.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein inferring further includes providing one or more of distinctive audible feedback and distinctive tactile feedback to the user through the user device indicating when the current item was inferred as being picked by the user.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein inferring further includes repeating the providing of the route guidance for the current item based on a predefined movement of the user device being detected as having been made by the user from the sensor data.

17 . The method of claim 13 , wherein inferring further includes determining from the sensor data when the user has stopped, turned, reached, and bended at a predefined location along the route within the store that is associated with the current item.

18 . The method of claim 13 further comprising, completing the route guidance for the last item without the user looking at a touch display of the user device during any of the picking session and without the user touching the touch display during any of the picking session.

19 . A device, comprising:

an accelerometer,

a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium;

the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprises executable instructions; and

the executable instructions executed by the processor from the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium causing the processor to perform operations comprising:

providing speech-based route guidance to a user to pick a list of items along a route within a store;

wherein the speech-based route guidance provides particular guidance through a speaker indicating that a first item is located in a specific aisle reached turning at one or more specific areas within the store and turning into the specific aisle;

inferring a current item within the list of items was picked by the user based on data provided by the accelerometer; and

automatically obtaining a next item of the list of items along the route based on the inferring and iterating back to the providing until a last item of the list of items is inferred as having been picked by the user;

wherein inferring further includes:

monitoring fine-grain details about the user with respect to the current item that is being picked through sensor data from the device;

obtaining location data from location services of the device, and obtaining compass data from a compass of the device;

detecting from the location data and data from the accelerometer that the user has stopped in a predefined location of the store associated with the current item;

detecting from the data from the accelerometer that the user is reaching or bending at the predefined location;

detecting from the data from the accelerometer and the compass data that the user has turned away from the current item at the predefined location in a direction towards the next item along the route;

immediately beginning to provide the speech-based route guidance for the next item in response to the detecting that the user has turned away from the current item at the predefined location.

20 . The device of claim 19 , wherein the device is a phone, a laptop, a tablet, or a wearable processing device.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (11)