Method and apparatus for providing virtual touch interaction in the drive-thru

Abstract

The present invention is a method and apparatus for providing an enhanced automatic drive-thru experience to the customers in a vehicle by allowing use of natural hand gestures to interact with digital content. The invention is named Virtual Touch Ordering System (VTOS). In the VTOS, the virtual touch interaction is defined to be a contact free interaction, in which a user is able to select graphical objects within the digital contents on a display system and is able to control the processes connected to the graphical objects, by natural hand gestures without touching any physical devices, such as a keyboard or a touch screen. Using the virtual touch interaction of the VTOS, the user is able to complete transactions or ordering, without leaving the car and without any physical contact with the display. A plurality of Computer Vision algorithms in the VTOS processes a plurality of input image sequences from the image-capturing system that is pointed at the customers in a vehicle and performs the virtual touch interaction by natural hand gestures. The invention can increase the throughput of drive-thru interaction and reduce the delay in wait time, labor cost, and maintenance cost.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is based on anda Reissue application of U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 679,226, filed Oct. 2, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,996,460, granted Feb. 7, 2006, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 415,690, filed Oct. 3, 2002, which is fully incorporated herein by reference.FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH[0002]Not ApplicableSEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM[0003]Not ApplicableBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION—FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0004]The present invention is a method and apparatus for providing an enhanced automatic drive-thru experience to customers in a vehicle with a virtual touch interaction by natural hand gesture with digital information, while efficiently increasing the throughput of the drive-thru interaction and reducing the delay in wait time, labor cost, and maintenance cost. The present invention provides a ‘contact free’ method for performing the virtual touch interaction, by means of an analysis of images from image-cap...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

VTOS significantly reduces wait times, labor, and maintenance costs while enhancing customer experience through efficient and customizable interactions, capable of handling multiple transactions with minimal human intervention and providing reliable data collection on customer behavior.

Problems solved by technology

Inconsistent speed, accuracy and customer experience, which can occur throughout the traditional drive-thru process, pose unique challenges for corporate planners.

Miscommunications due to language barriers, speaker or microphone malfunction, or just plain poor attitudes can combine to create a very unpleasant customer experience.

This traditional drive-thru system has inherent inefficiency of wait time in the interaction process.

However, this method results in having more attendants with the three windows and relevant building construction cost.

This method is also not easily adaptable to the other type of drive-thru interaction process than that of the quick-service restaurant.

While they have interesting and versatile approaches to the drive-thru process, the customers in the vehicle need to have mobile access to the network, which could require extra cost and burden to the customer.

Unless enough people within the local area have mobile access to the network mentioned in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,375 of Hall et al., there is a possibility that the network might not be utilized.

Also, signals of mobile access, such as cell phones, weaken, depending upon the location, weather condition, etc.

Finally, since the interface is not natural (i.e., the user has to select from a large menu using the alpha-numeric keypad), there are issues of delay.

While this approach tries to improve the drive-thru interaction using the video communication system in addition to the conventional voice only drive-thru system, allowing the customer to maintain eye-to-eye visual contact with the attendant located within the restaurant, the approach is still not able to solve the delay of interaction problem for the plurality of customers and vehicles.

While the suggested method increases the throughput of the interaction process, it also results in hiring more attendants or order-takers for each station, thus increasing labor costs.

However, these systems result in maintenance and hygiene issues since the drivers touch the system physically.

The touch-screen display is fixed and, therefore, cannot adapt to the various sizes of vehicles and arm lengths of people.

This would be devastating to the fast food drive-thru industry with the increase in order time alone.

This also causes difficulty in parking the vehicle, as it needs to be close to the system as possible in order for the driver to be able to touch the screen, stretching the hand to the device.

This is ergonomically inappropriate because it is not only uncomfortable to the driver but also could cause damage to the system.

If the driver has to step out of the vehicle to use the automatic systems, this will result in more delay and inconvenience to the customer.

Other solutions include a device that the user can put inside the vehicle, such as a keypad, or track ball; however, these also involve disadvantages of hygienic issues and durability.

However, in most cases, the driver will feel comfortable in interacting with the VTOS within the optimal interaction volume because of the physical limitation in the range of movement a driver can reach with his or her hand.

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