Smart delivery bins
First Claim
1. A method for the delivery of at least one purchased or ordered item to at least one of a plurality of smart locked storage appliances, each smart locked storage appliance being associated with a corresponding customer, the method comprising, following the purchase or order of the at least one item, determining the availability of a locked storage appliance to receive the delivery at one or more times, identifying a time interval during which the delivery can be made, sending to the identified locked storage appliance an access signal allowing a delivery agent access to the locked storage appliance only during the time interval for delivery thereto of the at least one item, wherein the plurality of smart locked storage appliances are interlocked together and electrically, electronically and/or wirelessly communicatively connected to each other and a network.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An improved method and system for the delivery of items to at least one of a plurality of locked storage appliances comprising determining the availability of a locked storage appliance to receive the delivery at one or more times, identifying a time during which the delivery can be made, sending to the identified locked storage appliance an access signal allowing a delivery agent access to the locked storage appliance during the time interval for delivery, the improvement wherein at least one of the plurality of storage appliances is a smart appliance.
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Citations
15 Claims
- 1. A method for the delivery of at least one purchased or ordered item to at least one of a plurality of smart locked storage appliances, each smart locked storage appliance being associated with a corresponding customer, the method comprising, following the purchase or order of the at least one item, determining the availability of a locked storage appliance to receive the delivery at one or more times, identifying a time interval during which the delivery can be made, sending to the identified locked storage appliance an access signal allowing a delivery agent access to the locked storage appliance only during the time interval for delivery thereto of the at least one item, wherein the plurality of smart locked storage appliances are interlocked together and electrically, electronically and/or wirelessly communicatively connected to each other and a network.
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10. A delivery system for delivery of at least one ordered or purchased item comprising:
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a plurality of smart locked storage appliances, each smart locked storage appliance corresponding to a customer; an order receiver for receiving orders for delivery of said at least one ordered or purchased items to said customer; an availability determiner for determining the availability of the smart locked storage appliances to receive deliveries at one or more times; a scheduler receiving availability information from the availability determiner and operable to identify a time interval during which the delivery can be made and operable to send to an interlocked smart locked storage appliance an access signal allowing a delivery agent to access the interlocked smart locked storage appliance only during the time interval identified by the scheduler; wherein the plurality of smart locked storage appliances are interlocked together and electrically, electronically and/or wirelessly communicatively connected to each other and a network. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification