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Description  |
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to the commonly owned copending U.S. patent
application entitled "Integrated Interactive Restaurant Communication
System for Food and Entertainment Processing", filed Mar. 14, 1983,
bearing U.S. Ser. No. 474,984, and naming Lawrence G. Kurland, the named
inventor herein, and Eli Gilbert as joint inventors, the contents of which
is specifically incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to interactive communication systems and
particularly to interactive restaurant communication systems.
BACKGROUND ART
Interactive communication systems, such as those employing video display
terminals, are well known in the art, such as disclosed, by way of
example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,064,490; 4,054,911; 4,296,476; 4,143,360;
4,191,956; 4,122,519; 3,903,402; 4,001,807; 4,001,785; 4,075,686;
4,084,229; 4,251,291; 3,746,780; 3,668,307; 3,836,888; 3,752,908;
3,691,295; 3,968,327; 4,008,369; 4,028,733; 3,757,225; 3,814,841;
4,117,605; 4,264,925 and 4,164,024. Today, this field is a very active
one, particularly with the advent and wide spread use of microprocessors
in many business applications, as well as in personal computers, such as
disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,476. These prior art interactive systems
have expanded dramatically in the field of cable television, such as
disclosed in many of the aforementioned exemplary patents, both in two-way
communication systems, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,691,295 and
3,668,307 by way of example, and in one-way cyclical transmission systems
such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,064,490 and 4,054,911 by way of
example, as well as in real-time interactive systems such as disclosed in
U.S. Pat. No. 4,264,925 by way of example. Moreover, point-of-sale
terminals have become almost a total replacement for the cash register in
today's businesses. The restaurant business, however, has been very slow
to modernize in the area of service to the public except for modern
fast-food operations, still relying on separate waitress serice for order
taking and separate entertainment features such as music boxes or video
games, and the computer revolution has really not caught up. Rather,
increased efficiency in restaurant service has primarily been focused on
better manual systems, such as the one developed at the Tifflin Inn in
Denver, Colo. where a food coordinator person in the kitchen would
interface between the waitresses, who never left the dining room, and the
cook using busboys to transport the orders which were assembled on carts.
This system, however, although sucessful, was still a manual system and
did not integrate food and entertainment functions. Thus, although cash
register type of point-of-sale systems and automatic order entry systems
have made in-roads into the restaurant business, as has distributed
interactive video game technology, applicant is not aware of any prior art
systems which have sucessfully integrated interactive entertainment and
food functions so that a plurality of independent table station terminals,
via down-line loading and two-way communication with a central data base,
can accomplish, among other things, transmission of orders to the kitchen,
independently selectable down-loading of entertainment modules to the
table stations for interactive play at the terminals; automatic
computation of composite bills for both food and entertainment, and
accumulation of detailed information for restaurant management.
These disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the system of the
present invention.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an interactive integrated restaurant
information communication system for enabling both individualized food and
entertainment interactive information communication, such as two-way
communication over a common transmission media, between a central remote
data base and a plurality of different multipurpose table station
terminals located at various table stations throughout the restaurant for
use by the restaurant patrons for both food selection, based on down-line
loaded food menu modules selectably retrieved from the central data base,
and entertainment selection and interactive play, such as video games,
also based on down-line loaded entertainment modules selectably retrieved
from the central data base. The charges, where applicable, for both the
entertainment and food selections can be compositely automatically billed
to the table station, with each patron having a unique identification code
for billing and/or service purposes, and the bills printed either
centrally or at each table station.
The central data base comprises a central main computer which essentially
performs the information routing functions, and remote retrievable storage
for storing the various food and entertainment programs or sets of control
instructions which are retrieved by the various table station terminals in
response to selections made by the restaurant patrons, as well as handling
coordination or processing and display of food orders in conjunction with
kitchen and bar monitors, accumulation of restaurant management
information and billing as well as other functions, if desired. Each of
the table station terminals comprises a microprocessor and local storage
which is down-line loaded with selected sets of control instructions from
the central data base, under control of a master control program, in
response to patron selection, and a local video display which is utilized
to display data for food and entertainment selection as well as to
interactively play the game or entertainment selected, with the
microprocessor processing incoming data to enable food and entertainments
selections to be transmitted to the central data base and to enable the
retrieved entertainment to be interactively played at the terminal in
response to the retrieved locally stored selected set of control
instructions. The food orders, under control of the central computer, are
collected from the various table station terminals, and displayed on
central kitchen and bar monitors, with the orders being cleared from the
monitor screen, such as by using touch-sensitive screens, as they are
filled for each table station. If desired, the orders can be assembled by
table station, each having its unique patron identification code, and
transported to the pertinent table station. Thus, each table station
terminal can independently serve to provide both food selection and
entertainment functions, interactively with a central data base, in the
integrated restaurant communication system of the present invention,
whereby the overall efficiency of the restaurant will be enhanced and
better controlled.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is an overall functional block diagram of the presently preferred
embodiment of the integrated interactive restaurant communication system
of the present invention for providing integrated food and entertainment
processing in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an overall schematic block diagram of a typical table station
terminal for use in the system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is an illustrative diagram of a typical organization of the memory
unit portion of the terminal of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a condition responsive logic flow diagram of a typical table
station terminal processing control program for the terminal of FIG. 2;
FIG. 5 is a condition responsive logic flow diagram of a typical kitchen or
bar monitor processing control program for a typical kitchen or bar
monitor in the system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 6 is a condition responsive logic flow diagram of a typical processing
control program for the central computer of the system of FIG. 1; and
FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic perspective illustration of a typical table
station in the system of FIG. 1.
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Referring now to the drawings in detail, and initially to FIG. 1 thereof,
an overall functional block diagram of the presently preferred embodiment
of the integrated interactive restaurant communication system, generally
referred to by the reference numeral 10, of the present invention is
shown. As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the interactive
restaurant communication system 10 provides integrated food and
entertainment processing which enables restaurant patrons to obtain menus
for individual food selection on a video monitor at their tables,
individually enter their orders into a table station "intelligent"
terminal at their tables, select from and interactively play a variety of
remotely retrievable interactive entertainment activities using the video
monitor while waiting for the food to arrive, and if desired, where
applicable, have the food and entertainment charges automatically added to
a composite bill which may be printed at the table station terminal or at
a remote central location. Moreover, as will be further described herein,
the system 10 of the present invention is preferably integrated into the
overall restaurant operation so that the food orders placed at the various
table station terminals, with five such table station terminals 12, 14,
16, 18 and 20 being shown by way of example in FIG. 1, can be collected
and routed by a central computer 22 to the kitchen and bar for display on
video terminals or monitors 24, 26 and 28, respectively, for the cook and
bartender to enable the orders to be promptly filled, which orde | | |
