JP7614035B2 - Information processing device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a technology for analyzing customer interest in products.

When developing new products or considering sales strategies, retail companies need to understand customer interest and behavior regarding products. One example of a mechanism for doing so is technology that measures customer interest from purchase information. At the same time, it is also important to understand what interests and behaviors customers showed toward products that did not result in a purchase.

For example, Patent Document 1 proposes that the location of the cash register, the time of purchase, and the customer's location and measurement time obtained by tracking the customer's movements within the store are used to identify the customer who was at the cash register at that time if the time and location match within a certain range, and to identify the product that the customer selected, considered, and purchased.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-175597

Meanwhile, measuring customer behavior in stores typically involves using a sensor that captures digital images of visible light colors (hereafter referred to as a color image sensor). However, such color image sensors reveal the customer's face and appearance, so it is necessary to take into consideration issues of customer privacy and customer psychology.

The present invention aims to protect the personal information of customers who purchase products at a store, while associating products that were not purchased by a customer but in which the customer was interested with the customer's attributes.

To solve the above problem, the present invention provides an information processing device comprising: a location identification unit that identifies the location of people in a store from data that detects people in the store but does not identify each individual person; a discrimination unit that distinguishes between the location of a store clerk and the location of a customer from the identified locations of the people; a movement determination unit that determines whether a product has been moved; a storage unit that stores a product identifier of a product that is determined to have moved by the movement determination unit within a predetermined range from the location of the customer determined by the discrimination unit, in association with a temporary customer identifier assigned to the customer; an acquisition unit that acquires, when the product is purchased, the product identifier of the purchased product and attribute information related to the customer who purchased the product; a reading unit that reads from the storage unit the product identifier stored in association with the temporary customer identifier of the customer who purchased the product; and a registration unit that registers product identifiers other than the product identifier acquired by the acquisition unit from among the product identifiers read by the reading unit, in association with the attribute information acquired by the acquisition unit.

The present invention makes it possible to protect the personal information of customers who purchase products at a store, while also associating products that were not purchased by a customer but in which the customer was interested with the customer's attributes.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an information processing system 1. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of an information processing device 30. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the wireless receiver 12. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of the store clerk wireless transmitter 10. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of an information processing device 30. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the positional relationship between wireless receivers 12, store clerks U1 and U2, and customers C1 and C2 in a store. FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing an example of the operation of the information processing system 1. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of data stored in information processing device 30. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of data stored in information processing device 30. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of data stored in information processing device 30. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of data stored in information processing device 30. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of data stored in information processing device 30.

[composition]
1 is a diagram showing an example of an information processing system 1 according to the present embodiment. The information processing system 1 is a system for associating, with attributes of a customer, a product that is presumed to have interested a customer among products not purchased by the customer in a store that displays and sells a plurality of products to customers, such as a convenience store, a supermarket, a discount store, a department store, or other various specialty stores. The customer attributes are information associated with each customer, such as gender, age, hobbies and preferences, residential area, and behavior history, excluding information that can uniquely identify the customer from that information alone, such as name and address.

In a store, it is assumed that customers will approach products that interest them and perform some action on them, such as looking at them, holding them in their hands, or putting them in a shopping bag. One possible means of recording such customer behavior in a store is to use a sensor that captures digitalized images of visible light colors (here referred to as a color image sensor). However, since data digitized by such a color image sensor reproduces the visible light colors of the imaged subject (i.e., the actual appearance of the imaged subject when observed by a human with the naked eye), it would be easy to identify, for example, the customer's face or appearance, which is considered to be problematic from the standpoint of protecting customer privacy and from the standpoint of customer psychology.

In contrast, in this embodiment, a sensor (herein referred to as a non-color image sensor) that digitizes physical quantities other than visible light color, such as temperature and depth (distance), is used as a means for recording customer behavior in a store. That is, the data digitized by the non-color image sensor is data that detects humans so that humans can be distinguished from non-human objects, but since it does not reproduce the visible light color of the imaged subject, it can be said to be data that does not express the characteristics of the human's face or appearance to the extent that the human individual can be identified. In other words, the data digitized by the non-color image sensor is data that makes it difficult to identify who each person is. Examples of this non-color image sensor include infrared sensors and LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensors, but any detection device that can detect humans so that humans can be distinguished from non-human objects may be used. By using such a non-color image sensor, it is possible to record the behavior of a person without obtaining personal information such as the person's face or appearance in a form that can be directly observed by a third party.

However, while the data obtained by a non-color image sensor can determine that the subject being imaged is a human, it is difficult to distinguish whether the person is a customer making a purchase in the store, or a store clerk who does not make such purchases in the store.

Therefore, in this embodiment, customer behavior within the store is recorded by combining data acquired by a non-color image sensor with the results of customer/store clerk discrimination achieved by a different method. This mechanism is described in detail below.

As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing system 1 includes one or more store clerk wireless transmitters 10 carried by each store clerk U working in the store, multiple product wireless transmitters 11 provided on each of multiple products displayed in the store, multiple wireless receivers 12 located in the store, a store terminal 20 such as a POS (Point of Sales) register located in the store, an information processing device 30 that functions as an example of an information processing device according to the present invention, a payment system 40 that processes electronic payments for the purchase price of products, one or more non-color image sensors 50 located in the store, and a communication network 2 including a wireless communication network or a wired communication network. Note that the number of each device, equipment, and system shown in FIG. 1 is merely an example and is not limited to the number shown.

The payment system 40 is equipped with a customer database 41 that contains attribute information for each customer. This customer database stores a customer identifier that identifies each customer who is able to make an electronic payment, in association with the customer's attributes (gender, age, etc.). Note that the payment system 40 does not need to have a hardware configuration that includes the customer database 41, and it is sufficient that the payment system 40 is at least configured to be able to access the customer database 41.

The communication network 2 connects the wireless receiver 12, the store terminal 20, the information processing device 30, the payment system 40, and the non-color image sensor 50 so that they can communicate with each other via wireless or wired communication. In this embodiment, the wireless clerk transmitter 10, the wireless commodity transmitter 11, and the wireless receiver 12 transmit and receive wirelessly using a wireless communication standard called UWB (Ultra Wide Band). However, the wireless communication standard between the wireless clerk transmitter 10, the wireless commodity transmitter 11, and the wireless receiver 12 is not limited to UWB.

Figure 2 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of the information processing device 30. The information processing device 30 is physically configured as a computer device including a processor 3001, a memory 3002, a storage 3003, a communication device 3004, an input device 3005, an output device 3006, and a bus connecting these. Each of these devices operates with power supplied from a battery (not shown). In the following description, the word "device" can be interpreted as a circuit, device, unit, etc. The hardware configuration of the information processing device 30 may be configured to include one or more of the devices shown in the figure, or may be configured without including some of the devices. In addition, the information processing device 30 may be configured by communicating and connecting multiple devices each having a different housing.

The functions of the information processing device 30 are realized by loading specific software (programs) onto hardware such as the processor 3001 and memory 3002, causing the processor 3001 to perform calculations, control communications via the communication device 3004, and control at least one of the reading and writing of data in the memory 3002 and storage 3003.

The processor 3001, for example, operates an operating system to control the entire computer. The processor 3001 may be configured with a central processing unit (CPU) including an interface with peripheral devices, a control device, an arithmetic unit, registers, etc. Also, for example, a baseband signal processing unit, a call processing unit, etc. may be realized by the processor 3001.

The processor 3001 reads out programs (program codes), software modules, data, etc. from at least one of the storage 3003 and the communication device 3004 into the memory 3002, and executes various processes according to these. The programs used are those that cause a computer to execute at least some of the operations described below. The functional blocks of the information processing device 30 may be realized by a control program stored in the memory 3002 and running on the processor 3001. The various processes may be executed by one processor 3001, or may be executed simultaneously or sequentially by two or more processors 3001. The processor 3001 may be implemented by one or more chips. The programs may be transmitted to the information processing device 30 via the communication network 2.

The memory 3002 is a computer-readable recording medium, and may be composed of at least one of, for example, a ROM (Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM), an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM), a RAM (Random Access Memory), etc. The memory 3002 may also be called a register, a cache, a main memory (primary storage device), etc. The memory 3002 can store executable programs (program codes), software modules, etc. for implementing the method according to this embodiment.

Storage 3003 is a computer-readable recording medium, and may be composed of at least one of, for example, an optical disk such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disc ROM), a hard disk drive, a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk (e.g., a compact disk, a digital versatile disk, a Blu-ray (registered trademark) disk), a smart card, a flash memory (e.g., a card, a stick, a key drive), a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a magnetic strip, etc. Storage 3003 may also be called an auxiliary storage device.

The communication device 3004 is hardware (transmitting/receiving device) for communicating between computers, and is also called, for example, a network device, a network controller, a network card, or a communication module. For example, a transmitting/receiving antenna, an amplifier section, a transmitting/receiving section, a transmission path interface, and the like may be realized by the communication device 3004. The transmitting/receiving section may be implemented as a transmitting section and a receiving section that are physically or logically separated.

The input device 3005 is an input device (e.g., a key, a microphone, a switch, a button, a camera, etc.) that accepts input from the outside. The output device 3006 is an output device (e.g., a display, a speaker, an LED lamp, etc.) that performs output to the outside. Note that the input device 3005 and the output device 3006 may be integrated into one structure (e.g., a touch panel).

Each device, such as the processor 3001 and memory 3002, is connected by a bus for communicating information. The bus may be configured using a single bus, or may be configured using different buses between each device.

The information processing device 30 may be configured to include hardware such as a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), or a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and some or all of the functional blocks may be realized by the hardware. For example, the processor 3001 may be implemented using at least one of these pieces of hardware.

Figure 3 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of the wireless receiver 12. The hardware configuration of the wireless receiver 12 may be configured to include one or more of the devices shown in Figure 3, or may be configured to exclude some of the devices. In addition, the wireless receiver 12 may be configured by communicating with multiple devices each having a different housing.

The wireless receiver 12 is configured as a computer device including a processor 1201, memory 1202, UWB device 1203, communication device 1204, and a bus connecting these. Each function of the wireless receiver 12 is realized by loading a specific software (program) onto hardware such as the processor 1201 and memory 1202, causing the processor 1201 to perform calculations, control communication by the communication device 1204, and control at least one of reading and writing data in the memory 1202. The processor 1201, memory 1202, communication device 1204, and bus are similar in terms of hardware to the processor 3001, memory 3002, communication device 3004, and bus described for the information processing device 30. An identifier for identifying each wireless receiver 12 is stored in the memory 1202.

The UWB device 1203 is hardware (transmitting/receiving device) for performing wireless communication between computers according to the UWB wireless communication standard (hereinafter referred to as UWB communication), and has at least the function of receiving UWB communication. UWB can achieve three functions: positioning, radar, and wireless communication. Note that if the wireless communication standard between the clerk wireless transmitter 10 and the merchandise wireless transmitter 11 and the wireless receiver 12 is different from UWB, hardware (transmitting/receiving device) corresponding to that wireless communication standard is used instead of the UWB device 1203.

The communication device 1204 is hardware (transmitting/receiving device) for performing communication between computers in accordance with the communication standard of the communication network 2. When the communication device 1204 performs wireless communication with the communication network 2, it may be configured to include a high-frequency switch, a duplexer, a filter, a frequency synthesizer, etc. to achieve at least one of Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD), for example.

Figure 4 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of the clerk wireless transmitter 10. The clerk wireless transmitter 10 includes a processor 1001 and a memory 1002 similar to the processor 1201 and memory 1202 of the wireless receiver 12, and a UWB device 1003 that has at least the function of transmitting in UWB communication. Each function of the clerk wireless transmitter 10 is realized by loading a specific software (program) onto hardware such as the processor 1001 and memory 1002, causing the processor 1001 to perform calculations, control communication by the UWB device 1003, and control at least one of reading and writing data in the memory 1002. The memory 1002 stores an identifier that identifies each clerk wireless transmitter 10 (i.e., an identifier that identifies the clerk who possesses the clerk wireless transmitter 10). The UWB device 1003 transmits radio waves including this identifier intermittently at regular time intervals. This radio wave is received by the wireless receiver 12. This allows the wireless receiver 12 to receive the identifier of the clerk wireless transmitter 10 that is nearby. In other words, if the location of the wireless receiver 12 is known in advance, it is possible to identify the location of the clerk wireless transmitter 10 (i.e., the clerk) that is communicating with the wireless receiver 12 via UWB.

The hardware configuration of the commodity wireless transmitter 11 is similar to the hardware configuration of the clerk wireless transmitter 10, and includes a processor, memory, and a UWB device (not shown). Each function of the commodity wireless transmitter 11 is realized by loading a specific software (program) onto hardware such as the processor and memory, causing the processor to perform calculations, control communication by the UWB device, and control at least one of reading and writing data in the memory. The memory stores an identifier for identifying each commodity wireless transmitter 11 (i.e., an identifier for identifying the commodity in which the commodity wireless transmitter 11 is installed). The UW device transmits radio waves including this identifier intermittently at regular time intervals. This radio wave is received by the radio receiver 12. The radio receiver 12 receives the identifier of the commodity wireless transmitter 11 present in the vicinity. In other words, if the position of the wireless receiver 12 is known in advance, it is possible to identify the position of the commodity wireless transmitter 11 (i.e., the commodity) that performs UWB communication with the wireless receiver 12.

Figure 5 is a diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the information processing device 30. Each function realized by the information processing device 30 is realized by loading predetermined software (programs) onto hardware such as the processor 3001 and memory 3002, causing the processor 3001 to perform calculations, control the communication device 3004, and control at least one of reading and writing of data in the memory 3002 and storage 3003. Specifically, the information processing device 30 realizes the functions of an acquisition unit 31, a position identification unit 32, a discrimination unit 33, a movement determination unit 34, a memory unit 35, a read unit 36, a registration unit 37, a deletion unit 38, and an output unit 39.

In the information processing device 30, the acquisition unit 31 acquires various data from the wireless receiver 12, the store terminal 20, the payment system 40, and the non-color image sensor 50 via the communication network 2.

The position identification unit 32 identifies the position of a person from the data acquired by the acquisition unit 31 from the non-color image sensor 50, that is, data that detects people in the store but does not identify each individual person. Specifically, the position identification unit 32 identifies the position of each person in the store (XYZ coordinates) by arranging the position of the person identified from the data acquired from the non-color image sensor 50 in a coordinate space in which the detection range of the non-color image sensor 50 is expressed by predetermined coordinate axes (for example, XYZ orthogonal coordinate axes).

Here, FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the positional relationship between the wireless receiver 12, the store clerks U1 and U2, and the customers C1 and C2 in the store. Multiple wireless receivers 12 (wireless receivers 12a to 12h in FIG. 6) are arranged so as to cover the space in the store with almost no gaps. FIG. 6 illustrates an example in which the positions of people (including all of the store clerks U1 and U2 and the customers C1 and C2) identified from data acquired from the non-color image sensor 50 are identified in a three-dimensional space in which the space in the store is expressed by XYZ coordinate axes. Note that a method of detecting people from data acquired from the non-color image sensor 50 can be realized by, for example, having the position identification unit 32 learn in advance the features of people when various appearances are detected by the non-color image sensor 50, and comparing the learning results with the data acquired from the non-color image sensor 50.

The discrimination unit 33 discriminates between the position of a store clerk and the position of a customer among the positions of people identified by the position identification unit 32. In this embodiment, the discrimination unit 33 discriminates between the position of a store clerk and the position of a customer based on the position of the wireless receiver 12 that receives the radio signal transmitted from the store clerk wireless transmitter 10. More specifically, the discrimination unit 33 discriminates between the position of a store clerk and the position of a customer based on the position history of the wireless receiver 12 that receives the radio signal transmitted from the store clerk wireless transmitter 10.

In FIG. 6, the positions of the wireless receivers 12a to 12h are specified in advance as XYZ coordinates in a three-dimensional space expressed by the XYZ coordinate axes described above. Also, in FIG. 6, the dashed circle centered on each of the wireless receivers 12a to 12h indicates the limit of the communication range of each of the wireless receivers 12a to 12h. For example, if the wireless receiver that receives the wireless signal transmitted from the wireless transmitter 10 for the store clerk U2 is the wireless receiver 12b, the discrimination unit 33 determines that the positions of the people (store clerks U1 and U2 and customers C1 and C2) specified by the position determination unit 32 that are within the range where wireless communication is possible from the position of the wireless receiver 12b (inside the dashed circle centered on the wireless receiver 12b in FIG. 5) are the positions of the store clerks.

On the other hand, if the wireless receiver that receives the radio signal transmitted from the clerk wireless transmitter 10 of the clerk U1 is the wireless receiver 12d, two people (here, the clerk U1 and the customer C1) are located within the wireless communication range from the position of the wireless receiver 12d. Therefore, the discrimination unit 33 cannot determine which of the two people (the clerk U1 and the customer C1) is the clerk. In such a case, the discrimination unit 33 discriminates between the position of the clerk and the position of the customer based on the position history of the wireless receiver 12 that receives the radio signal transmitted from the clerk wireless transmitter 10. Specifically, when the only person in the wireless communication range of the wireless receiver 12d is the person holding the clerk wireless transmitter 10, the discrimination unit 33 determines that the position of that person is the clerk. In other words, since the customer and the clerk move freely within the store, there will always be a moment when only one clerk is located within the wireless communication range of one wireless receiver 12. The discrimination unit 33 determines the position of the store clerk at such a moment, and thereafter tracks the position of the store clerk determined in the data acquired from the non-color image sensor 50.

However, even if such a discrimination method is adopted, it is expected that it will be impossible to distinguish between the positions of the clerk and the customer due to reasons such as temporary overlap of the positions of the clerk and the customer in the data acquired from the non-color image sensor 50. In such a case, the discrimination unit 33 can determine that the position of the person holding the clerk wireless transmitter 10 is that of a clerk when the only person within the range in which the wireless receiver 12d can wirelessly communicate is again the person holding the clerk wireless transmitter 10. In other words, by repeatedly performing the discrimination process described above, the discrimination unit 33 can discriminate the positions of the clerk and the customer with a certain degree of accuracy not only when the positions of the clerk and the customer overlap, but also when a new customer or clerk enters the store.

If the position of all the people whose positions have been identified by the position identification unit 32 in this way can be identified as store clerks, the remaining people are customers. The discrimination unit 33 issues and assigns a temporary customer identifier for temporarily identifying each customer to each customer whose position has been identified. Thereafter, the discrimination unit 33 tracks the position of each customer for each assigned temporary customer identifier in the data acquired from the non-color image sensor 50. In other words, it is possible to identify the position of each customer while identifying the customer in the store. Similarly, the discrimination unit 33 may issue and assign a store clerk identifier, which is a temporary identifier, to each store clerk whose position has been identified. The discrimination unit 33 tracks the position of each store clerk for each assigned store clerk identifier in the data acquired from the non-color image sensor 50. In other words, it is possible to identify the position of each store clerk while identifying the store clerk in the store.

The movement determination unit 34 determines whether each product in the store has been moved. In this embodiment, the movement determination unit 34 determines whether the product has been moved based on the change over time in the reception strength of the radio signal transmitted from the product wireless transmitter 11 provided on each product in the store. More specifically, the movement determination unit 34 determines whether the product has been moved based on the change over time in the reception strength of the radio signal transmitted from the product wireless transmitter 11 and the customer's position determined by the determination unit 33.

According to the UWB communication standard, it is possible to calculate the approximate position of the product wireless transmitter 11 based on the time variation (fluctuation) of the wireless reception strength, and therefore it is possible to determine whether the product wireless transmitter 11 is moving. If a product is moving, this means that a person is performing some action on the product, such as touching it, picking it up, putting it in a shopping bag, or moving it while holding it. In other words, this is expected to be a situation in which a customer is interested in the product and is therefore performing some action on it.

However, not only customers, but even store staff may move products by holding them, for example, when arranging products on display. Therefore, the movement determination unit 34 determines whether the product has been moved by the customer's actions based on the temporal change in the reception strength of the radio signal transmitted from the product radio transmitter 11 and the customer's position determined by the discrimination unit 33. In other words, when a radio receiver 12 whose wireless communication range includes the customer's position determined by the discrimination unit 33 receives a radio signal from the product radio transmitter 11 of a product determined to be moving, the movement determination unit 34 determines that the product has been moved by the customer's actions.

In the above example, if a store clerk, other than the customer, is located within the wireless communication range of the same wireless receiver 12, it will be impossible to determine whether the moving product was moved by the actions of the customer or the store clerk. Even in such a case, after a certain amount of time has passed, either the customer or the store clerk may move outside the wireless communication range and be in the wireless communication range of a different wireless receiver 12. In such a situation, if the product is moving within the wireless communication range that includes the customer's location, it is determined that the product was moved by the customer's actions, whereas if the product is moving within the wireless communication range that includes the store clerk's location, it is determined that the product was moved by the store clerk's actions.

In addition, if multiple customers are located within the wireless communication range of the same wireless receiver 12 and a product is moving within that wireless communication range, it will not be possible to identify which customer's actions caused the product to move. Even in such a case, after a certain amount of time has passed, each customer will have moved and will be in the wireless communication range of a different wireless receiver 12. In such a situation, if it is determined that the product has moved within the wireless communication range that includes the location of a certain customer, it can be determined that the product was moved by the action of that customer.

The storage unit 35 stores the product identifier of the product determined by the movement determination unit 34 to have moved within a predetermined range from the customer's position determined by the determination unit 33, in association with the temporary customer identifier assigned to the customer by the determination unit 33. This makes it possible to associate products in which each customer has an interest with that customer.

When the purchase price of a product is paid and the product is purchased, the aforementioned acquisition unit 31 acquires from the store terminal 20 a product identifier, which is the product identifier of the purchased product, and a customer identifier of the customer who purchased the product. The product identifier can be acquired by the store terminal 20 reading a barcode attached to each product. The customer identifier is an identifier for identifying each customer on the customer database 41 of the payment system 40, and can be acquired by the store terminal 20 reading a user-specific barcode displayed on a user terminal (such as a smartphone) used by the customer for electronic payment. Furthermore, the acquisition unit 31 transmits a request including the acquired customer identifier to the payment system 40, and in response acquires attribute information of the customer corresponding to the customer identifier (i.e., attribute information of the customer who purchased the product) from the payment system 40.

Meanwhile, because the location of each customer is determined by the determination unit 33, it is possible to identify the customer who is in front of the store terminal 20. This customer is presumed to be the customer who purchased a product through electronic payment at the store terminal 20. The reading unit 36 then reads from the storage unit 35 the product identifiers stored in association with the temporary customer identifier of the customer who would have purchased the product, that is, the product identifiers of all the products in which the customer would have been interested.

The registration unit 37 registers in the memory unit 35, among the product identifiers read by the reading unit 36 (product identifiers of all products in which the customer would have been interested), product identifiers other than the product identifiers acquired by the acquisition unit 31 (product identifiers of products purchased by the customer) (i.e., product identifiers of products not purchased by the customer but in which the customer would have been interested), in association with the attribute information acquired by the acquisition unit 31.

When the purchase price of the product has been paid, the deletion unit 38 deletes the temporary customer identifier stored in the memory unit 35 after registration by the registration unit 37.

The output unit 39 outputs data generated by each of the above-mentioned functions, in particular data related to the results registered by the registration unit 37. This data includes product identifiers read by the reading unit 36 other than the product identifiers acquired by the acquisition unit 31, that is, product identifiers of products that were moved by some action because the customer was interested in the product with that product identifier, but were not ultimately purchased by that customer. It is expected that by analyzing such products together with the attributes of the customers, some useful information can be obtained for product development and marketing.

[Action]
Next, the operation of the information processing system 1 will be described with reference to Fig. 7. In the following description, for example, when the information processing device 30 is described as the subject of processing, this specifically means that the processor 3001 performs calculations by loading predetermined software (programs) onto hardware such as the processor 3001 and memory 3002, and controls communication by the communication device 3004 and reading and/or writing of data in the memory 3002 and storage 3003, thereby executing processing. The same applies to other devices.

7, the acquisition unit 31 of the information processing device 30 acquires data from the wireless receiver 12 via the communication network 2, and also acquires data from the non-color image sensor 50 via the communication network 2 (step S11). The data acquired from the wireless receiver 12 includes the identifier of the wireless receiver 12 and its reception strength, as well as an identifier included in the wireless signal received by the wireless receiver 12 from the store clerk wireless transmitter 10, or an identifier included in the wireless signal received by the wireless receiver 12 from the commodity wireless transmitter 11 and its reception strength. As a result, as shown in FIG. 8, the acquisition unit 31 associates the position (position data) of each wireless receiver 12, the identifier (store clerk identifier) included in the wireless signal received by each wireless receiver 12 from the store clerk wireless transmitter 10, and its reception strength with the identifier (receiver identifier) of the wireless receiver 12. 9, the location data of each wireless receiver 12, the identifier (product identifier) contained in the wireless signal received by each wireless receiver 12 from the product wireless transmitter 11, and the reception strength are associated with the identifier (receiver identifier) of the wireless receiver 12 in the acquisition unit 31. The location data of each wireless receiver 12 is identified when the system is introduced and set in advance in the information processing device 30.

Next, the position identification unit 32 of the information processing device 30 identifies the position of each person in the store from the data acquired by the acquisition unit 31 from the non-color image sensor 50, i.e., data that detects people present in the store and does not identify each individual person (step S12).

Next, the discrimination unit 33 of the information processing device 30 discriminates between the position of a store clerk and the position of a customer from among the human positions identified by the position identification unit 32 (step S13). The discrimination unit 33 issues and assigns a temporary customer identifier to each customer whose position has been identified in order to temporarily identify each customer. Thereafter, the discrimination unit 33 tracks the position of each customer for each assigned temporary customer identifier in the data acquired from the non-color image sensor 50. As a result, the discrimination unit 33 associates the temporary customer identifier assigned to each customer with the customer's position data, as shown in FIG. 10.

Next, the movement determination unit 34 of the information processing device 30 determines whether the product has been moved based on the temporal change in the reception strength of the radio signal transmitted from the product radio transmitter 11 and the customer's position determined by the determination unit 33 (step S14).

Next, the memory unit 35 of the information processing device 30 stores the product identifiers of the products determined by the movement determination unit 34 to have moved within a predetermined range from the customer's position determined by the discrimination unit 33 in association with the temporary customer identifier assigned to the customer by the discrimination unit 33 (step S14). In other words, the products in which each customer is interested are associated with that customer. As a result, as shown in FIG. 11, the temporary customer identifier assigned to each customer, the customer's position data, and the product identifiers of the products determined to have been moved by that customer are stored in association with each other in the memory unit 35.

When the purchase price of a product is paid and the product is purchased, the acquisition unit 31 of the information processing device 30 acquires a product identifier, which is an identifier of the purchased product, and a customer identifier of the customer who purchased the product from the store terminal 20 (step S15). Next, the acquisition unit 31 transmits a request including the acquired customer identifier to the payment system 40 (step S16), and in response acquires customer attribute information corresponding to the customer identifier (i.e., attribute information of the customer who purchased the product) from the payment system 40 (step S17).

Meanwhile, because the determination unit 33 has determined the location of each customer in association with the temporary customer identifier, it is possible to identify the customer who is in front of the store terminal 20 at the time the store terminal 20 accepts the electronic payment. Since this customer is presumed to be the customer who purchased a product through electronic payment at the store terminal 20, the reading unit 36 reads out the product identifier (see FIG. 11) stored in association with the temporary customer identifier of that customer from the memory unit 35 (step S17).

The registration unit 37 registers in the storage unit 35, among the product identifiers read by the reading unit 36, the product identifiers other than the product identifier acquired by the acquisition unit 31 in association with the attribute information acquired by the acquisition unit 31 (step S18). As a result, as shown in FIG. 12, the customer's attribute information and the product identifiers of the products that the customer was interested in among the products that the customer did not purchase are associated and registered in the storage unit 35 along with other information such as the payment date and time. Note that when the purchase price of the product is paid, the deletion unit 38 deletes the temporary customer identifier registered in the storage unit 35 after registration by the registration unit 37. This makes it possible to further reduce the possibility of identifying who the customer is. Then, the output unit 39 outputs data related to the results, etc. registered by the registration unit 37 (step S19).

According to the embodiment described above, the information processing device 30 uses a temporary customer identifier to understand customer behavior, and therefore can protect the customer's personal information without identifying who the customer is. Furthermore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to associate products that the customer was interested in among products that were not purchased by the customer with the attributes of the customer. It is expected that by analyzing such products and customer attribute information together, some useful information can be obtained for product development and marketing.

[Modification]
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. The above-described embodiment may be modified as follows. In addition, two or more of the following modifications may be combined and implemented.

[Modification 1]
In a store, there are specific areas that customers cannot enter but store clerks can. These areas include areas behind the counter of a POS register, a back yard where inventory items are kept, and doors that only store clerks can pass through. The discrimination unit 33 may store the positions (XYZ coordinates) of such specific areas in advance and discriminate the positions of the store clerk and the customer based on the specific area and the position of each person. In other words, the discrimination unit 33 may discriminate the positions of the store clerk and the customer based on whether the position of the person identified by the position identification unit 32 is included in the specific area or whether the person passes through the specific area. This further improves the accuracy of discrimination between store clerks and customers.

[Modification 2]
In the above embodiment, the movement determination unit 34 determines whether or not a product has moved based on the temporal change in the reception strength of the radio signal transmitted from the product radio transmitter 11 provided on each product in the store. Alternatively, or in combination with this, the movement determination unit 34 may determine whether or not a product has moved based on a change in the radio receiver 12 that receives the radio signal transmitted from the product radio transmitter 11 provided on each product in the store. For example, if the store is large, the radio receiver 12 that receives the radio signal transmitted from the product radio transmitter 11 provided on the product changes as the product moves, and if such a change occurs, it can be determined that the product has moved.

[Modification 3]
In addition to the products that the customer was interested in among the products that were not purchased by the customer, the customer's movement line in the store may be effective in product development and marketing analysis. Therefore, the customer's movement line in the store may be registered. Specifically, the storage unit 35 stores the product identifier of the product that is determined by the movement determination unit 34 to have moved within a predetermined range from the customer's position determined by the determination unit 33, the temporary customer identifier assigned to the customer, and the history of the customer's position determined by the determination unit 33 (i.e., the customer's movement line in the store). The reading unit 36 reads out the product identifier and the history of the customer's position that are stored in association with the temporary customer identifier of the customer who purchased the product from the storage unit 35. The registration unit 37 registers the product identifiers other than the product identifier acquired by the acquisition unit 31 among the product identifiers read out by the reading unit 36, the attribute information acquired by the acquisition unit 31, and the history of the customer's position read out by the reading unit 36 in association with each other. The output unit 39 outputs the registered information. It is expected that this will provide more useful information for product development and marketing analysis.

[Modification 4]
The block diagrams used in the description of the above embodiments show functional blocks. These functional blocks (components) are realized by any combination of at least one of hardware and software. The method of realizing each functional block is not particularly limited. That is, each functional block may be realized using one device that is physically or logically coupled, or may be realized using two or more devices that are physically or logically separated and directly or indirectly connected (for example, using wires, wirelessly, etc.). The functional blocks may be realized by combining the one device or the multiple devices with software.

Functions include, but are not limited to, judgement, determination, judgment, calculation, computation, processing, derivation, investigation, search, confirmation, reception, transmission, output, access, resolution, selection, selection, establishment, comparison, assumption, expectation, regard, broadcasting, notifying, communicating, forwarding, configuring, reconfiguring, allocating, mapping, and assignment. For example, a functional block (component) that performs the transmission function is called a transmitting unit or a transmitter. As mentioned above, there are no particular limitations on the method of realization for either of these.

For example, an information processing device in one embodiment of the present disclosure may function as a computer that performs the processing of the present disclosure.

Each aspect/embodiment described in this disclosure may be applied to at least one of systems utilizing LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), SUPER 3G, IMT-Advanced, 4G (4th generation mobile communication system), 5G (5th generation mobile communication system), FRA (Future Radio Access), NR (new Radio), W-CDMA (registered trademark), GSM (registered trademark), CDMA2000, UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi (registered trademark)), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX (registered trademark)), IEEE 802.20, UWB (Ultra-WideBand), Bluetooth (registered trademark), or other suitable systems, and next generation systems enhanced based on these. Additionally, multiple systems may be combined (for example, a combination of at least one of LTE and LTE-A with 5G, etc.).

The processing steps, sequences, flow charts, etc. of each aspect/embodiment described in this disclosure may be reordered unless inconsistent. For example, the methods described in this disclosure present elements of various steps using an example order and are not limited to the particular order presented.

The input and output information may be stored in a specific location (e.g., memory) or may be managed using a management table. The input and output information may be overwritten, updated, or added to. The output information may be deleted. The input information may be transmitted to another device.

The determination may be based on a value represented by one bit (0 or 1), a Boolean (true or false) value, or a comparison of numerical values (e.g., with a predetermined value).

Although the present disclosure has been described in detail above, it is clear to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described herein. The present disclosure can be implemented in modified and altered forms without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the claims. Therefore, the description of the present disclosure is intended as an illustrative example and does not have any limiting meaning on the present disclosure.

Software should be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executable files, threads of execution, procedures, functions, and the like, whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. Software, instructions, information, and the like may also be transmitted or received over a transmission medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using wired technologies (such as coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), and/or wireless technologies (such as infrared, microwave, and the like), then these wired and/or wireless technologies are included within the definition of a transmission medium.

The information, signals, etc. described in this disclosure may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, chips, etc. that may be referred to throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or photons, or any combination thereof.
In addition, terms explained in this disclosure and terms necessary for understanding this disclosure may be replaced with terms having the same or similar meanings.

In addition, the information, parameters, etc. described in this disclosure may be expressed using absolute values, may be expressed using relative values from a predetermined value, or may be expressed using other corresponding information.

As used in this disclosure, the phrase "based on" does not mean "based only on," unless expressly stated otherwise. In other words, the phrase "based on" means both "based only on" and "based at least on."

Any reference to elements using designations such as "first," "second," etc., used in this disclosure does not generally limit the quantity or order of those elements. These designations may be used in this disclosure as a convenient way to distinguish between two or more elements. Thus, a reference to a first and a second element does not imply that only two elements may be employed or that the first element must precede the second element in some way.

The "part" in the configuration of each of the above devices may be replaced with "means," "circuit," "device," etc.

When the terms "include," "including," and variations thereof are used in this disclosure, these terms are intended to be inclusive, similar to the term "comprising." Additionally, the term "or," as used in this disclosure, is not intended to be an exclusive or.

In this disclosure, where articles have been added through translation, such as a, an, and the in English, this disclosure may include that the nouns following these articles are in the plural form.

1...information processing system, 2...communication network, 10...wireless transmitter for store clerk, 1101...processor, 1002...memory, 1003...UWB device, 11...wireless transmitter for goods, 12...wireless receiver, 1201...processor, 1202...memory, 1203...UWB device, 1204...communication device, 20...store terminal, 30...information processing device, 31...acquisition unit, 32...location identification unit, 33...discrimination unit, 34...movement determination unit, 35...storage unit, 36...reading unit, 37...registration unit, 38...deletion unit, 39...output unit, 3001...processor, 3002...memory, 3003...storage, 3004...communication device, 3005...input device, 3006...output device, 40...payment system, 41...customer database, U...store clerk, P...goods.

Claims (10)

a position identification unit that identifies the positions of people within the store from data obtained by detecting people within the store and that does not identify individual people;
A discrimination unit that discriminates between the position of a store clerk and the position of a customer among the identified positions of the person;
a movement determination unit that determines whether or not a product has been moved;
a storage unit that stores a product identifier of a product determined by the movement determination unit to have moved within a predetermined range from the customer's location determined by the determination unit, in association with a temporary customer identifier assigned to the customer;
an acquisition unit that acquires, when the product is purchased, a product identifier of the purchased product and attribute information on a customer who purchased the product;
a reading unit that reads out from the storage unit the product identifier that is stored in association with the temporary customer identifier of the customer who purchased the product;
a registration unit that registers product identifiers read out by the reading unit, other than the product identifier acquired by the acquisition unit, in association with attribute information acquired by the acquisition unit. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit determines the location of the store clerk and the location of the customer based on the location of a receiver that receives a radio signal transmitted from a store clerk wireless transmitter carried by the store clerk. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the discrimination unit discriminates between the location of the store clerk and the location of the customer based on a history of locations of a receiver that receives radio signals transmitted from a store clerk wireless transmitter carried by the store clerk. The information processing device according to claim 1, characterized in that the discrimination unit discriminates between the position of a store clerk and the position of a customer based on whether the position of the person identified by the position identification unit is included in a specific area or passes through a specific area. The information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the movement determination unit determines whether or not the product has moved based on the position of a receiver that receives radio signals transmitted from a product radio transmitter provided on each of the products. The information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the movement determination unit determines whether or not the product has moved based on a temporal change in the reception strength of a radio signal transmitted from a product radio transmitter provided on each of the products. The information processing device according to claim 6, characterized in that the movement determination unit determines whether or not the product has moved based on a temporal change in the reception strength of a radio signal transmitted from a product radio transmitter provided on each of the products and the location of the customer determined by the determination unit. The information processing device according to claim 7, characterized in that the movement determination unit determines whether or not the product has moved based on a change over time in the reception strength of a radio signal transmitted from a product radio transmitter provided on each of the products and a history of the determined location of the customer. 9. The information processing device according to claim 1, further comprising: a deletion unit that deletes the temporary customer identifier stored in the storage unit after registration by the registration unit. the storage unit stores a product identifier of a product determined by the movement determination unit to have moved within a predetermined range from the customer's location determined by the determination unit, a temporary customer identifier assigned to the customer, and a history of the customer's location determined by the determination unit;
The reading unit reads out from the storage unit the product identifier and the location history of the customer that has purchased the product, the product identifier being stored in association with the temporary customer identifier of the customer;
The information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the registration unit registers product identifiers read by the reading unit other than the product identifier acquired by the acquisition unit, attribute information acquired by the acquisition unit, and the customer's location history read by the reading unit in association with each other.

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