One type of interactive electronic commerce system available to users is online trade-in stores. Accordingly, web sites have arisen that allow users to sell items, such as DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) movies, audio CDs (Compact Discs), or video games. Generally, a user may visit a web site hosting the online trade-in store and search a catalog of items that the store is interested in purchasing from users. The user will typically register with the store to become a customer by entering personal information, such as the user's name, mailing address, and payment information. Once registered, the customer can make a trade-in request. For example, if the user, after searching the catalog, finds an item listed in the catalog that is also currently owned by the user, then the user may add the item to his or her virtual shopping cart and agree to sell the item to the store. Thereafter, the customer will need to physically ship the item to the store and wait to receive compensation or credit for the item from an operator of the trade-in store. However, before compensation is provided, received items are reviewed to determine whether or not they pass inspection. Possible reasons for being rejected include an item being non-working; the item not matching the trade-in item requested; the item being damaged, etc.
Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
In the following discussion, a general description of an online trade-in system and its components is provided, followed by a discussion of the operation of the same. The discussion relates to an inspection system and method that automatically photographs or captures video footage of received items for trade-in as they are being inspected, where a condition of the item as received is assessed or graded. The photo image or video documentation is automatically cataloged and made available to the customer who sent the item and other interested parties, such as a customer service representative. In this way, if the customer calls the customer service representative to discuss the rejection, they can both have photo documentation of the item showing the part or aspect of the item that caused the item to be rejected or downgraded. The photo documentation may also be made available to store management to allow for any mistakes made by the inspector to be audited so that inspector can improve his or her performance.
With reference to
The computing device 103 may comprise, for example, a server computer or any other system providing computing capability. Alternatively, a plurality of computing devices 103 may be employed that are arranged, for example, in one or more server banks or computer banks or other arrangements. For example, a plurality of computing devices 103 together may comprise a cloud computing resource, a grid computing resource, and/or any other distributed computing arrangement. Such computing devices 103 may be located in a single installation or may be distributed among many different geographical locations. For purposes of convenience, the computing device 103 is referred to herein in the singular. Even though the computing device is referred to in the singular, it is understood that a plurality of computing devices 103 may be employed in the various arrangements as described above.
Various applications and/or other functionality may be executed in the computing device 103 according to various embodiments. Also, various data is stored in a data store 113 that is accessible to the computing device 103. The data store 113 may be representative of a plurality of data stores as can be appreciated, such as data store(s) dedicated to the online trade-in store. The data stored in the data store 113, for example, is associated with the operation of the various applications and/or functional entities described below.
The components executed on the computing device 103, for example, include an electronic commerce system 123 and other applications, services, processes, systems, engines, or functionality not discussed in detail herein. The electronic commerce system 123 facilitates a network site 126 such as, for example, a website or other network presence, for the online trade-in store. The electronic commerce system 123 includes a backend inspection application 128 and/or other applications that are executed to generate various network pages 133 of the network site 126 and perform other functions as will be discussed. Further, a frontend inspection application 180 is executed by an inspection station 107 and works in concert with the backend inspection application 128.
A network page 133 may include code that generates dynamic network pages when executed or interpreted in the client device 106. The code may be written in any suitable programming language such as, for example, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), Perl, Objective C, Java, Ruby, etc. Also, the network pages 133 may also include code configured to be executed or interpreted within the client device 106 in order to facilitate dynamic rendering of the network page 133. Such code may be referred to as an executable and may be written in any suitable programming language such as, for example, Java Script, Java, or other languages.
Network pages 133 may also include static elements that may be expressed, for example, in hypertext markup language (HTML), extensible markup language (XML), and/or any other language suitable for creating network pages 133.
The data stored in the data store 113 includes, for example, a trade-in item catalog 143 that includes a listing of items 146 being accepted for trade-in by the online trade-in store. Associated with each item 146 is item content 149 that may comprise, for example, information about an item 146 such as images, text descriptions, attributes, trade-in values, and other information.
The data stored in the data store 113 further includes, for example, a trade-in order database 144 that includes various outstanding trade-in orders or requests from customers. In addition, stored on the data store 113 are customer accounts 159. Each customer account 159 includes various customer data such as customer information 173, a trade-in history 176, and other information. In addition to the foregoing, there may be other data stored in the data store 113 as well.
The customer information 173 may comprise, for example, customer names, billing addresses, shipping addresses, payment instrument information, electronic mail addresses, and other information as can be appreciated. The trade-in history 176 comprises a history of the interaction of a given customer with the electronic commerce system 123 in selling items to the online trade-in store over time.
The electronic commerce system 123 is executed in order to facilitate the online selling of items from customers over the network 109. For example, the electronic commerce system 123 generates one or more network pages 133 for the online trade-in store, such as web pages or other types of network content that are provided to client(s) 106 in response to various requests for the purposes of selecting items for trade-in.
The backend inspection application 128 (and a frontend inspection application 180) is executed as part of the electronic commerce system 123 in order to provide for the inspection of and grading of conditions of items that are being submitted for trade-in by customers as will be described. After inspection of trade-in item(s) associated with an order, a customer is notified of the status of the order and credited compensation, as circumstances warrant. In some embodiments, each item listed in a trade-in order has to pass inspection before any compensation is provided for the customer who submitted the order.
The inspection station 107 is representative of a plurality of client inspection stations that may be coupled to the network 109. The inspection stations 107 may comprise, for example, a processor-based system such as a computer system. The inspection station 107 includes, for example, a display device 199 such as a cathode ray tube, a liquid crystal display, or other type of display device as can be appreciated. The inspection station 107 further includes an image capture device such as a digital camera and/or video camera. Other peripheral devices, such as a bar code scanner, a printer, etc., may also be coupled to the inspection station 107 and may also be included in an inspector's work area.
The client computing device 106 also is representative of a plurality of client devices that may be coupled to the network 109. The client computing device 106 may comprise, for example, a processor-based system such as a computer system. Such a computer system may be embodied in the form of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, a cellular telephone, a set-top box, music players, web pads, tablet computer systems, game consoles, or other devices with like capability. The client computing device 106 includes, for example, a display device 189 such as a cathode ray tube, a liquid crystal display, or other type of display device as can be appreciated.
The client computing device 106 and/or inspection station 107 may be configured to execute various applications such as a browser 193 and/or other applications. The browser 193 or other client application is executed in the client computing device 106 and/or inspection station 107, for example, to access and render network pages 133, such as web pages, or other network content that is rendered, for example, on the display device 189, 199. Such network pages 133 and other content are served up to the device 106, 107 by the computing device 103 and/or other servers. The client computing device 106 and/or inspection station 107 may be configured to execute applications beyond the browser 193 such as, for example, email applications, instant message applications, and/or other applications.
In the discussion that follows with respect to
The inspection station 107 executes a client or frontend version of the inspection application 180 (
In the discussion that follows with respect to
As shown in
In
Further, during inspection, images 312 from the image capture device 206 (
Accordingly, the inspector will review the item and then select one of the choices 314 listed in the graphical interface 181 for the item, where the choices represent different possible conditions or levels of quality.
Often, a customer may choose the condition of the item that the customer is submitting for trade-in, where a lower amount is paid for items being in lower conditions. To illustrate, for electronics items, a customer may be able to choose the item condition to be “Like New,” “Good,” or “Acceptable.” For video games or movie media, the customer may be able to choose the item condition to be “Good” or “Acceptable.” Also, only one condition may be accepted corresponding to “Good” for certain categories of products, such as books.
Therefore, an inspector may review a received item from a customer and determine whether or not the condition of the item matches the stated condition alleged by the customer. If the condition of the item is at a lower quality than the stated condition, the trade-in item request may be considered to be rejected and/or downgraded. However, although a condition is downgraded, the assessed condition may be above a stated or specified threshold as to an acceptable condition for the item to be eligible for trade-in. For example, in one scenario, the minimum level of quality of an item that is being accepted for one category of items may be “Good.” An inspector may therefore have an item to be evaluated, where the person who sent the item for trade-in assessed the item as being “Like New.” After reviewing the item, the inspector may determine that the condition of the item is “Good” and not “Like New.” Therefore, the inspector will downgrade a condition of the item, but the item is not rejected. A consequence of the item being downgraded in this scenario may be that a trade-in value for the item is also downgraded to a lesser value. If the condition of the item was downgraded to a level below “Good,” then the item would have been rejected.
Possible flaws or damages that may cause electronics items to be rejected or downgraded include water damage, inability to power on, and other severe damage that causes the item to be unusable. For books, a rejected item may have an ISBN that does not match the ISBN of the desired item, have torn or missing pages, damaged spine, a damaged cover, and may be missing supplemental materials, among others.
Accordingly, if the inspector selects a condition, via the graphical interface 181, that causes the item to be rejected, the image capture device 206 is triggered to capture an image or video feed. In this example, the item being graded is a book where the book is either in acceptable condition or is not. If the item passes inspection, then the choice corresponding to “Correct Item” may be selected. Otherwise, one of the other choices may be selected which signifies that the item is rejected.
In one embodiment, upon selection of one of the other choices that causes the item to fail inspection or be downgraded from an initially assessed condition set by the customer, the image capture device 206 (e.g., a high resolution digital camera) takes an image of the item that is positioned between the guide marks or outline 204 (
As discussed above, the image capture device 206 is focused on the area delineated by the guide marks or outline 204 on the flat work surface 202 (
After grading an item, the inspection applications 128, 180 (
Further, the captured image 312 may also improve the ability of customer service representatives to communicate with customers about rejected items. Accordingly,
Therefore, if both the customer and the customer service representative are looking at the same image 312 while discussing the customer's issues, it can only improve communication and help the customer service representative make an informed judgment. Such captured images may also be helpful in evaluating the performance of the inspectors themselves by providing visibility in their job performance.
Referring next to
The flowchart of
Accordingly, the inspector will review the item and then select one of the choices listed in the graphical interface 181 (
In one embodiment, upon selection of one of the other choices that causes the item to fail inspection or be downgraded from an initially assessed condition set by the customer, the image capture device 206 (
Referring next to
To begin, in box 702, the inspection logic 128, 180, after receiving a graded condition for a trade-in item from a customer, creates a notification message to be sent to a customer that supplied a trade-in item. The notification message includes the graded condition of the item, in box 704. If the graded condition caused the item to be rejected as being eligible for trade-in, the message is included with an image of the item (or video) showing evidence with the condition causing the item to be rejected, in box 706. The image may be embedded in the message or a hypertext link may be provided to a location on the network to view the image. Further, additional details may be included in the message about the graded condition or rejection. After the message is composed, the notification message is sent to the customer, in box 708.
Accordingly, in some embodiments, the image capture device 206 may be a high resolution camera used to automatically capture an image of the item being reviewed that shows why the item is being rejected or downgraded (e.g., a physical defect, incorrect item, missing parts, etc.) without the inspector having to handle the camera itself or interfering with the inspector's workspace. The captured image may be stored in a data store 113 (
In some embodiments, an image may also be captured when an item is not rejected. For example, whenever the inspector selects a condition grade for the item, an image may be automatically captured, since the image may later be found to be useful. Correspondingly, video footage may be captured in some situations instead of image capture. To illustrate, if the item being reviewed is a television display and the audio from the display is not functioning, then a video capture of the television display (having an audio stream) in operation is more useful than an image capture. In various embodiments, when capturing video, the inspector may have to manually start and/or stop the video feed using the frontend inspection application 180, in some embodiments.
With reference to
Stored in the memory 806 are both data and several components that are executable by the processor 803. In particular, stored in the memory 806 and executable by the processor 803 are the electronic commerce system 123 including the inspection logic 128, 180 (
It is understood that there may be other applications that are stored in the memory 806 and are executable by the processors 803 as can be appreciated. Where any component discussed herein is implemented in the form of software, any one of a number of programming languages may be employed such as, for example, C, C++, C#, Objective C, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Visual Basic, Python, Ruby, Delphi, Flash, or other programming languages.
A number of software components are stored in the memory 806 and are executable by the processor 803. In this respect, the term “executable” means a program file that is in a form that can ultimately be run by the processor 803. Examples of executable programs may be, for example, a compiled program that can be translated into machine code in a format that can be loaded into a random access portion of the memory 806 and run by the processor 803, source code that may be expressed in proper format such as object code that is capable of being loaded into a random access portion of the memory 806 and executed by the processor 803, or source code that may be interpreted by another executable program to generate instructions in a random access portion of the memory 806 to be executed by the processor 803, etc. An executable program may be stored in any portion or component of the memory 806 including, for example, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard drive, solid-state drive, USB flash drive, memory card, optical disc such as compact disc (CD) or digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, magnetic tape, or other memory components.
The memory 806 is defined herein as including both volatile and nonvolatile memory and data storage components. Volatile components are those that do not retain data values upon loss of power. Nonvolatile components are those that retain data upon a loss of power. Thus, the memory 806 may comprise, for example, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard disk drives, solid-state drives, USB flash drives, memory cards accessed via a memory card reader, floppy disks accessed via an associated floppy disk drive, optical discs accessed via an optical disc drive, magnetic tapes accessed via an appropriate tape drive, and/or other memory components, or a combination of any two or more of these memory components. In addition, the RAM may comprise, for example, static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), or magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and other such devices. The ROM may comprise, for example, a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or other like memory device.
Also, the processor 803 may represent multiple processors 803 and the memory 806 may represent multiple memories 806 that operate in parallel processing circuits, respectively. In such a case, the local interface 809 may be an appropriate network that facilitates communication between any two of the multiple processors 803, between any processor 803 and any of the memories 806, or between any two of the memories 806, etc. The local interface 809 may comprise additional systems designed to coordinate this communication, including, for example, performing load balancing. The processor 803 may be of electrical or of some other available construction.
Although the electronic commerce system 123, including the inspection logic 128, 180 (
The flowcharts of
Although the flowcharts of
Also, any logic or application described herein, including the inspection logic 128, 180 (
It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are merely possible examples of implementations set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure. Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiment(s) without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure and protected by the following claims.
This application is a continuation of, and claims priority to, co-pending U.S. Patent Application entitled “Trade-In Photo Documentation,” filed on Jun. 29, 2011, and assigned application Ser. No. 13/172,071, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 13172071 | Jun 2011 | US |
Child | 13949767 | US |