FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the food and beverages field and more particularly it is related to the auction and delivery of food and perishable goods.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A perishable good is any product wherein quality deteriorates due to environmental conditions with respect to time. Major example of such a perishable good is food which is also one of the basic necessities of human being. Hence it is imperative that one needs to be concerned about quality and usage of food without its wastage.

In order to overcome such a challenge, many solutions have been tried so far. One such option is Auctioning of Food. An auction by definition is a system of buying and selling goods or services by offering them for bidding by allowing people to bid and selling to the highest bidder. The bidders compete against each other, with each subsequent bid being higher than the previous bid. An auction is considered to be complete when the vendor accepts the highest bid offered and the buyer pays for the goods or services and takes possession of them.

The Indian Published patent application 201641029264 discloses a device for food auction and delivery which enables the first user for such an auction. Also, there are current systems in the prior art published applications US2009099972 and CA2439214 that can auction food items and/or enable food sellers to auction the food. But there are challenges and limitations of these current systems from the aspect of efficient food delivery with quality and authenticity. The ubiquity of smartphones, emergence of tech savvy population and the pandemic situation have caused a huge shift in the method of how food travels from the kitchen to the customer’s table. The food delivery has become an integral part of journey of food from vendor to the customer. Therefore, there is a pressing need of an integrated automated system to track the available food resources in the locality, conserve and be vigilant of food wastage.

The current business that produces perishable goods have twin challenge of maximizing customers and minimizing the waste of produced goods, all the while making sure that they remain profitable. To improve the margin, the merchants want to reach high end consumers but those consumers are highly quality conscious and have specialized requirement like Jain food, Vegan food, and non-allergic food. To improve rating & brand, the merchants want to provide good food, efficient delivery and good overall experience. To be socially responsible corporates, the merchants want to do social good by providing quality food at low price. But, doing all of this without appropriate automation, is simply beyond the reach of most of the merchants.

The inventors of the present invention realized the possibility of creating such an auction platform that not only takes care of regular food ordering and delivery platform but also makes it a trustable and efficient food delivery system with quality. Thus, the inventors of the present disclosure have mitigated the aforementioned drawbacks and limitation of existing systems by providing user-friendly, authenticating and efficient auction and delivery platform for food and perishable goods. The present invention is not limited only to the auctioned food items but also the innovative features of the present invention work for delivery of any non-auctioned perishable goods.

The foregoing objects of the invention are accomplished and the problems and shortcomings associated with the prior art techniques and approaches are overcome by the present invention as described below in the preferred embodiment.

The detailed description of the present invention is followed herewith.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The main object of the present invention is to provide an authenticating and efficient auction and delivery platform for food and perishable goods.

Yet another object of present invention is to make this auction platform a powerful wastage avoidance tool by reducing the food and perishable goods wastage.

Yet another object of present invention is to grow business with brand value and do the social good by auctioning food at a discounted rate.

Yet another object of present invention is to bring the capability of authentication and reliability to the food auction platform.
Yet another object of present invention is to provide authenticated and reliable delivery platform for auctioned or non-auctioned perishable goods.
DEFINITIONS OF TERMINOLOGIES USED IN THE INVENTION:
1. Consumer(s) / consumer(s): (101) Referring to Figure 1
These are the people who bid or order for the food, drink or other perishable goods being offered by the Merchants.

2. Merchant(s) / merchant(s): (102) Referring to Figure 1
These are the representatives of the merchant who provide the food, drink or other perishable goods to their consumers.

3. Delivery Personnel / Person(s) / delivery personnel / person(s): (103)
Referring to Figure 1
These are the people who pick up the food delivery package from the Merchant and deliver the same to the Consumer.

4. Service Provider / service provider: (153) Referring to Figure 1
These are the people who configure, monitor and maintain various hardware and application components of the system (150).

5. Communication Network / communication network:
This includes all types of communication network like Local Area Network, Wide Area Network, Internet, Wireless, any other network and / or combination thereof.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, as shown in Figure 1, the present invention, an authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods’ is disclosed herein. The said system (150) is an automated platform for a reliable, genuine and efficient auction and delivery of food and perishable goods.

Referring to Figure 1, the said system (150) comprises a client tier (152) including consumers (101), Merchants (102), Delivery Personnel (103) and a service provider (153); each having an electronic display device (100) either portable or non-portable as one of the embodiments. The said device (100) is operably connected through Communication Network to a secure central cloud resident server (151) comprising an application server (104) and a database server (105) for performing all kinds of food and perishable goods related auction and delivery activities. The portable electronic display device (100) can either be a smartphone or a laptop or a Tablet or a notebook or any other combination thereof. A secure central cloud resident server (151) comprises an application server (104) and a database server (105). The application server (104) is communicatively coupled to the database server (105) which stores data and provides storage access. In an embodiment, the system (150) is accessed by a client through a web portal. In another embodiment, the system (150) is accessed through an electronic display device using an application (also referred popularly to as “app”).

The consumer (101) logs into the system (150) with respective login credentials by using his electronic display device (100). There are multiple consumers (101) who login the system (150). These consumers (101) search for available bidding opportunities for the food of their interest and start bidding. The bidding process is a time bound process. The system (150) accepts these bids and displays the winning bid after expiry of the bidding time. There is one winning bid for one food item under auction. The said system (150) provides the Consumer (101) with the detailed and specific information of the food item in the bid. The details of food may include food style, geographical origin, ingredients, information related to health and metabolic impact along with the food preparation process. The food preparation process is different for vegetarian recipe and non-vegetarian recipe having specific style of cooking. Such an aspect related to quality of the perishable goods is taken care of while creating the encrypted label for auctioned food and perishable goods. Labelling of food item is an important feature of the present invention which tracks quality and food classification through the chain of linked information. The label carries all the above-mentioned information about food item and preparation process in an encrypted form in standard format like QR code.

After winning the bid, respective consumer makes the payment which is a secure and safe process made available by the system (150). The system (150) sends notifications to the respective Merchants (102) and the Delivery Personnel (103).
Both Merchants (102) and Delivery Person (103) access the system (150), using their electronic display device (100).

The Merchants (102) generate encrypted labels for the food package being auctioned in the winning bid in standard format like QR code. The said system (150) performs batch scheduling and finds the appropriate delivery person (103) based on his physical location so as to optimize the travel time of the delivery person and maximize the number of deliveries that one person can perform in one trip. The delivery person (103) approaches the merchant (102) to pick up the delivery package(s) of the food. The food item is said to be delivered to the respective consumers (101) after it is accepted by that consumer (101) by decoding and verifying the said food label attached to the food item with the one indicated during bidding process.

Also, the present invention provides the facility to transfer inventory by allowing the transfer of portion of cooked food inventory into auction inventory thereby avoiding food wastage, getting more customers, building brand and doing social good as well.

Thus, the present invention addresses the major issues and limitations of prior art related to reliability, authenticity and quality of food item being auctioned and delivered by way of providing an efficient and authenticating system (150) of auctioning and delivering the food and perishable goods in a speedy way with above stated multiple innovative features and facilities to its clients.

The detailed description of the present invention is followed herewith.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

These and other advantages are more readily understood by referring to the following detailed description disclosed hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawing, definitions of terminologies used and which are illustrated hereinafter.
The figures provided herein are not necessarily to the scale, out of which:

Figure 1: Illustrates the functionality of the authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods.

Figure 2: Illustrates the main process flow of the system (150) with pre-bidding process (40).

Figure 3: Illustrates a process flow of bidding method (50) to access the system (150).

Figure 4: Illustrates a process flow (60) to provide detailed and specific information to the Consumers (101).

Figure 5: Illustrates a process flow (70) to auto-select delivery personnel (103).

Figure 6: Illustrates a process flow (80) to generate crypto labels for food item in auction by the Merchants (102).

Figure 7: Illustrates a process flow (90) to verify and accept the delivery of food item being auctioned in the bidding process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The features of the present invention and its technical advantages can be better understood from the following description of preferred embodiments together with the claims and accompanying schematic drawings. It is to be understood that this invention is not limited to the specific devices, methods, conditions or parameters described and/or shown herein and that the terminology used herein is for the example only and is not intended to be limiting of the claimed invention.

Also, as used in the specification, the singular forms ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘the’ include the plural, and references to a particular numerical value includes at least that particular value unless the content clearly directs otherwise. The pronouns “his”, “him”, “their” and /or similar refer to the noun unless the content clearly directs otherwise.
The nouns are not case sensitive unless noted otherwise. Ranges may be expressed herein as from ‘about’ or ‘approximately’ to another particular value. Also, it is to be understood that unless otherwise indicated, dimensions and material characteristics stated herein are by way of example rather than limitation, and are for better understanding of sample embodiment of suitable utility, and variations outside of the stated values may also be within the scope of the invention depending upon the particular application. It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. The below discussed embodiments may be used in combination with each other. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details.

It should be emphasized that the term “comprises/comprising” when used in this specification is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof. The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention.

In accordance with the present invention, Figure 1 illustrates the functionality of an authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods. The system (150) comprises a client tier (152) including consumers (101), merchants (102), delivery personnel (103) and a service provider (153); each having an electronic display device (100) either portable or non-portable as one of the embodiments. The said device (100) is operably connected through Communication Network to a secure central cloud resident server (151) comprising application server (104) and database server (105) for performing all kinds of food auction and delivery activities. The portable electronic display device (100) can either be a smartphone or a laptop or a Tablet or a notebook or any other combination thereof. A secure central cloud resident server (151) comprises an application server (104) and a database server (105). The application server (104) is communicatively coupled to the database server (105) which stores data and provides storage access. In an embodiment, the system (150) is accessed by the client tier (152) through a web portal. In another embodiment, the system (150) is accessed through an electronic display device (100) using an application (also referred popularly to as “app”).

Referring to Figure 2, wherein the Figure 2 illustrates the main process flow of the said system (150). The present invention provides the pre-bidding process (40) followed by the bidding process (50) for auctioning and delivering the perishable goods. The pre-bidding process (40) involves the step 41 wherein the system (150) captures all the information of each and every food ingredient that comes to the restaurant. The captured food information is in the form of specific food classification (e.g., Vegetarian, Vegan, Jain, Halal and/or similar), quality attributes (e.g., type of ingredients like Organic and/or similar); specific geographic origin; metabolic impacts (e.g., Carbohydrates, Fats, Proteins, and/or similar) and other health impacts like calories and cholesterols. If such information is missing for any ingredient, then the Merchant (102) enters this information and creates a label information for that food item or ingredient in the system (150). In addition to such food item information, the food preparation process which is different for vegetarian recipe and non-vegetarian recipe having specific style of cooking is also entered. Such an aspect related to quality of the perishable goods is taken care of while creating the encrypted label for auctioned food and perishable goods. This food item information including information about its preparation process is managed by the system (150) and is further utilized to generate an encrypted label in standard format like QR code, if that food item is an auctioned item in the winning bid. This feature is one of the innovative features of the present invention. Further at step 42, if the merchant (102) finds that there is more portion of cooked food items available in the regular food inventory, then he transfers those portions of food items to the auction food inventory of the system (150). This auction food inventory is utilized for bidding of the food items. This inventive feature works as an input to the Bidding process (50) as shown in Figure 3.

Referring to Figure 3, in another aspect, the present invention provides a method (50) for authenticated and efficient auctioning and delivering of perishable goods. Specifically, the bidding method (50) is described in conjunction with the system (150) of Figure 1.

The bidding method (50) involves accessing the system (150) by any client tier (152) using the electronic display device (100) with his login credentials as mentioned in step 51. If these login credentials are incorrect, then they are detected by the system (150) and the end-user is warned accordingly and not allowed to login. If the end-user is a new user, then he has to sign-up with the information like name, location, address, category etc. The client tier (152) comprises the Consumer(s) (101), the Merchants (102) and Delivery Personnel (103). At a time, there can be multiple consumers who log into the system (150) with respective electronic display device (100). The client tier (152) successfully logs into the system (150) using the electronic display device (100) either portable or non-portable wherein the portable electronic display device is a smartphone or a laptop or a Tablet or a notebook or any other combination thereof and the non-portable electronic display device is either a desktop or a PC or any existing electronic display device or any other combination thereof.

Referring to Figure 3, at step 52, after successful login, the Consumer (101) searches for the available bidding opportunities for the food item of his interest and participates in food auction. At Step 61 as shown in Figure 4, while the Consumers (101) takes part in such a bidding, he is provided with detailed information and specifications of the respective food item. In an exemplary embodiment, this feature is provided via label information of food item generated by the system (150) at step 41. Labelling involves creating and reading encrypted labels with specific food classification (e.g., Vegetarian, Vegan, Jain, Halal and/or similar), quality attributes (e.g., type of ingredients like Organic and/or similar); specific geographic origin; metabolic impacts (e.g., Carbohydrates, Fats, Proteins, and/or similar) and other health impacts like calories and cholesterols. These labels are created by using the information that comes with the ingredients which are used to make the food and related recipe. If such information is missing for any ingredient, then the Merchant (102) enters this information and creates a label for that food item or ingredient in the system (150). Similarly, these labels contain the information about the food preparation process based on the style and type of food e.g., vegetarian or non-vegetarian etc. Such an aspect related to quality of the perishable goods is taken care of while creating the encrypted label for auctioned food and perishable goods. Every food item which is being auctioned, can have this kind of a food label which is tracked by the system (150). Thus, this food label proves to be a key feature with uniqueness which tracks quality and food classification through the chain of linked information.

At Step 53, the system (150) tracks the winning bid. The information of winning bid is sent to all the Consumers (101) who have logged into the system (150). This helps the consumers upgrade their bid. The bidding process of each auction is a time bound process and the remaining time available for each auction is displayed to the consumers on their device (100). Once the time expires, the system (150) informs all the active consumers about the final winning bid(s). There can be more than one winning bid since more than one food item of same type are available. At this time the consumer makes the payment. The system (150) deals with payment failures as well.

At step 54, the system (150) sends notifications to the Delivery Personnel (103) on his display device (100) using the innovative feature of Batch scheduling of delivery. As shown in Figure 5, at step 71, in an exemplary embodiment, the system (150) performs Batch Scheduling of the delivery with Optimization of time and resource. At step 72, the system (150) selects an appropriate delivery person (103). Here the system (150) uses the physical location information of the merchants (102) and consumers (101) so that the food item being auctioned is delivered both in time-efficient and cost-effective manner. The system (150) finds the physical location of all bid-winners and those who have ordered food without bidding, physical location of food sources and present physical location of delivery resources. Using the nearest effective distance, the system (150) creates an ordered set per delivery person. The nearest effective distance is measured as time required to deliver food by a given delivery person (103) from a given food source meaning the Merchant (102) to a given customer meaning the Consumer (101). Now the system (150) groups the orders such that delivery cost and delivery time is minimized. The delivery person (103) logs into the system (150) with his login credentials to view the notifications, delivery information and then approaches respective merchant (102) to collect the food item to be delivered.

Similarly At step 55, the system (150) sends notifications to the Merchant (102) on his display device (100). These notifications are viewed by the Merchants (102) by logging into the system (150) with his login credentials. At step 81 as shown in Figure 6, The merchant (102) generates the encrypted label for the food package being auctioned in standard format like QR code. This encrypted label gets attached to the food package in the winning bid. At step 82, this same food package is handed over to the Delivery Person (103) selected in step 72 who approaches the Merchant (102) for collecting the respective delivery.

At step 56, the winning bid food item is delivered to the Consumer (101). As shown in Figure 7, at step 91, the consumer (101) accepts the delivery of the food item after scanning and decoding the encrypted label generated at step 81 that travels with the food package to be delivered. In another exemplary embodiment, the system (150) provides the facility of reading and matching the encrypted label to the consumer (101). This ensures the safe and authentic delivery of the food item that was promised in the bidding process. If there is a mismatch, then that food item may be returned back and issue is resolved by taking proper action.

Also, the present invention provides the facility to transfer inventory by allowing the transfer of portion of cooked food inventory into the auction inventory thereby avoiding food wastage, getting more customers, building brand and doing social good as well. Further it is left to the judgement of the Merchant (102) about how much more food is prepared and when this is to be transferred to the auction inventory. Eventually it will be taken care of by the system (150).

While the foregoing describes various embodiments of the invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof. The scope of the invention is determined by the claims that follow. The invention is not limited to the described embodiments, versions or examples, which are included to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention when combined with information and knowledge available to the person having ordinary skill in the art.

The benefits and advantages which may be provided by the present invention, have been described above with regard to specific embodiments. These benefits and advantages, and any elements or limitations that may cause them to occur or to become more pronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essential features of any or all of the embodiments. The present invention is not limited only to the auctioned food items but also the innovative features of the present invention work for delivery of any non-auctioned perishable goods.

The foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above description. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the present invention and its practical application, and to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the present invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is understood that various omissions and substitutions of equivalents are contemplated as circumstances may suggest or render expedient, but such omissions and substitutions are intended to cover the application or implementation without departing from the scope of the claims of the present invention.

We Claim,

1. An authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods, the system comprising:
a) an electronic display device (100);
b) a secure central cloud resident server (151);
c) a client tier (152); and
d) a service provider (153);
characterized in that
e) the electronic display device (100) is operably connected to the secure central cloud resident server (151) and to the client tier (152) and to the service provider (153) through communication network for performing various auctioning and delivering activities of perishable goods wherein the activities are any or combination of:
i. capturing information of food ingredients;
ii. transferring regular food inventory to auction food inventory;
iii. generating encrypted labels for auctioned food items;
iv. doing batch scheduling of delivery;
v. auto-selecting a delivery person; and
vi delivering the auctioned food item to the respective person;
f) the secure central cloud resident server (151) comprises an application server (104) and a database server (105) which are functionally coupled with each other for communicating with the electronic display device (100) for processing all kind of data received, for displaying food items for auction and for making and accepting bids for auctioned items;
g) the database server (105) is configured to update and store the latest data and records of the auctioning and delivering activities of perishable goods;
h) the service provider (153) configures, monitors and maintains the database server (105) and application server (104) of the system (150);
i) the electronic display device (100) is either portable or non-portable device wherein the portable electronic display device is either a smartphone or a Tablet or a laptop or a notebook or any combination thereof and the non-portable electronic display device is either a Desktop or a PC or any existing electronic display device or any combination thereof;
j) the electronic display device (100) is configured for accessing the system (150) by the service provider (153).

2. The authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the client tier (152), comprises:
a) the consumers (101) for bidding the auctioned perishable goods;
b) the merchants (102) for offering the perishable goods for auction; and
c) the delivery personnel (103) for delivering the auctioned perishable goods;
characterized in that
d) The consumers (101) are the persons interested in bidding for the perishable goods;
e) The merchants (102) are the representatives of the restaurants who offer the perishable goods;
f) The delivery personnel (103) are the persons who pick up the auctioned delivery package from the merchant (102) and deliver the same to the consumer (101);
g) The delivery personnel (103) are auto-selected through batch scheduling process (71) performed by the system (150);
h) Each of the consumers (101), each of the merchants (102) and each of the delivery personnel (103) has the device (100) which is configured for accessing the system (150).

3. The authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system (150) captures the information (41) of each food ingredient coming to the restaurant, in the form of specific food classification, quality attributes, specific geographic origin, attributes related to metabolic impacts and other health impacts along with the food preparation process of every auctioned perishable goods for creating the encrypted food label (81) in a standard format like QR code.

4. The authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system (150) scans and verifies (91) the said encrypted label in standard format like QR code integrated with the auctioned perishable goods’ for ensuring the authentic delivery to the customer (101) and for tracking the goods quality.

5. The authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system (150) provides the merchants (102) with the facility of inventory transfer (42) by allowing the transfer of portion of cooked food from regular food inventory into the auction food inventory.

6. The authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system (150) performs the batch scheduling (71) of the delivery and finds the closest delivery person (103) based on the physical location of the merchants (102) and the physical location of the consumers (101) for optimizing the travel time and cost of delivery of the auctioned perishable goods to the consumers (101).

7. A bidding method (50) of using authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods, the bidding method comprising:
a) making the pre-bidding requisites ready by capturing the information of each food ingredient (41) coming to the restaurant along with food preparation processes and by providing inventory transfer (42) of regular food inventory to auction inventory by allowing the merchants (102) to transfer portion of cooked food;
b) accessing the said system using respective login credentials (51) by the client tier (152) and the service provider (153) wherein client tier (152) is the consumers (101), the merchants (102), the delivery personnel (103) or any combination thereof;
c) bidding and participating in auctioning (52) of the perishable goods by the registered consumers (101);
d) doing payment (53) by the consumers (101) after winning the bid;
e) sending notification (54) to the delivery personnel (103) on respective device (100);
f) sending notification (55) to the merchants (102) on respective device (100);
g) delivering the auctioned perishable goods in the winning bid (56) to the respective consumers (101); and
h) accepting the delivery of the auctioned perishable goods by the consumers (101) after scanning and verifying the encrypted label in standard format like QR code (91), which is integrated with the auctioned perishable goods.

8. The bidding method (50) of using authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods, as claimed in claim 7, promotes the business branding and earns the business the goodwill of customers who get authentic quality food and perishable goods at significantly discounted rate.

9. The bidding method (50) of using authenticating efficient system (150) for auctioning and delivering perishable goods, as claimed in claim 7, works as a powerful tool for the merchants (102) for reducing the wastage of food.