METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CUSTOMER SPECIFIC BASED FOOD PREPARATION PREDICTION

• US 20090265216A1
• Filed: 10/29/2008
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NCR Voyix Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Pasha, Alaa E., Flynn, Tracy L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,175,917 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0217 involving input on products or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants

Abstract

A food preparation predicting system and method in one embodiment includes a detector for obtaining customer information, a memory including program instructions for obtaining customer information from the detector, associating the customer information with stored customer specific preference information, generating a pseudo-order based upon the associated preference information, generating food preparation information based upon the pseudo-order, and displaying the food preparation information, and a processor operably connected to the camera and the memory for executing the program instructions.

Claims

1. A system for generating food preparation information comprising:

a detector for obtaining customer information;

a memory including program instructions for,

obtaining customer information from the detector,

associating the customer information with stored customer specific preference information,

generating a pseudo-order based upon the associated preference information,

generating food preparation information based upon the pseudo-order, and

displaying the food preparation information; and

a processor operably connected to the camera and the memory for executing the program instructions.

2. The system of 1, wherein the memory further includes program instructions for:

obtaining vehicle identification information.

3. The system of 2, wherein the memory further includes program instructions for:

displaying the pseudo-order to the customer;

receiving verification of the pseudo-order from the customer;

converting the pseudo-order to a food order; and

updating the food preparation information.

4. The system of 2, wherein the memory further includes program instructions for:

obtaining food order data;

assigning a confidence weight to the pseudo-order; and

generating the food preparation information based upon the weighted pseudo-order and the food order data.

5. The system of 2, wherein the memory further includes program instructions for:

obtaining staging area inventory data; and

generating the food preparation information based upon the obtained staging area inventory data.

6. The system of 1, wherein the memory further includes program instructions for:

associating the customer information with day specific customer specific preference information.

7. A method of predicting food preparation requirements comprising:

obtaining customer information;

associating the customer information with stored customer specific preference information;

generating a pseudo-order based upon the associated preference information;

generating food preparation information based upon the pseudo-order; and

displaying the food preparation information.

8. The method of 7, wherein:

obtaining customer information comprises obtaining vehicle identification information.

9. The method of 8, further comprising:

displaying the pseudo-order to the customer;

receiving verification of the pseudo-order from the customer;

converting the pseudo-order to a food order; and

updating the food preparation information.

10. The method of 8, wherein generating food preparation information comprises:

obtaining food order data;

assigning a confidence weight to the pseudo-order; and

generating the food preparation information based upon the weighted pseudo-order and the food order data.

11. The method of 10, wherein generating food preparation information further comprises:

obtaining staging area inventory data; and

generating the food preparation information based upon the obtained staging area inventory data.

12. The method of 7, wherein associating the customer information with stored customer specific preference information comprises;

associating the customer information with day specific customer specific preference information.

13. A system for providing food preparation information comprising:

a detector positioned to detect a vehicle in a drive-thru lane;

a memory including program instructions for,

obtaining customer information from the detector,

identifying a specific customer using the customer information,

obtaining historical ordering data for the identified customer,

predicting a food product to be ordered by the customer,

generating food preparation information based upon the prediction, and

displaying the food preparation information; and

a processor operably connected to the detector and the memory for executing the program instructions.

14. The system of 13, further comprising an input device for receiving the food order of the customer, wherein the memory further includes program instructions for:

comparing the obtained order with the prediction;

modifying the food preparation information based upon the comparison; and

storing the obtained order as historical ordering data for the identified customer.

15. The system of 14, wherein the memory further includes program instructions for:

determining the amount of a product that is in-process; and

modifying the food preparation information based upon the determined amount of product that is in-process.

16. The system of 14, wherein the memory further includes program instructions for:

modifying the food preparation information based upon the time of day.