Patents Examined by Aaron N Tutor
  • Patent number: 11966876
    Abstract: The present invention is a transportable autonomous robotic merchandise dispensing drive thru wherein merchandise is loaded into said facility and dispensed to a customer through an ordering app downloaded on a mobile device or ordered at a facility site. Said drive thru facility is unmanned and completely computer and robotically operated utilizing no humans within said facility. Said facility is operated via computer processor and requires internet but no utility connections such as water, sewage, electric or gas. The current invention has a three part sanitizing system: interiorly, in each serving compartment and at each exterior touchscreen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Inventors: Ray F Woods, Rachel K Woods
  • Patent number: 11948140
    Abstract: In some examples, a payment processing system may receive an indication of a transaction between a customer and a merchant. The payment processing system may generate a notification indicating completion of the transaction between the customer and the merchant. Further, the payment processing system may transmit the notification to a device associated with the customer. For instance, the notification may include an offer for the customer to receive financing from the payment processing system for the transaction or a future transaction. The payment processing system may receive an acceptance of the offer to receive financing, and may transmit an instruction to cause a financed amount to be provided according to the acceptance of the offer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: BLOCK, INC.
    Inventor: Garrett Spitzer
  • Patent number: 11941956
    Abstract: A cash management system comprises a management terminal, a plurality of Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) terminals and one or more intelligent cash holding unit. There are a greater number of EPOS terminals than intelligent cash holding units, whereby one or more intelligent cash holding unit acts as a virtual cash holding unit for more than one EPOS terminal. The or each intelligent cash holding unit comprises a receiver operable to receive a signal comprising an identifier associated with a user, an access module operable, in response to the received signal, to allow access to the intelligent cash holding unit, and a reporting module operable to send a report comprising an identifier relating to the user and data relating to the contents of the cash holding unit to the management terminal. The intelligent cash holding unit can be an intelligent cash drawer unit, optionally connected to an intelligent point of sale safe.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: Tellermate Limited
    Inventor: Mark Bernhardt
  • Patent number: 11880819
    Abstract: A system may receive, via an NFC tag disposed proximate a vehicle fuel tank, a fuel transaction request from a third-party POS NFC reader positioned proximate a fuel pump. The system may detect a user device being paired with a vehicle communication device of the vehicle to enable a short-range wireless communication. The system may determine that the user device is associated with an authorized user of the vehicle. The system may unlock the NFC tag to enable the NFC tag to communicate with the third-party POS NFC reader for a predefined time limit responsive to determining that the user device is associated with the authorized user. Responsive to unlocking the NFC tag, the system may retrieve account payment information associated with the authorized user, and may transmit, via the NFC tag, the account payment information to the third-party POS NFC reader to complete the fuel transaction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: CAPITAL ONE SERVICES, LLC
    Inventor: Matthew Nowak
  • Patent number: 11861735
    Abstract: According to exemplary inventive practice, a transaction code is selected in an ERP system. The transaction code is characterized by cost elements that to a substantial degree entail OM&S costs. ERP reports are generated by drilling down from the cost elements to commitment costs, obligation costs, and actual costs, wherein drilling down from each cost element yields at least one of these three kinds of costs. Raw worksheets are generated in a spreadsheet program by importing data from the ERP reports, wherein each raw worksheet contains data from at least one ERP report. Data are derived from the raw worksheets and are combined and arranged to produce intermediate pivot tables, wherein each intermediate pivot table contains data from at least on raw worksheet. Data are derived from the intermediate pivot tables and are combined and arranged to produce a master worksheet. Data are derived from the master worksheet and are combined and arranged to produce summary pivot tables.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: The United States of America, as respresented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Gilbert F. Lee, Ruth A. Maticic, Tami L Ellinger, Deborah H. Russell
  • Patent number: 11836678
    Abstract: A method for providing automated inventory management in a system having a storage bin, an accelerometer system coupled to the storage bin, and an inventory management system communicatively coupled to the accelerometer system. An accelerometer of the accelerometer system generates a data representative of a movement of the storage bin and the system determines whether the generated data matches a data that is indicative of a replenishment needed event being performed upon the storage bin. The inventory management system initiates the replenishment of the product when replenishment is determined to be needed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: W.W. Grainger, Inc.
    Inventor: Geoffry A Westphal
  • Patent number: 11829949
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method, system, and computer program product for configuring a pay statement. An input area is presented for a user to enter settings defining how the pay statement is to be configured. The settings are received from the user. A preview of the pay statement is displayed in a preview area based on the settings. The preview provides a visual representation of how the pay statement will appear for the settings. The user may modify the settings until the preview appears as desired by the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2023
    Assignee: ADP, Inc.
    Inventors: Roel Punzalan, Chris Montes
  • Patent number: 11823125
    Abstract: A method for processing aluminum alloy rims including: providing a feed of a plurality of aluminum alloy rims of different compositions, each aluminum alloy rim having a serial number distinguishing that aluminum alloy rim from other aluminum alloy rims; storing in a non-transient computer-readable memory, a plurality of aluminum alloy rim categories; dividing the feed of aluminum alloy rims into a plurality of batches of aluminum alloy rims by, for each rim in the feed of aluminum alloy rims, scanning that aluminum alloy rim to determine the serial number of that aluminum alloy rim; based on the serial number, determining, from amongst the plurality of aluminum alloy rim categories, an aluminum alloy rim category for that aluminum alloy rim, wherein each batch of aluminum alloy rims in the plurality of batches of aluminum alloy rims corresponds to a category in the plurality of aluminum alloy rim categories.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: HOUSE OF METALS COMPANY LMITED
    Inventor: Daniel Bitton
  • Patent number: 11724926
    Abstract: A system and method for dispensing beverage from a container, such as wine from a wine bottle. An identification element may be secured to a beverage container and include a tag and optically readable code that uniquely identify the container. A dispenser may dispense beverage from a container, and be able to read the tag of the identification element. Information regarding characteristics of beverage in the beverage container may be associated with a corresponding identification element and include a brand, type, vintage or volume of beverage in the container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: Coravin, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Rider, Francois Claude Raoul Silvain, Gregory Lambrecht
  • Patent number: 11713995
    Abstract: A system and a method for managing inventory are provided. The system may include: a plurality of weighing devices, at least a memory, and at least a processor. The weighing devices are configured to weight at least an object. The processor is configured to receive data from at least one weighing device relating to the at least one object weighed by the respective weighing device, and to store the received data in the memory. The processor is further configured to determine at least a matching of data received from a first weighing device with data received from a second weighing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2023
    Assignee: DIEBOLD NIXDORF SYSTEMS GMBH
    Inventors: Oliver Dietz, Stefan Schmelter
  • Patent number: 11651664
    Abstract: Systems and methods for self-checkout at a point-of-sale are provided. The system and method includes using a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) transceivers within a store, and an RFID reader configured to receive an RFID code from an RFID tag activated by the plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) transceivers. The system and method also includes using a classifier configured to determine whether the RFID tag is inside or outside a designated area, wherein the classifier is trained in a manner that a number of items incorrectly identified as being purchased is below a threshold to minimize customer dissatisfaction (CDS) determined as the ratio of the value of items charged to the customer but not purchased by a customer to the total charge to the customer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Mohammad Khojastepour, Mustafa Arslan, Sampath Rangarajan, Eugene Chai, Carlos Bocanegra
  • Patent number: 11645627
    Abstract: A system and method for a machine learning-based automated electronic time recording for personnel includes identifying, via a scene capturing device, a representation of a time recording space; identifying a body having a time recording pose within the time recording space based on an assessment of the representation of the time recording space; extracting a plurality of distinct features from the representation of the time recording space based on identifying the body having the time recording pose; executing automated user-recognition based on the extracting of the plurality of distinct features; executing automated time recording recognition based on the extracting of the plurality of distinct features; and executing automated electronic time recording, via a time recording application based on the automated user-recognition and the automated time recording recognition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2023
    Assignee: HandPunch Guys LLC
    Inventor: Will Horan
  • Patent number: 11636457
    Abstract: This disclosure is directed to item-identifying carts that may be utilized by users to automatically identify items that the users place in their carts. In order to identify the items placed into or removed from the cart, the cart may analyze image data, as well as weight data indicating a current weight estimation of a basket of the cart. The cart may include a weight sensor that generates a signal comprising a series of weight measurements of the basket of the cart. The cart may use an algorithm that calculates different mean values of different window sizes of the weight measurements of this signal and, thereafter, may calculate an average of these mean values. This average may be stored as the current weight estimation of the basket.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeremy S. De Bonet, Sreemanananth Sadanand, Xiang Ma, Oded Maron
  • Patent number: 11615373
    Abstract: Methods and systems for managing inventory items within a supply chain are disclosed. One method includes receiving, at a software tool, inputs related to a plurality of inventory items, the inputs including a cost of holding each of the plurality of inventory items at a location type. The method includes determining, individually for each inventory item of a plurality of inventory items, an optimal inventory balance across a plurality of locations, wherein the optimal inventory balance is a predetermined statistical availability level set based on a desired customer availability of the inventory item. The method further includes automatically generating one or more inventory adjustment requests to achieve the optimal inventory balance across each of the plurality of locations for each of the plurality of inventory items.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Assignee: TARGET BRANDS, INC.
    Inventors: Gregory Malecha, Abhijith Neerkaje, Aron Gruzman, Ashwin Rao, Chandrashekar Tallichetty, Jeffrey Eul, Joseph Cox, Shaokuan Chen, Tikhon Jelvis
  • Patent number: 11587024
    Abstract: A supply chain model generation system independently uses a business entity code and an item code representing an item related to a transaction in result information on a supply chain operation of a plurality of business entities; transaction information is extracted from the result information and a transaction time series information table is generated; a relationship in the transaction time series information table in each business entity is analyzed and a virtual business entity code on a supply side and a virtual business entity code on a demand side are assigned for each business entity code; and further a logical model information table where a virtual item code is assigned with respect to an item code related to the transaction of a business entity of the virtual business entity code on the supply side and a business entity of the virtual business entity code on the demand side is generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshiteru Takeshima, Hiroki Miyamoto, Yoshiki Kurokawa
  • Patent number: 11521247
    Abstract: Techniques for determining and presenting invoice criticality information for an invoice on a graphical user interface (GUI) are disclosed. Invoice criticality represents an urgency and/or significance associated with an invoice. An urgency is determined based on a difference between (a) a predicted amount of time for completing processing of the invoice and (b) an amount of time currently remaining until the target completion date. A significance is determined based on a predicted impact level resulting from missing a target completion date for the invoice. A GUI displays invoice criticality information associated with one or more invoices. The GUI presents a suggested action for resolving a predicted hold for a particular invoice. The GUI presents a suggested action based on a current and/or impending processing stage for a particular invoice. The GUI presents correlation information indicating relationships between invoice characteristics, processing times, and/or impact levels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Madhulika Deshmukh, Narayana Rao Palukuri, Milan Bharat Parikh
  • Patent number: 11393052
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method includes identifying a first menu item on a standard menu of an establishment. A first plurality of ingredients of the first menu item are determined. A first subset of the first plurality of ingredients of the first menu item are categorized into a substitutable category. A second subset of the first plurality of ingredients of the first menu item are categorized into a non-substitutable category. Each ingredient of the first menu item that is in the substitutable category is compared to user preferences. A substitutable ingredient of the substitutable category is excluded, based on the comparisons, where the substitutable ingredient is in the first menu item. An available substitute is automatically identified for the substitutable ingredient of the substitutable category. A personalized menu of menu items selected from the standard menu is generated, where the personalized menu includes the first menu item modified with the available substitute.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: John S. Werner, Pasquale A. Catalano, Andrew G. Crimmins, Arkadiy O. Tsfasman
  • Patent number: 11367046
    Abstract: Methods and systems for optimizing item assortments are disclosed. One method includes receiving a request for an optimized assortment. Data relating to items within a selected initial item assortment and item universe is accessed. Constraints are applied to the items in the assortment to arrive at an optimized item assortment. Constraints include goals for optimization, lock in and lock out rules, and item attribute rules. The method may be performed by a system including one or more computing devices communicating via a network with one or more data storage devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: TARGET BRANDS, INC.
    Inventor: Aaron Korver
  • Patent number: 11367042
    Abstract: One example of computerized inventory redistribution control includes, for each location inventory record in a set of location inventory records, calculating a quantity change that will bring a current item quantity to a different item quantity for the location inventory record. Determining a cost of a minimum-cost redistribution among the physical locations to effect the quantity changes. Determining a scaling factor that maximizes total revenue when the quantity changes are scaled by the scaling factor after deducting the cost scaled by the scaling factor. Generating transfer instructions for a redistribution of the item by scaling the transfer quantities of the minimum-cost redistribution by the scaling factor. Transmitting each transfer instruction to a computing device associated with a physical location indicated in the transfer instruction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Su-Ming Wu, Kiran Panchamgam, Bernard Griffiths
  • Patent number: 11361011
    Abstract: The disclosed techniques relate to improving sensor data collection/reporting at an automatic replenishment device (ARD). For example, sensor data associated with the item stored at an ARD may be collected. The ARD can calculate a change in the amount of the item stored by the ARD from the sensor data. If the change is over a reporting threshold, the sensor data (or the amount of change) may be transmitted to a back-end system. Reporting may not occur if additional sensor data (e.g., accelerometer data and/or images captured at the ARD) is not commensurate with a user interaction. If the difference is under the reporting threshold or unlikely due to user interaction, the ARD may refrain from transmitting the sensor data. These techniques conserves power at the ARD, relieves the back-end system from needless processing, and enables more accurate indications of the amount of the item stored by the ARD.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Dave Jonathan Lefkow, Jon Appleby, David Charles Buuck, Charles Robert Watson, Amirali Virani, Hannah McClellan Richards