Patents Assigned to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
  • Patent number: 9779395
    Abstract: Exemplary embodiments are directed to determining an availability of a transaction capability of a point-of-sale terminal, and alerting a customer of an availability of the transaction capability. Login activity can be detected at a point-of-sale terminal. An availability of a transaction capability for the point-of-sale terminal can be determined based on data retrieved by the point-of-sale terminal in response to the login activity. A visual alert associated with the transaction capability of the point-of-sale terminal is controlled based on the availability of the transaction capability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
    Inventors: Dustin Perry, Zachariah Smith, Daryl White, Grant Wade
  • Patent number: 9779127
    Abstract: Example systems and methods for integrating a primary data store (e.g., a source-of-truth relational database management system) and a secondary data store (e.g., external cache) are described. The approach implements a modified read-through/write-through data access pattern that integrates read and write flows in order to support high-concurrency environments while maintaining immediate consistency between stores. Writes are handled using a three-phase flow that avoids concurrency-related race conditions and the need to block in the secondary store in order to maintain cross-store consistency. Reads are never dirty and will repair the secondary store as needed without conflicting with repairs that may have been initiated by other sessions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: WAL-MART STORES, INC.
    Inventors: Jason Sardina, Alexei Olkhovskii, Robert P. Lowell, Michael Machado
  • Patent number: 9779375
    Abstract: Aspects described herein relate to a flexible order fulfillment management system that utilizes predefined fulfillment workflows including common business processes. By utilizing predefined workflows including common business processes, the order fulfillment management system is able to drive store-based fulfillment programs efficiently as multiple fulfillment workflows may utilize the same common business processes and a single fulfillment management system may operate workflows in parallel. In addition, such an order fulfillment management system may also be more easily adapted for different retail store environments as the system allows a designer to easily create or modify a fulfillment workflow by selecting predefined common business processes or creating any additional custom business processes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
    Inventors: Vadim Grabovski, Larry Christopher Venable, John Kevin Collier
  • Publication number: 20170277692
    Abstract: In some embodiments, a method can comprise receiving a search query and performing a search based at least in part on the search query. In many embodiments, the search can return a plurality of search results, the plurality of search results can comprise a plurality of attributes. In some embodiments, the method can further comprise selecting at least two of the plurality of search results and sorting an order of the at least two of the plurality of search results by a ranking of the plurality of attributes of the at least two of the plurality of search results, the ranking of the at least two of the plurality of attributes of the plurality of search results based at least in part on a context of the search query. In many embodiments, the method can comprise facilitating display of the at least two of the plurality of search results. Other embodiments of related methods and systems are also provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2016
    Publication date: September 28, 2017
    Applicant: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
    Inventors: Onur Gungor, Manas Pathak, Andrei Lopatenko, Roger Yeh
  • Patent number: 9773223
    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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2017
    Assignee: WAL-MART STORES, INC.
    Inventors: Madhavan Kandhadai Vasantham, Sreekanth Sreedhararaj, Mahesh Tyagarajan
  • Patent number: 9767447
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for providing a product to a user includes determining that an item obtained by a mobile computing device corresponding to the user is indicative of an oversized item. A first notification is generated indicating the oversized item and retrieval information related to the oversized item. The first notification is transmitted to a first facility computing device corresponding to a first facility attendant. When the user completes a transaction for the purchase of the oversized product at one of the point of sale terminal, terminal information related to the point of sale terminal is obtained. A second notification is generated related to the terminal information. The second notification is transmitted to a second facility computing device corresponding to a second facility attendant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: WAL-MART STORES, INC.
    Inventors: Douglas James Pedley, Richard Neil Cancro, Joel Bennett Acker, Jr.
  • Patent number: 9767420
    Abstract: A computer-implemented process can be operated for entering and holding a place for a first customer in a queue while the first customer is waiting to be served at a retail store. The process includes, within a computerized processor, establishing a place in the queue for the first customer, wherein the queue operates to establish among a plurality of customers a customer currently being served by a store employee and an order in which other customers of the plurality will be served. The process further includes displaying upon a portable computerized device of the first customer an indication of a status of the first customer within the queue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: WAL-MART STORES, INC.
    Inventors: Stuart Argue, Anthony Emile Marcar
  • Patent number: 9761139
    Abstract: A method to provide an active parking system includes receiving, at a portable computerized device, parking preferences of a user for a parking facility of a retail store, determining, within a parking space index server, an availability status of each of a plurality of parking spaces of the parking facility, identifying, within a computerized device, a preferred parking location for the user based upon the parking preferences and the availability statuses, and displaying, at a computerized display, directions for the user to navigate to the preferred parking location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: WAL-MART STORES, INC.
    Inventors: Joel Bennett Acker, Jr., Richard Neil Cancro, Douglas James Pedley
  • Patent number: 9762695
    Abstract: The present general inventive concept relates to systems and method for routing electronic messages depending on message content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
    Inventor: Sandesh Ramnathkar
  • Patent number: 9760654
    Abstract: Techniques for comparing customer records to identify linked customer records pertaining to a single customer entity are provided. The techniques include identifying a target group of electronic customer records having data fields containing data pertaining to a customer, identifying one or more focused blockers identifying a data value for an electronic customer record data field, and analyzing the target group of electronic customer records to identify a focused group of electronic customer records containing the focused blocker data value. The techniques also include comparing pairs of electronic customer records from the focused group of electronic customer records to identify linked records which pertain to a single customer entity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: WAL-MART STORES, INC.
    Inventors: Andrew Benjamin Ray, Nathaniel Philip Troutman
  • Patent number: 9760857
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method is disclosed herein. The method includes the step of receiving, at a processing device of a commerce server, at least a video signal from a head mountable unit worn by a consumer in a retail store. The method also includes the step of identifying, with the processing device, an indication of depleted stock in the retail store in response to the video signal received from the head mountable unit. The method also includes the step of transmitting, with the processing device, a restock signal in response to the identifying step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: WAL-MART STORES, INC.
    Inventors: Stuart Argue, Anthony Emile Marcar
  • Patent number: 9754208
    Abstract: A method of validating rules configured to be utilized in an information extraction application, including: receiving a plurality of labeled samples in a training database; for each of the rules in the rule database: (a) determining, for each of the data points of the plurality of labeled samples in the training database to which the rule applies, whether applying the rule to the data point has a positive or negative impact on matching an output for the data point based on the rule to the assured output of the labeled sample corresponding to the data point; (b) generating positive impact information for the rule based on the positive voters; (c) generating negative impact information for the rule based on the negative voters; and (d) determining a metric for the rule based on the quantity of the negative voters and the quantity of the positive voters; ranking the rules based on the metrics corresponding to the rules; and sending to a user for refinement one or more flagged rules of the rules that have a lowes
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: WAL-MART STORES, INC.
    Inventors: Jun Xie, Chong Sun, Fan Yang, Narasimhan Rampalli
  • Publication number: 20170243190
    Abstract: Provided are check-in to checkout systems and methods. The system includes a point of sale, a display, a mobile device, and a backend system. When the POS starts a transaction, such as, but not limited to scanning an item, the POS generates a transaction/basket identification. In response to starting the transaction, the POS sends the transaction/basket ID to the display in the form of a QR code or one-dimensional barcode. The mobile device operating a mobile application scans and captures the displayed code and reports to the backend systems. The backend systems then send a check-in event, which includes gathered data by the backend systems, to the POS and the POS acknowledges receipt of the message. At this point, a notification may be sent to the mobile application that the check-in was successful and a link is established far flow of information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 12, 2015
    Publication date: August 24, 2017
    Applicant: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
    Inventors: Bradley Joseph Kieffer, Mark Matthews, Eytan Daniyalzade, Charles David Berry, Prasanna Rajendran, David Martin Nelms, Daniel Eckert
  • Patent number: 9741211
    Abstract: A checkout station includes a display that is rotatable between a first position and a second position and a barcode scanner that is directed in a first direction in the first position and in a second direction in the second position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
    Inventor: Chris Skiles
  • Patent number: 9741028
    Abstract: A system and method for performing a financial transaction may include processing a purchase transaction for products for purchase by a customer to determine a transaction amount. A communication with a mobile device of the customer may include communicating a store identifier, POS identifier, and the transaction amount. In response to receiving an approval number for the purchase transaction from a financial institution of the customer, completing the purchase transaction for the purchase of the products by the customer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
    Inventors: Tim Webb, Jason Todd
  • Patent number: 9734522
    Abstract: Embodiments include methods and devices for creating an electronic invoice file using a baseline electronic purchase order file. The methods and devices can receive data representing an electronic purchase order file, comprising a plurality of fields of information. The methods and devices can also confirm that the received electronic purchase order file, was received from a valid retail trading partner, the format of the received electronic purchase order file is consistent with the format of the baseline electronic purchase order file, and the fields of the received electronic purchase order file are consistent with the fields in the baseline electronic purchase order file, in a single step, by applying a hashing function to the data representing the baseline electronic purchase order file and received electronic purchase order file. The methods and devices can also create an electronic invoice file, using a plurality of fields from the electronic purchase order file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Slocum, Kyle Reed, Ramesh Janjyam, Gregory Voss, Ian Cross
  • Patent number: 9736310
    Abstract: Provided herein are methodologies, systems, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media for providing an adjustable interactive voice response (IVR) system. User identification information is received in order to determine which portions of an IVR system the user can access. The user can then search the IVR system based on a search term corresponding to a verbal phrase recognizable in the IVR system. The user can enter the search term via a GUI displayed on an electronic device. A listing of audio files or options files corresponding to the verbal phrase is then transmitted to the electronic display device. A new verbal phrase to be recognized in the IVR system is then received from the user, and a system flow including at least one of the audio files or options files is modified to correspond to the new verbal phrase.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
    Inventors: Jose Casasola, John Ragsdale
  • Publication number: 20170228805
    Abstract: A system and method for forecasting sales is presented. A transmission by a customer is received indicating an intention for a customer to purchase an item from a retailer via a mobile device. An embodiment determines if the item is subject to an age-restriction. This can be accomplished by using location data of a retailer. Biometric data is received from the customer intending to purchase the item. The biometric data is compared to verified biometric data to confirm the identity of the customer. The age of the customer is determined. Thereafter, the transaction is allowed to proceed if the age of the customer satisfies the age-restriction for the item. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2017
    Publication date: August 10, 2017
    Applicant: WAL-MART STORES, INC.
    Inventors: Berk Atikoglu, Eytan Daniyalzade
  • Patent number: D795061
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: WAL-MART STORES, INC.
    Inventor: Yurgis Mauro Bacallao
  • Patent number: D796771
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: WAL-MART STORES, INC.
    Inventors: Yurgis Mauro Bacallao, Dennis Charles Beere, II