ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,429,881, issued on Sept. 30, was assigned to OMNI CONSUMER PRODUCTS LLC (Addison, Texas).

"System, method and apparatus for a monitoring drone" was invented by Stephen Howard (Dallas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A monitoring drone method, apparatus and system. The monitoring drone includes an image capture device for taking one or more images, a charge module for powering the monitoring drone, and a move module for allowing the monitoring drone to move about a shelf wherein the image capturing device captures images as the monitoring drone moves about the shelf to produce a virtual stereoscopic vision."

The patent was filed on Aug. 7...