Networked peripheral for visitor greeting, identification, biographical lookup and tracking

• US 6,976,032 B1
• Filed: 11/15/2000
• Issued: 12/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Graham, Jamey, Hart, Peter E., Hull, Jonathan J., Lee, Dar-Shyang, Balabanovic, Marko, Baxter, Michael, Wolff, Gregory, Poppink, Derek
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Greta
• Assistant Examiner(s): DODDS, HAROLD E
• Application Number:
  US09/714,785
• Time in Patent Office: 1,854 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100-1041, 709200-203, 709217-219
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

According to the invention, a visitor kiosk for the capture and storage of personal information about visitors. The visitor kiosk is placed at the entry point to a facility being monitored. Each visitor signs in at the kiosk. Their business card and an image of their face are scanned. If they do not have a business card, their name and company are entered manually. They also enter the name of the person they are visiting and the purpose for their visit. The person they are visiting is notified of the arrival of the visitor by email or by voice telephone. The data about the visitor is stored locally or remotely. Automatic lookups of various information about the visitor are performed and communicated to the person being visited. A network interface allows users to enter information about visitors they are expecting to arrive. A telephone interface is provided for input of voice greetings as well as checking on the arrival status of visitors.

Claims

1. A visitor information gathering apparatus for a facility, comprising:

a display;

one or more input devices;

a storage;

a processor; and

one or more sensors;

wherein said processor is configured to gather information provided by a visitor to the facility using at least one input device from said one or more input devices responsive to prompts provided by said processor through said display;

wherein said processor is configured to substantially contemporaneously gather information about said visitor using at least one sensor from said one or more sensors;

wherein said processor is configured to store said information about said visitor gathered from said at least one input device and said at least one sensor into said storage; and

wherein the processor is configured to communicate at least a portion of the information provided by the visitor using the at least one input device and the information about the visitor gathered by the at least one sensor to one or more appliances located within the facility wherein an appliance from the one or more appliances uses the information received from the processor to determine whether the visitor is permitted to use the appliance.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said information about said visitor is gathered using said at least one sensor without said visitor being aware of said gathering.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an audio output device configured to output audio information to said visitor, said audio information determined based upon said information about said visitor gathered from said at least one input device and said at least one sensor.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said information gathered about said visitor comprises at least one of information about a name of said visitor, an organization represented by said visitor, a purpose of a visit, a date of a visit, a time of a visit, a person to be visited, and an identity of a group of visitors visiting together.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said display is configured to display to said visitor at least one of a greeting, a slide show of product images, advertising, stock values, daily cartoons, and news.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a scanner that is configured to scan at least one of a first side and a second side of a business card having printing on at least one of said first side and said second side;

and wherein, responsive to detecting text on said at least one of said first side and said second side, said processor processes said text in accordance with a language of said text.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a microphone, wherein said microphone provides input of speech of said visitor.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a video camera configured to capture an image of said visitor.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a speaker, wherein said information gathered about said visitor comprises information indicating a person to be visited and wherein said speaker is configured to output directions to reach said person to be visited.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a visitor wand configured to record experiences of said visitor.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the one or more sensors include a biometric sensor configured to gather biometric information about said visitor.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a handwriting tablet configured to provide a sample of handwriting of said visitor.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said one or more sensors include a security sensor configured to provide information about potential threats.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a telephone interface configured to communicate a telephone message to a person to be visited that said visitor has arrived.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said processor is configured to determine additional information about said visitor using a web interface, wherein the additional information is determined based upon said information about said visitor gathered from said at least one input device or said at least one sensor, the additional information comprising information about the visitor that is not provided by the visitor using the one or more input devices and is not gathered by the one or more sensors.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to communicate a portion of the information provided by the visitor using the at least one input device or the information gathered about the visitor using the at least one sensor to a person that said visitor intends to visit.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to determine information about said visitor'"'"'s previous visit, the information identifying at least one person visited by the visitor during the previous visit.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the information about the visitor'"'"'s previous visit is determined from a database accessible to said processor and storing information about said visitor.

19. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to assign a web page for the visitor, the web page storing information indicative of one or more persons visited by the visitor, wherein the web page is updated after each visit of the visitor to the facility.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the web page is communicated to a person to be visited by the visitor prior to the visitor'"'"'s visit to the facility.

21. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an output device configured to output information to the visitor, the information output by the output device being customized for the visitor based upon the information provided by the visitor using the one or more input devices and the information about the visitor captured by the one or more sensors.

22. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the appliance uses the information received from the processor to determine an identify the visitor upon receiving a request from the visitor to use the appliance.

23. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the appliance is a copy machine.

24. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a set of one or more locators situated at locations within the facility; and

a portable device provided to the visitor while the visitor is visiting the facility, the portable device configured to communicate with the set of locators using wireless communication;

wherein the set of locators are configured to track the visitor'"'"'s location within the facility by wirelessly communicating with the portable device provided to the visitor.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the portable device is configured to record information identifying one or more locations visited by the visitor at the facility and information identifying one or more persons met by the visitor at the facility.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the portable device is configured to record information spoken during a meeting between the visitor and a person from the one or more persons.

27. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the portable device is configured to:

store an itinerary for the visitor'"'"'s visit to the facility, the itinerary identifying at least one location within the facility to be visited by the visitor; and

display the itinerary to the visitor; and

display direction information for reaching the at least one location.

28. A method for collecting information about visitors to a facility, said method comprising:

gathering information about a visitor in an interactive session with an automated kiosk located at the facility;

placing said information for the visitor gathered in the interactive session into a format in which said information may be stored;

storing said information for retrieval; and

based upon said gathered information about said visitor, automatically obtaining additional information about said visitor from one or more sources, the additional information comprising information that is not provided during the interactive session; and

communicating at least a portion of said gathered information and at least a portion of said additional information to a user; and

communicating a portion of the information for the visitor gathered in the interactive session to one or more appliances located within the facility, wherein an appliance from the one or more appliances uses the information received from the automated kiosk to determine whether the visitor is permitted to use the appliance.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein gathering information about said visitor at said automated kiosk comprises obtaining information from said visitor using a process of which said visitor is aware and obtaining information about said visitor using a process of which said visitor is not aware.

30. The method of claim 28, further comprising determining a person to be visited by said visitor based upon said information gathered about said visitor and wherein communicating said portion of said gathered information and said portion of said additional information to said user comprises communicating said portions to said person to be visited.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein obtaining said additional information comprises at least one of performing a search on the Internet, searching a publicly available database, searching a database of visitor information obtained from said automated kiosk, and searching a local document database.

32. A computer programming product for collecting information about visitors to a facility, said computer programming product comprising:

code for gathering information about a visitor in an interactive session with an automated kiosk;

code for placing said information into a format in which said information may be stored;

code for storing said information for retrieval;

code for obtaining, based upon said gathered information about said visitor, additional information about said visitor from one or more sources, the additional information comprising information that is not provided during the interactive session;

code for providing said additional information about said visitor and said information about said visitor gathered at said kiosk to a person interested in said information;

code for communicating a portion of the information gathered about the visitor in the interactive session to one or more appliances located within the facility, wherein an appliance from the one or more appliances uses the information received from the automated kiosk to determine whether the visitor is permitted to use the appliance; and

a computer readable storage medium for holding the codes.