Patent Issued for Beacon-based management of queues (USPTO 11704711): Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company

2023 AUG 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors John, Jiby (Suffiield, CT, US), Knas, Michal (Monson, MA, US), filed on April 23, 2020, was published online on July 18, 2023.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11704711, is Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Springfield, Massachusetts, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Waiting in queues is extremely tedious and time-consuming, whether it is for buying products, such as meals, shoes, or phones, or for benefitting from a service, such a haircut or a medical exam, or in places, such as the airport and the department of motor vehicles. Waiting in long queues without receiving any updates regarding anticipated time of service or information regarding the queue turnover discourages customers from return purchases or visits, and negatively affects the overall revenues and customer experience. Moreover, monitoring queues will facilitate the commercial entities providing the product or the service to better serve their customers, by increasing the number of sales assistants or service providers or providing real-time queue analytics communicating wait-times. These entities can also engage the customers in other experiences, such as providing discounts, signing them up for loyalty programs, conducting customer surveys, or visiting other sections of the facility.

“Beacons are small, battery-friendly devices that send out low-voltage signals, such as Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE), for a programmable distance between about a few cm to 40-50 m. Some smartphones can act as beacons. The frequency of sending the signal can also be programmable; for example, a signal can be sent every 100-400 milliseconds. Beacons can be placed strategically indoors or outdoors to perform many actions. There is a need to integrate the beacon technology and other indoor positioning systems, so that customers can sign-in using their mobile devices, track the queue turnover, and arrive at an appropriate time to acquire the product or service. Customers can also provide other inputs to the product or service provider, such as need for additional products or services, or questions regarding memberships or products or services. Systems for queue management also need to account for people standing in the physical queue, who do not use their mobile devices or log into the queue management application.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The systems and methods disclosed herein attempt to address the above-mentioned shortcomings in the art and provide a variety of other benefits. The systems and methods described herein can create, maintain, transmit, and utilize data from customer devices and beacons.

“Embodiments of the invention involve one or more beacons transmitting information at different ranges and other indoor positioning systems to provide more granular location information. Provided herein is a computer-implemented method for communicating with a customer device for management of a queue. The method includes receiving, by a server, a device identifier and location information from a customer device, the location information being associated to location of the customer device and determined from a plurality of location signals received from a plurality of beacons; verifying, by the server, the device identifier and the location information from the customer device as being associated with the customer device in a database configured to store a first plurality of records of a first plurality of preexisting queues and one or more records of a plurality of customer devices; retrieving, by the server, a second plurality of records associated to a second plurality of preexisting queues in the database, the second plurality of preexisting queues being selected from the first plurality of preexisting queues responsive to the current location of the customer device; generating, by the server, on a customer device a first graphical user interface configured to display a second plurality of preexisting queues; receiving, by the server, an input from the customer device requesting participation in a desired queue, the desired queue being selected from the second plurality of preexisting queues presented on the first graphical user interface; retrieving, by the server, a third plurality of records associated to one or more tokens in the database issued to one or more previous participants in the desired queue. Each of the one or more previous participants corresponds to a uniquely identified input requesting participation in the desired queue and received by the server ahead of receiving the input from the customer device; and each of the one or more tokens is assigned sequentially to each of the one or more previous participants successively entering the desired queue. The method further includes determining, by the server, an estimated processing time responsive to the one or more tokens being processed in a predetermined period of time; assigning, by the server, a next token to be associated with the consumer device, the next token being associated with the input requesting participation in the desired queue from the customer device and being sequentially next to the token assigned to last of the one or more previous participants in the entry queue; and generating, by the server, a second graphical user interface on the customer device configured to provide the estimated processing time and information associated to the next token. The plurality of preexisting queues can include a queue in a physical location. The plurality of preexisting queues can include a virtual queue. Each of the one or more previous participants corresponds to a uniquely identified input that can be obtained via a mobile application on a mobile device. At least one of the one or more previous participants corresponds to a uniquely identified input that can be obtained using an infrared detector. The information associated to the next token can include a number indicating a place in the desired queue. The information associated to the next token can include a haptic alert indicating user of the customer device to physically join the desired queue.

“Embodiments of the invention involve a computer-implemented method for communicating with a customer device, which includes receiving, by a server, a device identifier associated to a customer device; verifying, by the server, the device identifier from the customer device as being associated with the customer device in a database configured to store one or more records of a plurality of customer devices and a first plurality of records of a first plurality of preexisting queues in a first plurality of physical locations defined by a plurality of location signals received from a plurality of beacons; receiving, by the server, from a first graphical user interface displayed at the customer device a query configured to identify one or more of a second plurality of preexisting queues in one or more of a second plurality of physical locations, wherein the second plurality of preexisting queues is selected from the first plurality of preexisting queues and the second plurality of physical locations is selected from the first plurality of physical locations; querying, by the server, the database containing the first plurality of records of the first plurality of preexisting queues to identify one or more of the second plurality of preexisting queues responsive to the query; generating, by the server, on the customer device a second graphical user interface configured to display the one or more of the second plurality of preexisting queues responsive to the query; receiving, by the server, an input from the customer device requesting participation in a desired queue, the desired queue being selected from the one or more of the second plurality of preexisting queues presented on the second graphical user interface; retrieving, by the server, a third plurality of records associated to one or more tokens in the database issued to one or more previous participants in the desired queue, wherein each of the one or more previous participants corresponds to a uniquely identified input requesting participation in the desired queue and received by the server ahead of receiving the input from the customer device; and each of the one or more tokens is assigned sequentially to each of the one or more previous participants successively entering the desired queue; determining, by the server, an estimated processing time responsive to the one or more tokens being processed in a predetermined period of time; assigning, by the server, a next token to be associated with the consumer device, the next token being associated with the input requesting participation in the desired queue from the customer device and being sequentially next to the token assigned to last of the one or more previous participants in the entry queue; and generating, by the server, a third graphical user interface on the customer device configured to provide the estimated processing time and information associated to the next token.

“Additional features and advantages of an embodiment will be set forth in the description, which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the exemplary embodiments in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: periodically monitoring, by a server using beacon signals, locations of a first set of electronic devices; identifying, by the server, a set of queues based on a current location of an electronic device within the first set of electronic devices, each queue within the set of queues corresponding to a line of at least one electronic device within the first set of electronic devices and a corresponding service station; calculating, by the server, an estimated processing time for each queue within the set of queues, the estimated processing time corresponding to a rate of at least one electronic device within the first set of electronic devices entering and exiting a queue within the set of queues, wherein the estimated processing time is calculated based on a plurality of tokens issued to a second set of electronic devices that have previously entered and exited the set of queues; displaying, by the server on a graphical user interface of the electronic device, a subset of the set of queues within a facility, wherein the server displays an identification information and estimated processing time for each displayed queue; upon receiving a selection of at least one queue within the subset of the set of queues: adding, by the server, the electronic device to a virtual queue associated with the selected queue; updating, by the server, the graphical user interface to display a position of the electronic device within the selected queue based on beacon signals indicating locations of one or more electronic devices within the selected virtual queue; in response to determining that an estimated processing time of a queue within the set of queues exceeds a threshold, automatically transmitting, by the server, a signal to open an additional service station having a first attribute corresponding to that queue; and updating, by the server, the graphical user interface to display an additional queue associated with the additional service station.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated processing time corresponds to a turnover time indicating a time period for at least one electronic device to enter a particular queue, wait, and complete a request within the queue.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated processing time corresponds to a queue turnover indicating a time period for a service station to complete a request by an electronic device.

“4. The method of claim 1, the server selects the subset of the set of queues based on one or more predetermined attributes.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying, by the server, a length of each queue within the subset of the set of queues.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated processing time is retrieved from third party server.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: outputting, by the server on the electronic device, a notification indicating the electronic device’s position within a queue.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying, by the server on the graphical user interface of the electronic device, a map indicating at least one service station associated with at least one queue within the set of queues.

“9. A system comprising: a first set of electronic devices configured to communicate with one or more beacons; a server in communication with the set of first electronic devices, the server configured to: periodically monitor, using beacon signals, locations of the first set of electronic devices; identify a set of queues based on a current location of an electronic device within the first set of electronic devices, each queue within the set of queues corresponding to a line of at least one electronic device within the first set of electronic devices and a corresponding service station; calculate an estimated processing time for each queue within the set of queues, the estimated processing time corresponding to a rate of at least one electronic device within the first set of electronic devices entering and exiting a queue within the set of queues, wherein the estimated processing time is calculated based on a plurality of tokens issued to a second set of electronic devices that have previously entered and exited the set of queues; display, on a graphical user interface of the electronic device, a subset of the set of queues within a facility, wherein the server displays an identification information and estimated processing time for each displayed queue; upon receiving a selection of at least one queue within the subset of the set of queues: add the electronic device to a virtual queue associated with the selected queue; update the graphical user interface to display a position of the electronic device within the selected queue based on beacon signals indicating locations of one or more electronic devices within the selected virtual queue; in response to determining that an estimated processing time of a queue within the set of queues exceeds a threshold, automatically transmit a signal to open an additional service station having a first attribute corresponding to that queue; and update the graphical user interface to display an additional queue associated with the additional service station.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the estimated processing time corresponds to a turnover time indicating a time period for at least one electronic device to enter a particular queue, wait, and complete a request within the queue.

“11. The system of claim 9, wherein the estimated processing time corresponds to a queue turnover indicating a time period for a service station to complete a request by an electronic device.

“12. The system of claim 9, the server selects the subset of the set of queues based on one or more predetermined attributes.

“13. The system of claim 9, wherein the server is further configured to: display a length of each queue within the subset of the set of queues.

“14. The system of claim 9, wherein the estimated processing time is retrieved from third party server.

“15. The system of claim 9, wherein the server is further configured to: output, on the electronic device, a notification indicating the electronic device’s position within a queue.

“16. The system of claim 9, wherein the server is further configured to: display, on the graphical user interface of the electronic device, a map indicating at least one service station associated with at least one queue within the set of queues.”

For more information, see this patent: John, Jiby. Beacon-based management of queues. U.S. Patent Number 11704711, filed April 23, 2020, and published online on July 18, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11704711)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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