Beverage dispensing and tracking system

• US 8,880,427 B1
• Filed: 11/27/2012
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: iPourIt, Inc.
• Original Assignee: iPourIt, Inc.
• Inventors: Jones, Brett Michael Kaiakua
• Primary Examiner(s): Iwarere, Seye
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ludwig, Peter L
• Application Number:
  US13/686,467
• Time in Patent Office: 707 Days
• Field of Search: 705/22
• US Class Current: 705/22
• CPC Class Codes: B67D 7/221 using electrical or electro-mechanical means B67D7/224 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B67D 7/3281 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 13/065 for drink preparation
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/00 Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A system for managing beverage sales and inventory, and for enabling customers to pour their own beverages while preventing shrinkage is disclosed. The system enables a user to access a beverage from a beverage dispenser by presenting a beverage-pour tracking device. The beverage dispenser can prevent a user from accessing the beverage without the beverage-pour tracking device. Further, the system can confirm whether the user is permitted to access the beverage dispenser before enabling the user to access the dispenser.

Claims

1. A method for tracking beverage pours, the method comprising:

by one or more computer hardware components comprising one or more processors;

accessing an identification associated with a customer of a first beverage provider;

determining customer information about the customer based on the accessed identification;

determining, based on the customer information, that the customer satisfies a legal criteria to obtain beverages at the first beverage provider;

generating a unique customer identifier corresponding to the customer based on the accessed identification;

associating the customer with a first central account at a multi-site beverage-data system based, at least in part, on the unique customer identifier, the multi-site beverage-data system accessible by a plurality of beverage providers including the first beverage provider;

associating the customer with a customer account at a site-specific beverage tracking system based at least in part on the unique customer identifier;

associating the customer with a beverage-pour tracking device based on the unique customer identifier and a unique tracking device identifier associated with the beverage-pour tracking device, the beverage-pour tracking device storing information for identifying the customer account associated with the customer at the site-specific beverage tracking system;

determining whether the beverage-pour tracking device is within a threshold distance from a first activator associated with a first beverage dispenser of a plurality of beverage dispensers, wherein each beverage dispenser of the plurality of beverage dispensers is associated with a separate activator;

in response to determining that the beverage-pour tracking device is within the threshold distance from the first activator;

identifying the customer based on the information stored on the beverage-pour tracking device; and

determining whether a measure of an amount of a first beverage available at the first beverage provider satisfies a minimum available beverage threshold, wherein the minimum available beverage threshold comprises a dynamic threshold based on a total number of customers currently at the first beverage provider and the rate of consumption of the first beverage provider; and

in response to determining that the measure of the amount of the first beverage available satisfies the minimum available beverage threshold;

activating the first beverage dispenser thereby enabling the customer to obtain access to the first beverage;

determining pour information indicating a quantity of the first beverage poured from the first beverage dispenser;

updating a first set of metadata associated with the first beverage at an inventory repository;

updating the customer account at the site-specific beverage-tracking system based, at least in part, on the pour information; and

updating the first central account at the multi-site beverage-data system based, at least in part, on the pour information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the beverage-pour tracking device comprises a Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the beverage-pour tracking device comprises a bracelet with a Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) device that is configured to be positioned within the threshold distance from the first activator when the customer engages an activation mechanism associated with the first beverage dispenser.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of beverage providers are associated with a different entity than the first beverage provider.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the first set of metadata associated with the first beverage at the inventory repository further comprises:

reducing the measure of the amount of the first beverage available based on the quantity of the beverage poured;

determining if the measure of the amount of the beverage available does not satisfy an available inventory threshold; and

in response to determining that the measure of the amount of the beverage available does not satisfy the available inventory threshold, initiating a low-inventory action associated with the beverage, wherein the low-inventory action comprises at least one of alerting an employee to obtain additional inventory of the beverage and initiating a purchase of additional inventory of the beverage.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the available inventory threshold and the minimum available beverage threshold are the same.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating a second set of metadata associated with the beverage at the multi-site beverage-data system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the minimum available beverage threshold comprises a combination of an inventory minimum threshold and a reserved beverage quantity.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the multi-site beverage-data system a reservation request for a reservation quantity of the first beverage, the reservation request associated with a second central account at the multi-site beverage-data system;

determining whether the measure of the amount of the first, beverage in stock is sufficient to satisfy the reservation request; and

in response to determining that the measure of the amount of the first beverage in stock is sufficient to satisfy the reservation request, reserving the reservation quantity of the first beverage for a second customer associated with the second central account and adjusting the minimum available beverage threshold based on the reservation quantity.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the first central account at the multi-site beverage-data system further comprises updating a social networking page associated with the customer.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein updating the social networking page comprises updating at least one of the following:

a location check-in, a drink rating, a favorite beverage provider, a favorite beverage type, a check-in reward credit, and a reclaimed beverage offer.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the measure of the amount of the first beverage available comprises one or more of a measure of the amount of the first beverage at the first beverage provider and a measure of the amount of the first beverage in the first beverage dispenser.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a maximum pour quantity associated with the customer based at least in part on weight, build and gender information about the customer;

determining whether the customer has exceeded the maximum pour quantity based on the determined pour information; and

in response to determining that the customer has exceeded the maximum pour quantity, deactivating the first beverage dispenser to prevent the customer from further accessing the first beverage.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the maximum pour quantity associated with the customer is based at least in part on a total amount of beverages poured by the customer per quantity of time.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to determining that the measure of the amount of the first beverage in stock is insufficient to satisfy the reservation request;

rejecting the reservation request to reserve the first beverage; and

providing, to the second customer, at least one suggested alternative beverage based on information about the second user.