Walmart's US Patent 10,020,004, "Listening to the Frontend": "A need exists for ways to capture the sounds resulting from people in the shopping facility"

The background section of US 10,020,004 states


Many different types of sounds result from people in a shopping facility. For example, guests of the shopping facility may talk amongst each other or with employees of the shopping facility. Additionally, guests and employee movements and activities can generate additional sounds. A need exists for ways to capture the sounds resulting from people in the shopping facility and determine performance of employees based on those sounds.



The first claim states



A system in a shopping facility for determining a performance metric for an employee, the system comprising: one or more sound sensors distributed throughout at least a portion of the shopping facility and configured to receive at least sounds resulting from activity in the shopping facility; and a control circuit communicatively coupled to the one or more sound sensors, the control circuit being configured to: receive, from at least one of the one or more sound sensors, audio data, wherein the audio data includes sounds associated with items being scanned and sounds associated with bags; determine, based on the sounds associated with bags, a number of bags used; determine, based on the audio data associated with items being scanned, a number of items scanned; calculate, based on the number of bags used and the number of items scanned, a number of items per bag; receive an indication of an employee; correlate the audio data and the indication of the employee; and determine, based at least in part on the audio data and the indication of the employee, the performance metric for the employee, wherein the performance metric for the employee is based on the number of items per bag.



There is no expectation of privacy when shopping at WalMart.

The assignee is WALMART APOLLO, LLC (Bentonville, AR) .

Note
PCT; App. No. PCT/US2017/028823; International Search Report and Written Opinion dated Jul. 13, 2017.

**Recall the "Outer Limits" episode O.B.I.T." which first aired November 4, 1963.