Granted Patent B2

US 12,749,062 · App. 17/902,400 · Granted Sep 29, 2026

Inventor: Rafael Yepez (Duluth, GA)

Assignee: NCR Voyix Corporation

G06Q20/3224G06K7/1413G06Q20/047G06Q20/18G06Q20/208G06Q20/3223G06Q20/42G06Q30/0623G06Q30/0639G07G1/01G09F13/0431G09F13/22H04N23/56H04N23/90G06V20/52G06V40/10

Abstract

Claims (49)

1 . A method, comprising:

tracking a current location of a shopper within a store by comparing first wireless signals of a device of the shopper to second wireless signals of devices within the store;

reporting, in real time, the current location of the shopper to a cloud-based transaction manager or a server-based transaction manager;

pinging, by a first distributed transaction device, the device of the shopper to receive a device identifier and an assigned transaction identifier for a shopping session of the shopper before the first distributed transaction device reports item information for an item;

determining that item information for an item reported by a first distributed transaction device is to be associated with a basket of items of the shopper based on the current location of the shopper and a first known location associated with the first distributed transaction device;

synchronizing the basket of items and corresponding item details with a mobile application of the device of the shopper;

obtaining a payment for the basket of items from the shopper at a second distributed transaction device based on the current location of the shopper and a second known location associated with the second distributed transaction device; and

maintaining a transaction log associated with the shopper, the transaction log including metrics indicative of a path of the shopper through the store and types of items scanned by the shopper;

wherein the first distributed transaction device and the second distributed transaction device networked together via a communicative coupling to a network server or a cloud, and are modular and reconfigurable within the store.

2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

processing images captured by cameras in the store to confirm the current location of the shopper at the first distributed transaction device and at the second distributed transaction device.

3 . The method of claim 2 further comprising processing the images to ensure the shopper is not in possession of a different item before exiting the store that is unaccounted for in the basket of items.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein tracking further includes triangulating the first wireless signals with the second wireless signals and identifying the current location of the shopper at any given point in time while the shopper is in the store.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein triangulating further includes identifying the devices as at least two devices associated with any combination of a wireless beacon, a wireless router, a wireless access point, a wireless extender, and a wireless transceiver of wireless enabled device.

6 . A system, comprising:

a distributed transaction scanner;

a distributed transaction scale;

a distributed payment station;

wireless beacons; and

a server, comprising:

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

the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

detecting a device of a shopper entering a store using at least one of the wireless beacons;

generating a transaction identifier for a transaction associated with the shopper within the store;

linking the transaction identifier to a device identifier associated with the device of the shopper;

triangulating wireless signals of the device with second wireless signals of the wireless beacons to maintain a current location of the shopper within the store;

reporting, in real time, the current location to the server;

transmitting, by the distributed transaction scanner, a ping to the device of the shopper to receive the device identifier and the transaction identifier from the device of the shopper before the distributed transaction scanner reports item information to the server;

adding first item codes that were scanned by the distributed transaction scanner and that were associated with first items to the transaction based on the current location of the shopper and a known location of the distributed transaction scanner;

adding second item codes and item weights that were weighed by the distributed transaction scale and that are associated with second items to the transaction based on the current location of the shopper and a second known location of the distributed transaction scale;

synchronizing updated item details for the transaction with a mobile application of the device of the shopper;

processing, by the distributed payment station, a payment for the transaction on the current location of the shopper and a third known location of the distributed payment station; and

maintaining a transaction log associated with the shopper, the transaction log including the metrics indicative of a path of the shopper through the store and types of items scanned or weighed by the shopper;

wherein the distributed transaction scanner, distributed transaction scale, and distributed payment station are networked together via a communicative coupling to the server and are modular and reconfigurable within the store and are networked together via a communicative coupling to the server.

7 . The system of claim 6 further comprising:

at least one camera;

wherein the operations further comprise:

processing images received from the at least one camera to verify the current location of the shopper at any point in time while the shopper is in the store; and

further processing the images to identify whether a different item that is not associated with the transaction is in possession of the shopper before the shopper exits the store.

8 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise linking the device identifier to a registered account of the shopper with the store.

9 . The system of claim 6 , wherein processing the payment comprises:

detecting the shopper exiting the store; and

processing, by the distributed payment station, the payment for the transaction using a registered payment method associated with a registered account of the shopper.

10 . The system of claim 6 , wherein generating the transaction identifier comprises sending the transaction identifier to the mobile application of the device of the shopper.

11 . The system of claim 6 , wherein processing the payment comprises:

receiving payment details from the distributed payment station indicating cash received at the distributed payment station that exceeded an amount due for the transaction; and

instructing the distributed payment station to dispense cash change to the shopper based on the cash received exceeding the amount due.

12 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the operations comprise:

image processing images from at least one camera in the store to confirm any triangulated location of the shopper.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (88)