Cellular restaurant ticket printer system

• US 10,362,454 B2
• Filed: 02/05/2015
• Issued: 07/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Anthony Stewart Moore, Gregory Oleksiak
• Original Assignee: Anthony Stewart Moore, Gregory Oleksiak
• Inventors: Oleksiak, Gregory, Moore, Anthony Stewart
• Primary Examiner(s): Ade, Garcia
• Application Number:
  US14/615,391
• Publication Number:
  US 20150220816A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,629 Days
• Field of Search: 705 15
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

A thermal ticket printer operable to receive restaurant orders via an API from a server communicating through a cellular network. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, an API existing on a networked server enables the server communicate with external clients, store print jobs according to requests by external clients, and respond to status requests. The API may authenticate requests from all clients; receive and store orders; listen to polling requests from the thermal ticket printer; communicate orders to the thermal ticket printer when present; store status of print jobs for clients; and, monitor the availability of the thermal ticket printer.

Claims

1. A restaurant ticket printer system comprising:

a networked printing apparatus being located in a restaurant, the networked printing apparatus being operably engaged with a networked server via a wireless communications network to communicate a fulfillment request pursuant to a specified heartbeat parameter to an application programming interface executing on the networked server, the application programming interface being configured to authenticate the fulfillment request and communicate a fulfillment response comprising a next heartbeat parameter to the networked printing apparatus, the networked printing apparatus comprising;

a communications interface comprising a cellular communications chipset and a subscriber identity module, the subscriber identity module corresponding to a pre-determined restaurant location such that each restaurant order in the plurality of restaurant orders may be authenticated by the networked server and communicated to the networked printing apparatus;

a processor being operably engaged with the communications interface and a memory device, the memory device being configured to store one or more instructions to be executed by the processor, the one or more instructions comprising;

instructions for communicating an order request to the networked server via the communications interface, instructions for receiving an authenticated order from the networked server via the communications interface, and instructions for processing an authenticated order;

an input device being operably engaged with the processor, the input device being operable to communicate pick-up time and delivery time values to the processor corresponding to each restaurant order in the plurality of restaurant orders; and

,

a print unit operably coupled to the processor, the print unit being operable to print each restaurant order in the plurality of restaurant orders in response to a print instruction by the processor.

2. The restaurant ticket printer system of claim 1 wherein the one or more instructions to be executed by the processor further comprise instructions for communicating an order confirmation and a pick-up or delivery time value to the networked server.

3. The restaurant ticket printer system of claim 1 wherein the application programming interface is configured to receive a plurality of order requests from a plurality of external client devices, and categorize each order request in the plurality of order requests according to the subscriber identity module of the networked printing apparatus.

4. A restaurant ticket system comprising:

a networked server operably connected to a communications network, the networked server being operable to receive a plurality of restaurant orders from a plurality of external client devices via an application programming interface executing on the networked server, the application programming interface being configured to associate each restaurant order in the plurality of restaurant orders with a subscriber identity value, and queue each restaurant order in the plurality of restaurant orders for delivery according to the subscriber identity value and a heartbeat parameter;

at least one networked printing apparatus being located in a restaurant, the at least one networked printing apparatus being operably engaged with the networked server via the communications network to communicate a fulfillment request pursuant to a specified heartbeat parameter to the application programming interface executing on the networked server, the application programming interface being configured to authenticate the fulfillment request according to the subscriber identity value and communicate a fulfillment response comprising a next heartbeat parameter to the networked printing apparatus, the networked printing apparatus comprising;

a communications interface comprising a cellular communications chipset and a subscriber identity module, the subscriber identity module corresponding to a pre-determined restaurant location such that each restaurant order in the plurality of restaurant orders may be authenticated by the networked server and communicated to the networked printing apparatus;

a processor being operably engaged with the communications interface and a memory device, the memory device being configured to store one or more instructions to be executed by the processor, the one or more instructions comprising;

instructions for communicating a polling request to the networked server via the communications interface, instructions for receiving an authenticated order from the networked server via the communications interface, and instructions for processing an authenticated order;

an input device being operably engaged with the processor, the input device being operable to communicate pick-up time and delivery time values to the processor corresponding to each restaurant order in the plurality of restaurant orders; and

,

a print unit operably coupled to the processor, the print unit being operable to print each restaurant order in the plurality of restaurant orders in response to a print instruction by the processor.

5. The restaurant ticket system of claim 4 wherein the application programming interface is configured to communicate an empty response body and the next heartbeat parameter to the at least one networked printing apparatus in response to the fulfillment request if no orders are queued for delivery.

6. The restaurant ticket system of claim 4 wherein the communications network comprises a dedicated cellular connection associated with the subscriber identity module of the at least one networked printing apparatus.

7. The restaurant ticket system of claim 4 wherein the plurality of external client devices are operable to communicate the plurality of restaurant orders to the networked server via a Short Message Service.

8. The restaurant ticket system of claim 4 wherein the application programming interface is configured to communicate a formatted order and the next heartbeat parameter to the at least one networked printing apparatus in response to the fulfillment request if one or more orders are queued for delivery.

9. The restaurant ticket system of claim 4 wherein the application programming interface is configured to store request parameters in a non-transitory computer-readable medium on the networked server according to the subscriber identity value.

10. The restaurant ticket system of claim 8 wherein the application programming interface is configured to communicate an order confirmation message and wait time value to an external client device in the plurality of external client devices in response to communicating the formatted order and the next heartbeat parameter to the at least one networked printing apparatus.