SYSTEM FOR QUEUE AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT

• US 20090076875A1
• Filed: 12/07/2007
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ahold Delhaize Licensing SARL (Ahold Delhaize International SARL)
• Original Assignee: Modiv Media (Catalina Marketing Corporation)
• Inventors: Lert, John G. JR., Bam, Ajay R., Brouhard, Jesse
• Granted Patent: US 9,064,359 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/209 Specified transaction journal output feature, e.g. printed receipt or voice output
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0229 Multi-merchant loyalty card systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 11/00 Arrangements, systems or apparatus for checking, e.g. the occurrence of a condition, not provided for elsewhere
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2011/04 related to queuing systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5238 with waiting time or load prediction arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

A system for service queue management is disclosed including a terminal controlled by the system having a processing platform to generate service queue information for a user, and a mechanism for the user to request or receive the service queue information. The processing platform preferably transmits promotions related to goods and services associated with the service queue information to a user. The mechanism for the user to request or receive service queue information may preferably include a user'"'"'s mobile communications device or a manually-activated device located on the terminal. Service queue information may include a queue number, next queue number to be issued, estimated wait time for service, a predicted time of service, time of issuance of ticket, predicted queue-waiting time, marketing messages, instructions for use of said ticket dispenser, and average queue-waiting time.

Claims

1. A system for service queue management, said system comprising:

a terminal controlled by said system having a processing platform to generate service queue information for a user; and

a mechanism for said user to request or receive said service queue information.

2. The system for service queue management of claim 1, wherein said mechanism is selected from the list of:

a mobile communications device, an optical card reader, a magnetic card reader, a biometric sensing device, a keypad, a touch screen, and a radio frequency identification (RFID) interface.

3. The system for service queue management of claim 1, wherein said processing platform of said terminal transmits promotions related to goods and services associated with said service queue information to said user.

4. The system for service queue management of claim 1, wherein said terminal is a ticket dispenser.

5. The system of claim 1, said service queue information comprising:

a queue number, next queue number to be issued, estimated wait time for service, a predicted time of service, time of issuance of ticket, predicted queue-waiting time, marketing messages, instructions for use of said ticket dispenser, and average queue-waiting time.

6. A system for delivering media based on user identification, said system comprising:

a ticket dispenser controlled by said system for delivering media to a user, said ticket dispenser including at least one display, a control computer, and a mechanism for receiving identification information from a user,

wherein upon receipt of said identification information, said control computer authenticates said user and transmits media tailored to said user for viewing by said user.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said mechanism for receiving identification information is arranged in connection with said ticket dispenser and selected from the list of:

an optical card reader, a magnetic card reader, a biometric sensing device, a keypad, a touch screen, and a radio frequency identification (RFID) interface.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein said mechanism for receiving identification information is an interface that communicates with a mobile device of said user.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein said identification information is selected from the list of:

a telephone number, an email address, a text message address, a personal identification number (PIN), a bar code, and a loyalty/reward card number.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein said user views said media tailored to said user on said mobile device.

11. The system of claim 6 wherein said user views said media tailored to said user on said at least one display of said ticket dispenser.

12. A ticket dispenser comprising:

a housing;

at least one manually-activated device arranged on said housing, and

a communications interface arranged in said housing for interfacing with a control computer controlling operation of said ticket dispenser,

wherein said control computer generates queue and service related information for said ticket dispenser.

13. The ticket dispenser of claim 12, wherein said control computer is arranged in said housing in communication with said at least one manually-activated device, wherein a signal is sent from said at least one manually-activated device to said control microcomputer to request generation of queue and service related information.

14. The ticket dispenser of claim 13, wherein said control computer is remote from said ticket dispenser.

15. The ticket dispenser of claim 13 wherein said interfacing with said control computer is via a wireless connection.

16. The ticket dispenser of claim 12 wherein a user is identified to said ticket dispenser through a mechanism selected from the list of:

RFID sensor, telephone, pager, PDA, and said manually-activated device selected from the list comprising, a keypad, an optical card scanner, a magnetic card scanner, a touch screen, at least one button, and at least one knob.

17. The ticket dispenser of claim 12, said ticket dispenser further comprising:

a printer arranged in said housing and controlled by said control microcomputer for printing said queue and service related information.

18. The ticket dispenser of claim 12, said ticket dispenser further comprising:

at least one display screen arranged in connection with said housing for displaying said queue and service related information received from said control microcomputer.

19. The ticket dispenser of claim 12, said queue and service related information comprising:

a queue number, next queue number to be issued, estimated wait time for service, a predicted time of service, time of issuance of ticket, predicted queue-waiting time, marketing messages, instructions for use of said ticket dispenser, and average queue-waiting time.

20. The ticket dispenser of claim 12, wherein alerts related to said service and queue related information are transmitted to a mobile device of said user.

21. A ticket dispenser for managing more than one service queues said ticket dispenser comprising:

a housing;

a plurality of manually-activated devices, wherein each of said plurality of manually-activated devices is associated with a separate service queue; and

a communications interface arranged in said housing for interfacing with a control computer controlling operation of said ticket dispenser,

wherein upon selection of one of said plurality of manually-activated devices a signal is sent from said ticket dispenser to said control computer to return service queue information associated with said selected manually-activated device.

22. The ticket dispenser of claim 21, wherein each of said plurality of manually-activated devices is associated with a separate display screen arranged in connection with said housing.

23. A system for alerting a user to service queue related information, said system comprising:

a terminal controlled by said system for transmitting said service queue related information upon said user establishing position in a service queue through said terminal; and

a mechanism controlled by said user for receiving said service queue related information.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein said terminal controlled by said system is a ticket dispenser.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein said mechanism is a mobile communications device.