Amazon acquired a patent of "wristband tracking worker's hand movement"

Amazon has installed a wristband on the arm of the worker who performs work in the warehouse and Amazon is able to detect the motion of the operator's hand using the sensor installed on the shelf where the product is stored It became clear that it got it.

Amazon wins patents for wristbands that track warehouse workers - GeekWire
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/amazon-wins-patents-wireless-wristbands-track-warehouse-workers/

A patent entitled "Ultrasonic bracelet and receiver for detecting position in 2 d plane" (Ultrasonic Bracelet and Receiver for Detecting Position in Two Dimensional Surface) was filed by Amazon in March 2016, Things that had been released in September. In the first piece of the document, illustration shows the shelf and the workers standing in front of them.

Patent US 20170278051 - Ultrasonic bracelet and receiver for positioning position in 2d plane - Google Patents Search
https://www.google.com/patents/US20170278051


In the illustration, the ultrasonic sensor (16) is attached to the four corners of the shelf, and the state of the worker performing the work is drawn in front of it. A bracelet (12) is attached to both wrists of the operator, and ultrasonic waves are emitted from it. It is a device that catches the signal with the four corners ultrasonic sensor (16), calculates the time difference between them, and performs "triangulation" to track the position of the actual operator's hand.


In spite of this system that I could think "tracking to it and monitor it ... ...", this system is said to be "to reduce the worker's burden" on the purpose of this system. In the conventional warehouse system, the worker needs to perform work such as refilling the shelves with goods, picking from picking from the shelf and pushing the button or scanning the barcode, such as an extra incidental to the work It was necessary to do a procedure. This patented technology seems to aim to reduce the burden by reducing those work.

Although advanced automation is progressing in Amazon warehouse, work which has to interpose human hand such as the end part is left behind. Amazon's warehouse "fulfillment center" that operates all over the world is said to exceed 100 in total, and by introducing such a tracking system, waste is generated by "a mountain if dust is piled up" It may be aimed at eliminating and reducing costs.