Patent Application
20230177904
None.
The present invention generally relates to a distributed system of locker units and more specifically relates to a distributed smart locker system where each locker unit has a computing device and a set of inputs and outputs.
The online ordering of food and other goods has grown tremendously in the past decade. Users expect local businesses to offer online ordering.
This has created a challenge for restaurants and stores to be able to properly organize all the items that are ordered online for pickup. Today, the most common method used is putting food orders on a shelf or table with some type of name tag so that they can be identified. In this case, the final customer or delivery person has to go through every package to identify theirs. Another method is to keep the items behind a counter which requires the final customer or delivery person to interact with the operator to get the package. These methods are inefficient and cumbersome for both the operators and the customers.
A variety of smart locker systems exists today. Some of them are described in US20150186840A1 (TORRES), US20030025590A1 (Gokcebay), US20020156645A1 (Hansen), and U.S. Ser. No. 10/997,548B2 (NELSON). All of these systems consist of a series of locker units that connect to a central station or computing device that controls all of them, connects to the internet, and interacts with the user. These locker units do not have any computing system in them and all depend on the central station to operate. In most cases, these smart locker vendors sell a locker cabinet with a given amount of locker units already configured and pre-built, with no option to add or remove a locker unit as needed.
With these systems, the operators have the challenge to install, configure and grow the system as the business needs change. They must predict in advance how many units will be needing. Also if the central station breaks all the locker units become non-operational. For the end user picking up, these systems are also not ideal because a line can form at the central station since every user must use it to open their assigned locker (does not allow multiple users to open the lockers at the same time).
There exists, therefore, a need for a system and method, that does not suffer from the aforementioned problems.
The present invention advantageously fills the aforementioned deficiencies by providing a distributed set of locker units storing items to be picked up by end users. The locker units can be distributed in any desired configuration, around a restaurant, store, university, apartment building, or any other physical location, for an item to be picked up by a user.
Briefly, according to an embodiment of the invention, each locker unit can be directly powered from the wall electrical outlet or can be attached to another locker unit from any side to form a locker cluster and to get power from that linkage. Each locker unit does not depend on any other external/centralized station or controller system to be fully functional. Each locker unit contains a computing device with a processor, memory, storage, wireless networking (e.g. WiFi, Bluetooth), and a set of inputs and outputs for the user to retrieve the item and for the operator to place the item.
The present invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are intended to be read in conjunction with both this summary, the detailed description and any preferred and/or particular embodiments specifically discussed or otherwise disclosed, as well as, the appended claims. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way-of illustration only and so that this disclosure will be thorough, complete and will fully convey the full scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
In the accompanying figures, like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views. The accompanying figures, together with the detailed description below are incorporated in and form part of the specification and serve to further illustrate various embodiments and to explain various principles and advantages all in accordance with the present invention, in which:
While the invention as claimed can be modified into alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the scope of the present invention.
The following detailed description illustrates implementations of the subject matter described in this application by way of example and not by way of limitation. It should be understood that the drawings are diagrammatic and schematic representations of exemplary embodiments of the invention, and are not limiting of the present invention nor are they necessarily drawn to scale.
Disclosed here is a distributed smart locker system that can be used in a variety of places like restaurants, stores, universities, shopping malls, apartment buildings, or any other physical location.
Each locker unit has two ways of being powered. The first way is by connecting it to a power supply to an electrical outlet. In this configuration, the locker unit becomes a power source and can distribute the power to other locker units in the locker cluster. The second way of being powered is by attaching to a power source locker unit or by attaching to another unit in the locker cluster. In this configuration, the locker units become a power link. Every locker unit can act as a power source or a power link. This allows the operator to add and remove locker units as desired, and also to place them in any configuration for the given location. Each locker unit can be of various sizes and are still interconnectable to one another.
To provide electricity to the power source, a special interlocking mechanism is used that only attaches to one anchor point in the power source locker unit.
In all cases, each locker unit used to build the cluster is fully independent and of any given size, and the cluster can be dynamically configured.
In an exemplary embodiment, the locker unit 1310 includes a front display 1320 to show information about the order to the user. The locker unit receives information about the order (customer name, order number, app used to place the order) from the cloud control software 810. This display can also show a QR code for the user to retrieve the order using the phone.
In an exemplary embodiment, the locker unit 1310 includes a back display 1410 to show information about the order to the operator (cook, store attendant). The operator will use this information to know what order to place in which locker unit (from the rear).
In an exemplary embodiment, the locker unit includes a physical push button 1420 that the operator can use to indicate that the order is ready for pickup. Once the order is marked as ready a text message or notification is sent to the customer or delivery person. This physical button provides an easy method to indicate the order is complete in environments like a kitchen, where using a touch screen or tablet device can be hard.
In an exemplary embodiment, the locker unit 1310 includes a second physical push button 1430 that the operator can use to cycle through the available orders in the queue to assign to the locker unit or to free the locker unit.
In an exemplary embodiment, the locker unit 1310 contains a down-facing camera 1440 to detect when a package is placed inside. This can be used to make the locker unit available for the next order once the package has been picked up.
In an exemplary embodiment, the locker unit 1310 contains a front-facing camera 1330 used as an additional level of security when the package inside requires extra verification of the user picking up the package. For example, if the package inside was an item that requires age verification, the user picking up could present an ID to the front-facing camera, which will compare the ID to match the person to ensure age requirements.
The end-user opens the locker unit via a text message, email, or by entering some basic information about the order, from a mobile device. In the case of receiving a text message or email, the link provided is enough for the user to open the locker. However, in the case where the user opens the locker by scanning the front screen QR code, additional information has to be provided to confirm the user identity.
Multiple locker units can be opened at the same time because each has all the necessary information and input/output required to operate, without needing a central computing station.
In all these embodiments, the front display 1320, the back display 1410, the primary 1420 and secondary 1430 push buttons, the front-facing 1330 and down-facing 1440 cameras, as well as other parts like an RFID card reader 1340, an electromagnetic door latch 1350, a multi-color LED rail 1450, and a heating/cooling element are all connected to the local computing device 210 on each locker unit 1310.
This written description uses examples to disclose the embodiments and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the embodiments, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the disclosure is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims. It is to be understood that components from one embodiment may be combined with components from another embodiment.
