Abstract: Techniques for allowing a store security associate to complete a purchase audit for a customer leaving a brick and mortar store are disclosed. The techniques include preparing an electronic receipt for completed purchase transaction and transmitting a copy of the electronic receipt to a store audit electronic device at the brick and mortar store. The techniques also include receiving customer information into the store audit electronic device to identify the copy of the electronic receipt associated with a customer, displaying the copy of the electronic receipt on the store audit electronic device, and reviewing the copy of the electronic receipt on the store audit electronic device to verify that the customer has purchased items which are in the customer's possession as the customer exits the store.

Abstract: A shopping list is received from the user and locations of items in the list are obtained. A route visiting the locations of the items is generated and a corresponding ordering of items is also generated. Directions to a next item in the shopping list are provided in response to detecting checking off or scanning of a previous item. In response to detecting scanning of an item out of order or an item not in the shopping list, a new route is generated originated at the item and passing by the locations of items of the shopping list that have not been checked off or scanned. Routes may be generated according to a route optimization algorithm. The directions to items in a list may be provided on a user's mobile device without use of an electronic locating means such as GPS, beacons, or the like.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for provisioning resources for an application according to an application manifest. The resources may include database, network, and processing resources. The application manifest may be organized as a manifest tree with provisioned resources having their own application manifests for provisioning sub-resources. The application manifest may also define provisioning and de-provisioning of the application in response to loading of the application. Root cause analysis may be performed in accordance with the manifest tree. Also disclosed are systems and methods for rolling out an upgrade across a node cluster. Systems and methods are disclosed for routing traffic to different workflow paths in order to implement an overloaded path and evaluate performance of the overloaded path.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for generating a normalized record from an import record, the normalized record having attribute-value pairs corresponding to a native schema. In import records, a plurality of attribute-value are identified each having an attribute label not found in a native schema. One or more attribute labels in the native schema having as possible values one or more values corresponding to the values of the plurality of attribute-value pairs are also identified. The computer system generates one or more normalization rules relating one or more attribute labels of the plurality of attribute-value pairs to at least a portion of the one or more attribute labels in the native schema. Normalization rules may be validated by crowdsourcing. Normalization rules may be applied by identifying implicated rules by classifying the import record and identifying rules applicable to the classification.

Abstract: These teachings are suitable for use in conjunction with a process having access to both coverage information that maps the coverage area for each of a plurality of RFID-tag readers to physical locations within a given monitored facility and historical-read information for a population of RFID tags, and that uses that historical-read information and that coverage information to automatically determine the physical location of RFID tags. In particular, these teachings generally provide for accessing supplemental information regarding physical locations for at least some of those RFID tags and then comparing the automatically-determined physical location information with the supplemental information to thereby identify physical-location discrepancies. By one approach those physical-location discrepancies are used to adjust the automated process by which the automatically-determined physical location information is automatically determined to thereby improve accuracy of the automated process.

Abstract: Embodiments for determining whether the activity of a customer within a retail store violates a business rules are disclosed. The embodiments include a customer performing actions within a retail store via a mobile computing device, generating at least one business rule, and comparing the customer's actions with the business rules.

Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for processing events in an event stream using a map-update application. The events may be embodied as a key-attribute pair. An event is processed by one or more instances implementing either a map or an update function. A map function receives an input event from the event stream and publishes one or more events to the event stream. An update function receives an event and updates a corresponding slate and publishes zero or more events. Systems and methods are also disclosed herein for implementing a map-update application in a multithreaded architecture and for handling overloading of a particular thread or node. Systems and methods for providing access to slates updated according to update operations are also disclosed.

Abstract: Example systems and methods that select search result images are described. In one implementation, a method accesses a ranking of multiple products associated with a search query and identifies a reference to a color in the search query. The method identifies a first product from the ranking of multiple products and identifies multiple product images associated with the first product. A color determination is made regarding each of the multiple product images. A product image having an associated color that is most similar to the color in the search query is selected for presentation in the search results.

Abstract: Methods for making gift recommendations are disclosed. The interests of an intended recipient are identified as are the interests associated with a particular product. Products corresponding to the recipient's interests are identified and then ranked according to giftability. Giftability indicates the appropriateness of a product for giving as a gift. Products may also be ranked according to appropriateness for a category or occasion. Giftability may be specified or inferred from one or more of gift-wrapping requests, gifting references in comments or reviews, and sales surges during holidays. A Naïve-Bayes-type method may be used to infer the giftability of products for which such data is not available.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for improving customer service. A video feed of a camera viewing a POS queue is analyzed to identify customers and measure customer biometric data. The biometric data is analyzed and used to generate customer service actions such as alerting a representative or calling in additional staff if the data indicates customer dissatisfaction. The biometric data of a customer may be correlated to transaction data of the customer in order to detect changes of the purchase habits of the customer due to dissatisfaction. Changes in purchase habits, such as a loss of a customer, may be used in combination with the biometric data to establish thresholds of biometric data used to generate customer service actions.

Abstract: The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for resolving pairwise links to groups. Embodiments of the invention use an iterative algorithm to transform a collection of pairwise links to groups of records that correspond to the same entity. The algorithm can be stopped after any number of iterations for an increasing accurate approximation result. The algorithm essentially guarantees a correct solution for groups of size up to the number of iterations. This algorithm scales linearly on the size of the record set, with little impact from the number of links.

Abstract: Determining the relevance of a web node is disclosed. A seed score value of a first type is assigned to a seed set of nodes. A score value of a second type is derived for the web node based on a mapping of a reachability relationship between one or more seed nodes and the web node. A score value of the first type is derived for the web node based on a mapping of a reachability relationship between the web node and one or more evaluation nodes having derived weight values of the second type.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for ranking the quality of documents, such as documents shared or referenced in postings by users. For a first set of documents quality attributes that are indicative of quality or lack of quality are identified. Ratings of the quality of the first set of documents are received. Classifiers are associated with each document and the ratings and quality attributes for each attribute used to train class-specific models corresponding to the classifiers. Subsequently received documents are then classified and corresponding quality attributes are evaluated using the corresponding class-specific model in order to rank the quality of the document.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method is disclosed herein. The method includes the step of storing, in a consumer purchase history database, identities of items purchased by a consumer. The method also includes the step of receiving, with a processing device of a recipe suggestion server, a recipe request signal from the consumer after said storing step. The method also includes the step of maintaining, in a recipe database, a plurality of recipes wherein each recipe is defined by a plurality of ingredients. The method also includes the step of comparing, with the processing device, the identities of items purchased by the consumer with the respective plurality of ingredients associated with one or more of the plurality of recipes. The method also includes the step of transmitting, with the processing device, at least one of the plurality of recipes to the consumer wherein the plurality of ingredients of the at least one of the plurality of recipes is correlated with the identities of items purchased by the consumer.

Abstract: A checkout station includes a turntable that is rotatable between a first position and a second position and a barcode scanner that is attached to the turntable and is directed in a first direction in the first position and in a second direction in the second position.

Abstract: A method including receiving, from a mobile device, a payment method and a payment amount. The method also can include validating the payment amount. The method further can include generating a gift card for the payment amount. The gift card can include a gift card identifier. The method additionally can include sending the gift card identifier to the mobile device. The method further can include displaying the gift card identifier on the mobile device. Other embodiments are provided.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for extracting products referenced in a document. A document is analyzed to identify a product type that is referenced in the document. Attributes are extracted from the document. A set of candidate products are identified corresponding to the extracted attributes. A score is calculated for the candidate products and the products are further selected or filtered based on the score, whitelist rules, and blacklist rules in order to identify one or more inferred products referenced by the document. The whitelist and blacklist rules may take as inputs a domain, a user identifier, and keywords included in the document. A set of sufficient attributes may be identified for each product type. Selection of a candidate product may be based at least in part on the document including all of the attributes in the set of sufficient attributes.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses are provided using RFID devices to assist in determining a likelihood that the performance of a task has been completed. In one implementation, an apparatus comprises a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader and a control circuit operably coupled to the RFID reader. The control circuit is configured to: detect, using at least information received via the RFID reader regarding a reading of one or more RFID tags by the RFID reader, one or more circumstances that evidence a status of interest pertaining to performance of a task of interest; and make a determination that the performance of the task of interest has likely been completed.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for providing search results, particularly product records from a product database. Past queries are analyzed and grouped into clusters according to similarities, with each query including a highly relevant head query and a plurality of tail queries. Similarity of queries may be determined based on user response similarity to query results, co-occurrence, and textual similarity. One or more categories are identified for the clusters, such as based on click-through rates for search results of the head queries of the clusters. Upon receiving a query, a cluster for the query is identified, such as according to similarity to one or more queries of the cluster. The categories associated with the cluster are then used to one or both of augment the query and rank search results for the query.

Abstract: A case can include a front cover and a back cover. The back cover can include a back edge, a device support assembly including a main device region and a tab, and a flap including an exposure region and a tab region. The case can include a top edge and a bottom edge. The back cover can be configured to be removably coupled to a first electronic device. The back cover can be configured to be removably coupled to a second electronic device when the first electronic device is not coupled to the back cover. The first electronic device can include a first camera lens and first dimensions. The second electronic device can include a second camera lens and second dimensions different from the first dimensions of the first electronic device. The flap can be configured to be placed in an exposed configuration and a closed configuration. Other embodiments are provided.

Abstract: Providing information to a module is disclosed. A first query and one or more subject type concepts associated with the first query is received. A second query to be provided to the module based at least in part on the received first query and subject type concepts is determined. The second query is sent to the module.

Abstract: Techniques for avoiding duplicate comparisons while comparing customer records to identify linked customer records pertaining to a single customer entity are provided. The techniques include the computer system comparing a first electronic customer record with a second electronic customer record to determine if the first electronic customer record and the second electronic customer record pertain to a single customer entity if the computer system identifies a common blocker key corresponding to a selected blocker from a data field in the first electronic customer record and from a data field in the second electronic customer record and if the computer system does not identify a common blocker key corresponding to an additional lower order blocker from another data field in the first electronic customer record and from a data field in the second electronic customer record.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for provisioning resources for an application according to an application manifest. The resources may include database, network, and processing resources. The application manifest may be organized as a manifest tree with provisioned resources having their own application manifests for provisioning sub-resources. The application manifest may also define provisioning and de-provisioning of the application in response to loading of the application. Root cause analysis may be performed in accordance with the manifest tree. Also disclosed are systems and methods for rolling out an upgrade across a node cluster. Systems and methods are disclosed for routing traffic to different workflow paths in order to implement an overloaded path and evaluate performance of the overloaded path.

Abstract: A method and system for ranking Web pages in a Web search engine is described. One illustrative embodiment receives a Web search query from a particular user, the query including at least one keyword; identifies one or more Web pages that contain the at least one keyword; determines, for each of the one or more Web pages, a raw page ranking; adjusts the raw page ranking of each of at least one Web page among the one or more Web pages based on direct evidence of how interesting that Web page is to users to produce an adjusted page ranking, the direct evidence being derived from clickstream data collected from the users; and presents, as search results, the at least one Web page to the particular user in accordance with the adjusted page rankings.

Abstract: An RFID transceiver and RFID-tag reader cooperate to convey information from one to the other and further accommodate the RFID-tag reader transmitting information to the RFID transceiver that causes a modification of information presented via the RFID transceiver. By one approach an RFID-tag reader detects a circumstance that evidences a particular status as pertains to a particular item of such information in a given RFID transceivers. An RFID-tag reader can then serve to modify the information at the corresponding RFID transceiver. By one approach, the aforementioned information comprises a to-do list. The aforementioned modification can comprise modifying at least one to-do item in that to-do list. The aforementioned detection of a circumstance can comprise detecting a physical location of the given RFID transceiver. That location information can be compared to locations that correspond to specific to-do items in the list to identify correlations that evidence completion of specific to-do items.

Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for processing events in an event stream using a map-update application. The events may be embodied as a key-attribute pair. An event is processed by one or more instances implementing either a map or an update function. A map function receives an input event from the event stream and publishes one or more events to the event stream. An update function receives an event and updates a corresponding slate and publishes zero or more events. Systems and methods are also disclosed herein for implementing a map-update application in a multithreaded architecture and for handling overloading of a particular thread or node. Systems and methods for providing access to slates updated according to update operations are also disclosed.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods for identifying topical experts from a seed set of experts by identifying “second tier” influencers for the topic. New concepts detected among a pool of experts and second tier influencers are monitored among the general population and their significance evaluated. Reports may be generated for these detected trends. Trends in social media for a concept represented in a taxonomy may be detected by monitoring content for descendent nodes for the concept. Correlations between social media activity with respect to the concept and sales of products corresponding to the concept may be made and sales predicted for the same or different products that correspond to descendants of the concept in the taxonomy.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for obtaining a structured listing of attributes and corresponding values based on an unstructured document, such as a product description in a product record. Putative values are identified in the document and corresponding candidate attributes are identified in a taxonomy. Attribute-value pairs are then evaluated with respect to a plurality of rules. Attribute-value pairs and outputs of the one or more rules are evaluated using a machine-learning algorithm, such as a decision tree, in order to determine which attribute-value pairs to retain. Retained attribute-value pairs are stored and used to respond to search queries and facilitate comparison of products. Attributes selected may also be used to update a product template.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for classifying records, such as product records, using a machine learning algorithm. After training a classification model according to a machine learning algorithm using an initial training set, records are classified and high confidence classifications identified. Remaining classifications are submitted to a crowdsourcing forum that validates or invalidates the classifications or marks them as to unclear to evaluate. Invalidated classifications are automatically analyzed to identify one or both of classification values and categories having a high proportion of invalidated classifications. Requests are transmitted to analysts to generate training data that is added to the training set. The process of classifying records and obtaining crowdsourced validation thereof may then repeat. High confidence classifications may be identified using an accuracy model trained to relate an accuracy percentage to a confidence score output by the classification model.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method is disclosed for enabling pre-purchase feedback. Within the method, a primary customer carrying a first computing device may be received within a brick-and-mortar store. A computer system corresponding to the store may receive via the first computing device an instruction to share with a secondary customer data describing a proposed purchase of one or more products. The computer system may then pass the data to a second computing device corresponding to the secondary customer. The computer system may also receive, via the second computing device, feedback corresponding to the proposed purchase and pass the feedback to the first computing device. Accordingly, the primary customer may receive pre-purchase feedback from the secondary customer.

Abstract: The present general inventive concept relates to systems and method for routing electronic messages depending on message content.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for processing a data stream in real time to identify connections between one or more social elements social elements and aggregating and storing the identified connections over a rolling time window. Social elements may be stored as nodes and connection between social elements may be stored as labeled connections between nodes.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for allowing a customer to create a digital shopping cart on a mobile electronic device while shopping at a brick and mortar store. The customer may scan barcodes, e.g. UPC variants, from a product with the camera of the mobile electronic device and record these product barcodes into the mobile electronic device. The shopping cart contents may be transferred to a checkout register without a data connection between the register and the device. The mobile electronic device may create one or more 2D barcodes with the item information embedded into the 2D barcode and may display the barcode on the device screen. Multiple 2D barcodes may be displayed in sequence. The 2D barcode may be scanned at the checkout register to read the barcode and thereby transmit the shopping cart information to the checkout register.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods for evaluating a user's interests and making gift recommendations using social media data. Interests and attributes of a user may be detected from social media content and products corresponding to the interests and attributes may be selected and presented as gift recommendations for the user. Methods are disclosed for resolving ambiguity as to interests reflected by textual data in social media content. Also disclosed are methods for inferring a user's interests from the interests of friends of the user.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for extracting a topology for an installation of a plurality of software components. The topology may be extracted from instantiating instructions for the components of the installation such as an application manifest, manifest tree, configuration scripts, source code, and the like. One of a plurality of rendering engines generates one of a plurality of representations of the topology. Status data for the components may be collected and visually represented on the graphical representation of the topology. Examples of representations include a network topology, a release pipeline graph, a service architecture, and a state machine graph. The status of the topology may be updated in realtime as status information is output by the installation.

Abstract: The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for auditing in-store sales transactions when a digital receipt is issued. A receipt application server formulates a digital receipt from digital receipt data received from a POS system. The digital receipt is sent from the receipt application server to an auditor mobile device at the location of the POS system. A human auditor can view the digital receipt during an in-store audit. In some embodiments, one or both of the receipt application server and the auditor mobile device reorder receipt entries so that items having specified characteristics are presented more prominently on a display. For example, receipt entries can be re-ordered such that higher profit margin items, bulkier items, or more likely to be stolen items are presented more prominently. As such, a human auditor is more likely to expressly audit these types of items.

Abstract: The present disclosure extends to maintaining an item inventory status at an inventory cache management system. The inventory cache may be refreshed regularly by a threshold-based triggering mechanism. In embodiments, as item inventory breaches certain thresholds, the inventory cache may be refreshed with increased frequency to mitigate overselling or underselling scenarios and reduce overall network traffic for items having relatively high inventory levels.

Abstract: According to an embodiment, a computer-implemented method of managing inventory includes receiving, at an antenna operatively coupled to a radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader, product identification information encoded in an RF signal transmitted by a plurality of RFID tags. Each of the RFID tags is associated with a respective one of a plurality of products. The method further includes processing, by a processor and using the product identification information, information contained in a portion of the encoded RF signal to compare apparent location information associated with the RFID reader with prior location information associated with at least one of the products, and updating, by the processor, the apparent location information to match the prior location information where the apparent location information is different than the prior location information.

Abstract: At a facility having a first area and a second area that is at least substantially non-overlapping with the first area, these teachings provide for using at least a first RFID-tag reader to read RFID tags in a first inventory state in the first area using a first session protocol while also contemporaneously using a second session protocol to cause the RFID-tag reader to cause RFID tags in the first area to switch to that first inventory state. In a similar manner these teachings also provide for using a second RFID-tag reader to read RFID tags in the first inventory state in the second area using the second session protocol while also contemporaneously using the first session protocol to cause RFID tags in the second area to switch to the first inventory state.

Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for processing events in an event stream using a map-update application. The events may be embodied as a key-attribute pair. An event is processed by one or more instances implementing either a map or an update function. A map function receives an input event from the event stream and publishes one or more events to the event stream. An update function receives an event and updates a corresponding slate and publishes zero or more events. Systems and methods are also disclosed herein for implementing a map-update application in a multithreaded architecture and for handling overloading of a particular thread or node. Systems and methods for providing access to slates updated according to update operations are also disclosed.

Abstract: A real-time predictive intelligence platform comprises: receiving from a user through a meta API definitions for predictive intelligence (PI) artifacts that describe a domain of an online transaction system for least one business entity, each of the PI artifacts including types, component modules and behavior bundles; exposing an entity API based on the PI artifacts for receiving entity events from the online transaction system comprising records of interactions and transactions between customers and the online transaction system; responsive to receiving an entity event through the entity API, executing the component modules and behavior bundles to analyze relationships found between past entity events and metrics associated with the past entity events, and computing a probabilistic prediction and/or a score, which is then returned to the online transaction system in real-time; and processing entity event replicas using modified versions of the PI artifacts for experimentation.

Abstract: The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for searching digital receipts at a mobile device. A customer mobile device receives and stores one or more digital receipts. The one or more digital receipts correspond to transactions conducted with a merchant. A user can select search criteria for searching stored digital receipts. The search criteria can be applied to stored digital receipts. Any stored digital receipts that satisfy the search criteria can be returned for display. In some embodiments, search criteria are selected to search for digital receipts associated with a specified payment method, such as, for example, cash, check, credit card, debit card, gift card, etc. In other embodiments, search criteria are selected to search for digital receipts having a purchase date within a specified purchase date range.

Abstract: A method for merging two taxonomies is disclosed. Top levels of first and second taxonomies are merged. For the second taxonomy nodes are evaluated and selectively merged with nodes of the first taxonomy according to comparison of scores for these nodes with a threshold. The score for a node of the first taxonomy is a combination of one or more of a lineage quality score, Jaccard distance, string edit distance, and category depth score. After an iteration, mergings between nodes of the first and second taxonomies may be reversed if child nodes of the merged nodes were not likewise merged. Iterations may be repeated until no nodes are merged in an iteration.

Abstract: According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide a data replicator comprising a system exit configured to capture data received at a source, the captured data including a plurality of individual messages, a message broker configured to receive the plurality of individual messages from the configuration control system and to convert the plurality of individual messages to a format of a destination, and a sequence engine in communication with the message broker via a channel, the sequence engine configured to receive and store the converted plurality of individual messages, to re-sequence the converted plurality of individual messages into a desired sequence, and to provide the re-sequenced messages to a destination database in the desired sequence, wherein the sequence engine includes a message throttle which is configured to close the channel in response to a determination by the message throttle that the sequence engine cannot receive additional converted individual messages.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for characterizing the effectiveness of an advertisement displayed at a point of sale (POS). A transaction reported by a POS may identify a consumer and a transaction time as well of details such as a product purchased. The transaction time may be compared to an advertising schedule to identify an advertisement displayed adjacent the POS at the time of purchase. Transactions subsequent to identified advertisements may be analyzed to identify any increase in purchasing activity for an advertised product. Increases in purchasing activity and impressions identified in this manner for the general population or demographic groups may be aggregated to characterize an advertisement's effectiveness. Video data or transaction frequency data may be used to estimate an in-queue time for a customer in order to identify advertisement impressions.

Abstract: A record of a transaction of a customer includes the order the items were scanned. The reverse of this order is inferred to conform generally to the order items were placed in the cart. A route of the user is inferred from the locations of items and the reverse of the scanning order. Subsequent shopping lists of the customer may be ordered to conform to the inferred route as well as one or more route optimization criteria such as a preference for shorter routes or avoiding doubling back. Recommendations for items along the typical route may also be generated and transmitted to the customer. Non-conformal segments may be added to a route for a shopping list in order to route the customer past other portions of a store. Recommendations for items located along the non-conformal segments may also be added.

Abstract: One or more RFID-tag readers are operably coupled to one or more RFID-tag reader antennas that are installed to primarily read RFID tags in a given hallway. Accordingly, at least a majority of the area within storage spaces that border the given hallway are without sufficient reader energy to power those RFID tags. Accordingly, many, most, or even all of the items that are stored in the storage space will receive insufficient reader energy to power their corresponding RFID tags.

Abstract: Delivering a search result is disclosed. A query is received. A term in the query that is a first portion of an abbreviation pair is identified. A second portion of the abbreviation pair is determined. A search result for the query is determined based at least in part on the second portion of the abbreviation pair and the search result is returned.

Abstract: A system and method for automatically importing retail grocery products into an electronic shopping list by importing the ingredients listed on a recipe card, page in a recipe book, or the like. The recipe card may contain an identifier code that is uniquely associated with that recipe. The identifier code may be presented on the recipe card as a bar code. The system includes a database of recipes that returns a list of products when queried with a recipe identifier code. A user may scan or otherwise import the recipe identifier code through a mobile computing device, which then presents the ingredients as products in an electronic shopping list. The electronic shopping list may be implemented in a smartphone app.

Abstract: Disclose are methods for evaluating a user's interests and making gift recommendations using social media data. Interests and attributes of a user may be detected from social media content and products corresponding to the interests and attributes may be selected and presented as gift recommendations for the user. Methods are disclosed for resolving ambiguity as to interests reflected by textual data in social media content. Also disclosed are methods for inferring a user's interests from the interests of friends of the user.