LUGGAGE INFORMATION PROCESSING

• US 20170169527A1
• Filed: 12/09/2015
• Published: 06/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NCR Voyix Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation (NCR Voyix Corporation)
• Inventors: Dange, Afrin Abdulkayyum
• Granted Patent: US 10,552,927 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies

Abstract

Luggage is scanned when placed on a luggage conveyor belt. The scanned information reported to a luggage manager. The luggage manager pushes individual customer luggage information directly to one or more of a digital signage or a mobile application of a mobile device operated by the customer.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an identifier affixed to a bag placed on a conveyor belt;

matching the identifier to a traveler; and

pushing information relevant to the travel bag to a device accessible to the traveler.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving further includes continually re-receiving the identifier for the bag while the bag remains on the conveyor belt.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein continually re-receiving further includes sending an alert to the device that is accessible to the traveler when the identifier for the bag is no longer received indicating that the bag was removed from the conveyor belt.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving further includes receiving the identifier from an automated scanner that is situated along a path of the conveyor belt.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein matching further includes searching a travel manifest with the identifier to locate the traveler.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein searching further includes obtaining a boarding pass for the traveler from the travel manifest.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising, identifying multiple bags associated with the traveler from the boarding pass of which the bag is one of the multiple bags.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein pushing further includes directing the device to display the information as a record having an identifier for the traveler and status information for the multiple bags relevant to the conveyor belt.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein pushing further includes pushing the information to a mobile device operated by the traveler, wherein the device is the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein pushing further includes simultaneously pushing the information to a digital sign situated in proximity to the conveyor belt.

11. A method, comprising:

tracking luggage at a luggage conveyor belt based on luggage identifiers;

reporting luggage status based on the tracked luggage on a per traveler basis; and

maintaining metrics for tracking the luggage for custom reporting.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein tracking further includes identifying and recording when the luggage is first placed on the conveyor belt and when the luggage is removed from the conveyor belt.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein tracking further includes communicating with a barcode scanner situated at the conveyor belt to track the luggage.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein tracking further includes communicating with a Radio Frequency (RF) scanner situated at the conveyor belt to track the luggage.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein reporting further includes communicating the status to mobile devices of the travelers.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein reporting further includes communicating the status to one or more digital signs in proximity to the luggage conveyor belt.

17. The method of claim 11 further comprising, mining at least a portion of the metrics for providing a traveler with an expected wait time for luggage checked on a future flight once that future flight were to deplane.

18. A system, comprising:

a server;

a luggage monitor configured to;

i) execute on the processor, ii) receive luggage information when luggage is placed on a luggage conveyor belt, iii) match the luggage information to traveler information for a traveler, and iv) report the luggage information and traveler information to a device accessible to the traveler.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the device is a mobile device operated by the traveler.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the device is a digital sign situated in proximity to the luggage conveyor.