Systems and methods for wait time estimation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016192149-A1
Application number	US-201414586921-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 30, 2014
Priority date	Dec 30, 2014
Publication date	Jun 30, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system or method is provided to estimate wait time at a line or a queue. In particular, the system may estimate the wait time at a line by detecting the presence of a user at the line via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication. In an embodiment, the system may detect when the user enters the line and when the user departs from the line via BLE beacons and may estimate the wait time at the line based on how long the user is in line. In an embodiment, a grid of multiple BLE beacons may be installed or provided at the location of the line to track the location and movement of a user. The system may determine the wait time for the line based on the location and the movement of the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising:
a memory storing information about wait times at merchant locations; and one or more processors in communication with the memory and adapted to:
detect a user device of a user at a line location by one or more Bluetooth beacons via Bluetooth communication;
determine a position of the user in a line at the line location; and
determine a wait time at the line location based on the position of the user in the line.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the wait time at the line location is determined based on a time duration of a presence of another user at the line location.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the time duration of the presence of the another user is determined from an arrival time of the another user at the line location to a departure time of the another user from the line location.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further adapted to:
detect a plurality of users at the line location; and determine the wait time at the line location based on an average time duration of the plurality of users at the line location.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further adapted to:
detect a location and a movement of another user at the line location using the one or more Bluetooth beacons installed along the line; and determine the wait time at the line location based on the location and movement of the another user at the line location.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the location and movement of the another user is determined by triangulation technique or by location fingerprint technique.

7 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one or more processors are further adapted to:
determine a length of a line at the line location based on an arriving location of the another user at the line location and a shape and an extending direction of the line; determine a moving speed of the line based on the movement of the another user at the line location; and determine the wait time at the line location based on the length of the line and the moving speed of the line.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further adapted to:
retrieve historical data of speeds of the line; and determine a wait time for the user based on the historical data and the location of the user in the line.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors are further adapted to:
communicate the wait time for the user to the user device; and update the wait time for the user at the user device as the user moves along with the line.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further adapted to communicate the wait time of the line location to other users.

11 . A method comprising:
detecting, by one or more Bluetooth beacons, a user device of a user at a line location via Bluetooth communication; determining, by a hardware processor, a position of the user in a line at the line location; and determining, by the hardware processor, a wait time at the line location based on the position of the user in the line.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the wait time at the line location is determined based on a time duration of a presence of another user detected at the line location.

13 . The method of claim 11 further comprising:
detecting a location and a movement of another user at the line location using the one or more Bluetooth beacons installed a long the line at the line location; and
determining the wait time at the line location based on the location and movement of the another user at the line location.

14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
detecting respective locations and movements of other users at the line location using the one or more Bluetooth beacons installed along the line at the line location; and determining the wait time at the line location based on the locations and movements of the other users at the line location.

15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
determining a length of a line at the line location based on an arriving location of a newest arriving user at the line location and a shape and an extending direction of the line; determine a moving speed of the line based on the movements of the other users at the line location; and determine the wait time at the line location based on the length of the line and the moving speed of the line.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein a movement of a user located closer to a front end of the line is given more weight than a movement of a user located closer to a rear end of the line for determining the moving speed of the line.

17 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
determining wait times for a plurality of line locations; and recommending one of the plurality of line locations to the user based on the respective wait times of the plurality of line locations.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the recommended one of the plurality of line locations is selected based on a schedule of the user.

19 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by one or more processors are adapted to cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:
detecting a user device of a user at a line location by one or more Bluetooth beacons via Bluetooth communication; determining a position of the user in a line at the line location; and determining a wait time at the line location based on the position of the user in the line.

20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the method further comprising communicating the wait time to other users via Bluetooth communication or a display installed at the line location.

Assignees

• Ebay Inc

Inventors

• Zises Matthew Scott

Classifications

• H04W4/008

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/028

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/027 Primary

  using movement velocity, acceleration information · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04W4/023

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title