ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,394,221, issued on Aug. 19, was assigned to Walmart Apollo LLC (Bentonville, Ark.).
"System and method for optimizing container contents" was invented by James Benjamin Edwards (Centerton, Ark.), Paul E. Durkee (Centerton, Ark.) and Brian C. Roth (Bentonville, Ark.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The contents of totes and the amount a tote container is filled are monitored. A central database stores product dimensions and tote dimensions as well as a percentage of which a tote is to be filled. Image scanners that obtain three-dimensional images are used to determine if the actual dimensions of the tote, the product, and the fill amount ar...