Patent Application
20180053195
Individuals and businesses often desire to collect data about various situations that exist in the real-world. For example, a manufacturer of a product may wish to collect data about how the product is being displayed at a retail location. However, individuals and enterprises, and government and non-governmental agencies often do not have the time and/or resources available to travel to myriad locations or employ agents to do so. This challenge becomes amplified as the time window for the information collection becomes more specific and/or the physical locations from which the information is to be collected grow in number or distance. For example, merchants in the delivery chain of products for retail sale, whether manufacturers, wholesalers, brokers, or the like, may need to determine if, when, how much, in what way or condition, or at what price their goods are being put in front of consumers. Another example might be a property or business owner that contracts for a periodic service about which they would like to validate the quality and completeness of service delivery. In short, the condition of physical locations or some physically observable condition at the locations is desirable data to observe, obtain, and document.
Sometimes these needs for data occur in a predictable recurring pattern. The data may also be best obtained within a narrow time window. For example, a restaurant owner checking on bathroom cleanliness may only desire to obtain the information for the first hour in which a restaurant is open, as after that, customers may have used the bathrooms extensively. In another example, merchants who sell goods and products through retailers often have guidelines, rules, and restrictions for how various retailers are to present and price the goods and products at the purchase location. For example, merchants may wish to negotiate with retailers for specific shelf space for the merchant's goods and products or the merchant may wish to disallow lowering of the retail price for the merchant's goods and products.
Individuals and business wishing to obtain observable real-world data may hire staff to ensure that the various standards, conditions, guidelines, rules, and/or restrictions are met. That is, employees or agents may travel to various locations at various times to observe and collect the real-world data with regard to various conditions, guidelines, rules, and/or restrictions in order to ensure satisfaction and compliance. Of course, such employees and agents can be expensive in terms of payroll and travel expenses. Therefore, organizations often must rely on others to follow the negotiated conditions, guidelines, rules, and restrictions. However, at times, those other actors often have little incentive to go to any great length to ensure that standards or conditions are met or to ensure compliance with applicable guidelines, rules, and/or restrictions. As a result, many businesses are unable to ensure that their standards, conditions, guidelines, rules, and/or restrictions are followed with regularity.
Embodiments of the subject matter disclosed herein in accordance with the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings, in which:
Note that the same numbers are used throughout the disclosure and figures to reference like components and features.
The subject matter of embodiments disclosed herein is described here with specificity to meet statutory requirements, but this description is not necessarily intended to limit the scope of the claims. The claimed subject matter may be embodied in other ways, may include different elements or steps, and may be used in conjunction with other existing or future technologies. This description should not be interpreted as implying any particular order or arrangement among or between various steps or elements except when the order of individual steps or arrangement of elements is explicitly described.
Embodiments will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, exemplary embodiments by which the systems and methods described herein may be practiced. This systems and methods may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy the statutory requirements and convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.
By way of overview, the systems and methods discussed herein may be directed to an observation platform for coordinators, merchants, retailers, users and others to establish, utilize and fulfill an observation campaign designed to verify real-world implementations and other data surrounding observable, standards, conditions, rules, guidelines, and/or restrictions. The observable data points may be part of an overall strategy in an observation campaign established by an observation campaign coordinator. Such a strategy may often involve determining data points like specific product placement, product pricing, and product incentives at the retail location. A user of this platform, called an observer hereinafter, may use an application downloaded to and executing on a computing device, to identify specific observation campaign opportunities. An observation campaign may be a set of verifiable parameters that define specifics about an observation campaign strategy. These verifiable parameters may include specific observable and verifiable real-world data such as where a product is placed on a retail shelf, whether promotional materials are displayed with the product, inventory count, and product pricing.
Once an opportunity is identified and accepted, the user may collect the real-world data through various methods including, key entry, sound recording, video recording and image capture (using one or more applications executing on a computing device, such as a mobile phone), temperature observance, barometric pressure observance and sound-pressure level observance. The captured real-world data may then be uploaded to the observation platform in order to determine if the parameters of the observation campaign have been met (e.g., correct data, clear image, timely collection, and the like). If the collected and now uploaded real-world data is verified, then the merchant may be notified that new real-world data has been collected and the observer may be compensated (financial or otherwise) for successfully collecting real-world data as part of an observation campaign. These and other aspects are described in greater detail below with respect to
As discussed briefly above in an overview, an observation platform 120 provides systems and methods for a merchant 110 to establish and implement an observation campaign for various observers 130, 131, and 132 to collect real world data about the observation campaign established by the merchant 110. In this system 100, the merchant block 110, the observation platform block 120 and each observer block 130, 131, and 132 may represent a separate computing device or group of computing devices. Further, the connections between these computing devices may be any communication link, such as the Internet, BlueTooth™ wireless, direct serial link, and the like. The various computing device implementations and embodiments are discussed below.
The observation platform 120 may be embodied in whole or in part as a computing system that includes one or more server computers configured in a cloud-based computing environment. Embodiments may take the form of a hardware implemented embodiment, a software implemented embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Further, various computing aspects of the underlying systems and methods may transcend any specific computing entity and the “block” diagram nature of
As alluded to, in some embodiments, the subject matter may be implemented in the context of a “cloud” based computing environment typically used to develop and provide web services and business applications for end users. Further aspects of an exemplary implementation environment will be described with reference to
The merchant computing device 110 may also be one or more of any number of computing device implementations. In one embodiment, the merchant computing device 110 may be a personal computer or mobile computing device. The merchant computing device 110 may be communicatively coupled to the observation platform 120 through an Internet connection or other communication network. Further, the merchant computing device 110 may be configured to execute a merchant observation application (not shown) that may provide various graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for a merchant to navigate and utilize the observation platform 120, such as, for example, establishing an observation campaign. Various operations and parameters of the merchant computing device 110 are described further below with respect to
Each observer computing device 130, 131, and 132 may also be one or more of any number of computing device implementations. In one embodiment, each observer computing device 130, 131, and 132 may be a mobile computing device. Each observer computing device 130, 131, and 132 may be communicatively coupled to the observation platform 120 through an Internet connection or other communication network. Further, each observer computing device 130, 131, and 132 may be configured to execute an observer application (not shown) that may provide various GUIs for an observer to navigate and utilize the observation platform 120, such as, for example, fulfilling an opportunity in an observation campaign. Various operations and parameters of the observer computing devices 130, 131, and 132 are also described further below with respect to
Additional computing devices may also be communicatively coupled to the observation platform 120 via the computer network 205. As will be discussed further below, the system 200 may include a number of retailer computing devices 240, 241, and 242. A skilled artisan understands that the designation of retailer 1240 through retailer n 242 indicates that any number of merchants may be shown as interfacing with the system 200. Further, the system 200 may include computing devices associated with third party services 250, private services 251, and government services 252. Prior to discussing the additional roles for these additional computing devices, the observation platform 120 as well as the observers' and merchants' roles are discussed next.
By way of general overview of the system in
As briefly discussed above, the observation platform 120 may be one or more computing devices configured to work as a server computing entity in a cloud-based computing environment to establish and facilitate observation campaigns for one or merchants. As used throughout this disclosure, an observation campaign is a set of parameters established by a merchant using one or more inter-related applications operating in the system 200 and coordinated from the observation platform 120. The observation campaign may include a number of parameters designed to encourage various remote users of an observation application (e.g., observers) to collect real-world data about products and goods for sale at various retail locations.
A merchant that establishes an observation campaign using the observation platform 120 desires to know more about the retail locations and point of sale for goods and products in the marketplace. For example, a merchant may negotiate a deal to have products placed in specific eye-level locations on shelves at retail locations and may wish to verify that the products are, in fact, placed on eye-level shelves at the various retail locations. By establishing an observation campaign eliciting this kind of real-world data (e.g., digital images of the product for sale on eye-level shelves at a particular retail location), the merchant can incentivize observers (through compensation offered by the observation platform) to fulfill the requirements of the specific real-world data collection. That is, the merchant may enable an observation campaign through a contract with a proprietor of the observation platform such that the observation platform then offers monetary compensation to one or more observers in exchange for a timely and meaningful collection of real-world data (e.g., a picture) of the merchant's product for sale at a specific retail location. This eliminates the need for the merchant to employ one or more individuals to travel to the retail location to verify such real-world data.
As used herein, the term real-world data may refer to specific observable facts about anything of interest to the coordinator of the campaign. Real-world data may be data that can be collected in the real world (as opposed to data that may reside on a retailer's computer). In one example, real-world data may be a digital image of a product for sale at a retail location such that data may be gleaned from the image, such as product location on a shelf, product location in proximity to other products, product label facing outwards, product price can be seen, product price is correct, additional promotional material is proximate, and the like. Real-world data includes any observable verifiable data point collectable through any manner of sensing, recording, or observing.
In this manner, any merchant can use the observation platform to design an observation campaign to incentivize observers to collect very specific kinds of real-world data at very specific locations over very specific time frames. When designing an observation campaign, the merchant may establish observation opportunities based on a desired time frame; for example, a campaign may only have opportunities offered for a one-week time frame or just a few hours in any given day. Further, the merchant may establish observation opportunities based on a desired location such as retail locations in a specific city or within 100 miles of a particular location. Further yet, the merchant may establish observation opportunities based on a desired total number of observation—e.g., a cap of 10 different successful observations. Any number of other campaign parameters are possible and discussed further below with respect to
As opportunities for observation become active (that is, users of the observer application may be offered opportunities via the application) various observers may engage in the various opportunities. Opportunities may be sent as notifications to observers (via a smart phone application and the like). Such notifications may be influenced by geographic location of various observers (e.g., notifications are only sent to observers proximate to a desired observation retail location). For example, receiving the electronic communication corresponding to the opportunity may be based upon a prevalence or frequency of the mobile computing device being located at a location associated with the opportunity (e.g., “Do you come here often?”). Further, such notification may be influenced by a relative reputation of an observer (e.g., only the “best” observers receive certain opportunities or “What's a mobile phone like you doing in a place like this?”).
Once an opportunity is received, the observer may accept the opportunity and begin an observation. Some opportunities may have time limits for acceptance of the opportunity and/or time limits for fulfillment of an accepted opportunity. The observation may be simply sending the requested real-world data to the observation platform 120 for evaluation. The observation platform may include a module for determining 260 whether the received real-world data from any observer meets the requirements and parameters of an opportunity in an active observation campaign. The determination module 260 may be configured to determine if the received real-world data from the observer (e.g., sent from user-based mobile computing device) fulfills one or more criteria for data collection in the observation campaign opportunity. Such criteria may include timeliness, image quality, data applicability, data completeness and the like.
If the determination module 260 determines that the received real-world data from an observer meets the requirements of an observation opportunity, (e.g., the opportunity has been fulfilled), then a compensation module 261 may initiate compensation to the observer for successfully fulfilling an observation campaign opportunity. Such compensation may be financial or non-financial. In one embodiment, the compensation module 261 may communicate with one or more third-party services to credit a bank account associated with the observers that fulfilled the opportunity. Further, the compensation module may also track total financial compensation to specific observers and communication said total to government services 252 on an annual or other periodic basis. In other embodiments, the compensation module 261 may communicate with other private services 251, such as social media or online retail, to provide non-financial remuneration to the observer. For example, the observer may qualify for discounts or privileges at third party locations (e.g., food coupons, gift cards, free entry into a sporting event, and the like).
The remainder of this disclosure will focus on and detail various aspects of the observer's mobile computing device and the observer application executing thereon. Thus,
An observer may invoke the application in any known manner at the mobile computing device. If the observer has already registered with the observation platform and has established a credentialed relationship with the observation platform, a first screen may be displayed as shown in screen shot 300. If the observer has not established a credentialed relationship with the observation platform, the observer may register by providing basic contact information and set specific device permissions (e.g., location services, camera access, and the like) for the application to execute as intended. As shown, screen shot 300 includes a map display 310 as well as two soft-buttons for a map view 305 and a list view 306. Should the user press the map view button 305, the map view display 310 will be shown. Should the user press the list view button 306, the list view display (shown and discussed below with respect to
In the map view display 310, the physical location of the observer (observer location 315) may be shown in the center of a map of the region in which the observer is currently located. The observer location 315 is indicated by a red flag, but may be any icon indicating the observer location 315. Further, physical locations of specific opportunities available to the observer may also be shown in the map view display. Thus, a first opportunity location 320, a second opportunity location 321, and a third opportunity location 322 may be shown on the map view display 310. In this manner, the observer may be able to see a map representation of opportunities available to the observer in proximity to the observer. Thus, the observer may touch any location 320, 321, or 322 to display a new interface (not shown) for additional information about the opportunity. On such a follow-on display, the observer may accept the opportunity and begin the process of collecting and submitting real-world data in fulfillment of the opportunity. Additional aspects of acceptance and fulfillment of an opportunity is discussed further below. Next, however, the observer may view opportunities in a list view.
At the outset, the method of
Once a platform relationship has been sufficiently established by the observer and after setting one or more of the specific parameters discussed above, the observer may then seek out opportunities through the application executing on a computing device associated with the observer at step 404. The opportunities may be displayed to the observer in a map view or a list view as discussed above with respect to
At step 406, an observer may choose to accept an opportunity that is presented. This may be done by following prompts via the application, such as clicking through on follow-on links and such. In one embodiment, the opportunity being offered may be established as an exclusive opportunity to the first observer (or group of observers e.g., the first ten observers), such that an exclusive lockout procedure may be invoked. Thus, the method may move to a query step 408 to determine if the opportunity is an exclusive opportunity that follows a lockout procedure. If this opportunity is an exclusive offer, the method may establish the accepting observer as having an exclusive opportunity to collect the data requested. This may be established at the observation platform at step 410. In such an embodiment, the particular accepted opportunity is then no longer available to any other observer until the accepting observer fulfills the observation data collection or fails to do so within a specific time frame. In one embodiment, the exclusive time period (e.g., lockout time) may be one hour, though other time frames are contemplated.
Other lockout scenarios may be possible. For example, the opportunity may be locked out for acceptance by other observers who have not fulfilled any previous opportunities in any manner or fulfilled only a few opportunities in the past. That is, seasoned or veteran observers may or may not be locked out of certain quasi-exclusive opportunities. Further, opportunities may be grouped together for exclusivity such that two different opportunities may become exclusive opportunities, if and only if, an observer accepts both opportunities. This may incentivize an observer to accomplish more than one observation with the promise of exclusivity. Still further, observers may have an established reputation score and/or performance history that may include different opportunities that are exclusively offered only to observers with a high-enough reputation score.
Whether the opportunity is exclusive or otherwise, the method moves to step 412 where an observer may then seek to collect the requested data in an attempt to fulfill the opportunity. The observer may travel to the location where the data can be collected, e.g., physically navigate to a store (commonly identified by address) so as to observe the real-world data and create documented evidence (e.g., digital image, digital recording, text-based data recreation, and the like) of the real-world data. The application may invoke other third-party applications such as GPS navigation application, turn-by-turn direction applications and the like. In other embodiments, these features are embedded in the application executing the observer application on the observer's mobile computing device. Once the observer determines that the location has been identified and reached, the observer may then collect real-world data.
A great number of particular methods for collecting real-world data may be accomplished. The manner in which real-world data is collected may include but is not limited to: collecting real-world data by image capture using a digital camera in the mobile computing device, collecting real-world data by video capture using a digital camera in the mobile computing device, collecting real-world data by audio recording using an audio recorder in the mobile computing device, collecting real-world data by using a thermometer device in the mobile computing device, collecting real-world data by using a pressure gauge in the mobile computing device, collecting real-world data by receiving textual input to corroborate visual evidence entered by the observer into the mobile computing device, and the like.
Once the observer collects the real-world data that is requested in order to fulfill the opportunity, the observer may then send an electronic communication with the collected real-world data to the observation platform at step 420. The sending may be an iterative process whereby initial data may be sent, and upon successful transmission and/or verification, additional collected real-world data may be sent. When all intended real-world data that has been collected with intention to fulfill an opportunity is transmitted to the observation platform, a number of activities may then be initiated at the observation platform depending on analysis of the received real-world data. Such activities may not be depicted in the method flow chart of
Thus, the received real-world data is first and foremost analyzed as to whether or not the real-world data is responsive to the opportunity. That is, a number of determinations may be made so as to indicate whether the real-world data fulfills the opportunity, such as an assessment of whether any images or video match the required observation focus (e.g., is it the right product being assessed), whether the data is timely based on a time stamp of the created real-world data, whether the data originated from a proper location based on GPS coordinates of the transmitting mobile device, other corroborating evidence such as images of the location itself along with the underlying focus item, and legibility of the collected data (e.g., images are clear and show item name, store name, price, location, and the like). Any number of other criteria may also be used to determine the validity of the received real-world data. These additional criteria are not discussed herein for brevity.
If the observation platform determines that the received real-world data is sufficient to fulfill the opportunity, then the observer may receive a communication of a successful observation at step 422. If the collected real-world data is determined to not meet the criteria for a successful observation, and unsuccessful observation may be communicated to the observer at step 424. In some embodiments, the observer may have an opportunity to remedy the collected real-world data in an effort to still fulfill the opportunity. In other embodiments, the observer may be locked out from accepting the observation opportunity after one or more unsuccessful attempts to fulfill.
If successful, the observer may also receive compensation for a successful observation at step 426. Compensation may be granted to the observer or otherwise delivered to the observer in a number of different ways such as financial compensation, non-financial compensation (e.g., free merchandise, discounts, coupons, appreciation events, and the like), observer reputation score increases, and unlocking of additional observation opportunities.
In addition to direct compensation in some manner, additional events may be triggered by a successful or unsuccessful observation. In one embodiment, a successful opportunity fulfillment may trigger a new opportunity being sent directly to the observer that just successfully fulfilled the opportunity. This may be a bonus opportunity linked to a first opportunity or may be an exclusive opportunity offered to observers that are currently fulfilling opportunities. In another embodiment, a successful observation may trigger an opportunity to be communicated to a different observer in an effort to verify the recently fulfilled opportunity. In essence, a more seasoned observer may be called upon to verify the real-world data collected by a newcomer observer. In another embodiment, once the opportunity has been fulfilled, the opportunity may then be removed from an opportunity list for all observers since the required real-world data has now been collected.
With regard to the flow chart depicting the embodiment described in
It should be understood that the present disclosures as described above can be implemented in the form of control logic using computer software in a modular or integrated manner. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art will know and appreciate other ways and/or methods to implement the present disclosure using hardware and a combination of hardware and software.
Any of the software components, processes or functions described in this application may be implemented as software code to be executed by a processor using any suitable computer language such as, for example, Java, JavaScript, C++ or Perl using, for example, conventional or object-oriented techniques. The software code may be stored as a series of instructions, or commands on a computer readable medium, such as a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), a magnetic medium such as a hard-drive or a floppy disk, or an optical medium such as a CD-ROM. Any such computer readable medium may reside on or within a single computational apparatus, and may be present on or within different computational apparatuses within a system or network.
All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and/or were set forth in its entirety herein.
The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in the specification and in the following claims are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms “having,” “including,” “containing” and similar referents in the specification and in the following claims are to be construed as open-ended terms (e.g., meaning “including, but not limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely indented to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value inclusively falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate embodiments and does not pose a limitation to the scope of the disclosure unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to each embodiment of the present disclosure.
Different arrangements of the components depicted in the drawings or described above, as well as components and steps not shown or described are possible. Similarly, some features and sub-combinations are useful and may be employed without reference to other features and sub-combinations. Embodiments have been described for illustrative and not restrictive purposes, and alternative embodiments will become apparent to readers of this patent. Accordingly, the present subject matter is not limited to the embodiments described above or depicted in the drawings, and various embodiments and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the claims below.
