Consumable item ordering system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10796274-B2
Application number	US-201715410347-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 19, 2017
Priority date	Jan 19, 2016
Publication date	Oct 6, 2020
Grant date	Oct 6, 2020

Abstract

A server system tracks purchases by a user of consumable items. Notifications of use of an appliance using a consumable item are received and an estimated amount of the consumable item is decremented in response to the notification. A consumption rate is determined based on the notifications and an expected runout date is calculated. Delivery of the consumable items is then invoked on or before the runout date. The appliance may include, for example, be a network-enabled washing machine that reports loads washed, a refrigerator that detects items removed therefrom, a coffee maker that reports cups of coffee prepared.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A retail customer consumption tracking and automated ordering system comprising:
an item tracking system comprising a tracking processor configured to track purchases of at least one item purchased for a user, and for each purchase updating a supply of a corresponding one of the at least one item available for use at the user's residence by a home appliance;
a consumption system communicatively coupled with the item tracking system and configured to receive notifications from a networking-enabled device operating at the user's residence, the networking-enabled device being the appliance used in combination with the at least one item and each of the notifications comprising a notification of use of one of the at least one item;
receive, from a user computing device associated with the user, (I) a unique item identifier for each of the at least one item captured by the user using the user computing device in scanning the at least one item to capture the unique item identifier, and (II) a corresponding subscription notification of a request from the user to subscribe to start a process of having consumption of the at least one item tracked over time and authorize automatically making subsequent purchases of the at least one item on behalf of the customer; and
initiate, in response to receiving the unique item identifier and the subscription notification of the request to start tracking the consumption of the at least one item, an automatic tracking over time of the consumption of the at least one item based on the unique item identifier;
a profile system communicatively coupled with the tracking system and the consumption system, and configured to:
obtain a first set of rules that when applied determine item consumption by the appliance as a function of usage per instance;
apply the first set of rules to determine consumption of the at least one item based on the notifications; and
obtain a second set of rules that when applied determine a runout date for the at least one item as a function of the consumption of the at least one item; and
apply the second set of rule to determine a runout date for the at least one item according to the consumption of the at least one item; and
causes a listing of a plurality of items, comprising the at least one item, being tracked to be displayed to the user, receive a selection from the listing of a first item, and in response to the selection from the user regarding the first item, distributes a graphical user interface to be displayed on the user computing device pictorially illustrating a consumed and remaining amounts of the first item and a first item identifier of the first item and a scheduled shipment date;

wherein the consumption system in applying the first set of rules is configured to determine a quantity per use by the appliance based on tracking over time a number of uses between at least one cycle of a purchase of the at least one item and a subsequent purchase of the same item, wherein the number of uses is based on the received notifications from the network-enabled device;
an ordering system communicatively coupled with the profile system and configured to: obtain a third set of rules that when applied invoke automatic ordering of the at least one item as a function of the runout date; and apply the third set of rules to invoke automatic ordering of the at least one item causing delivery of the at least one item at least by the runout date.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the networking-enabled device is a networking-enabled coffee making device and the at least one item is a package of coffee;
wherein each notification of the notifications, as determined based on the first set of rules, indicates at least one of that the coffee making device has produced a cup of coffee and has been instructed to make a cup of coffee; and
wherein the profile system is further configured to cause the one or more processing devices, in applying at least the first set of rules, to determine consumption of the at least one item from the notifications by incrementing an amount of coffee consumed in response to each notification, the amount corresponding to a configuration of the coffee making device.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the networking-enabled device is a networking-enabled refrigerator and the at least one item is at last one perishable food item.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the networking-enabled refrigerator includes a detector and the at least one item bears an indicator perceptible by the at least one detector, the networking-enabled refrigerator including a control device programmed to generate the notifications by reporting the presence of the indicator within the refrigerator.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the at least one detector comprises at least one of an infrared detector and the at least one indicator is an infrared watermark and a radio frequency identification (RFID) detector and the indicator is an RFID tag.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the consumption system in determining the quantity per use by the appliance is further configured to average multiple determined quantities per use determined from a respective one of multiple cycles between corresponding purchases of the at least one item.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the profile system in applying the second set of rules is configured to determine a consumption rate as a function of a number of notifications of usage of the at least one item received over a tracked period of time, and the quantity per use of the at least one item per notification.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the profile system in applying the second set of rules is configured to determine the runout date as a function of the tracked supply of the at least one item purchased by the customer relative to the consumption rate.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the ordering system, in implementing executable code applying the third set of rules is further configured to cause one or more processing devices to:
transmit a notification to the user;
receive acceptance of the automatic ordering; and
cause the invoking of the automatic ordering of the at least one item in response to receiving the acceptance of the automatic ordering.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the ordering system is configured to track movement of the user computing device associated with the user, select a delivery location based on the tracked movement of the user computing device, and notify the user of the selected delivery location.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the received notifications from the networking-enabled device are received periodically and each comprises for each of multiple different instances stored by the network-enabled device and over a notification period of time a direction indication specifying whether the at least one item is removed from or inserted into the network-enabled device, a time of the removal or insertion, and the identifier of the at last one item.

12. A method of tracking retail customer consumption of retail items and automating ordering comprising:
by a server system:
tracking purchases of at least one item purchased for a user, and for each purchase updating a supply of a corresponding one of the at least one item available for use at the user's residence by a home appliance;
receiving notifications from a networking-enabled device operating at the user's residence, the networking-enabled device being the appliance used in combination with the at least one item and each of the notifications comprising a notification of use of one of the at least one item;
receiving, from a user computing device associated with the

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Viswanath Putcha Sai Phaneendra Sri Harsha
• High Donald R

Classifications

• G06Q10/087 Primary

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• A47J31/521

  the electronic control being performed over a network, e.g. by means of a computer or a handheld device · CPC title

• A47J31/52

  Alarm-clock-controlled mechanisms for coffee- or tea-making apparatus {; Timers for coffee- or tea-making apparatus; Electronic control devices for coffee- or tea-making apparatus} · CPC title