Delivery management system and method using smart communicator

• US 8,694,388 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2012
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kwak, Se Jin
• Primary Examiner(s): Pond, Rob
• Application Number:
  US13/587,564
• Publication Number:
  US 20120330782A1
• Time in Patent Office: 600 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083

Abstract

Disclosed is a delivery management system and method using a smart communicator that include a selling server for selling articles online; a delivery server for managing delivery of articles sold by the selling server; a mailbox which reads information from an information storage attached to an arrived article at a destination under the control of the delivery server; and a home network server, which stores ordered article information, determines whether the arrived article is correctly delivered based on a comparison between the ordered article information and the arrived article information read from the information storage, transmits the result of the comparison to a smart communicator, controls follow-up management of the delivery according to a remote control of the smart communicator, to verify article arrival, and controls follow-up management using the smart communicator.

Claims

1. A delivery management method performed by a portable smart communicator, the method comprising:

transmitting, to a selling server, a request message for ordering an article;

transmitting, to a home network server, information about the ordered article;

receiving, from the home network server, delivery information about arrival of the article;

receiving a comparison result from the home network server by comparing the information about the ordered article and the delivery information read from an article identifier provided with the delivered article; and

transmitting to a delivery server information for re-delivery of the ordered article based on the comparison result,

wherein the comparison result indicates that the delivered article is incorrectly delivered.

2. The delivery management method of claim 1, further comprising remote-controlling withdrawal of the arrived article.

3. The delivery management method of claim 2, wherein remote-controlling withdrawal of the arrived article includes:

receiving a withdrawal schedule request message regarding arrival of the article from a delivery server; and

transmitting a withdrawal schedule input, by a user in response to the withdrawal schedule request message, to the home network server and the delivery server.

4. The delivery management method of claim 1, wherein the information about the ordered article is information of a Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tag affixed to the ordered article.

5. The delivery management method of claim 4, wherein the information about the ordered article includes a delivery schedule for the ordered article.

6. The delivery management method of claim 5, further comprising receiving the delivery schedule for the ordered article from a delivery server.

7. A portable smart communicator comprising:

a wireless communication unit for communicating with a home network server and a selling server; and

a controller for controlling the wireless communication unit to transmit, to the selling server, a request message for ordering an article, to transmit, to the home network server, information about the ordered article, to receive, from the home network server, delivery information about arrival of the article, to transmit information for re-delivery of the ordered article based on the received delivery information, to receive a comparison result from the home network server by comparing the information about the ordered article and the delivery information read from an article identifier provided with the delivered article, and to transmit to a delivery server information for re-delivery of the ordered article based on the comparison result,

wherein the comparison result indicates that the delivered article is incorrectly delivered.

8. The portable smart communicator of claim 7, wherein the controller remote-controls withdrawal of the arrived article.

9. The portable smart communicator of claim 8, wherein the controller controls the wireless communication unit to receive a withdrawal schedule request message regarding the arrived article from a delivery server and to transmit a withdrawal schedule, input by a user in response to the withdrawal schedule request message, to the home network server and the delivery server.

10. The portable smart communicator of claim 7, wherein the information about the ordered article is information of a Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tag affixed to the ordered article.

11. The portable smart communicator of claim 10, wherein the information about the ordered article includes a delivery schedule of the ordered article.

12. The portable smart communicator of claim 11, wherein the controller controls the wireless communication unit to receive the delivery schedule of the ordered article from a delivery server.

13. The portable smart communicator of claim 7, wherein the wireless communication unit comprises a local communication unit for communicating with the home network server and a remote communication unit for communicating with the selling server.