Methods and systems for coupon service applications

• US 9,129,302 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2012
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Transform Sr Brands, LLC (ESL Investments, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sears Brands LLC (Sears Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Glassman, Ellen T., Schraad, Mark F., Flowers, Kevin M., Chico, Yu Z., McClearn, Marisa L., Grimm, Daniel S., Munoz, Christopher M., Gentolizo, Emil, Lucas, Uki D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Weiss, John G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Scott C
• Application Number:
  US13/421,603
• Publication Number:
  US 20130117106A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,272 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.25
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F25D 29/008 Alarm devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0223 based on inventory
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

A coupon service application operated on multiple platforms, including mobile devices, PC/Internet and display screens on home appliances. The application maintains a home inventory defining the consumable products within a user'"'"'s home and a shopping list defining the consumable products the user wishes to purchase, and compares the home inventory and shopping list against a database of available coupons. Users can share and save coupons, use coupons for online purchases, check their home inventory while away from home, monitor the price of certain products and compare the price against an average price and track historical savings. The application maintains a recipe bank, suggests recipes based on the home inventory, and enables users to select recipes, adding ingredients therefrom to the shopping list, all while identifying coupons for items on the shopping list and the home inventory. Users can input a budget, and tracks spending against the budget.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions which, when executed by a processing device, perform steps for identifying coupons, comprising:

monitoring a refrigerator via a device manager, wherein the device manager provides user access to a first list that includes grocery items inside the refrigerator, wherein the device manager receives status information concerning the grocery items inside the refrigerator, wherein the status information includes information relating to a quantity of one or more grocery items inside the refrigerator;

receiving a first user input defining a particular grocery item;

generating a shopping list based on the first list, the received first user input, and the status information;

comparing the shopping list against a coupon database;

identifying one or more available coupons for the first product;

outputting the identified one or more available coupons via a graphic display;

receiving a second user input defining a strike price;

monitoring the price of the particular grocery item; and

providing an alert when the price of the particular grocery item equals or falls below the strike price.

2. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the first user input is received through a touchscreen.

3. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the first user input is received via voice recognition.

4. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the first user input comprises a scan of a universal product code (UPC).

5. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the generating step comprises the step of syncing the shopping list with an online user wish list on a retail website.

6. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the refrigerator provides an inventory based on the first list of the grocery items inside the refrigerator.

7. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the shopping list is updated by adding or replacing an item from a user preferred list of items.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions which, when executed by a processing device, perform steps for identifying a coupon, comprising:

monitoring and controlling one or more home appliances via a device manager, wherein the device manager provides user access to a first list that includes one or more items inside the one or more home appliances, wherein the device manager receives status information concerning the one or more items inside the one or more home appliances, wherein the status information includes information relating to one or more of a quantity, a purchase date, and a purchase price of the one or more items inside the one or more home appliances;

receiving a first user input defining a first item;

generating a home inventory based on the first list, the received first user input, and the status information;

comparing the home inventory against a coupon database;

identifying one or more available coupons for any item in the home inventory;

outputting the identified one or more available coupons via a graphic display;

receiving a second user input defining a strike price;

monitoring the price of the first item; and

providing an alerting when the price of the first item equals or falls below the strike price.

9. The computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the instructions enable users to organize the home inventory by a number of categories.

10. The computer-readable medium according to claim 9, wherein the first user input is received via voice recognition.

11. The computer-readable medium according to claim 9, wherein the first user input comprises a scan of a universal product code.

12. The computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the instructions further perform steps, comprising:

monitoring a current price of the first item;

maintaining a price log for the first item; and

calculating an average price of the first item based on the price log.

13. The computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the instructions further perform steps comprising:

allowing a user to select a coupon from a set of available coupons; and

enabling the user to share the coupon through one or more of a text message and a multimedia message.

14. The computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the instructions further perform steps comprising:

allowing a user to select a coupon from a set of available coupons; and

enabling the user to share the coupon through social media.

15. The computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the instructions further perform steps comprising:

allowing a user to select a coupon from a set of available coupons; and

enabling the user to share the coupon directly between mobile devices.

16. The computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the instructions further perform steps comprising:

monitoring, via a cellular communications network, a status of the one or more items inside the one or more home appliances; and

providing a shopping list based on the monitored status of the one or more items.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions which, when executed by a processing device, perform steps for identifying a coupon, comprising:

monitoring and controlling one or more home appliances via a device manager, wherein the device manager provides user access to a first list that includes one or more items inside the one or more home appliance, wherein the device manager receives status information concerning the one or more items inside the one or more home appliances;

receiving a first user input defining a first item;

generating a home inventory based on the first list, the received first user input, and the status information;

comparing the home inventory against a coupon database;

identifying one or more available coupons for any item in the home inventory;

outputting the identified one or more available coupons;

receiving a second user input defining whether the first item is tax deductible;

updating a tax deductible inventory list based on the second user input; and

syncing the tax deductible inventory list with a software application for tax preparation.

18. The computer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein the instructions further perform steps comprising:

receiving a third user input defining a strike price;

monitoring a price of the first item; and

providing an alert when the price of the first item equals or falls below the strike price.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions which, when executed by a processing device, perform steps for identifying coupons, comprising:

monitoring a home appliance via a cellular communication network, wherein the monitoring includes accessing a first list that includes one or more items housed by the home appliance, wherein the device manager receives status information concerning the one or more items housed by the home appliance;

receiving an input from the home appliance defining a first item;

generating a second list based on the first list, the received input, and the status information;

comparing the second list against a coupon database;

identifying one or more available coupons for the first item;

outputting the one or more identified available coupons via a graphic display;

receiving a second user input defining a strike price;

monitoring a price of the first item; and

providing an alert when the price of the first item equals or falls below the strike price.

20. The computer-readable medium according to claim 19, comprising:

receiving a third user input from a mobile cellular device, wherein the third user input defines a second item; and

updating the second list based on the first list, the received input from the home appliance, the status information, and the third user input from the mobile cellular device.