AUTOMATIC TEST ORDER GENERATION FOR A RETAIL SHOPPING SERVICE
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of issuing a test order to one or more restaurants from an online ordering system;
- the online ordering system including a database for maintaining an order queue comprising one or more orders, the database also maintaining a collection of menus, wherein each menu corresponds to a particular one of the one or more restaurants, a back office computer for transmitting orders to the one or more restaurants over the Internet, and the online ordering system also including a monitoring computer, the method comprising the steps of;
i) the monitoring computer accessing the database and retrieving a menu for a particular restaurant;
ii) the monitoring computer programmatically selecting from the menu one or more items to generate a test order;
iii) the monitoring computer placing the test order in the order queue;
iv) the back office computer retrieving the test order from the order queue; and
v) the back office computer communicating the order to the particular restaurant over the Internet.
3 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A restaurant service automatically generates test orders comprised of items selected to minimize the cost and/or inconvenience to participating restaurants that accidentally prepare the test order.
9 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method of issuing a test order to one or more restaurants from an online ordering system;
- the online ordering system including a database for maintaining an order queue comprising one or more orders, the database also maintaining a collection of menus, wherein each menu corresponds to a particular one of the one or more restaurants, a back office computer for transmitting orders to the one or more restaurants over the Internet, and the online ordering system also including a monitoring computer, the method comprising the steps of;
i) the monitoring computer accessing the database and retrieving a menu for a particular restaurant; ii) the monitoring computer programmatically selecting from the menu one or more items to generate a test order; iii) the monitoring computer placing the test order in the order queue; iv) the back office computer retrieving the test order from the order queue; and v) the back office computer communicating the order to the particular restaurant over the Internet. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 18)
- the online ordering system including a database for maintaining an order queue comprising one or more orders, the database also maintaining a collection of menus, wherein each menu corresponds to a particular one of the one or more restaurants, a back office computer for transmitting orders to the one or more restaurants over the Internet, and the online ordering system also including a monitoring computer, the method comprising the steps of;
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10. A system for issuing test orders to one or more restaurants that participate in a restaurant service, the system comprising:
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i) a database adapted to maintain an order queue and a collection of menus, wherein the order queue holds one or more orders and each menu corresponds to a particular one of the one or more restaurants; ii) a back office computer operatively coupled to the database and operatively coupled to a wide area network, the back office computer adapted to retrieve orders from the order queue and transmit the orders to the one or more restaurants over the wide area network; iii) a monitoring computer operatively coupled to the database, the monitoring computer including a program, the program adapted to generate a test order by programmatically selecting one or more menu items from a menu associated with a particular one of the one or more restaurants and insert the test order into the order queue; and iv) wherein the back office computer is further adapted to transmit the test order to the particular restaurant over the wide area network. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19)
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Specification