Wireless concession delivery

• US 10,290,067 B1
• Filed: 06/05/2015
• Issued: 05/14/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Prosports Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: Prosports Technologies, LLC
• Inventors: Cronin, John, Garrison, Maxx
• Primary Examiner(s): Uber, Nathan C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ortiz Roman, Denisse Y
• Application Number:
  US14/732,394
• Time in Patent Office: 1,439 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

The present disclosure concerns a wireless concession system that transmits the availability of various concessions from both mobile vendors as well as actual concession stands. The system identifies the location of these concession offerings in real time as well as up-to-date status information concerning the same. Wireless transmission of information concerning an attendee at a sporting event may likewise be broadcast to the concession system such that delivery of a desired concession may take place using an optimal delivery method, which could be delivery or pick-up at a location most near and most efficient for the needs of the attendee.

Claims

1. A system for providing tailored concession information, the system comprising:

a plurality of section-specific directional wireless hubs in an event venue, each of the plurality of section-specific directional wireless hubs transmitting information to a different section of a plurality of sections of the event venue;

one or more global positioning system (GPS) receiver devices that track one or more locations, each location corresponding to one of the one or more concession providers in the event venue;

a database that provides concession inventory information in relation to the one or more concession providers;

a memory that stores instructions;

a processor that executes the instructions, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor causes the processor to;

receive the one or more locations corresponding to the one or more concession providers from the one or more GPS receiver devices,

retrieve the concession inventory information from the database,

generate a concession schedule using the concession inventory information and the one or more locations corresponding to the one or more concession providers by applying concession provider association rules to the one or more locations corresponding to the one or more concession providers, the concession schedule indicating when a first concession provider will be in a first section of the plurality of sections within the event venue that includes one or more seats, the one or more seats in the first section associated with one or more venue attendees via one or more tickets, the concession schedule also identifying a first inventory of the first concession provider,

generate a message based on the concession schedule, the message identifying when the first concession provider will be in the first section based on the concession schedule, and

match the message to a first section-specific directional wireless hub of the plurality of section-specific directional wireless hubs based on a delta of distance between the first section-specific directional wireless hub and the first section; and

a router that delivers the message to the first section-specific directional wireless hub for subsequent transmission of the message by the first section-specific directional hub to one or more user devices located within the first section and associated with the one or more venue attendees associated with the first section, wherein the one or more user devices obtain access to the message using one or more ticket identifiers from the one or more tickets.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein predicted location information for the one or more concession providers is used to generate the concession schedule and the message, the predicted location information generated by applying the concession provider association rules to at least the one or more locations corresponding to the one or more concession providers.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the predicted location information is updated based on changes to the one or more locations corresponding to the one or more concession providers over time.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the message further identifies an inventory of the first concession provider based on the concession inventory information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the message includes a limited time offer associated with the first concession provider.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein matching the message to the first section-specific directional wireless hub is based on the first section-specific directional wireless hub having the smallest delta of distance to the first section.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more locations corresponding to the one or more concession providers are made more accurate based on triangulation of the one or more GPS receiver devices using a plurality of cellular base stations.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the first section-specific directional wireless hub includes at least one directional antenna.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the message is personalized for a first user device associated with a first venue attendee of the one or more venue attendees.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more ticket identifiers includes a password.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the first section-specific directional wireless hub includes at least one bulb that communicates using a light-based communication protocol.

12. A method for providing tailored concession information, the method comprising:

receiving, from one or more global positioning system (GPS) receiver devices, one or more locations corresponding to one or more concession providers in an event venue, each location corresponding to one of the one or more concession providers in the event venue;

storing, in a database, concession inventory information in relation to the one or more concession providers;

executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor to;

retrieve the concession inventory information from the database,

generate a concession schedule using the concession inventory information and the one or more locations corresponding to the one or more concession providers by applying concession provider association rules to the one or more locations corresponding to the one or more concession providers, the concession schedule indicating when a first concession provider will be in a first section of a plurality of sections within the event venue that includes one or more seats, the one or more seats in the first section associated with one or more venue attendees via one or more tickets, the concession schedule also identifying a first inventory of the first concession provider,

generate a message based on the concession schedule, the message identifying when the first concession provider will be in the first section based on the concession schedule, and

match the message to a first section-specific directional wireless hub of a plurality of section-specific directional wireless hubs in the event venue based on a delta of distance between the first section-specific directional wireless hub and the first section, each of the plurality of section-specific directional wireless hubs transmitting information to a different section of the plurality of sections of the event venue; and

delivering the message to the first section-specific directional wireless hub for subsequent transmission of the message by the first section-specific directional hub to one or more user devices located within the first section and associated with the one or more venue attendees associated with the first section, wherein the one or more user devices obtain access to the message using one or more ticket identifiers from the one or more tickets.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the message further identifies an inventory of the first concession provider based on the concession inventory information.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the message includes a limited time offer associated with the first concession provider.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein matching the message to the first section-specific directional wireless hub is based on the first section-specific directional wireless hub having the smallest delta of distance to the first section.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more locations corresponding to the one or more concession providers are made more accurate based on triangulation of the one or more GPS receiver devices using a plurality of cellular base stations.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the message is personalized for a first user device associated with a first venue attendee of the one or more venue attendees.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the one or more ticket identifiers includes a password.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for providing tailored concession information, the method comprising:

receiving, from one or more global positioning system (GPS) receiver devices, one or more locations corresponding to one or more concession providers in an event venue, each location corresponding to one of the one or more concession providers in the event venue;

storing, in a database, concession inventory information in relation to the one or more concession providers;

retrieving the concession inventory information from the database;

generating a concession schedule using the concession inventory information and the one or more locations corresponding to the one or more concession providers by applying concession provider association rules to the one or more locations corresponding to the one or more concession providers, the concession schedule indicating when a first concession provider will be in a first section of a plurality of sections within the event venue that includes one or more seats, the one or more seats in the first section associated with one or more venue attendees via one or more tickets, the concession schedule also identifying a first inventory of the first concession provider;

generating a message based on the concession schedule, the message identifying when the first concession provider will be in the first section based on the concession schedule;

matching the message to a first section-specific directional wireless hub of a plurality of section-specific directional wireless hubs in the event venue based on a delta of distance between the first section-specific directional wireless hub and the first section, each of the plurality of section-specific directional wireless hubs transmitting information to a different section of the plurality of sections of the event venue; and

delivering the message to the first section-specific directional wireless hub for subsequent transmission of the message by the first section-specific directional hub to one or more user devices located within the first section and associated with the one or more venue attendees associated with the first section, wherein the one or more user devices obtain access to the message using one or more ticket identifiers from the one or more tickets.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the message further identifies an inventory of the first concession provider based on the concession inventory information.