Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080314667 | WHEEL SKID DETECTION DURING MECHANIZED CART RETRIEVAL - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel containing sensor circuitry capable of sensing various types of conditions, such as wheel rotation, wheel vibration caused by skidding, and specific electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals indicative of particular wheel locations. The sensor circuitry is coupled to an RF transceiver, which may but need not be included within the wheel. The wheel may also include a brake mechanism. In one embodiment, the wheels are placed on shopping carts and are used to collect and monitor shopping cart status and location data via a wireless network. The collected data may be used for various purposes, such as locking the wheel of an exiting cart if the customer has not paid, estimating numbers of queued carts, stopping wheel skid events that occur during mechanized cart retrieval, store planning, and providing location-based messaging to customers. | 12-25-2008 |
20080315540 | SYSTEM FOR ENHANCING USE OF A SHOPPING CART - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel containing sensor circuitry capable of sensing various types of conditions, such as wheel rotation, wheel vibration caused by skidding, and specific electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals indicative of particular wheel locations. The sensor circuitry is coupled to an RF transceiver, which may but need not be included within the wheel. The wheel may also include a brake mechanism. In one embodiment, the wheels are placed on shopping carts and are used to collect and monitor shopping cart status and location data via a wireless network. The collected data may be used for various purposes, such as locking the wheel of an exiting cart if the customer has not paid, estimating numbers of queued carts, stopping wheel skid events that occur during mechanized cart retrieval, store planning, and providing location-based messaging to customers. | 12-25-2008 |
20080316029 | CART CLUSTER DETECTION AND ESTIMATION - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel containing sensor circuitry capable of sensing various types of conditions, such as wheel rotation, wheel vibration caused by skidding, and specific electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals indicative of particular wheel locations. The sensor circuitry is coupled to an RF transceiver, which may but need not be included within the wheel. The wheel may also include a brake mechanism. In one embodiment, the wheels are placed on shopping carts and are used to collect and monitor shopping cart status and location data via a wireless network. The collected data may be used for various purposes, such as locking the wheel of an exiting cart if the customer has not paid, estimating numbers of queued carts, stopping wheel skid events that occur during mechanized cart retrieval, store planning, and providing location-based messaging to customers. | 12-25-2008 |
20080316059 | ANTENNA-BASED ZONE CREATION FOR CONTROLLING MOVEMENT OF VEHICLES - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel containing sensor circuitry capable of sensing various types of conditions, such as wheel rotation, wheel vibration caused by skidding, and specific electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals indicative of particular wheel locations. The sensor circuitry is coupled to an RF transceiver, which may but need not be included within the wheel. The wheel may also include a brake mechanism. In one embodiment, the wheels are placed on shopping carts and are used to collect and monitor shopping cart status and location data via a wireless network. The collected data may be used for various purposes, such as locking the wheel of an exiting cart if the customer has not paid, estimating numbers of queued carts, stopping wheel skid events that occur during mechanized cart retrieval, store planning, and providing location-based messaging to customers. | 12-25-2008 |
20080319625 | CART BRAKING CONTROL DURING MECHANIZED CART RETRIEVAL - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel containing sensor circuitry capable of sensing various types of conditions, such as wheel rotation, wheel vibration caused by skidding, and specific electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals indicative of particular wheel locations. The sensor circuitry is coupled to an RF transceiver, which may but need not be included within the wheel. The wheel may also include a brake mechanism. In one embodiment, the wheels are placed on shopping carts and are used to collect and monitor shopping cart status and location data via a wireless network. The collected data may be used for various purposes, such as locking the wheel of an exiting cart if the customer has not paid, estimating numbers of queued carts, stopping wheel skid events that occur during mechanized cart retrieval, store planning, and providing location-based messaging to customers. | 12-25-2008 |
20090002160 | USAGE MONITORING OF SHOPPING CARTS OR OTHER HUMAN-PROPELLED VEHICLES - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel containing sensor circuitry capable of sensing various types of conditions, such as wheel rotation, wheel vibration caused by skidding, and specific electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals indicative of particular wheel locations. The sensor circuitry is coupled to an RF transceiver, which may but need not be included within the wheel. The wheel may also include a brake mechanism. In one embodiment, the wheels are placed on shopping carts and are used to collect and monitor shopping cart status and location data via a wireless network. The collected data may be used for various purposes, such as locking the wheel of an exiting cart if the customer has not paid, estimating numbers of queued carts, stopping wheel skid events that occur during mechanized cart retrieval, store planning, and providing location-based messaging to customers. | 01-01-2009 |
20090002172 | SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATING WITH AND MONITORING MOVEMENT OF HUMAN-PROPELLED VEHICLES - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel containing sensor circuitry capable of sensing various types of conditions, such as wheel rotation, wheel vibration caused by skidding, and specific electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals indicative of particular wheel locations. The sensor circuitry is coupled to an RF transceiver, which may but need not be included within the wheel. The wheel may also include a brake mechanism. In one embodiment, the wheels are placed on shopping carts and are used to collect and monitor shopping cart status and location data via a wireless network. The collected data may be used for various purposes, such as locking the wheel of an exiting cart if the customer has not paid, estimating numbers of queued carts, stopping wheel skid events that occur during mechanized cart retrieval, store planning, and providing location-based messaging to customers. | 01-01-2009 |
20090322492 | SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING USAGE OF SHOPPING CARTS OR OTHER HUMAN-PROPELLED VEHICLES - A system is disclosed for tracking and controlling shopping carts or other types of human-propelled vehicles. In one embodiment, the system includes a wheel or wheel assembly with a braking mechanism that is activated in response to signals received by multiple receivers. The receivers may, for example, include a VLF (Very Low Frequency) receiver for detecting a VLF signal transmitted by a buried cable, and an RF transceiver for communicating over a wireless network. The receivers may, but need not, be included in the wheel. The multiple receivers may be used in combination to control a shopping cart; for example, a command received by a shopping cart's RF transceiver may cause the cart to ignore (not activate the brake in response to) a detected VLF signal. | 12-31-2009 |
20100148582 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR POWER STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT FROM INTERMITTENT POWER SOURCES - A power management system is disclosed. Embodiments of the power management system may be configured for use with an electric generator that produces AC or DC voltage from an energy source, which may be intermittent or fluctuating. One embodiment of the power management system includes an energy storage reservoir configured to be electrically coupled to the electric generator. The energy storage reservoir includes at least one ultracapacitor and at least one rechargeable battery. The power management system also includes an electronic controller configured to control storage in the reservoir of energy generated by the electric generator and to control power usage from the reservoir and the generator. The electronic controller is configured to control energy storage and power usage in response to one or more control signals. | 06-17-2010 |
20110279252 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LOCATING AND CONTROLLING POWERED VEHICLES - A system for controlling movement of a personal mobility vehicle near a restricted region is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a detector that is configured to be disposed on the personal mobility vehicle and that is configured to receive an electromagnetic signal transmitted to the restricted region. The system also includes a control unit configured to communicate with the detector. The control unit is further configured to determine proximity of the detector to the restricted region using information related to the signal received by the detector. The control unit is also configured to provide a command to inhibit movement of the personal mobility vehicle in response to the determined proximity of the vehicle to the restricted region. | 11-17-2011 |
20120035823 | NAVIGATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR WHEELED OBJECTS - A navigation system uses a dead reckoning method to estimate an object's present position relative to one or more prior positions. In some embodiments, the dead reckoning method determines a change in position from the object's heading and speed during an elapsed time interval. In embodiments suitable for use with wheeled objects, the dead reckoning method determines the change in position by measuring the heading and the amount of wheel rotation. Some or all of the components of the navigation system may be disposed within a wheel, such as a wheel of a shopping cart. | 02-09-2012 |
20130214502 | CART BRAKING CONTROL DURING MECHANIZED CART RETRIEVAL - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel containing sensor circuitry capable of sensing various types of conditions, such as specific electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals indicative of particular wheel locations. The sensor circuitry is coupled to an RF transceiver, which may but need not be included within the wheel. The wheel may also include a brake mechanism. In one embodiment, the wheels are placed on shopping carts and are used to collect and monitor shopping cart status and location data via a wireless network. The collected data may be used for various purposes, such as locking the wheel of an exiting cart if the customer has not paid, estimating numbers of queued carts, and stopping brake activation events from occurring during mechanized cart retrieval. | 08-22-2013 |
20130238169 | SYSTEM FOR DETECTING UNAUTHORIZED STORE EXIT EVENTS - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel unit containing circuitry capable of sensing various types of conditions, such as specific electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals indicative of particular wheel locations. The wheel units communicate with fixed nodes of a monitoring system. In some embodiments, the wheel units are placed on shopping carts and are used to determine whether particular shopping carts are authorized to exit a store. For example, if a shopping cart that has not passed through a checkout lane is approaching a store exit, the system may activate a shopping cart braking unit, and/or initiate another action to inhibit push-out theft. | 09-12-2013 |
20130249177 | ZONE-BASED CONTROL OF CART USAGE - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel containing sensor circuitry capable of sensing various types of conditions, such as specific electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals indicative of particular wheel locations. The sensor circuitry is coupled to an RF transceiver, which may but need not be included within the wheel. The wheel may also include a brake mechanism. In one embodiment, the wheels are placed on shopping carts and are used to collect and monitor shopping cart status and location data via a wireless network. The collected data may be used for various purposes, such as locking the wheel of an exiting cart if the customer has not paid, estimating numbers of queued carts, stopping wheel skid events that occur during mechanized cart retrieval, store planning, and providing location-based messaging to customers. | 09-26-2013 |
20130257000 | ZONE-BASED COMMAND TRANSMISSIONS TO CART WHEEL ASSEMBLIES - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel assembly containing sensor circuitry capable of sensing various types of conditions, such as specific electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals indicative of particular wheel locations. The sensor circuitry is coupled to an RF transceiver, which may but need not be included within the wheel. The wheel may also include a brake mechanism. In one embodiment, the wheels are placed on shopping carts and are used to collect and monitor shopping cart status and location data via a wireless network. In some embodiments, the wheel assemblies detect that they have entered into particular zones by measuring received signal strengths of received command transmissions, and by comparing these measurements to thresholds that are used to define zone boundaries. | 10-03-2013 |
20130261943 | OBJECT CLUSTER DETECTION AND ESTIMATION - A vehicle tracking system includes a wheel unit containing RF communication circuitry. The wheel units communicate with fixed nodes of a monitoring system. In some embodiments, the wheel units are placed on shopping carts and are used to track the shopping carts in a vicinity of a store. The system may implement a variety of tracking-relating features, including detecting unauthorized store exit events, estimating the number of shopping carts that are clustered together, and inhibiting shopping cart theft. | 10-03-2013 |
20130264786 | WHEEL ASSEMBLY AND ANTENNA DESIGN FOR CART TRACKING SYSTEM - A system is disclosed for tracking and controlling shopping carts and other types of human propelled vehicles. The system includes a wheel assembly that attaches to a cart. The wheel assembly includes a brake unit for inhibiting cart motion, and includes wireless communication circuitry. The wheel assembly is capable of activating the brake unit in response to one or more conditions, such as the receipt of an RF signal or command. In some embodiments, the system also includes a display unit that displays information to a user of the cart, including information regarding the cart's proximity to a lock zone in which the brake unit will become activated. | 10-10-2013 |
20140125019 | CART CONTAINMENT SYSTEM WITH INTEGRATED CART DISPLAY UNIT - A system is disclosed for tracking and controlling shopping carts and other types of human propelled vehicles. The system includes a wheel assembly that attaches to a cart. The wheel assembly includes a brake unit for inhibiting cart motion, and includes wireless communication circuitry. The wheel assembly is capable of activating the brake unit in response to one or more conditions, such as the receipt of an RF signal or command. In some embodiments, the system also includes a display unit that displays information to a user of the cart, including information regarding the cart's proximity to a lock zone in which the brake unit will become activated. | 05-08-2014 |
20140350851 | NAVIGATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR WHEELED OBJECTS - A navigation system uses a dead reckoning method to estimate an object's present position relative to one or more prior positions. In some embodiments, the dead reckoning method determines a change in position from the object's heading and speed during an elapsed time interval. In embodiments suitable for use with wheeled objects, the dead reckoning method determines the change in position by measuring the heading and the amount of wheel rotation. Some or all of the components of the navigation system may be disposed within a wheel, such as a wheel of a shopping cart. | 11-27-2014 |