Patent ID: 8577705

Claim:
A method for rating the role of a product category in the performance of a store area based on a measurement of a set of shopper behavior metrics, comprising the following steps of: a) automatically tracking people in a plurality of input images captured by at least a means for capturing images that is connected to at least a means for video interface in the store area by applying a computer vision-based automatic tracking algorithm to the plurality of input images, wherein the computer vision-based automatic tracking algorithm is programmed in at least a computer, and b) utilizing the computer to perform computations for: analyzing the behavior of the people based on a path analysis of tracks that are produced from tracking the people by executing the computer vision-based automatic tracking algorithm, measuring impression counts and impression length of the people for the product category, measuring emotion changes of the people, measuring the set of shopper behavior metrics that represent strength of a product category in attracting shoppers with respect to a group of product categories, measuring the response of the people tied to the category based on the behavior analysis, the impression counts, and the impression length, and the emotion changes, creating a plurality of datasets, stored in at least a means for storing data, by accumulating the response measurement, and analyzing the datasets based on segmentation data of the people, including demographic groups and behavior segments, wherein the metrics is defined in a manner that is normalized so that it is used across different types of product categories and in different types of stores.