Patents Examined by Florian M Zeender
  • Patent number: 10977608
    Abstract: A method for managing inventory within a supply chain. The method is performed by providing forecasts of demand for items distributed within the supply chain, using the forecasts to establish base stocking levels and reorder points within the supply chain, and using the established base stocking levels and reorder points to position items within the supply chain so as to maximize efficiency and profitability when responding to an order for an item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: W.W. Grainger, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert H. Scheer
  • Patent number: 10970715
    Abstract: A method for separately registering a user and a mobile device for use of a mobile wallet account includes registering, by a registration terminal of a mobile wallet provider, a user for use of the mobile wallet account, including assigning one or more user-provided settings to the mobile wallet account. The method also includes receiving, by a computing system of the mobile wallet provider, a request from a mobile device to register the mobile device for use as a mobile wallet, identifying, by the computing system, the mobile wallet account of the registered user based on the request, and registering, by the computing system, the mobile device for use of the identified mobile wallet account, including associating the one or more user-provided settings with use of the mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: Wells Fargo Bank. N.A.
    Inventors: Ashish B. Kurani, Steven E. Puffer
  • Patent number: 10963954
    Abstract: Embodiments include apparatuses and methods for aggregating temporal restricted values for accounts of a plurality of client entities. Apparatus embodiments include a memory circuit, a current value circuit, a client value circuit, a temporal value circuit, an aggregation circuit, and a net value circuit. The current value circuit determines current value data for accounts attributed to the entity ID. For each client entity ID, the client value circuit determines a participation condition for a value attributable to the client entity ID. The temporal value circuit identifies the participation condition indicates accounts of the client entity are temporally restricted and computes a temporal value corresponding the value. The aggregation circuit aggregates the computed temporal values for the client entity IDs to determine an aggregate temporal value. The net value circuit computes a net value of accounts for the entity based on the determined current value and the aggregated temporal value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignee: U.S. Bank National Association
    Inventor: Michael Orzechowski
  • Patent number: 10963854
    Abstract: One or more implementations of the present specification provide a blockchain-based electronic bill reimbursement method, apparatus, and an electronic device. The blockchain stores electronic bills. The method includes determining whether a maintained target electronic bill is in an unreimbursed state in response to detecting a reimbursement transaction broadcasted by a reimbursement initiator for the target electronic bill to the blockchain; if the target electronic bill is in the unreimbursed state, updating the target electronic bill from the unreimbursed state to a reimbursement lock state; instructing a reimbursement acceptor to perform reimbursement processing on the target electronic bill; determining whether a reimbursement result corresponding to the target electronic bill is broadcasted by the reimbursement acceptor to the blockchain; and if the reimbursement result is detected, updating the target electronic bill from the reimbursement lock state to a reimbursed state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignee: Advanced New Technologies Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ge Jin, Longsheng Qing, Zhen Sun, Zhenzhong Meng, Xueqing Yang, Yu Chu
  • Patent number: 10950145
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for creating printed tags for use in connection with a heated food item placed into a hot holding unit. System components may include a user interface, a printer, and a controller. The controller is programmed to instruct the user interface to display a prompt for an operator to input information identifying one or more characteristics of a food item positioned within or to be placed into a hot holding unit. The controller receives the information from the user interface and instructs the printer to generate a tag identifying the food item and the time at which the food item is to be removed from the hot holding unit and discarded. The tag may include a display area to display the printed information and a support area with a slit that allows the tag to be supported by a rack of the hot holding unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: Avery Dennison Retail Information Services, LLC
    Inventors: Jeanne F. Duckett, Stephen John Walker, Karen L. Euse, Jayne Blair
  • Patent number: 10949796
    Abstract: In some examples, a service provider may coordinate the placement of inventory orders for multiple merchants. The service provider may determine that multiple merchants utilize a same supplier for an item. The service provider may additionally, or alternatively, estimate that inventories of the item for the merchants will reach a threshold lower limit within a particular amount of time of each other. The service provider may designate different times for the merchants to order additional inventory of the item from the supplier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: Square, Inc.
    Inventor: Victor Tsou
  • Patent number: 10949938
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for chain of custody tracking for an object. Several sets of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors are organized in a network. Each set of sensors is configured to record one or more events relating to the object. Each event includes an event time, an event location, and an entity that is a custodian for the object at the time of the event. When the object changes custodians, proper custodianship is verified based on input from at least one set of IoT sensors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jeffrey M. Achtermann, Rahul Gupta, Arnaud A. Mathieu, Maharaj Mukherjee
  • Patent number: 10949939
    Abstract: Methods for chain of custody tracking for an object are described. Several sets of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors are organized in a network. Each set of sensors is configured to record one or more events relating to the object. Each event includes an event time, an event location, and an entity that is a custodian for the object at the time of the event. When the object changes custodians, proper custodianship is verified based on input from at least one set of IoT sensors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jeffrey M. Achtermann, Rahul Gupta, Arnaud A. Mathieu, Maharaj Mukherjee
  • Patent number: 10949824
    Abstract: Association information received from a number of mobile devices is recorded at a server end, where each mobile device is associated with a user that is pre-registered with the server end. An identification request is received at the server end and from a cashier device, where the identification request includes identity information associated with a particular user. One or more payment candidates corresponding to the cashier device are determined by the server end. A particular user account corresponding to the particular user is determined by the server end by comparing the identity information from the identification request with identity information associated with each of the payment candidates. The particular user account is returned by the server end to the cashier device for making a payment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: Advanced New Technologies Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Li Chen, Hong Zhang, Le Zhou
  • Patent number: 10943207
    Abstract: Shipment receiving systems and methods are disclosed. Invoice and store inventory management data is provided to an invoice processor for assigning expected destinations to lanes of a material transporter having and a plurality of outlet lanes that each have an indicator. A scanner determines a case identifier for each case which is routed accordingly. One or more notifications is provided to the indicator of one or more of the plurality of outlet lanes. Received shipment data enables reconciliation of upstream supply change management systems and downstream store inventory systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC
    Inventors: Robert James Taylor, Jason Bellar, John Crecelius, Matthew David Alexander, William M. Propes, Jesse Berry, Jeffrey Scott Cruz
  • Patent number: 10943312
    Abstract: A system and method of providing nutritional data for a user is disclosed herein. The method includes receiving a selected restaurant from a health tracking device, and providing menu data for the user based on the selected restaurant. The method further includes receiving a selected menu item from the health tracking device, associating the selected menu item with a plurality of food items in a database, and providing the plurality of food items for the user. Furthermore, the method includes receiving a selected one of the plurality of food items from the health tracking device, and providing nutritional data based on the selected one of the plurality of food items.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: MyFitnessPal, Inc.
    Inventors: Chul Lee, Yi Qiang
  • Patent number: 10936995
    Abstract: In some embodiments, methods and systems for analyzing an inventory database and an accounting database of a retail store in order to detect products that were mis-shipped to the retail store, improperly invoiced to the retail store, and/or erroneously not invoiced to the retail store.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC
    Inventors: Greg A. Bryan, Cristy C. Brooks, Benjamin D. Enssle, David B. Brightwell
  • Patent number: 10936989
    Abstract: The invention discloses a waitressing drone that brings drinks to people at the restaurant, and the orders are identified from the Facebook photo of the user, that the drone displays when making the delivery. The invention facilitates the interaction with humans and drones via the social network. With the invention, the order input time is greatly reduced for the consumer, and the consumer may move about while waiting for the order as the drone finds the consumer. Also importantly, the social nature of the drone allows for the sharing of drones among multiple human users. Further, the interfacing of the social human profile with non-human drone profiles allows for the continuous retraining and reprogramming of drones to meet more specific and individualistic user tasks, thereby liberating people from mundane manual labour.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Inventor: Mikko Vaananen
  • Patent number: 10936991
    Abstract: There are provided systems and methods for location detection devices for use in a courier services network. A first user may travel to a location for a particular reason, such as item purchases or appointments. While at the location, the user may be identified at the location by a server offering courier services to a seller and a second user purchasing items from the seller. Based on the first user's reason for traveling to the location and other indicia of trustworthiness or fraud, the server may determine whether the first user can be trusted as a courier. If the user is trusted as a courier, the server may update the first user and the seller to arrange delivery of the item to another location set by the second user. The first user may also be provided with additional items for the second user to deliver to further locations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: PAYPAL, INC.
    Inventors: Kamal Zamer, James Marcos Duran, Krishna Sai Pendela Bala Venkata, Praveen Nuthulapati, Jayasree Mekala, Sivakumar Sirumugai Palanisamy
  • Patent number: 10936983
    Abstract: A method for planning preparation of a plurality of dishes according to a plurality of corresponding recipes includes automatically identifying, by a processor, a plurality of candidate sub-recipes, wherein each candidate sub-recipe in the plurality of candidate sub-recipes comprises an intermediate component that is required by at least two of the plurality of corresponding recipes, and automatically selecting, by the processor, at least one candidate sub-recipe in the plurality of candidate sub-recipes for preparation, in accordance with at least one constraint on the preparation of the plurality of dishes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Krishna C. Ratakonda, Lav R. Varshney
  • Patent number: 10929828
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, an information processing apparatus that processes information on a product to be traded includes an input device, a memory, and a processor. The processor stores, for each tax rate in the memory, the total price in a trade of a product to which reduction is applied, the product being identified by a product code input by the input device. The processor calculates the amount of tax of the product to be traded on the basis of the total price of a product taxed with a specific tax rate after the reduction processing and the total price of a product taxed with a tax rate other than the specific tax rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Yui Matsukura
  • Patent number: 10929822
    Abstract: Methods and systems for facilitating group payment are disclosed. In one embodiment, a group payment system is configured to execute instructions to perform operations that include receiving, from a first computing device, a request to create a group payment event and, in response, providing to the first computing device a first interface associated with the group payment event. The operations further include receiving, from a second computing device, a request to join the group payment event and, in response, providing a second interface to the second computing device. The operations further include receiving, from the first and/or second computing devices, messages associated with the group payment event and modifying the first and second interfaces to display the messages. The operations further include receiving, from the first and/or second computing devices, financial contributions for the group payment event and modifying the first and second interfaces to display the financial contributions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: Capital One Services, LLC
    Inventors: Yumi Clark, Samuel Wolfand, Srinivas Nookala, Mychilo Cline, David Norman, Larry Damman, Hashaam Markas, Adam Zedler, Sasikiran Myadam, Dennis Brennan, David Dao
  • Patent number: 10929808
    Abstract: Techniques for facilitating estimation of node processing capacity values for order fulfillment are provided. In one example, a computer-implemented method can comprise: generating, by a system operatively coupled to a processor, a current processing capacity value for an entity; and determining, by the system, a future processing capacity value for the entity based on the current processing capacity value and by using a future capacity model that has been explicitly trained to infer respective processing capacity values for the entity. The computer-implemented method can also comprise fulfilling an order of an item, by the system, based on the future processing capacity value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Lei Cao, Ajay Ashok Deshpande, Ali Koc, Yingjie Li, Xuan Liu, Brian Leo Quanz, Yada Zhu
  • Patent number: 10922743
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are described for performing actions based on user activation of custom user interface (“UI”) controls. A user of a networked computing service may activate a custom UI control by selecting the custom UI control (such as by touching the custom UI control displayed on a touchscreen display) to trigger the networked computing service to perform a predefined action associated with the custom UI control. In the event that the predefined action cannot be performed, the networked computing service may identify an alternative action that may be performed instead of the predefined action, optionally request user confirmation of the alternative action, and perform the alternative action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2021
    Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Stephan Josef Andrizzi, Jai Prakash Chabria, Nicole Dare, Kenneth DeLand, Nirav Praful Desai, Anindya Guha, Marc Hensley, Douglas James Herrington, Samuel Stevens Heyworth, Apoorva Iyer, Nitish Kumar, Hannah McClellan Richards, Amir Pelleg, Jessica Protasio, Daniel Benjamin Rausch, Laura Allison Ridlehoover, Jeffrey Rosenberg, Paul Warren Smart, Amirali Virani
  • Patent number: 10924472
    Abstract: A wearable device for capacitive coupled communications is described. The wearable device includes capacitive sensor transceiver circuitry configured to receive a capacitive coupled signal from a host device. The capacitive coupled signal is received through a body of a user of the wearable device and is modulated to include a request for authentication data to authenticate the wearable device with the host device. The wearable device includes processing circuitry in communication with the capacitive sensor transceiver circuitry to process the received capacitive coupled signal and transmit authentication data modulated on a capacitive coupled reply signal to the host device. The capacitive coupled reply signal modulated with the authentication data is transmitted through the body of the user of the wearable device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2021
    Assignee: SHENZHEN GOODIX TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yi He, Bo Pi