The present disclosure discloses a dockless vehicle-based electric fence control method. The method comprises: demarcating and forming, by a backend server, a non-parking area and/or a riding boundary of a vehicle by using a map engine tool, wherein longitude and latitude coordinates at which the non-parking area and/or the riding boundary is located is stored into a database of the backend server; when ride comes to an end, sending, by a mobile terminal or intelligent hardware installed in a ridden vehicle, the parking position coordinates of a current vehicle to the backend server; and receiving, by the backend server, parking position coordinates of the vehicle, comparing the parking position coordinates of the vehicle with the database, determining whether the parking position coordinates of the current vehicle are located in the non-parking area or beyond the riding boundary, and feeding back a determining result to the mobile terminal and/or the intelligent hardware. According to the present disclosure, existing problems that shared vehicles are inappropriately parked and placed and there is no riding boundary, which hinder management and operation of vehicles, are solved. By setting a virtual electric fence, as well as related non-parking areas and riding boundaries, parking of vehicles is regulated, and management is strengthened.

Examples provide a customized cart management system. A cart monitoring component monitors a location of one or more unattended carts outside a cart intake area. A cart intake component generates cart intake data for each cart returned to the cart intake area, including a cart identifier and a cart return time. A verification component analyzes the cart intake data using a set of reward criteria, including a minimum cart return time threshold, to determine if the user is eligible to receive a cart reward. If the user is eligible, an incentives generation component assigns a first reward to the identified user. A feedback query component outputs a feedback query associated with the one or more returned carts to a user device. If the user provides feedback in response to the feedback query, the incentives generation component assigns a second reward to the user.

The present disclosure discloses a dockless vehicle-based electric fence control method. The method comprises: demarcating and forming, by a backend server, a non-parking area and/or a riding boundary of a vehicle by using a map engine tool, wherein longitude and latitude coordinates at which the non-parking area and/or the riding boundary is located is stored into a database of the backend server; when ride comes to an end, sending, by a mobile terminal or intelligent hardware installed in a ridden vehicle, the parking position coordinates of a current vehicle to the backend server; and receiving, by the backend server, parking position coordinates of the vehicle, comparing the parking position coordinates of the vehicle with the database, determining whether the parking position coordinates of the current vehicle are located in the non-parking area or beyond the riding boundary, and feeding back a determining result to the mobile terminal and/or the intelligent hardware. According to the present disclosure, existing problems that shared vehicles are inappropriately parked and placed and there is no riding boundary, which hinder management and operation of vehicles, are solved. By setting a virtual electric fence, as well as related non-parking areas and riding boundaries, parking of vehicles is regulated, and management is strengthened.

Provided are a system and method for notification. A communication is established between a mobile application at a user mobile electronic device and a shopping cart. The status indicator on the shopping cart is activated having a first state indicating that the shopping cart is in use. After a checkout process is completed, the status indicator is changed to have a second state indicating the completion of the checkout process.

A pushcart vending system that includes a plurality of pushcarts, a vending unit, a track and a gate assembly attached to the track and coupled to the vending unit. Each pushcart includes a lightweight body attached to rigid frame mounted on wheels. The body is configured to pivot vertically over the frame assembly thereby enabling rigid frames on adjacent pushcarts to be stacked. Attached to each frame assembly is a catch bar assembly that includes a wear plate that extends into an offset, longitudinally aligned slot formed on the track. Attached to the wear plate is an upper roller and a lower roller that travel over the outside surface and the inside surface, respectively, on the track. A gate assembly is dual directional to allow pushcarts to be individually dispensed and returned from the same end of the track thereby enabling the system to be setup in small staging areas.

Methods and apparatus for monitoring remotely located objects with a system including at least one master data collection unit, remote sensor units, and a central data collection server are described. The master unit is configured to monitor any object, mobile or stationary, including monitoring multiple remote sensor units associated with the monitored objects. The master unit may be in a fixed location or attached to a mobile object. The master unit is configured for monitoring objects that enter and leave an area. The master unit may act as a parent controller for one or more child devices including remote sensors or monitors of measurable conditions including environmental conditions, substance identification, product identification, and/or biometric identification. The master unit may discover remote sensor units as they enter or leave the area where the master unit is located. The master unit can be remotely reprogrammed such as with authenticated instructions.

Methods and apparatus for providing a comprehensive decision support system to include predictions, recommendations with consequences and optimal follow-up actions in specific situations are described. Data is obtained from multiple disparate data sources, depending on the information deemed necessary for the situation being modeled. The decision support system provides a prediction or predictions and a recommendation or a choice of recommendations based on the correlative analysis and/or other analyses. Also described are methods and apparatus for developing application specific decision support models. The decision support model development process may include identifying multiple disparate data sources for retrieval of related information, selection of classification variables to be retrieved from the data sources, assignment of weights to each classification variable, selecting and/or defining rules, and selecting and/or defining analysis functions.