Walmart Patent Grants

Voice-enabled recipe selection

Granted: April 23, 2024
Patent Number: 11966964
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 receiving a voice command from a user; transforming the voice command; transforming the voice command can include using a natural language understanding and rules execution engine into (a) an intent of the user to add recipe ingredients to a cart and (b) a recipe descriptor; determining a matching…

System and method for detecting unpaid items in retail store transactions

Granted: April 23, 2024
Patent Number: 11966900
A transaction record is created showing a purchase transaction of a customer. A CV profile showing a list of items in the transaction obtained from images is also obtained. The items in the transaction record are compared to items on the list. When there is a discrepancy, an action to take is determined.

System and method for determining item labels based on item images

Granted: April 23, 2024
Patent Number: 11966434
A method including determining neighboring items from among sample items based on a respective embedding distance between a query image of a query item and a respective image of each of the neighboring items. The each of the sample items can comprise the respective image and at least one respective item label. The method further can include determining a respective normalized weight for each of the neighboring items based on the respective embedding distance between the query image and…

Methods and apparatus for datacenter monitoring

Granted: April 23, 2024
Patent Number: 11966280
This application relates to apparatus and methods for the monitoring of nodes within datacenters. In some examples, a computing device, such as a node, receives a monitoring file from a monitoring server, where the monitoring file includes a plurality of node health checks. The computing device is configured to execute the monitoring file based on a type of the computing device. Further, and based on the execution of the monitoring file, the computing device is configured to determine…

System and method for monitoring beverage dispenser

Granted: April 23, 2024
Patent Number: 11964862
Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for monitoring beverage dispenser. A system for controlling beverage quality comprises a beverage dispenser monitoring unit comprising: a plurality of weight sensors each positioned below one of a plurality of syrup containers connected to a beverage dispenser, and a first network adapter configured to communicate with a control unit. The control unit configured to detect a low weight reading from a weight sensor of the plurality of…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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.

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…

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…