Handling household tasks

• US 20110035230A1
• Filed: 10/18/2010
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sud Systems LLC
• Original Assignee: Laundry Locker, Inc. (Mulberrys LLC)
• Inventors: Levy, Arik Seth
• Granted Patent: US 8,401,932 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

In an embodiment, articles are left in storage areas, such as lockers or other receptacles, which may be associated with a household services company. In an embodiment, after depositing the articles in the storage area the articles are associated with the user by the household services company based on a claim by a user of using the storage area and/or tags associated with the articles.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving articles in a storage area associated with a laundry service, the storage area being associated with an identifier that was assigned to the storage area prior to a user visiting the storage area, the storage area having a purely mechanical lock and a purely mechanical key, the key mechanically locking and mechanically unlocking the lock;

allowing a user to take the key with the user, without being required to be at a location associated with the laundry service;

receiving a notification that the articles are associated with the storage area, the notification including the identifier associated with the storage area and an identifier associated with the user and the notification being generated by the user, the notification being received via the Internet;

associating the user with the articles based on the identifier associated with the storage area, and the identifier associated with the user;

servicing the articles; and

returning the articles to the storage area.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing the key in the lock, while the storage area is not in use by a customer, the lock being configured such that removing the key locks the lock and such that in order for the lock to be unlocked the key must be in the lock.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the storage area is a locker, the articles including at least clothing, and the method further comprises:

inventorying the clothing after receiving the notification, and

cleaning the clothing.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein

the storage area is a locker, the articles including at least clothing,

and

after receiving the articles removing the articles from the storage area, inventorying the clothing prior to receiving the notification.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing a user to hold onto the key until a batch of articles associated with the user is returned to the storage area associated with the key.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising photographing at least one of the articles received.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

providing, via a computer system having a processor system including one or more processors, a pictorial representation of the article; and

the processor system providing a status of the article via one or more web pages.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a set of a plurality of storage areas, a set of the plurality of locks, and a set of a plurality of keys, when one of the plurality of storage areas is not in use, a corresponding one of the plurality of keys is stored inside a corresponding one of the plurality of locks, which corresponds to the one of the plurality of storage areas that is not being used.

6. A method comprising:

receiving articles in a storage area associated with a laundry service;

allowing a user to take the key, the user being one from which the articles were received in the storage area; and

receiving a notification that the articles are associated with the storage area,

wherein the storage area is associated with a purely mechanical lock and a purely mechanical key;

associating a user with the articles after establishing an account for a user associated with the articles and receiving the notification;

cleaning the article;

and

returning the article to the storage area.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

uploading a photograph resulting from the photographing to a webpage that is viewable by a user.

11. A system comprising:

a storage area for receiving articles, the storage area being associated with a laundry service, the storage area having a purely mechanical lock and a purely mechanical key for locking the storage area, the storage area being stationary;

the lock being configured such that removing the key locks the lock and such that in order for the lock to be in an unlocked state the key must be in the lock, therein encouraging a user to leave the key the in the lock when finished using the storage area; and

one or more computer readable media storing thereon at least a method including at least receiving a request to service articles from the customer, the request including at least

an identification of a location associated with a laundry service where the articles were placed by the user in the storage area,

and

information identifying the user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

establishing an account for the user based on the request.

13. The system of claim 11 further comprising:

a set of one or more receptacles, which include the storage area, each receptacle having a lock and being associated with a key for locking the lock.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving user service instructions from the user.

15. A system comprising:

one or more computer readable media storing thereon at least a method including at least receiving a request to service articles, the request including at least

an identification of a location associated with a laundry service where the articles were placed by a user, and

information identifying the user;

receiving user service instructions from the user;

and

service equipment configured for automatically servicing the articles according to the user service instructions after the articles are placed into the service equipment.