Patent ID: 7734729

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for communicating information regarding a selected item to a user present at a location of a first retail entity from a second retail entity different from the first retail entity, wherein the selected item is available for purchase at the second retail entity, the method comprising: while the user remains present at the location of the first retail entity, one or more processing components of a computer system operated by the second retail entity: receiving an image from an imaging device of the user, wherein the image contains multiple instances of identifying data associated with the selected item; for each of the multiple instances of identifying data, extracting the identifying data from the image using a data recognition procedure that produces an output; comparing the output of each of the data recognition procedures to corroborate the identification of the selected item that is obtained from each instance of the identifying data; determining whether the data recognition procedures output identifying data that is corroborated and based on that determination, when the identifying data is not corroborated, determining a quality of the output of each of the data recognition procedures and using identifying data of a higher quality output to obtain item information associated with the selected item, otherwise using the corroborated identifying data to obtain item information associated with the selected item; communicating the item information directly from a server of the second retail entity to the imaging device of the user; and storing at least one of the instances of identifying data as profile information in a database associated with the user, wherein the profile information is used to anticipate the user's purchasing interests and provide one or more targeted offers to the user to purchase an item based on the user's anticipated purchasing interests.