Walmart Patent Grants

Systems and methods of product recognition through multi-model image processing

Granted: February 28, 2023
Patent Number: 11593783
In some embodiments, systems and methods are provided to recognize retail products, comprising: a model training system configured to: identify a customer; access an associated customer profile; access and apply a set of filtering rules to a product database based on customer data; generate a listing of products specific to the customer; access and apply a model training set of rules to train a machine learning model based on the listing of products and corresponding image data for each…

Inventory information distribution systems, devices and methods

Granted: February 28, 2023
Patent Number: 11593759
Some embodiments provide a product inventory information distribution apparatus, comprising: a central electronic data storage buffer; a control circuit; and a memory storing computer instructions that when executed cause the control circuit to: detect product inventory update information messages, wherein each of the product inventory update information messages is received from one of multiple different product inventory systems and is generated by a corresponding one of the multiple…

Shipment verification

Granted: February 28, 2023
Patent Number: 11593749
In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to verify accuracy of a shipment. In some embodiments, items loaded to and/or unloaded from a delivery vehicle are scanned and compared to a delivery schedule, and a unique identifier is provided to confirm proper loading/unloading at a subsequent scheduled stop of the vehicle.

Battery pack

Granted: February 21, 2023
Patent Number: D978786

Electrical safety plug

Granted: February 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11588267
Examples provide an electrical safety plug including a nonconductive plug body. A set of pins conform to a set of pin connector slots in an electrical outlet. A tether is threaded through a tether connection aperture in an anchor couple. A first inter-locking device on the anchor couple removably attaches to a second inter-locking device on a return couple having an attachment member. The first interlocking device disengages from the second interlocking device to separate the anchor…

Systems and methods for a contactless visitor check-in

Granted: February 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11587191
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 one or more processors and perform: transmitting an invitation to a mobile application on a mobile device of a user, wherein the invitation authorizes the mobile application on the mobile device to be used to check-in to a facility; generating, by a visitor application, an image that is displayed on a…

Gender attribute assignment using a multimodal neural graph

Granted: February 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11587139
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 from an item catalog database a respective item description and respective attribute values for each item of a set of items; generating text embeddings using a text embedding model to represent the respective item description and the respective attribute values; generating a graph of the set…

Continuous data quality assessment and monitoring for big data

Granted: February 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11587012
A data quality assessment and monitoring tool addresses inconsistency in large data sets from differing sources, determining data quality attributes such as completeness, conformity, validity, and accuracy. Flexible taxonomies and rollup strategies accommodate diverse business unit needs across a complex enterprise, and provides insight into individual entities' performance. An exemplary tool comprises a data importer for importing data from a data lake; a rules manager for generating…

System and method for package construction

Granted: February 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11585587
An optimal package structure and an amount of refrigerant to insert into the package structure are determined based upon product information, consumer preference information, and weather information. The optimal package structure and the amount of refrigerant are an optimized combination that is effective to both protect the product from damage and preserve the product from spoilage. A package is constructed to contain the product according to the optimal package structure and the amount…

System for watering live plants on a maneuverable rack

Granted: February 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11582925
Examples provide a system for watering plants on a rack. A robotic device attaches to a portion of the rack and pulls or pushes the rack to a watering zone. A sprinkler device sprays water to evenly distribute water across all plants on the rack. The system determines quantity of water, duration of watering, and frequency of watering based on real-time sensor data and context data associated with the environment, historical watering data, condition of the plants on the rack and a set of…

Systems and methods for delivering products via autonomous ground vehicles to restricted areas designated by customers

Granted: February 14, 2023
Patent Number: 11580614
In some embodiments, methods and systems are provided that provide for facilitating delivery, via autonomous ground vehicles, of products ordered by customers of a retailer to customer-specified restricted areas accessible by an entryway openable via an access code.

Systems and methods for transportation staffing

Granted: February 14, 2023
Patent Number: 11580612
Exemplary embodiments provide a transportation staffing management system. An amount of transportations miles are forecasted for delivering inventory from a distribution enter to a store based on a sales forecast for a store. Non-driving time for drivers engaged in delivering inventory to a store is tracked based on data collected in real-time from mobile computing devices associated with delivery vehicles. An amount of time needed to deliver the inventory based on the forecasted amount…

System and method for presenting tire-related information to customers

Granted: February 14, 2023
Patent Number: 11580587
A cloud-based system for use by retail store employees or customers at any location to facilitate the sale of automotive tires to consumers is provided. The system accesses multiple independent tire inventory systems from different distributors/manufacturers and provides a personalized set of recommendation tire options and accompanying TPMS service packs.

Systems and methods for automated association of product information with electronic shelf labels

Granted: February 14, 2023
Patent Number: 11580495
Systems and methods that employ an autonomous robotic vehicle (ARV) alone or in combination with a remote computing device during the installation of electronic shelf labels (ESLs) in a facility are discussed. The ARV may detect pre-existing product information from paper labels located on modular units prior to their removal and then detect the location of electronic shelf labels (ESLs) after installation. Pre-existing product information gleaned from the paper labels is associated with…

System and method for determining and implementing sales clusters for stores

Granted: February 14, 2023
Patent Number: 11580471
Initial sales cluster is divided by the control circuit into a plurality of velocity buckets. Subsequently, each velocity bucket is divided into a plurality of micro-clusters. The micro-clusters are defined according to demographic information or store characteristic information. A importance score and a performance score for each of the micro-clusters is determined. An optimal sales cluster and a corresponding optimal planogram for each retail store in each micro-cluster are determined…

System and method for removing debris from a storage facility

Granted: February 14, 2023
Patent Number: 11579608
Autonomous carriers or totes that include vacuum units are provided. As the totes move or are moved through a warehouse carrying products, they collect debris. The debris can be analyzed at the tote, and actions can be performed based upon the analysis.

Shopping cart with feedback

Granted: February 7, 2023
Patent Number: 11574355
A system comprises at least one processor having a browser. The processor is configured for: receiving a request to purchase a first item (where a browser performs the receiving), displaying by the browser an indication that the first item has been added to a shopping cart of the user, before receiving an acknowledgement that the request has been received by a server, transmitting the request from the browser to the server, and receiving the acknowledgement of the transmitted request…

Open mobile payment systems and methods

Granted: February 7, 2023
Patent Number: 11574292
Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for payments through point of sale systems. A system comprises a plurality of in-store POS systems, a user accounts database, and a merchant payment system configured to communicate with a plurality of user devices and a plurality of digital wallet provider systems. The merchant payment system comprises a control circuit configured to associate a user account with a plurality of digital wallet accounts in the user accounts database,…

System and method for task assignment management

Granted: January 31, 2023
Patent Number: 11565424
A computer-implemented method includes detecting, at a processor and by a plurality of associates, a mission to be performed by the plurality of associates; identifying the mission based on associated store information comprising an inventory status, sales data, and a set of predetermined rules; generating, by the processor, a queue of tasks to complete the mission based on priorities and dependencies of the tasks; determining a task for each associate whose profile defines best…

Re-using e-commerce payment instruments for in-store use systems and methods

Granted: January 31, 2023
Patent Number: 11568390
Provided are a re-using e-commerce payment instruments for in-store purchasing systems and methods. A customer enters a check out and a transaction at the point of sale is started. The system receives a pairing request at a wallet processor from a customer mobile device operating a mobile application. This pairing request is created and sent in response to scanning of a code having a transaction identification. The system associates a customer payment profile with the transaction…