KR20190024238A - System and method for providing optimized shopping routes for shoppers - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system for providing an optimized shopping route and a method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to the method for providing an optimized shopping route comprising the steps of: receiving information about a list of goods to be purchased from a user through a mobile communication terminal of a user; identifying a current location of the user through a beacon terminal installed in each stand in a store; and calculating a shopping route optimized for purchasing items desired by the user in the store based on the identified user location and providing the optimized shopping route to the user. Accordingly, provided is an efficient route even within a complex large indoor shopping mall such as a department store and a large-sized shopping mall so that a user can quickly purchase desired goods. Therefore, shopping time can be shortened.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING OPTIMIZED SHOPPING ROUTES [0001]

The present invention relates to an optimizing shopping route guiding system and a guiding method thereof, and more particularly, to an optimizing shopping route guiding system and a guiding method thereof, which receive information on a list of goods to be purchased from a user through a user's mobile communication terminal, By knowing the current position of the user and calculating and providing optimized shopping routes for purchasing items desired by the user based on the identified user location, it is possible to provide an efficient route even in a complex large indoor shopping mall such as a department store or a large- The present invention relates to an optimization shopping route guidance system and a guidance method that can shorten a shopping time because a user can quickly purchase items desired by the user.

People in modern society are constantly repeating shopping activities to purchase everyday items such as groceries, clothing, home appliances, etc., and to re-purchase them once they are used up. In addition, shopping malls such as department stores, large marts, and the like, where these various goods are sold to people, tend to be enlarged as more and more products are provided to attract more buyers to their shopping malls.

However, it is not easy for the buyers to find the goods they want to buy in the large-sized shopping mall, so they often wander unnecessarily in the store, and often feel uncomfortable due to physical fatigue and waste of time. Accordingly, there is a case where the existing shopping mall is provided with a guide device for guiding shop information and product information in each floor in each floor, but there is also a limit in satisfying the shopper who is shopping while shopping.

In order to solve such a problem, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-0066579 discloses a method of detecting a store where a user's mobile communication terminal is located using GPS, and when a user requests an item to be purchased through a mobile communication terminal, An article location guidance service and a system for providing a moving route and a moving method from a current position of a user to an article while providing the position of the article in the store and the presence of the article in the store.

However, as in the prior art, services providing location and route of an article in a store using a conventional mobile communication terminal perform position measurement using a Global Positioning System (GPS) function to grasp the current location of the user Accordingly, there is a disadvantage in that it is subject to a considerable restriction on the position measurement of a user in an area where GPS signals such as an indoor area or a dense building area can not reach. Therefore, it is difficult to apply to a large indoor shopping mall such as a department store, a large- And the information provided is also extremely limited and inefficient.

1. Korean Patent Publication No. 2007-0066579 (June 27, 2007) "Method and system for providing location guidance function using GPS"

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems in the prior art. That is, an object of the present invention is to provide a mobile communication terminal which receives information on a list of goods to be purchased from a user through a user's mobile communication terminal, grasps the current location of the user through a beacon terminal installed in each store, It is possible to provide an efficient route even in a complex large indoor shopping mall such as a department store or a large shopping mall by providing a shopping route optimized for purchasing goods desired by the user based on the location of the store, And to provide an optimized shopping route guidance system and a guide method that can shorten the shopping time.

Technical Solution According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a beacon terminal including at least one beacon terminal installed in a store for periodically transmitting a beacon identification code to a user terminal carried by a user; And a store information server that receives a customer identification code and a beacon identification code from a user terminal through a communication network and grasps the current location of the user in the store, Extracts locations of the beacon terminals disposed in the shop where the goods are displayed, calculates a shortest path through which all of the stores where the products the user intends to purchase are based on the user's current location, And a traveling path is calculated and provided in a spiral manner from a current position of the store to a center direction of the store or an outermost direction of the store.

The optimization shopping route guidance system and guide method according to the present invention provide various information necessary for shopping such as shopping mall store information that a user can visit through a dedicated application, store location, product information provided for each store, event information, discount information, and the like The user can easily and efficiently check the information related to the desired shopping through his / her mobile communication terminal by providing the user with a choice of items to be purchased. In addition, And provides a variety of events or recommended products of the shopping mall to be verified variously in the process. Thus, even in a complex large indoor shopping mall such as a department store, a large mart, etc., Make an efficient purchase It has the advantage that you can reduce the shopping time.

1 is a schematic block diagram of an optimization shopping route guidance system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a view for explaining an example of locating a user in a store through a beacon terminal provided in a store according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is an internal configuration diagram of the store information server shown in FIG. 1. FIG.
4 to 6 are views for explaining an example of calculating an optimized shopping route according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a flowchart illustrating an optimization shopping route guidance method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention is capable of various modifications and various forms, and specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the text.

It should be understood, however, that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. The terms first, second, etc. may be used to describe various elements, but the elements should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the first component may be referred to as a second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as a first component.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. The singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In the present application, the terms "comprising" or "having ", and the like, are intended to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, parts, or combinations thereof, But do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, parts, or combinations thereof.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic block diagram of an optimization shopping route guidance system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the optimized shopping route guidance system according to the present invention is installed in a store where a plurality of products are displayed, A beacon terminal 300 periodically transmitting a beacon identification code to the beacon terminal 300; Receives the user's customer information, the list of items to be purchased and the beacon identification code from the user terminal 100 of the user who visited the store through wired / wireless communication, and grasps the current position in the store of the user, And a shop guide server 200 providing a shopping route optimized for purchasing products desired by the user.

That is, when the user selects at least one product to be purchased through his / her mobile communication terminal and enters the store, the store information server 200 stores the current location of the user in the store through the beacon terminal 300 provided in the store And provides an optimized travel route for a user to purchase a desired commodity from among the commodities provided in the store based on the calculated travel route so that the user can quickly purchase the desired commodities within the complex shopping cart .

In particular, the store information server 200 according to the present invention calculates an optimal travel route for purchasing a desired commodity among the commodities provided in the store, By scanning the route via each beacon terminal arranged in the shelf in a shelf, the efficient travel route is provided and the calculation time of the route calculation is minimized.

In order to do this, the beacon terminal 300 is provided with at least one or more each of the beacon terminals 300 in each of the stores where a plurality of commodities are displayed according to the items along the path of the store, and periodically transmits the identification code. The entire area of the store is divided into a plurality of cells and the divided cells are divided into a plurality of layers from the outermost periphery to the central point so that at least one beacon terminal installed at each of the bases is included.

Accordingly, the store information server calculates the direction of the travel route as the current location of the current user through the beacon terminal located in the shop where the user wants to purchase the goods, The movement path is calculated and provided in a spiral manner in the center direction of the store or the outermost direction of the store according to the positioned layer.

The beacon terminal 300 applied to the optimized shopping route guidance system of the present invention is installed at least one each in a store where a plurality of products are displayed in accordance with items along the path of a store, Or classified according to the type of merchandise displayed. Also, each beacon terminal installed in the store forms a respective beacon signal area (A, B, C) by transmitting a beacon signal within the range, as shown in Fig. A beacon terminal has a predetermined difference depending on the performance, but an area ranging from a radius of 10 to 20 m from a beacon terminal is regarded as a beacon signal area in which a beacon signal comes in contact.

At this time, a dedicated application for the optimized shopping route guidance service is installed in the user terminal 100, and when the user visits the store with the user terminal installed with the dedicated application, Receives the identification code from the beacon terminal 300 and transmits the identification code to the store information server together with the unique information.

That is, the beacon terminal 300 periodically transmits the beacon-based identification code to all the user terminals existing within a predetermined distance from the beacon terminal 300, and the user terminal 100 receiving the beacon identification code provided by the beacon terminal transmits the optimized shopping path When a user visits a store with a dedicated application activated, the user terminal 100 receives a beacon identification code from the beacon terminal 300 installed in the store, By transmitting the identification code and the transmitted beacon identification code to the store information server, the store information server 200 can grasp the current location of the user in the store.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, when the user terminal transmits only the beacon terminal A information, the store information server recognizes that the location of the current user is located in area A, When the information of the terminal C is transmitted together, the store information server determines that the current user's location is located in the AC area.

In particular, according to the present invention, since at least one beacon terminal 300 is installed in each store, the position interval of the beacon terminal 300 disposed in the store is short, and the user terminal 100 receives information of a plurality of beacon terminals So that it is possible to accurately grasp the current position of the user in the store.

The user terminal 100 of the present invention is a computer device capable of wireless Internet communication and includes a smart phone, a tablet, a netbook, a PDA, a navigator, and the like. In particular, the user terminal 100 according to the present invention provides store information of a shopping mall visited by a user, product information, event information, discount information, and the like provided for each store, A dedicated application is provided.

A dedicated application for such an optimized shopping route guidance service can be downloaded and installed in advance in an application market or the like by a user and the customer identification code can be transmitted to a shop guide server through a unique information of a user terminal or a dedicated application, And may include unique information.

As shown in FIG. 1, the store information server 200 is connected to a server operated in an offline shopping mall such as a shopping center, a department store, and a duty-free shop. The store information server 200 receives store information, Receives the customer identification information and the beacon identification code from the visited user terminal 100 in the store, and grasps the current shop information and the current location of the user visited by the user.

In addition, the store information server 200 receives a list of goods to be purchased by the user from a user through a dedicated application, and determines whether or not the goods to be purchased by the user So that the user can quickly purchase desired products even in a complex large-sized store.

The store information server 200 includes a beacon management unit, a shopping mall management unit, a customer management unit, a communication unit, a control unit, a beacon terminal database, a shopping mall information database, and a customer information database. Will be described later in detail.

2 is an internal configuration diagram of the store information server shown in FIG.

2, the store information server includes a beacon management unit 210, a shopping mall management unit 220, a customer management unit 230, a communication unit 240, a control unit 250, a beacon terminal database 212, (222) and a customer information database (232).

The beacon management unit 210 stores and manages a beacon terminal database 212 in which unique information of each beacon terminal, which is divided into items according to items, is installed in a store where a plurality of products are displayed, .

The shopping mall management unit 220 is a means for storing and managing the shopping mall information database 222 in which the information of the offline shopping mall for which the optimized shopping mall guidance service is to be used is stored and is connected to a server of a plurality of offline shopping malls through the communication unit 240 Store information and product-specific marketing information transmitted to each shopping mall are received and managed separately for each shopping mall. The store information may include information such as a store path of a floor in a shopping mall, a path of a store, product information, and the like, and the marketing information may include discount information, coupon information, .

In particular, as shown in FIG. 4, the shopping mall management unit 220 of the present invention stores layout information of shops and location information of each mall for each shopping mall store, and for each store, Each of the divided cells is divided into a plurality of layers from an outermost layer (layer 1) to a central point (layer 3) of the store. The beacon terminals are divided into a plurality of cells so as to include at least one beacon terminal, .

The customer management unit 230 is a means for storing and managing the customer information database 232 in which the information of the user who wants to use the optimized shopping route guidance service is stored. Create a database. The user information may include personal information such as a user's sex, age, and residence area, and user interest information such as an area of interest, preferred brand information, and purchase history.

In addition, the customer management unit 230 accumulates and stores a list of goods to be purchased for each customer from the user terminal, and can use it to identify the user's preference for the shopping mall, the preference for each store, and the preferred brand for each item.

The communication unit 240 performs wire / wireless communication with a server and a user terminal of a plurality of offline shopping malls.

The control unit 250 receives the customer identification information and the beacon identification code from the visiting user terminal in the store and grasps the store information of the shopping mall visited by the user and the current location of the user, And receives the list, and calculates and provides an optimization route for purchasing a desired item in the store where the user is currently located based on the list.

To this end, the control unit 250 extracts the locations of the beacon terminals disposed in the stores where the user selects the products selected through the dedicated application based on the information of the store where the user is currently located, A layer in the shop where the current user is located is identified and a layer from which the user is currently located is determined to be passed through the beacon terminal placed in the shop where the goods to be purchased are displayed, In the direction of the center of the store or the outermost direction of the store.

For example, if it is determined that the current position of the user is located at the store entrance and the position of each of the beacon terminals corresponding to the user's list of items to be purchased is as shown in FIG. 5 (red in the drawing) 250 calculates the position of the extracted beacon terminal by a helical movement path from the outermost layer to the center layer. That is, since the current position of the user is close to the outermost layer of the store, the beacon terminal located in the outermost layer among the beacon terminals disposed in the shop where the product the user wants to purchase is located, As a result of visiting from the shop in the distance, the shopping route can be calculated in the order of (1) to (9) as shown in FIG.

At this time, when the beacon terminal of the outermost layer passes all of the beacon terminals and moves to the next layer, the control unit passes through the beacon terminal located at the closest distance to the beacon terminal of the last outermost layer, So that the movement path is calculated in a helical manner from the outermost layer to the center layer.

If the current position of the identified user exists in the center layer, the control unit passes through the beacon terminal located in the center layer among the beacon terminals disposed in the shop where the product desired to be purchased is displayed, And a path of the spiral optimized to the outer layer is calculated.

In this manner, the control unit searches the path passing through each beacon terminal arranged in the shop where the goods desired by the user to purchase are spirally centered on the current position of the user, thereby providing an efficient travel route, So that the time can be minimized.

In addition, the control unit 250 provides the optimized route guidance service according to the current position that changes according to the movement of the user, and stores the interest information of the user including the interest field, favorite brand, purchase history, The route to which the recommended product, the event product, etc. are additionally located in addition to the product list selected by the user may be calculated.

As described above, the control unit 250 calculates and provides a spiral path of travel along the layer where the stores where the merchandise the user desires to purchase are arranged around the current position of the user, In order to purchase desired items, various kinds of events or recommended products of the shopping mall can be checked in various ways.

7 is a flowchart illustrating an optimization shopping route guidance method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 7, the store information server provides shopping information such as shopping mall information, store location, product information, event information, discount information, and the like provided by the user through a dedicated application for the optimized shopping route guidance service Various necessary information is provided (S610), and the user can select items to purchase (S620).

Then, when a user having a user terminal equipped with a dedicated application for the optimized shopping route guidance service enters the shopping mall, the beacon terminal in the store transmits a beacon identification code to the user terminal (S630) And transmits the beacon identification code to the store information server together with the list of items to be purchased selected by the user through the dedicated application (S640).

Next, the store information server determines store information of the shopping mall visited by the user through the beacon identification code transmitted from the user terminal and the current location of the user (S650). Based on the list of goods to be purchased by the user, And provides a shopping route having a minimum durability for purchasing the article.

At this time, the store information server extracts the locations of the beacon terminals disposed in the store where the goods the user wants to purchase are displayed based on the current location of the user and information of the store where the user is currently located (S660) And determines the direction of the movement route through the beacon terminal arranged in the shop where the product the user wants to purchase is displayed from the layer where the user is currently located, The moving path is calculated and provided in a spiral manner in the center direction of the store or the outermost direction of the store according to the presently located layer (S670).

For example, if the current location of the user is identified as the store entrance, the position of the extracted beacon terminal is calculated as a spiral movement path from the outermost layer to the center layer. That is, since the current position of the user is close to the outermost layer of the store, the beacon terminal located in the outermost layer among the beacon terminals disposed in the shop where the product the user wants to purchase is located, When the beacon terminal of the outermost layer passes through the beacon terminal and then moves to the next layer, the beacon terminal of the intermediate layer located at the closest distance to the beacon terminal of the last outermost layer via the beacon terminal Thereby eventually calculating the movement path from the outermost layer to the center layer in a spiral manner.

To this end, the store information server stores layout information of shops and location information of each store for each shopping mall store. For each store, there are at least one beacon terminal in which the entire area of the store is installed in each store based on the passage of the store Or more, and each of the divided cells is divided into a plurality of layers from the outermost portion of the store to the central point.

In addition, the store information server provides a shopping route according to the current location, which is changed according to the user's movements. Based on the user's interest information including interest fields, favorite brands, purchase history, , A route through a shop where a recommended product, an event product, and the like are located in addition to the list of items to be purchased selected by the user may be calculated and provided.

As described above, the optimized shopping route guidance system and the guiding method according to the present invention can be applied to shopping, such as shopping mall store information, shop location, commodity information, event information, discount information, The user can easily and efficiently check the information related to the shopping desired by the user through his / her mobile communication terminal by providing various necessary information and allowing the user to select the goods to be purchased, It is possible to calculate and provide an optimized route for purchasing the desired product, and at the same time, provide a variety of events or recommended products of the shopping mall to be verified in various ways. Thus, even in a large indoor shopping mall such as a department store, I want the items I want It is advantageous in that it can be purchased at a reasonable rate and shorten the shopping time.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents. It will be obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art.

100: user terminal 200: store guidance server
210: beacon management unit 212: beacon terminal database
220: shopping mall management unit 222: shopping mall information database
230: customer management unit 232: customer information database
240: communication unit 250:
300: Beacon terminal

Claims (9)

A system for providing a shopping path guide to a user in a large offline store connected to a user terminal through a communication network,
A plurality of beacon terminals installed at least one in each store provided in a store and periodically transmitting a beacon identification code to a user terminal carried by a user; And
A store information server for receiving a customer identification code and a beacon identification code from a user terminal through a communication network and determining a current location of the user in the store;
, ≪ / RTI >
The store information server stores,
A list of goods to be purchased is received from the user terminal, each of the locations of the beacon terminals disposed in the store where the goods are displayed is extracted, and based on the current location of the user, Wherein the shortest path is calculated from a current position of the user to a center of the store or an outermost direction of the store in a spiral manner.
The method according to claim 1,
In the store information server,
The layout information of the store and the location information of each store are stored for each shopping mall store. For each store, the entire area of the store is divided into a plurality of cells so that at least one beacon terminal, Wherein each of the divided cells is divided into a plurality of layers from an outermost portion of the store to a central portion thereof and stored.
3. The method of claim 2,
The store information server stores,
Wherein the shortest route is calculated so that the user can sequentially visit the layer positioned in the center direction of the store or the outermost direction of the store from the layer presently positioned by the user according to the current position of the user, .
The method according to claim 1,
The beacon terminal includes:
Wherein the shopping center is divided into categories according to types of merchandise displayed on the shelves, and brands.
The method according to claim 1,
The store information server stores,
A beacon management unit for storing and managing the beacon terminal information;
A shopping mall management unit for storing and managing information of a large offline store and storing the divided layer information for each store;
A customer management unit for storing and managing customer information;
A beacon terminal database in which unique information of each of the beacon terminals is stored;
A shopping mall information database storing information of large offline stores;
A customer information database in which customer information is stored;
A communication unit for performing wired / wireless communication with a plurality of shopping mall servers and user terminals; And
Receives the customer identification information and the beacon identification code from the visited user terminal in the store and grasps the shop information that the user has visited at present and the current position of the user in the store, receives the list of goods the user wants to purchase from the user terminal, A control unit for calculating an optimal movement route for purchasing the provided goods and providing the optimized movement route to the user terminal;
Wherein the shopping route guidance system comprises:
There is provided a method of providing a shopping route guidance to a user in a large store using a shopping route guidance system including a plurality of beacon terminals each installed in at least one store in a large store and a store information server connected to a user terminal through a communication network ,
Wherein the plurality of beacon terminals comprises:
A beacon identification code is periodically transmitted to a user terminal carried by a user visiting the store,
The store information server stores,
The shop information currently visited by the user and the current location of the user in the store from the customer identification code and the beacon identification code transmitted from the visited user terminal in the store,
A list of goods to be purchased is received from the user terminal, each of the locations of the beacon terminals disposed in the shop where the goods are displayed is extracted,
Calculating a shortest path through all of the stores where the products the user wants to purchase are based on the current position of the user, calculating a travel path in a spiral from the user's current position toward the center of the store or the outermost direction of the store And providing the optimized shopping route guidance information.
The method according to claim 6,
In the store information server,
The layout information of the store and the location information of each store are stored for each shopping mall store. For each store, the entire area of the store is divided into a plurality of cells so that at least one beacon terminal, Wherein each of the divided cells is divided into a plurality of layers from an outermost portion of the store to a central portion thereof and stored.
8. The method of claim 7,
The store information server stores,
Wherein the shortest route is calculated so that the user can sequentially visit the layer positioned in the center direction of the store or the outermost direction of the store from the layer presently positioned by the user, .
9. The method of claim 8,
The store information server stores,
Wherein the movement route is calculated and provided in a spiral manner from the center of the store to the outermost direction or from the outermost corner of the store to the center of the store according to the current position of the user.

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