Walmart Patent Grants

System for sale-restricted items management

Granted: April 16, 2024
Patent Number: 11961130
Examples provides sale-restricted items management for self-checkout. A list of sale-restricted items is displayed via a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by a user interface. A notification component transmits a notification to a user device associated with an authorized user to verify a transaction responsive to an unauthorized user selection of a sale-restricted item from the list of sale-restricted items displayed. The notification includes an identification of the selected…

Method for self-checkout with a mobile device

Granted: April 16, 2024
Patent Number: 11961061
A method for purchasing an item using a mobile device is provided. The method includes but is not limited to inputting identification information into the mobile device which identifies the item for purchase and generating an order for the item identified by the identification information. The method also includes but is not limited to displaying on a display of the mobile device an optical machine-readable representation of the order.

Methods and apparatus for natural language understanding in conversational systems using machine learning processes

Granted: April 16, 2024
Patent Number: 11960842
This application relates to apparatus and methods for natural language understanding in conversational systems using machine learning processes. In some examples, a computing device receives a request that identifies textual data. The computing device applies a natural language model to the textual data to generate first embeddings. In some examples, the natural language model is trained on retail data, such as item descriptions and chat session data. The computing device also applies a…

Automatic generation of flexible load design

Granted: April 16, 2024
Patent Number: 11960800
A system including one or more processors and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computing instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform certain acts. The acts can include obtaining an original load design for loading a trailer to deliver stacks of pallets to physical stores. The load design specifies a respective floor spot assignment for each of the stacks. The original load design satisfies center-of-gravity constraints. The acts also…

Methods and apparatus for data and data request management

Granted: April 16, 2024
Patent Number: 11960466
This application relates to automatic processes that service data requests for information related to an item during varying temporal periods. For example, a computing device receives first attributes for an item, and generates a first surrogate key and a first super surrogate key based on the first attributes. Further, the computing device generates a first entry within a first table that includes the first surrogate key and the first super surrogate key. The computing device joins the…

Systems and methods for interleaving search results

Granted: April 9, 2024
Patent Number: 11954080
Systems and methods including one or more processors and one or more non-transitory storage devices storing computing instructions configured to run on the one or more processors and cause the one or more processors to perform functions comprising, in response to a search query from an electronic device of a user, creating combined search results using at least two different searching algorithms, each search result of the combined search results having a respective combined search…

Systems and methods for detecting text in images

Granted: April 9, 2024
Patent Number: 11954928
In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to detecting text in images. In some embodiments, a system for detecting text in images comprises a database configured to store images and a control circuit configured to retrieve an image, generate, based on the image, a collection of augmented images, detect characters in each of the augmented images, generate bounding boxes for the characters in each of augmented images, recognize the characters in each of the…

Validating identification of a user for purchase of age-restricted items

Granted: April 9, 2024
Patent Number: 11954714
An identification validation system and method may include detecting that a first age restricted item has been selected for purchase at a first point of sale by a user, determining that an age validation is not enabled, requiring that the user submit an identification instrument to verify an age of the user, after the purchase is complete, prompting the user to enable the age validation feature of the mobile wallet application of the user mobile device, directing a software application…

Systems and methods for optimizing space utilization of containers at retail storage facilities

Granted: April 9, 2024
Patent Number: 11954641
Automated storage and retrieval system for managing storage of inventory at a retail facility includes a storage structure with storage locations configured to store containers that contain retail products, and a conveying system that conveys the containers between the storage locations and a product picking station. A computing device analyzes one or more business rules to identify at least two containers that are eligible for the product merging therebetween and causes the conveying…

Methods and apparatus for automatically ranking items in response to a search request

Granted: April 9, 2024
Patent Number: 11954108
This application relates to apparatus and methods for applying trained machine learning models to determine an item's relevance to a search query. In some examples, a query and data identifying a plurality of items are received. Item attributes for each of the plurality of items are obtained, and features are generated based on the item attributes. Further, a score is generated for each item by applying a trained machine learning model to the corresponding features and the query.…

Automated-service retail system and method

Granted: April 9, 2024
Patent Number: 11952215
A combination automated-service and self-service store for implementation at brick-and-mortar retail locations is provided. The store and corresponding method of implementation is an automated-service model in which robots, deployed at the brick-and-mortar location, fill orders for fungible goods placed by customers either online or in-store. The store also includes a shopping section where customers can select/order items and/or personally select non-fungible goods. The store includes a…

Label dispenser for product-transporting carts at retail facilities

Granted: April 9, 2024
Patent Number: 11952162
A label dispenser coupled to product-transporting carts at retail facilities includes a label roll support arm supporting multiple label rolls thereon, a label guide arm including openings that permit a leading portion of the backing substrate of a label roll to pass therethrough, and a side wall interconnecting the label roll support arm and the label guide arm. The label guide arm also includes an upper portion located above the openings and configured to support the backing substrates…

Climbing robot with compliant pinion drive

Granted: April 9, 2024
Patent Number: 11951620
An automated order fulfillment system and mobile robot are disclosed, where the mobile robot includes a compliant drive for moving between levels of a multilevel storage structure.

Systems and methods of merging retail products between containers to optimize storing capacity of retail storage facilities

Granted: April 2, 2024
Patent Number: 11948120
Automated storage and retrieval systems for managing storage of inventory at a retail facility include a storage structure with storage locations configured to store containers that contain retail products, and a conveying system that conveys the containers between the storage locations and a product picking station. A processor-based control circuit analyzes one or more business rules governing product merging between the containers being conveyed toward the picking station by the…

Automatically rectifying in real-time anomalies in natural language processing systems

Granted: April 2, 2024
Patent Number: 11948573
A method for automatically rectifying in real-time anomalies in natural language processing systems. The method can include determining an output corresponding to a user request from a user device for a user based on a new request template or machine learning. The method further can include retrieving one or more entity rules corresponding to entity data of the user request. The method also can include overwriting entity information of the entity data corresponding to the one or more…

System and method for optimizing container contents

Granted: April 2, 2024
Patent Number: 11948375
The contents of totes and the amount a tote container is filled are monitored. A central database stores product dimensions and tote dimensions as well as a percentage of which a tote is to be filled. Image scanners that obtain three-dimensional images are used to determine if the actual dimensions of the tote, the product, and the fill amount are consistent with the expected or optimal values of these characteristics. When there is a discrepancy between measured and expected values,…

Systems and methods for detecting text of interest

Granted: April 2, 2024
Patent Number: 11948374
In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to train a machine learning algorithm to detect text of interest. In some embodiments, there is provided a system to detect vertically oriented text of interest including a first data set comprising a plurality of captured digital images each depicting an object of interest and a second data set comprising a plurality of augmented digital images each depicting a captured digital image augmented with a synthetic text…

Automatically merging pickup and delivery time slots from nearby stores

Granted: April 2, 2024
Patent Number: 11948185
A method being implemented via execution of computing instructions configured to run at one or more processors. The method can include determining a primary store and one or more secondary stores for pickup of an order of a user, based at least in part on a pickup type of the order. The method also can include determining real-time availabilities of first time slots at the primary store and real-time availabilities of second time slots at the one or more secondary stores. The method…

Multi-path complimentary items recommendations

Granted: April 2, 2024
Patent Number: 11948179
A system including one or more processors and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computing instructions configured to run on the one or more processors and perform generating personalized product-type metrics for the user based at least in part on a user embedding for the user and product-type embedding Gaussian mixture distributions; determining top product types based at least in part on personalized product-type complementarity metrics generated using the…

Automatically measuring quality scores for connected components using machine learning models

Granted: April 2, 2024
Patent Number: 11948164
A system including one or more processors and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computing instructions configured to run on the one or more processors and perform: generating linkage scores between nodes at least based on a machine learning model; creating links between the nodes to form connected components based on the linkage scores exceeding a predetermined threshold; generating an actual matching linkage set of the nodes linked in the connected components by…