Wal-Mart Patents
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Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is a global retailer focused on selling merchandise and services at everyday low prices. The company operates stores under the Walmart and Sam's Clubs brands.
Wal-Mart Patents by Type
- Wal-Mart Patents Granted: Wal-Mart patents that have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
- Wal-Mart Patent Applications: Wal-Mart patent applications that are pending before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Patent number: 9324106
Abstract: A shopping list is received from the user and locations of items in the list are obtained. A route visiting the locations of the items is generated and a corresponding ordering of items is also generated. Directions to a next item in the shopping list are provided in response to detecting checking off or scanning of a previous item. In response to detecting scanning of an item out of order or an item not in the shopping list, a new route is generated originated at the item and passing by the locations of items of the shopping list that have not been checked off or scanned. Routes may be generated according to a route optimization algorithm. The directions to items in a list may be provided on a user's mobile device without use of an electronic locating means such as GPS, beacons, or the like.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
August 29, 2014
Date of Patent:
April 26, 2016
Assignee:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Stuart Argue, Anthony Emile Marcar
Publication number: 20160110785
Abstract: Systems and methods for guaranteed redemption of sale items. The systems and methods can include a payment system for issuing a payment instrument to a customer when the sale item is not available in a retail location. The systems and methods can further include a redemption system for redeeming the payment instrument for the sale item.
Type:
Application
Filed:
October 16, 2014
Publication date:
April 21, 2016
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Arjun Ramaratnam, Ashish Chaphekar, SriKrishna Chitturi
Patent number: 9317269
Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for provisioning resources for an application according to an application manifest. The resources may include database, network, and processing resources. The application manifest may be organized as a manifest tree with provisioned resources having their own application manifests for provisioning sub-resources. The application manifest may also define provisioning and de-provisioning of the application in response to loading of the application. Root cause analysis may be performed in accordance with the manifest tree. Also disclosed are systems and methods for rolling out an upgrade across a node cluster. Systems and methods are disclosed for routing traffic to different workflow paths in order to implement an overloaded path and evaluate performance of the overloaded path.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 28, 2012
Date of Patent:
April 19, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Tim G. Kimmet, Ramana Venkatesh Sivasubramanian, Kenneth Hansen
Patent number: 9310466
Abstract: These teachings are suitable for use in conjunction with a process having access to both coverage information that maps the coverage area for each of a plurality of RFID-tag readers to physical locations within a given monitored facility and historical-read information for a population of RFID tags, and that uses that historical-read information and that coverage information to automatically determine the physical location of RFID tags. In particular, these teachings generally provide for accessing supplemental information regarding physical locations for at least some of those RFID tags and then comparing the automatically-determined physical location information with the supplemental information to thereby identify physical-location discrepancies. By one approach those physical-location discrepancies are used to adjust the automated process by which the automatically-determined physical location information is automatically determined to thereby improve accuracy of the automated process.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 14, 2013
Date of Patent:
April 12, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Nicholaus A. Jones, Jie Ouyang
Patent number: 9311372
Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for generating a normalized record from an import record, the normalized record having attribute-value pairs corresponding to a native schema. In import records, a plurality of attribute-value are identified each having an attribute label not found in a native schema. One or more attribute labels in the native schema having as possible values one or more values corresponding to the values of the plurality of attribute-value pairs are also identified. The computer system generates one or more normalization rules relating one or more attribute labels of the plurality of attribute-value pairs to at least a portion of the one or more attribute labels in the native schema. Normalization rules may be validated by crowdsourcing. Normalization rules may be applied by identifying implicated rules by classifying the import record and identifying rules applicable to the classification.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
May 31, 2013
Date of Patent:
April 12, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Nikesh Lucky Garera, Narasimhan Rampalli, Dintyala Venkata Subrahmanya Ravikant, Srikanth Subramaniam, Chong Sun, Heather Dawn Yalin
Patent number: 9311668
Abstract: Embodiments for determining whether the activity of a customer within a retail store violates a business rules are disclosed. The embodiments include a customer performing actions within a retail store via a mobile computing device, generating at least one business rule, and comparing the customer's actions with the business rules.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
January 30, 2013
Date of Patent:
April 12, 2016
Assignee:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Douglas James Pedley, Richard Neil Cancro, Joel Bennett Acker, Jr.
Publication number: 20160098400
Abstract: A system and method for improved navigation of available titles for a streaming media service is disclosed herein. After entering a discovery mode, a list of categories is presented to a user. Once a user selects a category, a list of criteria specific to the selected category is presented. After a user selects a criteria, a list of categories can be shown to the user, limited to those categories available after the criteria was selected. After a second category is selected, then a list of criteria, specific to the previously selected criteria and to the second category, is presented. Each time a user selects a new criteria, the number of titles available to a user is reduced. Such a process can be repeated, further limiting the number of titles shown to the user, until a user finally chooses a media file to view. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein.
Type:
Application
Filed:
December 19, 2014
Publication date:
April 7, 2016
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Stefan Belavy, Amir-Pilo Al-Shreideh, Gajanan Lonkar, Ping-Hsien Lin, Vikas Deshpande, Gouri Deshpande
Publication number: 20160098547
Abstract: A system and method for giving access to streaming media that is associated with purchased physical media item is disclosed herein. Upon the purchase of a physical media item, a unique identifier is received. The unique identifier is analyzed to determine if the unique identifier is associated with a streaming service account. If so, the streaming service account is modified to grant access to streaming media that is associated with the physical media. The user is notified of the availability of the streaming media. The user can then initiate playback of the streaming media. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein.
Type:
Application
Filed:
December 18, 2014
Publication date:
April 7, 2016
Applicant:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Alan Char, Nick Brailas, Anthony Marcar, Michael Ye, Oleksiy Kokhanyy, Hua Li
Publication number: 20160099991
Abstract: A system and method for improved video streaming is disclosed herein. After receiving a log-in request from a user, an embodiment can access the user's account information to find available media files for the user. An embodiment can then determine if any of the available media files for the user are partially viewed. The partially viewed media files are displayed to the user, including a title of the media file and a viewed time of each media file. Thereafter, a user can select one of the list of partially viewed media files. Playback of the media file begins at the viewed time of the selected media file. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein.
Type:
Application
Filed:
December 19, 2014
Publication date:
April 7, 2016
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Gajanan Lonkar, Stefan Belavy, Ping-Hsien Lin, Vikas Deshpande, Gouri Deshpande
Patent number: 9304809
Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for processing events in an event stream using a map-update application. The events may be embodied as a key-attribute pair. An event is processed by one or more instances implementing either a map or an update function. A map function receives an input event from the event stream and publishes one or more events to the event stream. An update function receives an event and updates a corresponding slate and publishes zero or more events. Systems and methods are also disclosed herein for implementing a map-update application in a multithreaded architecture and for handling overloading of a particular thread or node. Systems and methods for providing access to slates updated according to update operations are also disclosed.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
July 19, 2012
Date of Patent:
April 5, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Wang Chee Lam, Lu Liu, Taraka Subrahmanya Prasad Siripurapu, Anand Rajaraman, Zoheb Vacheri, AnHai Doan
Patent number: 9305118
Abstract: Example systems and methods that select search result images are described. In one implementation, a method accesses a ranking of multiple products associated with a search query and identifies a reference to a color in the search query. The method identifies a first product from the ranking of multiple products and identifies multiple product images associated with the first product. A color determination is made regarding each of the multiple product images. A product image having an associated color that is most similar to the color in the search query is selected for presentation in the search results.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
December 28, 2012
Date of Patent:
April 5, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Ba-Quy Vuong, Abhishek Gattani, Namrata PramodKumar Tholiya
Publication number: 20160092076
Abstract: A system and method for menu-based navigation to view audio and/or visual media is disclosed. A user can navigate through a menu system by moving a cursor between various showcases listed in a second display area of a screen. When the user selects a category, the menu changes to display sub-categories within the category in a first area of the screen. The second display area can display information about available media items within a selected category or sub-category. A third display area can display additional information about the selected media item. There can also be a display area where a user can create a filter within a selected category or sub-category. The menu selections can contain images representative of categories. The categories can be genres of movies or music. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein.
Type:
Application
Filed:
September 30, 2014
Publication date:
March 31, 2016
Applicant:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Sirisha Naga Lakshmi Yenigalla, Stefan Belavy, Wendy Coquilla, Christine Park
Publication number: 20160092519
Abstract: A system and method for capturing seasonality in a database system is disclosed herein. A database system may comprise a first database cluster H and a second database cluster L, with records being divided between the first database cluster H and the second database cluster L by likelihood of the record being accessed. Several criteria may be used to determine the likelihood of a record being accessed. For example, one may review access history to determine the activity for the record during various time periods, such as comparing access history for the record the same day one year ago, in an attempt to determine seasonality of the record. One may also review the newness of a record, such that the newness of a record is part of the criteria being reviewed when assigning record to a database cluster. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein.
Type:
Application
Filed:
September 26, 2014
Publication date:
March 31, 2016
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Varun Srivastava, Yiye Ruan, Yan Zheng
Publication number: 20160092042
Abstract: A system and method for menu-based navigation to view audio and/or visual media is disclosed. A user can navigate through a menu system by moving a cursor between various categories listed in a menu in a first display area. When the user selects a category, the menu changes to display sub-categories within the category, with the chosen category listed in a home position of the first display area. A second display area can display available selections within a selected category or sub-category. A third display area can display additional information about the selected media item. There also can be a display area where a user can create a filter within a selected category or sub-category. The menu selections can contain representations of categories. The categories can be genres or lists of movies or music. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein.
Type:
Application
Filed:
September 30, 2014
Publication date:
March 31, 2016
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Sirisha Naga Lakshmi Yenigalla, Stefan Belavy, Wendy Coquilla, Christine Park
Publication number: 20160092520
Abstract: A system and method for using past information for future search results is disclosed. A database system may comprise a first database cluster H and a second database cluster L. Social media mentions are mapped to products in the database system. Thereafter, each record in the database system is tracked to determine if mentions on social media platforms are increasing or decreasing, using a social media popularity trend signal. The social media popularity trend signal is created by comparing social media mentions during one time period to social media mentions in another time period. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein.
Type:
Application
Filed:
September 26, 2014
Publication date:
March 31, 2016
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Varun Srivastava, Yiye Ruan, Yan Zheng
Publication number: 20160092564
Abstract: A system and method for searching databases is disclosed herein. A database system may comprise a first database cluster H and a second database cluster L. After receiving a search request from a requester, the search request is executed in the first database cluster H to retrieve a first set of results. If the first set of results is greater than a minimum number of results, then the first set of results are presented to the requester. Otherwise, the second database cluster L is searched to retrieve a second set of results. Then the first set of results and the second set of results are presented to the requester. The first database cluster H is stored on a first database server; and the second database cluster L is stored on a second database server apart from the first database server. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein.
Type:
Application
Filed:
September 26, 2014
Publication date:
March 31, 2016
Applicant:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Varun Srivastava, Yiye Ruan, Yan Zheng
Publication number: 20160092772
Abstract: A system and method for predicting search term popularity is disclosed herein. A database system may comprise a first database cluster H and a second database cluster L. A machine learning algorithm is trained to create a predictive model. Thereafter, for each record in a database system, the predictive model is used to calculate a probability of the record being accessed. If the calculated probability of the record being accessed is greater than a threshold value, then the record in the first database cluster H; otherwise, the record is placed in the second database cluster L. Training the machine learning algorithm comprises inputting a training feature vector associated with the record into the machine learning algorithm, inputting a cost vector into the machine learning algorithm, and iteratively operating the machine learning algorithm on each record in the set of records to create a predictive model. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein.
Type:
Application
Filed:
September 26, 2014
Publication date:
March 31, 2016
Applicant:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Varun Srivastava, Yiye Ruan, Yan Zheng
Publication number: 20160092577
Abstract: A system and method for integrating business logic into a database system is disclosed herein. A database system may comprise a first database cluster H and a second database cluster L. After records are separated into the first database cluster H and the second database cluster L, the total number of records in the second database cluster L is compared to a target number of records. If there are too many records in the second database cluster L, a randomly generated number is used to randomly move records from second database cluster L into first database cluster H. In a situation where the first database cluster H is faster and accessed more often, such a method results in more products being placed in the faster database cluster and become more likely to become purchased. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein.
Type:
Application
Filed:
September 26, 2014
Publication date:
March 31, 2016
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Varun Srivastava, Yiye Ruan, Yan Zheng
Patent number: 9298753
Abstract: The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for resolving pairwise links to groups. Embodiments of the invention use an iterative algorithm to transform a collection of pairwise links to groups of records that correspond to the same entity. The algorithm can be stopped after any number of iterations for an increasing accurate approximation result. The algorithm essentially guarantees a correct solution for groups of size up to the number of iterations. This algorithm scales linearly on the size of the record set, with little impact from the number of links.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
May 31, 2013
Date of Patent:
March 29, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Andrew Benjamin Ray, Nathaniel Philip Troutman
Patent number: 9299084
Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for improving customer service. A video feed of a camera viewing a POS queue is analyzed to identify customers and measure customer biometric data. The biometric data is analyzed and used to generate customer service actions such as alerting a representative or calling in additional staff if the data indicates customer dissatisfaction. The biometric data of a customer may be correlated to transaction data of the customer in order to detect changes of the purchase habits of the customer due to dissatisfaction. Changes in purchase habits, such as a loss of a customer, may be used in combination with the biometric data to establish thresholds of biometric data used to generate customer service actions.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 28, 2012
Date of Patent:
March 29, 2016
Assignee:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Stuart Argue, Anthony Emile Marcar
Patent number: 9299100
Abstract: Methods for making gift recommendations are disclosed. The interests of an intended recipient are identified as are the interests associated with a particular product. Products corresponding to the recipient's interests are identified and then ranked according to giftability. Giftability indicates the appropriateness of a product for giving as a gift. Products may also be ranked according to appropriateness for a category or occasion. Giftability may be specified or inferred from one or more of gift-wrapping requests, gifting references in comments or reviews, and sales surges during holidays. A Naïve-Bayes-type method may be used to infer the giftability of products for which such data is not available.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
August 31, 2012
Date of Patent:
March 29, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Ioannis Pavlidis, Wei Shen
Patent number: 9286387
Abstract: Determining the relevance of a web node is disclosed. A seed score value of a first type is assigned to a seed set of nodes. A score value of a second type is derived for the web node based on a mapping of a reachability relationship between one or more seed nodes and the web node. A score value of the first type is derived for the web node based on a mapping of a reachability relationship between the web node and one or more evaluation nodes having derived weight values of the second type.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
June 22, 2005
Date of Patent:
March 15, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventor:
Anand Rajaraman
Patent number: 9286379
Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for ranking the quality of documents, such as documents shared or referenced in postings by users. For a first set of documents quality attributes that are indicative of quality or lack of quality are identified. Ratings of the quality of the first set of documents are received. Classifiers are associated with each document and the ratings and quality attributes for each attribute used to train class-specific models corresponding to the classifiers. Subsequently received documents are then classified and corresponding quality attributes are evaluated using the corresponding class-specific model in order to rank the quality of the document.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 26, 2012
Date of Patent:
March 15, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Fan Yang, Digvijay Singh Lamba
Publication number: 20160063386
Abstract: A method of validating rules configured to be utilized in an information extraction application, including: receiving a plurality of labeled samples in a training database; for each of the rules in the rule database: (a) determining, for each of the data points of the plurality of labeled samples in the training database to which the rule applies, whether applying the rule to the data point has a positive or negative impact on matching an output for the data point based on the rule to the assured output of the labeled sample corresponding to the data point; (b) generating positive impact information for the rule based on the positive voters; (c) generating negative impact information for the rule based on the negative voters; and (d) determining a metric for the rule based on the quantity of the negative voters and the quantity of the positive voters; ranking the rules based on the metrics corresponding to the rules; and sending to a user for refinement one or more flagged rules of the rules that have a lowes
Type:
Application
Filed:
September 2, 2014
Publication date:
March 3, 2016
Applicant:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Jun Xie, Chong Sun, Fan Yang, Narasimhan Rampalli
Publication number: 20160063590
Abstract: A method of extending an existing product taxonomy for an inventory of products. The existing product taxonomy can include pages having a hierarchical tree structure. The method can include determining a first set of keywords. The first set of keywords can be a prediction of keywords searched above a predetermined threshold during a predetermined time period of one or more external search engines. The method also can include generating dynamic product groups based on the first set of keywords. The method further can include generating a relation graph of the dynamic product groups. The relation graph can include relation links between the dynamic product groups. The method also can include linking the dynamic product groups to pages in the existing product taxonomy to generate an extended product taxonomy. The extended product taxonomy can include the existing product taxonomy, the dynamic product groups, and the relation links of the relation graph between the dynamic product groups.
Type:
Application
Filed:
September 2, 2014
Publication date:
March 3, 2016
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Shankara B. Subramanya, Guoxun Yuan, Madhusudan Mathihalli, Ron Tal
Patent number: 9275526
Abstract: A checkout station includes a turntable that is rotatable between a first position and a second position and a barcode scanner that is attached to the turntable and is directed in a first direction in the first position and in a second direction in the second position.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
December 20, 2011
Date of Patent:
March 1, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventor:
Chris Skiles
Patent number: 9275393
Abstract: A computer-implemented method is disclosed herein. The method includes the step of storing, in a consumer purchase history database, identities of items purchased by a consumer. The method also includes the step of receiving, with a processing device of a recipe suggestion server, a recipe request signal from the consumer after said storing step. The method also includes the step of maintaining, in a recipe database, a plurality of recipes wherein each recipe is defined by a plurality of ingredients. The method also includes the step of comparing, with the processing device, the identities of items purchased by the consumer with the respective plurality of ingredients associated with one or more of the plurality of recipes. The method also includes the step of transmitting, with the processing device, at least one of the plurality of recipes to the consumer wherein the plurality of ingredients of the at least one of the plurality of recipes is correlated with the identities of items purchased by the consumer.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
December 18, 2012
Date of Patent:
March 1, 2016
Assignee:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Stuart Argue, Anthony Emile Marcar
Publication number: 20160055452
Abstract: A method of determining an inventory mirroring plan for a set of distinct items in a heterogeneous fulfillment network is presented. The fulfillment network can include a plurality of distribution centers, each distribution center having differing capabilities. The method can include determining a solution value of the number of clusters for each distinct item that minimizes a sum of a total shipping cost of each distinct item, subject to a total distinct item capacity of the plurality of distribution centers in the fulfillment network. The method can further include using a probability of the item being placed in a specific distribution center based on either the capacity of the distribution center or historical data. The probability can be used to stock items. Overages and deficits can be used to further refine the distribution. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
Type:
Application
Filed:
October 30, 2015
Publication date:
February 25, 2016
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventor:
Zhiwei Qin
Patent number: 9269083
Abstract: A method including receiving, from a mobile device, a payment method and a payment amount. The method also can include validating the payment amount. The method further can include generating a gift card for the payment amount. The gift card can include a gift card identifier. The method additionally can include sending the gift card identifier to the mobile device. The method further can include displaying the gift card identifier on the mobile device. Other embodiments are provided.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 30, 2014
Date of Patent:
February 23, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Ravindra Jarajapu, Sandeep Pattanaik, Huynh Le, Jia Jun Chen, Rahul Karwa
Patent number: 9256593
Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for extracting products referenced in a document. A document is analyzed to identify a product type that is referenced in the document. Attributes are extracted from the document. A set of candidate products are identified corresponding to the extracted attributes. A score is calculated for the candidate products and the products are further selected or filtered based on the score, whitelist rules, and blacklist rules in order to identify one or more inferred products referenced by the document. The whitelist and blacklist rules may take as inputs a domain, a user identifier, and keywords included in the document. A set of sufficient attributes may be identified for each product type. Selection of a candidate product may be based at least in part on the document including all of the attributes in the set of sufficient attributes.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 28, 2012
Date of Patent:
February 9, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Digvijay Singh Lamba, Xiaoyong Chai, Nicole Whisler
Publication number: 20160034593
Abstract: Digital information is transferred between an application that processes a plurality of on-line transactions executed on the mainframe computer and a file system of an operating system. A programmable processor identifies the data held in memory under control of the application. The programmable processor calls a first routine to associate a portion of the data with a container of the application and calls a second routine to dynamically allocate a file of the file system. The programmable processor opens the file of the file system and calls an input/output routine of the operating system to transfer the data associated with the container to the file of the file system.
Type:
Application
Filed:
March 11, 2014
Publication date:
February 4, 2016
Applicant:
Wal-mart Stores, Inc.
Inventor:
John R. Frerking
Patent number: 9251488
Abstract: Methods and apparatuses are provided using RFID devices to assist in determining a likelihood that the performance of a task has been completed. In one implementation, an apparatus comprises a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader and a control circuit operably coupled to the RFID reader. The control circuit is configured to: detect, using at least information received via the RFID reader regarding a reading of one or more RFID tags by the RFID reader, one or more circumstances that evidence a status of interest pertaining to performance of a task of interest; and make a determination that the performance of the task of interest has likely been completed.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 27, 2013
Date of Patent:
February 2, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Nicholaus A. Jones, Abu Rasel, Bruce W. Wilkinson
Patent number: 9251292
Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for providing search results, particularly product records from a product database. Past queries are analyzed and grouped into clusters according to similarities, with each query including a highly relevant head query and a plurality of tail queries. Similarity of queries may be determined based on user response similarity to query results, co-occurrence, and textual similarity. One or more categories are identified for the clusters, such as based on click-through rates for search results of the head queries of the clusters. Upon receiving a query, a cluster for the query is identified, such as according to similarity to one or more queries of the cluster. The categories associated with the cluster are then used to one or both of augment the query and rank search results for the query.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 11, 2013
Date of Patent:
February 2, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Jinxing Cheng, Abhishek Gattani
Patent number: 9241558
Abstract: A case can include a front cover and a back cover. The back cover can include a back edge, a device support assembly including a main device region and a tab, and a flap including an exposure region and a tab region. The case can include a top edge and a bottom edge. The back cover can be configured to be removably coupled to a first electronic device. The back cover can be configured to be removably coupled to a second electronic device when the first electronic device is not coupled to the back cover. The first electronic device can include a first camera lens and first dimensions. The second electronic device can include a second camera lens and second dimensions different from the first dimensions of the first electronic device. The flap can be configured to be placed in an exposed configuration and a closed configuration. Other embodiments are provided.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
October 23, 2014
Date of Patent:
January 26, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Henry Law, Xin Fu
Patent number: 9239835
Abstract: Providing information to a module is disclosed. A first query and one or more subject type concepts associated with the first query is received. A second query to be provided to the module based at least in part on the received first query and subject type concepts is determined. The second query is sent to the module.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 24, 2008
Date of Patent:
January 19, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Mitul Tiwari, Mehul Shah, Abhishek Gattani, Anand Rajaraman, Sri Subramaniam
Patent number: 9235592
Abstract: Techniques for avoiding duplicate comparisons while comparing customer records to identify linked customer records pertaining to a single customer entity are provided. The techniques include the computer system comparing a first electronic customer record with a second electronic customer record to determine if the first electronic customer record and the second electronic customer record pertain to a single customer entity if the computer system identifies a common blocker key corresponding to a selected blocker from a data field in the first electronic customer record and from a data field in the second electronic customer record and if the computer system does not identify a common blocker key corresponding to an additional lower order blocker from another data field in the first electronic customer record and from a data field in the second electronic customer record.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 26, 2013
Date of Patent:
January 12, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Andrew Benjamin Ray, Nathaniel Philip Troutman
Patent number: 9235491
Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for provisioning resources for an application according to an application manifest. The resources may include database, network, and processing resources. The application manifest may be organized as a manifest tree with provisioned resources having their own application manifests for provisioning sub-resources. The application manifest may also define provisioning and de-provisioning of the application in response to loading of the application. Root cause analysis may be performed in accordance with the manifest tree. Also disclosed are systems and methods for rolling out an upgrade across a node cluster. Systems and methods are disclosed for routing traffic to different workflow paths in order to implement an overloaded path and evaluate performance of the overloaded path.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 28, 2012
Date of Patent:
January 12, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Tim G. Kimmet, Ramana Venkatesh Sivasubramanian, Kenneth Hansen
Patent number: 9230145
Abstract: An RFID transceiver and RFID-tag reader cooperate to convey information from one to the other and further accommodate the RFID-tag reader transmitting information to the RFID transceiver that causes a modification of information presented via the RFID transceiver. By one approach an RFID-tag reader detects a circumstance that evidences a particular status as pertains to a particular item of such information in a given RFID transceivers. An RFID-tag reader can then serve to modify the information at the corresponding RFID transceiver. By one approach, the aforementioned information comprises a to-do list. The aforementioned modification can comprise modifying at least one to-do item in that to-do list. The aforementioned detection of a circumstance can comprise detecting a physical location of the given RFID transceiver. That location information can be compared to locations that correspond to specific to-do items in the list to identify correlations that evidence completion of specific to-do items.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 25, 2013
Date of Patent:
January 5, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Nicholaus A. Jones, Bruce W. Wilkinson, Abu Rasel
Patent number: 9230024
Abstract: A method and system for ranking Web pages in a Web search engine is described. One illustrative embodiment receives a Web search query from a particular user, the query including at least one keyword; identifies one or more Web pages that contain the at least one keyword; determines, for each of the one or more Web pages, a raw page ranking; adjusts the raw page ranking of each of at least one Web page among the one or more Web pages based on direct evidence of how interesting that Web page is to users to produce an adjusted page ranking, the direct evidence being derived from clickstream data collected from the users; and presents, as search results, the at least one Web page to the particular user in accordance with the adjusted page rankings.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 17, 2013
Date of Patent:
January 5, 2016
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
David L. Young, Ioannis Pavlidis, William Randall Watler, Kimbal J. Musk, Peter J. Newcomb, Robert Reich
Publication number: 20150379115
Abstract: Computerized data processing and electronic file management methods of organizing and indexing electronic records in an electronic database for categorizing new products that are being added to an existing database of product offerings and computerized digital data processing methods of transferring digital information between a plurality of computers and employing computer instructions to categorize new products that are being added to an existing database of product offerings. Multiple classification models classify a description of a particular product and the classifications are compared, and if found to be equivalent, are added to the existing database of product offerings. If the classifications from the models are not equivalent, then the description is sent to multiple people for classification and the classifications from the people are compared, and if found to be equivalent, are added to the existing database of product offerings.
Type:
Application
Filed:
September 8, 2015
Publication date:
December 31, 2015
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Nikesh Lucky Garera, Narasimhan Rampalli, Dintyala Venkata Subrahmanya Ravikant, Srikanth Subramaniam, Chong Sun, Heather Dawn Yalin
Patent number: 9223614
Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for processing events in an event stream using a map-update application. The events may be embodied as a key-attribute pair. An event is processed by one or more instances implementing either a map or an update function. A map function receives an input event from the event stream and publishes one or more events to the event stream. An update function receives an event and updates a corresponding slate and publishes zero or more events. Systems and methods are also disclosed herein for implementing a map-update application in a multithreaded architecture and for handling overloading of a particular thread or node. Systems and methods for providing access to slates updated according to update operations are also disclosed.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
July 19, 2012
Date of Patent:
December 29, 2015
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Wang Chee Lam, Lu Liu, Taraka Subrahmanya Prasad Siripurapu, Anand Rajaraman, Zoheb Vacheri, AnHai Doan
Patent number: 9213996
Abstract: Disclosed are methods for identifying topical experts from a seed set of experts by identifying “second tier” influencers for the topic. New concepts detected among a pool of experts and second tier influencers are monitored among the general population and their significance evaluated. Reports may be generated for these detected trends. Trends in social media for a concept represented in a taxonomy may be detected by monitoring content for descendent nodes for the concept. Correlations between social media activity with respect to the concept and sales of products corresponding to the concept may be made and sales predicted for the same or different products that correspond to descendants of the concept in the taxonomy.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 19, 2012
Date of Patent:
December 15, 2015
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Ioannis Pavlidis, Tracy Chu
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSIGNING EMPLOYEES TO COVERAGE AND/OR TASKS BASED ON SCHEDULE AND PREFERENCES
Publication number: 20150356496
Abstract: A system and method for assigning employees that are schedule to work at a brick and mortar retail store location to coverage areas within the retail store and/or tasks associated with those coverage areas. The system and method takes into account the required coverage area times of each coverage area within the store location, the master schedule of employees available to work within a defined time period that is provided by a schedule management system, and management's preferences regarding coverage area priorities for or associated with certain employees, and then automatically assigns coverage to the scheduled employees based on all those variables. The system and method identifies individuals whose scheduled work shift overlaps with required coverage area times and who are preferred to work in the coverage area and assigns such individuals to work in the coverage area during the overlapping time period (or a portion thereof).
Type:
Application
Filed:
January 28, 2013
Publication date:
December 10, 2015
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Aaron Bartholomew, Anthony Helms, Allen Ashley, Shane Le, Marc Fletter, Ryan Travis, William Piech
Patent number: 9208442
Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for obtaining a structured listing of attributes and corresponding values based on an unstructured document, such as a product description in a product record. Putative values are identified in the document and corresponding candidate attributes are identified in a taxonomy. Attribute-value pairs are then evaluated with respect to a plurality of rules. Attribute-value pairs and outputs of the one or more rules are evaluated using a machine-learning algorithm, such as a decision tree, in order to determine which attribute-value pairs to retain. Retained attribute-value pairs are stored and used to respond to search queries and facilitate comparison of products. Attributes selected may also be used to update a product template.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 26, 2013
Date of Patent:
December 8, 2015
Assignee:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Nikesh Lucky Garera, Narasimhan Rampalli, Dintyala Venkata Subrahmanya Ravikant, Srikanth Subramaniam, Chong Sun, Heather Dawn Yalin
Publication number: 20150348160
Abstract: A method of computing a featured set of product groups for a query on an inventory of products. Each of the products can have one or more attribute-value pairs. Each of the one or more attribute-value pairs can have an attribute. The method can include determining a result group of the products matching the query. The method also can include determining relevance scores for the product groups. The method further can include determining a featured attribute and the featured set of the product groups for the featured attribute. The method also can include, after receiving the query from a user, transmitting for display at least one page of a website, where the at least one page has an option to view each of the product groups of the featured set of the product groups that has been selected. Other embodiments of related systems and methods are also disclosed.
Type:
Application
Filed:
June 3, 2014
Publication date:
December 3, 2015
Applicant:
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Inventors:
Dintyala Venkata Subrahmanya Ravikant, Abhishek Gattani
Publication number: 20150347957
Abstract: A method for sharding a store inventory database is provided. The method may include separating a store inventory database into a first inventory database shard in a first inventory database server which has inventory data for a first group of items sold by a store and into a second inventory database shard in a second inventory database server which has inventory data for a second group of items sold by the store which are different than the first group of items. The method may also include associating a router with the sharded store inventory database, the router housing resident shard determination logic which comprises information which, for an item sold by the store, identifies an inventory database shard on which inventory data for the item is stored.
Type:
Application
Filed:
May 30, 2014
Publication date:
December 3, 2015
Applicant:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Madhavan Kandhadai Vasantham, Sreekanth Sreedhararaj
Publication number: 20150347436
Abstract: A method of providing predictive search query recommendations for a search query. The method can be implemented via execution of computer instructions configured to run at one or more processing modules and configured to be stored at one or more non-transitory memory storage modules. The method can include receiving the search query from a user. The method also can include determining the predictive search query recommendations for the search query using a tree data structure. At least one top layer of the tree data structure can include at least one trie query node and bottom layers of the tree data structure can include ternary tree query nodes. The method further can include sending the predictive search query recommendations to the user. Other embodiments of related systems and methods are also disclosed.
Type:
Application
Filed:
May 28, 2014
Publication date:
December 3, 2015
Applicant:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Rohit Hiwale, Vishwas Goel
Publication number: 20150348172
Abstract: A method for sharding a store order database is provided. The method may include a store order management server operating an order management system application layer to facilitate online order management. The store order management server may receive, from a customer computer, a query regarding an order to purchase items from the store. The store order management server may transmit the customer query regarding the order to a router which may use resident shard determination logic to identify a database shard which pertains to the order. The database shard may be part of a store order database having a plurality of database shards. The router may transmit information regarding the order to a database server which implements the identified database shard and the database server may process the information and transmit information regarding the order to the customer computer.
Type:
Application
Filed:
May 30, 2014
Publication date:
December 3, 2015
Applicant:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Madhavan Kandhadai Vasantham, Sreekanth Sreedhararaj
Publication number: 20150347572
Abstract: A method of determining structured product information for a product from a product description using a product entity graph. The product graph can include a plurality of nodes. Each of the plurality of nodes can include an entity value key, one or more entity names, and an entity name count for each of the one or more entity names. The method can include determining k-grams of the product description. The method also can include, for each k-gram of the product description, determining a matching node of the plurality of nodes of the product entity graph that corresponds to the k-gram and determining a derived entity name for the product from the one or more entity names of the matching node based at least in part on the entity name counts corresponding to the one or more entity names. Other embodiments of related systems and methods are also disclosed.
Type:
Application
Filed:
June 2, 2014
Publication date:
December 3, 2015
Applicant:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Fan Yang, Narasimhan Rampalli, Digvijay Lamba
Publication number: 20150348171
Abstract: A method for sharding a store order database and order management application is provided. The method may include a computer router associated with a store receiving, from a customer computer, a query regarding an order. The router may use resident shard determination logic to identify a database shard which pertains to the order and which is part of a store order database having multiple database shards. The router may transmit information regarding the order to a database server which implements the identified database shard and which implements an order management system application layer. The database server may process information regarding the order and transmit information regarding the order to the customer computer.
Type:
Application
Filed:
May 30, 2014
Publication date:
December 3, 2015
Applicant:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Inventors:
Madhavan Kandhadai Vasantham, Sreekanth Sreedhararaj