Automated cafeteria
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An automated cafeteria system comprising:
- a cafeteria web site for presenting a menu over a public-access network and for assigning an order number to an order comprised of menu selections;
a computer for viewing the menu presented by the cafeteria web site over the public-access network, for issuing an order message comprised of menu selections, and for receiving the assigned order number;
a storage unit coupled to the computer for storing the assigned order number;
a label generator for receiving the assigned order number from the cafeteria web site and for generating a label identifying the assigned order number for a corresponding prepared order, the label being associated with the corresponding prepared order; and
an automated check-out station for retrieving the assigned order number from the storage unit and for verifying that the retrieved assigned order number corresponds to the assigned order number on the generated label for a prepared order presented to the automated checkout station so that the prepared order may be obtained at the automated check-out counter.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An automated cafeteria. Customers place orders via computers, over the Internet. Their orders are prepared by the cafeteria, and placed into a delivery bay. Each customer retrieves his own order from the bay, and carries it to a payment station. Security measures discourage theft.
53 Citations
12 Claims
-
1. An automated cafeteria system comprising:
-
a cafeteria web site for presenting a menu over a public-access network and for assigning an order number to an order comprised of menu selections; a computer for viewing the menu presented by the cafeteria web site over the public-access network, for issuing an order message comprised of menu selections, and for receiving the assigned order number; a storage unit coupled to the computer for storing the assigned order number; a label generator for receiving the assigned order number from the cafeteria web site and for generating a label identifying the assigned order number for a corresponding prepared order, the label being associated with the corresponding prepared order; and an automated check-out station for retrieving the assigned order number from the storage unit and for verifying that the retrieved assigned order number corresponds to the assigned order number on the generated label for a prepared order presented to the automated checkout station so that the prepared order may be obtained at the automated check-out counter. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A method for automating cafeteria order correlation comprising:
-
presenting a menu over a public-access network; selecting menu items from the presented menu over the public-access network to comprise an order; assigning an order number to the order comprised of the selected menu items; receiving the assigned order number over the public-access network; storing the assigned order number received over the public-access network in a storage unit; generating a label identifying the assigned order number for a corresponding prepared order comprised of selected menu items; retrieving the stored assigned order number from the storage unit at an automated check-out station site where prepared orders having generated labels are located; and verifying that the stored assigned order number retrieved at the site corresponds to the generated label identifying the assigned order number for a prepared order so the prepared order may be obtained contemporaneously with the assigned order number verification. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
Specification