Irving-based 7-Eleven added to its intellectual property with a pair of patents the week of Sept. 29. The patents relate to its ongoing work on inventory tracking and computer-vision item recognition.

One patent improves data prediction in systems that track when items are removed from locations. Its sole inventor is Nicholas E. Evangelopoulos of Denton. The application took 1,729 days to grant.

The other patent covers using machine learning to process digital images faster. All six of its inventors are from North Texas.

They join a collection of patents the company holds, including one for generating digital twins of its stores. The company has had at least six patents since early August.

In June, the trade publication Convenience Store News recognized the company as one of four winners in its Technology Leader of the Year awards. It highlighted 7-Eleven’s mobile checkout, AI-powered self-checkout and strategic use of data across the business as standouts.

Other patents the week of Sept. 29

The 7-Eleven patents were two of 123 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued with ties to North Texas the week of Sept. 29. That volume meant the region ranked No. 10 out of 250 U.S. metros for patent activity.

As it often does, Texas Instruments was the most prolific North Texas company for the week, with nine patents. They include a high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) frame-coding patent with inventors from Allen, McKinney and Plano.

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America (Plano) received six patents. They include one for a cable routing system for rotatable-wing aircraft spars and one for restraining a passenger via a blanket that can change its stiffness.

Healthcare and life sciences innovation was strong for the week. Roughly 9% of the total patents fall into those industries, their largest share since at least late June. Some of the notable grants in those fields include:

Astura Medical (Irving) received a patent for an auto-locking, expandable device used in spinal surgery to replace part of a vertebra. Two Irving-based inventors, Ross Dusterhoft and Thomas Purcell, invented it. The application took 710 days from filing to issue.

CalmWave (Seattle) received a patent for technology related to a computer system that helps healthcare providers more effectively manage and respond to alarms in a hospital setting. Christian Bauer of Frisco is a co-inventor.

Shoreline Solution (Salt Lake City) received a patent for the electronic creation, curation, approval and delivery of health-related educational content. Two of the five inventors are from North Texas: Dennis Kooker of McKinney and Gary Laben of Dallas.

Spark Biomedical (Dallas) received a patent for processing blood outside the body in a way that makes platelets clot better. The patent was granted in less than a year.

Verily (Dallas) received two patents under two entity names. Verily Health’s patent covers systems and methods for sealing and providing wireless power to wearable or implantable devices. Verily Life Sciences’ patent covers techniques for generating super-resolution presentations of medical procedure video data.

Patent information is provided by Joe Chiarella, founder of patent analytics company Patent Index and publisher of The Inventiveness Index. For additional details on the patents granted below, search the USPTO Patent Full-Text and Image Database.