DETERMINING A MEAL AND/OR MEAL PLAN

• US 20100121807A1
• Filed: 11/09/2009
• Published: 05/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mercatus Technologies Inc.
• Original Assignee: Springboard Retail Networks Licensing SRL
• Inventors: PERRIER, R. Sylvain, Springer, Harold S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,918,355 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Methods, systems, apparatus and computer-readable mediums, storing sets of instructions, provide for determining at least one meal combination including receiving, at a server, information identifying at least one food item; accessing, from a storage, device, a set of meal combination rules; applying, at the server, the accessed set of meal combination rules to a plurality of food items; determining, at the server, at least one meal combination including a plurality of food items including the food item identified by the received information; and transmitting the determined at least one meal combination from the server to a computing device for display. Alternatively, methods, systems, apparatus and computer-readable mediums, storing sets of instructions, provide for generating a meal plan, including accessing a set of meal plan rules; applying the set of meal plan rules to a plurality of food items; determining a plurality of meal combinations, each of the plurality of meal combinations including a plurality of food items, based on the applied set of rules; and transmitting the determined plurality of meal combinations from a server device to a computing device.

Claims

1. A method, executed by a processor at a server device, for determining at least one meal combination, comprising:

receiving, at a server, information identifying at least one food item;

accessing, from a storage device, a set of meal combination rules;

applying, at the server, the accessed set of meal combination rules to a plurality of food items;

determining, at the server, at least one meal combination including a plurality of food items including the food item identified by the received information; and

transmitting the determined at least one meal combination from the server to a computing device for display.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when a plurality of meal combinations is determined, ranking the plurality of meal combinations based on meal ranking rules.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving step includes:

receiving, at the server, information identifying the at least one food item that was displayed in a weekly flyer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, in the storage device, a plurality of sets of meal combination rules, each of the sets of meal combination rules being associated with one or more of a plurality of retail shopping establishments; and

storing, in the storage device, a plurality of food items.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the applying step includes:

selecting a set of meal combination rules from the plurality of stored sets of meal combination rules based on information associated with a retail shopping establishment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the rules in the set of meal combination rules is based on at least one of profit margin, number of food items of the meal combination on sale, total number of food items in the meal combination;

number of house brand food items;

number of name brand food items; and

number of food items per food group.

7. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving a request for a recipe including the items in the determined meal combination;

accessing a set of recipe rules;

applying the accessed set of recipe rules to a plurality of stored recipes;

determining at least one recipe based on the applied set of recipe rules; and

transmitting the determined at least one recipe to the computing device.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

accessing a video associated with the determined at least one recipe; and

transmitting a hyperlink to the video to the computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication is a universal product code, the universal product code being read by a scanner at the computing device.

10. A method for generating a meal plan, comprising:

accessing a set of meal plan rules;

applying the set of meal plan rules to a plurality of food items;

determining a plurality of meal combinations, each of the plurality of meal combinations including a plurality of food items, based on the applied set of rules; and

transmitting the determined plurality of meal combinations from a server device to a computing device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the meal plan rules conform to a recognized government or industry food guide.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the meal plan rules conform to an established diet plan.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the meal plan rules are based on a user'"'"'s body mass index.

14. A computer-readable medium, storing a set of instructions, executed by a processor, to perform a method for determining at least one meal combination, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server, information identifying at least one food item;

accessing, from a storage device, a set of meal combination rules;

applying, at the server, the accessed set of meal combination rules to a plurality of food items;

determining, at the server, at least one meal combination including a plurality of food items including the food item identified by the received information; and

transmitting the determined at least one meal combination from the server to a computing device for display.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising:

when a plurality of meal combinations is determined, ranking the plurality of meal combinations based on meal ranking rules.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the receiving step includes:

receiving, at the server, information identifying the at least one food item that was displayed in a weekly flyer.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising:

storing, in the storage device, a plurality of sets of meal combination rules, each of the sets of meal combination rules being associated with one or more of a plurality of retail shopping establishments; and

storing, in the storage device, a plurality of food items.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the applying step includes:

selecting a set of meal combination rules from the plurality of stored sets of meal combination rules based on information associated with a retail shopping establishment.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein at least one of the rules in the set of meal combination rules is based on at least one of profit margin, number of food items of the meal combination on sale, total number of food items in the meal combination;

number of house brand food items;

number of name brand food items; and

number of food items per food group.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, the method further comprising:

receiving a request for a recipe including the items in the determined meal combination;

accessing a set of recipe rules;

applying the accessed set of recipe rules to a plurality of stored recipes;

determining at least one recipe based on the applied set of recipe rules; and

transmitting the determined at least one recipe to the computing device.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, further comprising:

accessing a video associated with the determined at least one recipe; and

transmitting a hyperlink to the video to the computing device.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the indication is a universal product code, the universal product code being read by a scanner at the computing device.

23. A computer-readable medium, storing a set of instructions, executed by processor, to perform a method for generating a meal plan, the method comprising:

accessing a set of meal plan rules;

applying the set of meal plan rules to a plurality of food items;

determining a plurality of meal combinations, each of the plurality of meal combinations including a plurality of food items, based on the applied set of rules; and

transmitting the determined plurality of meal combinations from a server device to a computing device.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the meal plan, rules conform to a recognized government or industry food guide.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the meal plan rules conform to an established diet plan.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the meal plan rules are based on a user'"'"'s body mass index.

27. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory, storing a set of instructions; and

a processor, configured to execute the stored set of instruction, the processor configured to

receive information identifying at least one food item;

access a set of meal combination rules;

apply the accessed set of meal combination rules to a plurality of food items;

determine at least one meal combination including a plurality of food items including the food item identified by the received information; and

transmit the determined at least one meal combination to a computing device for display.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising:

when a plurality of meal combinations is determined, ranking the plurality of meal combinations based on meal ranking rules.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the receiving step includes:

receiving, at the server, information identifying the at least one food item that was displayed in a weekly flyer.

30. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising:

storing, in the storage device, a plurality of sets of meal combination rules, each of the sets of meal combination rules being associated with one or more of a plurality of retail shopping establishments; and

storing, in the storage device, a plurality of food items.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the applying step includes:

selecting a set of meal combination rules from the plurality of stored sets of meal combination rules based on information associated with a retail shopping establishment.

32. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein at least one of the rules in the set of meal combination rules is based on at least one of profit margin, number of food items of the meal combination on sale, total number of food items in the meal combination;

number of house brand food items;

number of name brand food items; and

number of food items per food group.

33. The apparatus of claim 27, the method further comprising:

receiving a request for a recipe including the items in the determined meal combination;

accessing a set of recipe rules;

applying the accessed set of recipe rules to a plurality of stored recipes;

determining at least one recipe based on the applied set of recipe rules; and

transmitting the determined at least one recipe to the computing device.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, further comprising:

accessing a video associated with the determined at least one recipe; and

transmitting a hyperlink to the video to the computing device.

35. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the indication is a universal product code, the universal product code being read by a scanner at the computing device.

36. An apparatus for generating a meal plan, comprising:

a memory, storing a set of instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the stored set of instructions, to, perform a method for generating a meal plan, the processor configured to

access a set of meal plan rules;

apply the set of meal plan rules to a plurality of food items;

determine a plurality of meal combinations, each of the plurality of meal combinations including a plurality of food items, based on the applied set of rules; and

transmit the determining plurality of meal combinations from a server device to a computing device.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the meal plan rules conform to a recognized government or industry food guide.

38. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the meal plan rules conform to an established diet plan.

39. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the meal plan rules are based on a user'"'"'s body mass index.