Crowd-Sourced Activity Processing for Trusted Community Shopping
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Solution Overview
Problem
During the COVID-19 pandemic, high-risk individuals and those concerned about virus transmission face challenges in obtaining essential items while minimizing exposure, leading to product hoarding and frequent store visits, which existing gig economy-based applications fail to address effectively by not aggregating orders or utilizing trusted community networks.
Innovation Solution
A crowd-sourced activity processing system that allows users to form customized communities for activities like grocery shopping, enabling users to request assistance from trusted members for essential purchases during their planned trips, thereby reducing exposure and leveraging planned activities within the community.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If high-risk individuals and concerned citizens venture out to purchase essential items, then they can obtain necessary products, but they face increased COVID-19 exposure risk
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a crowd-sourced platform as an intermediary between individuals needing essentials and those willing to shop. The platform matches shoppers with individuals in need, allowing essentials to be obtained while minimizing direct exposure risk through coordinated group shopping and contactless delivery within trusted communities
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple individual shopping needs into a single coordinated shopping trip. By merging orders from multiple individuals into one trip, the system reduces the total number of trips needed, thereby reducing overall exposure risk while ensuring all individuals obtain their essential items
2Quantity of substance
If individuals frequently visit stores to search for needed products due to product hoarding and out-of-stock items, then they can find essential products, but they increase their COVID-19 exposure time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables preliminary ordering of essential items through the crowd-sourced platform before individuals visit the store. By pre-ordering products online, individuals can obtain essentials in a single coordinated trip rather than making multiple visits to search for out-of-stock items, thereby reducing total time spent in store
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple individual shopping trips into a single coordinated trip by aggregating orders from multiple individuals. This merging approach ensures that all needed products are obtained in one visit, reducing the frequency and cumulative duration of store visits
3Ease of operation
If gig economy-based applications are used for essential purchases, then individuals can obtain products without leaving home, but these applications fail to aggregate orders or utilize trusted community networks effectively
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple individual orders into a single coordinated shopping trip by utilizing a crowd-sourced platform that aggregates demand. This approach improves productivity by reducing the total number of trips needed while maintaining ease of operation through the digital platform that coordinates the merged orders
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables individuals to self-manage their essential item acquisition by allowing them to place orders through the platform, select their preferred shoppers from their network, and arrange contactless delivery. This self-service approach maintains convenience while improving overall system efficiency through automated order aggregation and matching
Data Source
AI summary
Users form custom-defined communities for performing a defined activity amongst themselves. An actor defines the activity and restrictions associated with the activity. Members of the community place requests for the actor to perform member-specific actions during the activity on behalf of the members. The actor performs the activity with the member-specific actions and arranges procurement of results associated with each of the members. The actor and the members may also settle up with one another at least upon procurement. The activity is crowd sourced within the custom-defined community, thereby reducing the need for the members to each individually perform the activity.