Patent ID: 7606728
Filing Date: 2009-10-20
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method comprising analyzing shopper data from a plurality of different shopping environments having different sizes and shapes by: tracking a plurality of paths of a plurality of persons in each of the plurality of shopping environments, via a shopper tracking module executed on a computing device and an associated tracking system installed in each shopping environment; recording corresponding path data indicating the plurality of paths from the different shopping environments, in a database associated with the computing device, wherein the path data for each path includes position data representing a series of tracked positions of a person in the shopping environment, and associated time data representing a corresponding series of times at which the person was tracked in each position; normalizing the path data for each path by use of a predetermined normalization function to convert path position data from the different shopping environments into a common physical frame of reference, thereby producing normalized position data for the paths from the different shopping environments, by a normalization module executed on the computing device, wherein normalizing further includes determining a standardized shopping environment including sectors and/or standardized shopping environment dimensions, and converting the path data from each of the plurality of shopping environments to the standardized shopping environment by scaling the path position data to the standardized shopping environment dimensions and/or sectors; calculating a predetermined statistical measure of a predetermined shopper behavior or non-shopper behavior from the normalized path data, by a statistical calculation module executed on the computing device, wherein calculating includes examining normalized path data of one or more paths from each of the shopping environments to determine the predetermined statistical measure; and producing an output indicating the predetermined statistical measure of the shopper behavior or the non-shopper behavior calculated from the normalized path data from the plurality of shopping environments, by the computing device.