WO2011089317A1

WO2011089317A1 - Client service system for canteen

Info

Publication number: WO2011089317A1
Application number: PCT/FI2011/050038
Authority: WO
Inventors: Juha Haara
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2010-01-20
Filing date: 2011-01-19
Publication date: 2011-07-28
Anticipated expiration: 2012-07-20
Also published as: FI20105043L; FI20105043A0; FI20105043A7; EP2526388A1; EP2526388A4

Abstract

A system for determining the amount of food in a canteen is disclosed. The system comprises computing means for computing the amount of food a customer has taken on the basis of a weight of the food measured with a weighing device and/or information describing the meal portion; short range wireless telecommunication means (102) operationally connected to the computing means so as to transfer information describing the amount of food wirelessly with a personal apparatus of said customer; and a processing apparatus (100) configured to carry out a payment procedure by receiving a message comprising information describing the amount of food taken by the customer and by processing the received information describing the amount of food according to a predetermined criterion.

Description

Client Service System for Canteen Technical Field

The invention is directed to a system designed for a canteen or a like in order to determine the amount of food a customer has taken. Background

In an ordinary canteen or the like there are various alternatives to determine the price of a meal. In some canteens the price is fixed regardless of the meal a customer has selected. In other canteens the meal is weighted with an ordinary scale, and the price of the meal is determined according to the weight.

Brief Description

The invention aims to provide an improved system for determining the amount of food the customer has taken. A system according to the present invention comprises computing means for computing the amount of food a cus- tomer has taken on the basis of a weight of the food measured with a weighing device and/or information describing the meal portion; short range wireless telecommunication means operationally connected to the computing means so as to transfer information describing the amount of food wirelessly with a personal apparatus of said customer; and a processing apparatus configured to carry out a payment procedure by receiving a message comprising information describing the amount of food taken by the customer and by processing the received information describing the amount of food according to a predetermined criterion. The invention enables wireless transfer of the information describing the amount of food, which enables in some embodiments payment of the meal by a mobile telephone, for example. Thus, the customer does not have to queue for a cashier. In other embodiments, the amount of calories in the meal is transferred to a customer's apparatus, which enables monitoring the amount of calories consumed without needing to input the values manually. In some embodiments, the invention enables carrying out automated transac- tion and monitoring for that, which expedites the operation particularly in canteens. List of Drawings

The invention will now be described in greater detail in connection with preferred embodiments and referring to the appended drawings in which:

Figure 1 illustrates a system according to an embodiment of the in- vention;

Figures 2 and 3 illustrate transactions according to different embodiments of the invention;

Figure 4 illustrates a weighing arrangement according to an embodiment; and

Figure 5 illustrates an arrangement according to another embodiment of the invention.

Description of Embodiments

The following description describes some preferred embodiments of the invention. It should be understood that combinations between different embodiments are apparent to a person skilled in the art and that features of different embodiments may be combined with other embodiments in order to realize new embodiments.

A system for determining an amount of food in a canteen according to the invention comprises computing means for computing the amount of food the customer has taken on the basis of a weight of the food measured with a scale and/or information describing the meal portion. The system comprises additionally short range wireless telecommunication means operationally connected to the computing means so as to transfer information describing the amount of food wirelessly to a processing apparatus, and the processing appa- ratus configured to communicate with the telecommunication means and to process the received information describing the amount of food according to a predetermined criterion.

Figure 1 illustrates an embodiment of the invention, wherein computing means arranged to a base 104 include a weighing device 106 on which a meal portion on a plate 108 (or on a tray or a corresponding pad) is placed. The weighing device 106 weighs the weight of the plate 108 together with the meal portion and conveys the weight to a computing unit (not shown) which subtracts the weight of the plate from the weight reported by the weighing device. The weight of the plate (or another receptable on which the food is in- tended to be weighed) may be preset in a memory used by the computing unit. The operation of the computing unit may be triggered by a signal received from the weighing device that indicates that an item to be weighed is placed on the weighing device. In other embodiments, the operation of both the weighing device and the computing unit is launched by an activation carried out by a user by pressing an activation button disposed on the base, for example.

The short range telecommunication means include an NFC unit 102 (Near-Field Communications). The NFC is a technique enabling radio frequency identification in very short distances. Mobile phones supporting the NFC are already commercially available. Thus, an embodiment of the process- ing apparatus is a mobile phone 100 configured to communicate with the computing unit through NFC technique when the mobile phone 100 is placed close to the NFC unit 102. The NFC unit may be configured to sense the proximity of another NFC unit (in this case the NFC unit of the mobile phone 100) on the basis of a received radio signal. The mobile phone may comprise a computer program configuring a processor of the mobile phone to communicate with the NFC communications technology and to process information received and to be transmitted according to embodiments described below. Upon receiving a notification of a NFC communication connection from the NFC unit, the computing means transfer the information related to the weight of the meal portion and/or other information related to the amount of the meal portion to the mobile phone 100 for payment of a bill or for other processing. The user may input to the mobile phone an amount of calories per weight unit, whereby the software of the mobile phone may configure the processor of the mobile phone to compute the amount of calories in the meal portion by multiplying the amount of calories per weight unit with the weight of the meal portion in said weight units. Accordingly, the user gains knowledge about the amount of calories in the meal portion. The mobile phone may comprise an application that computes calorie consumption and calorie intake of the user, thus enabling the monitoring of the weight of the user. The mobile phone may also be in communication with a server in order to forward information related to the application (gained/consumed calories etc.).

Alternatively, the base 104 may comprise input means (not shown) to input information describing the meal portion (e.g. amount of calories per weight unit). The input means may be a series of buttons, wherein each button is associated with a certain type of the meal portion, size of the meal portion and/or certain amount of calories per weight unit. The input means may be im- plemented by a touch-sensitive display. When placing the food on the weighing device, the user may select from the input means a button corresponding to the meal portion he/she has taken, whereby the computing means operationally connected with the input means receive the input, compute the amount of calories on the basis of the weight and the amont of calories per weight unit (the weight of the plate being subtracted), and transfer the amount of calories through the NFC unit 102 to the mobile phone either together with the weight or even without the weight, whereby the amount of calories may be used in the billing or in a corresponding processing operation. The input means may also be used to input the weight of the plate(s) and/or other utensils before the actual weighing. The weight of the utensils may be input by a staff member, and the weight of the utensils needs to be inputted only once, whereby the computing means of the base store the weights of the utensils in the memory unit.

The computing means may be operationally connected to printing means in order to print the price, weight and/or amount of calories for the user. The base 104 may also include a display unit which may be a touch-sensitive display, whereby the touch-sensitive display may preferably realize also the input means.

The base may be a separate base on which the plate or the tray is placed, as illustrated in Figure 1 , or the base may form the tray or the plate, wherein the weighing device, the computing means, and the communication means are attached to the plate or the tray. In an embodiment, the weighing device, the computing means, and the communication means are integrated into the plate or the tray. Then, the integration is preferably realized in a water- proof manner such that the equipment will not be damaged in machine wash. In another embodiment, the weighing device, the computing means, and the communication means are attached to the plate or tray detachably, whereby the equipment may be removed from the plate or the tray for the washing. The base may also comprise a display unit configured to show the weight and/or the amount of calories of the portion as controlled by the computing means after the computing means have computed said parameters. The display unit may be an LCD display, a LED display or another display based on thin film technology.

A corresponding procedure may be carried out for a plurality of meal portion taken by the customer, whereby information describing the amount of one or more meal portions is transferred to the mobile phone. The procedure may be carried out by using one or more bases according to Figure 1 , whereby a separate base may be associated with each meal portion, or the procedure may be carried out with a single base 104, whereby the base may include the above-mentioned input means such that all the meal portions may be taken into account. The computing means may be realized to buffer the information describing the amount of several meal portions and to transfer the total buffered information to the mobile phone together in a bundle, when the mobile phone is brought into the close proximity with the NFC unit 102. Thus, there is no need to separately transfer the amount describing each meal portion to the mobile phone.

When the customer has taken the food and when the information describing the amount of food has been transferred to the mobile phone (or to a corresponding processing apparatus), the customer proceeds to a payment point (a cashier). According to Figure 2, the payment point of the system may include another NFC unit 202 and a payment apparatus 204 connected to it, e.g. an electronic payment machine for payment by a card, e.g. a credit card. The user brings his/her mobile phone close to the NFC unit 202, whereby the application of the mobile phone is configured to transfer the information describing the amount of food to the payment point. The NFC unit of the payment point may include a specific identifier that distinguishes the payment point from NFC units 102 related to taking food, and the mobile phone is thus able to transmit instead of receiving. When the information describing the amount of food has been transferred to the payment point through the NFC radio link, a processing unit of the payment point receives the information describing the amount of food and computes a price for it according to a prescribed method. The price is taken to the payment apparatus 204 which operates according to state of the art payment machines, and the customer pays for his/her meal. Alternatively, the price of the meal may be computed by the computing means before the information describing the amount of food is transferred to the mo- bile phone. Thus, the mobile phone transfers the price of the meal portion taken by the customer to the payment point directly.

In another embodiment of the invention, the telecommunication means disposed in the base enable a (wireless or wired) communication connection with the payment point. The wired communication connection may be realized by Ethernet, USB (Universal Serial Bus), or another wired communication method, for example, and the wireless telecommunication connection may be realized by Bluetooth, WLAN (IEEE 802.1 1 x), or any other wireless telecommunication method. The computing means of the base may be configured to apply the information describing the amount of food (weight, amount of calories, price) directly to the payment point over the communication connection. The payment point and/or the base may include the NFC unit through which the information describing the amount of food may be transferred to the customer's mobile phone or to another corresponding device. If the base and the payment point are located fixedly remotely from each other, e.g. if the base is a fixed weighing point of food, and the user thus has to be associated with the information describing the amount of food transferred between the base and the payment point, the user may input his/her own identifier through the NFC unit of the mobile phone to the NFC unit of the base. Then, the computing means of the base associate the received user identifier with the amount of food currently being determined and transfer the user identifier and the infor- mation describing the amount of food to the payment point. Upon arrival to the payment point, the user may again input his/her identifier through the NFC unit of his/her mobile phone to the NFC unit of the payment point, whereby the processing means of the payment point search from the information describing amounts of food received from the base for the information that is associated with the corresponding customer identifier. Thus, the payment point finds the information describing the amount of food taken by the particular customer for carrying out the payment.

Figure 3 illustrates electronic payment carried out by using the mobile phone. A modern mobile phone 100 is inherently connected to the Internet 302 through a wireless network 304 (e.g. GSM, UMTS, WiFi). A server 300 handling the payments is also connected to the Internet 302 to enable a connection between the mobile phone and the server. In this embodiment, the computing means may have been configured to compute the price of the meal instead of, or in addition to, the information describing the amount of food and to transfer the price information to the mobile phone over the NFC link. When the customer has taken the meal portion and when the price information of the meal portions taken by the customer have been transferred to the mobile phone, the application of the mobile phone connects, as controlled by the user, to the server 300, and the payment may be carried out as a state-of-the-art real-time payment, wherein an authorization to carry out the payment is transmitted from the mobile phone to the server 300, and the server 300 transmits an electronic receipt to the mobile phone. The system further includes a reader apparatus which may be disposed in connection with an exit, payment point, or another appropriate location in the canteen. The reader apparatus includes also a wireless communication unit which may operate according to the NFC technique, another technique based on electromagnetic induction, or a longer range radio transfer technique (e.g. radio technology operating on UHF frequencies), and which is configured to communicate with the mobile phone 100 in order to transfer the electronic receipt to the reader apparatus to verify the payment. In connection with the reader apparatus, there may be a gate or the like equipped with a motion sensor, NFC sensor (senses the presence of NFC units that are in close proximity), or another sensor that detects the motion of people moving by. If the sensor detects that a person (or an NFC unit) passes through the gate without transfer of an electronic receipt to the reading apparatus, the system is configured to conduct an alarm for example with an audio signal or the like. Accordingly, a customer cannot exit the canteen without proving the execution of the payment.

In the embodiment where the computing means and the NFC unit are disposed in the tray, the customer may transfer the electronic receipt to the tray through the NFC link after carrying out the payment. A return point of the tray, in the payment point, or in another appropriate location may be a reading unit (e.g. an RFID reader) which may be configured to read a receipt from an NFC unit of each tray. If the reading unit does not find a receipt in a tray in connection with return, it may conduct an alarm as described above.

In an embodiment, the base includes a weighing arrangement 400 having a base on which the meal portions are placed for the weighing, and comprising a specific area 402, 404, 406, 408 for each meal portion. The weighing arrangement is configured to detect on which specific area 402 - 408 a meal portion has been placed. The computing means are configured to compute the amount of food on the basis of weight information reported by the weighing device and the special area(s) on which food has been placed. The special areas may have been realized by separated weighing devices or detection based on contact. Each special area may be associated with a certain meal type having its price and/or amount of calories per weight unit being stored in the computing means beforehand. Thus, the computing unit may compute the total price of the meal on the basis of weight and price per weight of different special areas. Each special area may have been shaped according to a receptable corresponding to each meal portion (a glass, a shallow plate, a soup plate, a small plate for bread etc.), and thus the customer may place the receptable on an appropriate location in the weighing arrangement. The weighing arrangement may include the NFC unit 102 and/or a connection with the payment point 204 for carrying out the payment as described above.

In the embodiment of Figure 5, each meal type may be available in a different location, and in connection with each point where the meal portion is available there is an NFC unit that may be an RFID tag, for example, that may include information on the meal type. When taking meal type 1 , the customer brings his/her mobile phone into close proximity with the NFC unit 502, whereby the application of the mobile phone reads the information on one portion of meal type 1 . Correspondingly, when taking meal types 2 or 3 etc., he/she brings the mobile phone into close proximity with a corresponding NC unit 504, 506, whereby the application of the mobile phone reads information on one portion of corresponding meal type. In connection with the meal type, a unit price for the meal type may be transferred to the mobile phone, and the mobile phone may be arranged to compute the total price for the meal by summing the price of each meal portion as received from the NFC units in order to carry out the payment, as described above. The payment may be made by bringing the mobile phone close to the NFC unit of the payment point or over the Internet as a payment carried out with the server. In this embodiment, the mobile phone may be seen as the computing means that define the meal type(s) or the information describing them (the price, the amount or the meal types taken), and this information is transferred to the payment apparatus or to the server which operates as the processing device and processes the information for the payment. Alternatively, the payment point of Figure 2, for example, may be used, to which the information describing the amount of food is transferred from the mobile phone. The price may then be computed in the payment point.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the customer takes the desired meal types and proceeds to the payment point or to a point for inputting the amount of food which comprises input means and computing means. The customer inputs through the input means the meal types he/she has taken, and the computing means are configured to compute the total price and/or amount of calories of the meal types received through the input means. The meal types may be categorized into meal portion sizes, and the input means may comprise means for inputting the size of the meal portion. Let is consider an example where the meal portion taken by the customer comprises one small portion of main course, one milk, two breads, and a small dessert. The equipment of the payment point may be configured to present to the cus- tomer as a default meal one large portion of the main course, one milk, one bread, and a small dessert. If the meal taken by the customer corresponds to the default meal, the customer may simply accept the default meal, and proceed to the payment. In this example, the customer uses the input means to change the size of the main course from large to small and the number of breads from one to two. Thereafter, the customer accepts the size of the meal. Thus, the weighing device may be replaced by manual input of the size of the meal. When the customer has input the information describing the meal portions he/she has taken to the payment point, the customer may accept the purchase by touching the NFC unit of the payment point with the mobile phone, whereby the computing unit in the payment point may transfer the computed amount of calories and/or the price to the mobile phone. The payment may be carried out in the payment point as a card payment or, alternatively, as an electronic payment through communication with the server over the Internet, as described above.

In the embodiments of the invention where the meal portion is determined and the payment is made in the payment pint for example by cash or card, and where the information describing the amount of food is transferred through the NFC link from the user's device to the payment point or from the payment point to the user's device, there may be provided in connection with the payment point a gate or a another access control unit configured to allow the customer to pass always after the verification of the payment. The verification of the payment may be indicated to the gate through a wired connection between the payment point and the gate, whereby a verification signal is transmitted from the payment point, indicating the completed payment. The gate may be an electronic gate based on NFC identification or another identification that alerts upon detection of a person passing the gate without reception of a verification signal associated with the person. The gate may also be a mechanical gate which releases a lock in response to the received verification signal such that one person may pass the gate.

In the above-described embodiments, the user's processing apparatus is the mobile phone, but in some other embodiments another personal electronic device or a radio communication device is used as the processing apparatus, wherein such a device is equipped to support the NFC technology or another short range radio communication technology. In an embodiment, the processing device is a smart card to which information on the amount of food and/or the price may be transferred. In this case, the customer may transfer the information on the amount of the food (e.g. the price or the number of different meal portions) to the smart card in the above-described manner (e.g. through NFC technology) and proceed to the payment point, wherein the customer inputs the information from the smart card to the payment apparatus and carries out the payment as a conventional card payment. Alternatively, the smart card may function as the payment card, e.g. it may be a chip card enabling account (or credit) transfers and/or money that may be used for paying the meal may be transferred to it electronically beforehand. The smart card may also comprise a display unit (e.g. an LCD) and a processing unit config- ured to display in the display unit the size, amount of calories and/or the price of the meal portion upon reception of these parameters through its NFC unit.

The computing means described above may be realized by a digital micro controller or a signal processor configured by software, or they may be realized by an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). The computing means may be arrange to connect to a memory unit that may store the software and parameters used by the computing means, such as utensils weighed by the weighing device, amount of calories associated with each button, and/or prices per weight unit of a meal type. The weighing device itself may be based on any known state-of-the-art weighing technique which is selected according to the intended application.

Although the invention has been described above by referring to examples of appended drawings, it is obvious that the invention is not limited to that, and various modification may be made within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1 . A system for determining the amount of food in a canteen, the system comprising:

computing means for computing the amount of food a customer has taken on the basis of a weight of the food measured with a weighing device and/or information describing the meal portion;

short range wireless telecommunication means (102) operationally connected to the computing means so as to transfer information describing the amount of food wirelessly with a personal apparatus of said customer; and

processing means (100) configured to carry out a payment procedure by receiving a message comprising information describing the amount of food taken by the customer and by processing the received information describing the amount of food according to a predetermined criterion.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising said weighing device (106), wherein at least one of the weighing device, computing means, and the telecommunication means are integrated in a water-proof manner into a plate or a tray.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising said weighing device (106), wherein at least one of the weighing device, computing means, and the telecommunication means are attached detachably to a plate or a tray.

4. The system of any preceding claim, wherein the personal apparatus is a portable radio communication device (100) configured to process the received information describing the amount of food by communicating with an external server apparatus (300) in order to carry out payment for the food, wherein the processing means comprise a reader apparatus configured to communicate with the radio communication device so as to transfer an electronic receipt from the radio communication device to the reader apparatus to verify the payment.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the system further comprises a sensor configured to detect persons passing by the sensor, and wherein the system is configured to conduct an alarm upon the sensor detect a person passing by the sensor without the reader device receiving an electronic device from a radio communication device associated with said person.

6. The system of any preceding claim, comprising a weighing ar- rangement having a surface on which meal portions are placed for said weighing, wherein said surface comprises a special area (402, 404, 406, 408) for each of a plurality of meal portions, wherein said weighing arrangement is configured to detect on which special area a meal portion has been placed, and wherein said computing means are configured to compute the amount of food on the basis of weight information and a special area or special areas on which a meal portion has been placed as reported by said weighing arrangement.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein said personal apparatus is a smart card comprising short range radio communication means for transmitting and receiving information describing the amount of food.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an access control unit for detecting persons passing by, wherein the system is configured to conduct an alarm upon detecting with the access control unit a person passing by the access control unit without receiving an electronic receipt from a personal apparatus associated with said person.