A holder for mounting to a shopping cart and supporting a smart device includes a receptacle for receiving a smart device and at least one fastener for securing the receptacle to a handle of the shopping cart. The receptacle includes a planar surface having a front face, a back face, and a sidewall that extends perpendicularly away from the front face and along each side and bottom of the planar surface. The planar surface also defines a channel for receiving an accessory associated with a smart device. The length and width of the receptacle are sized to permit the upper portion of a smart device to extend out of the receptacle and to configure the manner in which the smart device is received by the receptacle. The holder can be installed on a shopping cart to provide system for holding a smart device.

Examples of systems and methods for locating movable objects such as carts (e.g., shopping carts) are disclosed. Such systems and methods can use dead reckoning techniques to estimate the current position of the movable object. Various techniques for improving accuracy of position estimates are disclosed, including compensation for various error sources involving the use of magnetometer and accelerometer, and using vibration analysis to derive wheel rotation rates. Also disclosed are various techniques to utilize characteristics of the operating environment in conjunction with or in lieu of dead reckoning techniques, including characteristic of environment such as ground texture, availability of signals from radio frequency (RF) transmitters including precision fix sources. Such systems and methods can be applied in both indoor and outdoor settings and in retail or warehouse settings.

According to an embodiment, a power transmission system includes a power transmission antenna, a first rail and a second rail. The power transmission antenna is disposed facing the power reception antenna installed on the side surface of the cart stored in the storage position. The first rail includes a first groove that guides, among a plurality of wheels for moving the cart to the storage position, a first wheel that is closest to the power transmission antenna while the cart is stored in the storage position, and that causes a distance between the power reception antenna and the power transmission antenna installed on the side surface of the cart to be within a power transmittable range. The second rail includes a second groove that guides, among the plurality of wheels for moving the cart, a second wheel that is different from the first wheel to the storage position.

Physical shopping carts can have product detection systems and associate physical shopping carts with mobile computing devices (e.g., smartphones, tablet computing devices, smart watches, wearable computing devices). For example, physical shopping carts can be equipped with one or more product detection systems (e.g., scanners, sensors, cameras) that can electronically tally products that are placed in physical shopping carts. Mobile computing devices can be associated with and mounted on the physical shopping carts to provide a variety of enhanced shopping cart features not possible with conventional physical shopping carts, such as electronically tracking the contents of a shopping cart, checking-out from the mobile computing device (instead of at conventional check-out areas, such as point of sale terminals), and others.

The electronic display, especially for carts, provided with a display housing being a cart handle or being mounted on a cart handle, comprising a screen with an electronic circuit board and a power supply unit located in the display housing, according to the invention stands out in that the screen with the electronic circuit board and the power supply unit are further placed in a removable inner housing, thereby forming a separate display module. The display module is provided with a screen with an electronic circuit board and a power supply unit located in an inner housing adapted to be placed in the display housing.

Examples of systems and methods for locating movable objects such as carts (e.g., shopping carts) are disclosed. Such systems and methods can use dead reckoning techniques to estimate the current position of the movable object. Various techniques for improving accuracy of position estimates are disclosed, including compensation for various error sources involving the use of magnetometer and accelerometer, and using vibration analysis to derive wheel rotation rates. Various techniques utilize characteristics of the operating environment in conjunction with or in lieu of dead reckoning techniques, including characteristic of environment such as ground texture, availability of signals from radio frequency (RF) transmitters including precision fix sources. Navigation techniques can include navigation history and backtracking, motion direction detection for dual swivel casters, use of gyroscopes, determining cart weight, multi-level navigation, multi-level magnetic measurements, use of lighting signatures, use of multiple navigation systems, or hard/soft iron compensation for different cart configurations.

A handcart includes a cart frame, a caster, and a code reader. The cart frame includes a receiving portion on which a shopping basket is placeable and a lateral portion extending in a width direction of the cart frame. The caster is disposed at a bottom region of the cart frame. The code reader is attached to the lateral portion of the cart frame so as to be rotatable around the lateral portion. The code reader may be rotated around the lateral portion of the cart frame to a first position at which a reading window of the code reader faces an inner space of the shopping basket on the receiving portion of the cart frame, and to a second position at which the reading window of the code reader faces a front of the cart frame.

An information processing device includes a camera configured to capture an image, a display including a touch panel and configured to display the image captured by the camera, a sensor configured to specify a position of the information processing device, and a processor. The processor being configured to, upon receipt of an input of a tap operation on the display of the captured image, calculating three-dimensional coordinates corresponding to an item in the captured image based on the position of the information processing device and the position of the tap operation on the captured image. The processor generating and outputting comment information including a comment received from a user of the information processing apparatus and the calculated three-dimensional coordinates.

This disclosure is directed to item-identifying carts that may be utilized by users to automatically identify items that the users place in their carts. In addition, these carts may automatically determine the outcome of respective events that occur with respect to these identified items. For example, the carts may be configured to identify one or more items that are placed into or removed from the cart, and thereafter determine one or more actions taken with respect to the identified items and a quantity of the items involved. For example, after identifying a first item and a second item either placed into or removed from the cart, the cart may determine that the user added two instances of the first item and removed one instance of the second item. In response to making this determination, the cart may update a virtual cart of a user operating the physical cart.

Physical shopping carts can have product detection systems and associate physical shopping carts with mobile computing devices (e.g., smartphones, tablet computing devices, smart watches, wearable computing devices). For example, physical shopping carts can be equipped with one or more product detection systems (e.g., scanners, sensors, cameras) that can electronically tally products that are placed in physical shopping carts. Mobile computing devices can be associated with and mounted on the physical shopping carts to provide a variety of enhanced shopping cart features not possible with conventional physical shopping carts, such as electronically tracking the contents of a shopping cart, checking-out from the mobile computing device (instead of at conventional check-out areas, such as point of sale terminals), and others.