CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] None.

[0002] LIMITED COPYRIGHT WAIVER

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the reproduction by anyone of the Indian Patent Office of the patent disclosure as and when required, as it appears in the Indian Patent Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. Copyright 2012, by Ramana Bodepudi

TECHNICAL FIELD

BACKGROUND

[0003] Embodiments of the inventive subject matter relate generally to a Queue management system for customers applicable to any customer service industry that necessitate a person having to wait for a service or accommodation to be provided or activity to be performed or obtained. This imique, ingenious method and system in particular allows the customer to remotely send and/or directly obtain a line position or turn number. This is accomplished by the customer contacting or receiving the Queue management program details via Short Message Service (SMS) and cellular telephone or land telephone or internet. Or physically going into the facility and press button on the touch screen to get a ticket, from the queue management machine device. Whereupon receiving a queue position number that is synchronized with the ongoing queue number total for that facility. The potential positive results of using the Queue Management system will be many. The customer will save a vast amount of time that could be better used elsewhere thus increasing exponentially the productivity quotient of the individual in a society and thus the society at large. The person will also not have to drive around endlessly. This would result in energy savings and less pollution in the air, two very favorable goals of any modem society.

[0004] Think of the Queue management system as a time management system, and resource multiplier. With an advanced appointment system like this the resources of persormel and building space limitations are increased by a sizable factor. Thus, this system is in effect a huge revenue generator. This is accomplished by increasing the effectiveness of these existing resources by superior utilization at a fraction of the cost of more personnel and new facilities. The reader can undoubtedly conclude numerous other benefits of employing this system. In general we also believe that there will be a positive reaction by the populous, in that one of the many exasperating problems of modem life will become less of a headache.

BACKGROUND

[0005] Over the years numerous articles and commentaries have been presented conceming the growing problem and inefficiency of customer/client management. This is especially applicable to societies with socialized medicine and large populations. Also this is relevant to any necessity to access government facilities or agencies for example passport application office. The need for thousands of people to wait in line for six, eight or more hours to receive basic service is commonplace.

[0006] Health risk and potential contagion for all patients will be reduced by this invention by the simple result of less crowding thus less exposure to either airborne or direct contact to another person's germs.

[0007] Extended delay in any hospital waiting facility can result in contracting a vims or disease. Many people waiting for so many hours, some all day to see a doctor for treatment in the hospital is a dangerous situation. One can easily contract a more serious disease from others while one is in the waiting room and then spread this to family and other contacts thus intensifying the epidemic. Not to mention the effect of exposure to the terrible antibiotic resistant strains of staff that we have all read about that are present in most hospitals around the world.

[0008] Imagine, in the instance of a pandemic of bird flu or HIN 1 flu in any city. Many people who may have other less serious maladies and must go to the hospital may contract the bird flu or HlNl flu, by being in the hospital waiting room for 4 or more hours. Thus the hospital waiting room will become the instrument of intensification and avail spreading of the pandemic.

[0009] With the current legacy system people come into the hospital waiting hall as early as they can. Some would be driving around trying to find an available parking space. Also going out to pay for extension of parking. The current existing queue system requires the patient to be physically in front of a ticket dispenser to take a number and enter queue. So patient must take leave from work or school all day to go to the hospital and take the queue number from the queue machine in the waiting hall. This activity results in energy wasted and productivity wasted and danger to staff and patients from contagion. Productivity will be increased by this invention. And energy consumption/pollution will also be reduced. To quantify the potential (man hours of work lost) and savings one might simply multiply the average number of hours searching for parking, time spent in a waiting room and compare to the time saved by using Queue Management System with advance appointment timing. For example half hour searching for parking plus 1-2 hours in a waiting room. This is opposed to using Queue Management and receiving a queue line number and approximate appointment time (1/2 hour waiting with someone dropping patient off and picking up) which is potential hours of productivity gain.

[0010] The benefits would also apply to attendance at many government and non government offices and facilities or people waiting in long lines for customer services. Such as RTO office, the department of Income Tax, Revenue offices, municipal offices, college registration/admission offices, movie theatres, temples, banks, bill pay centers, restaurants etc. The benefits of productivity gain and energy savings along with increased revenue collection would be there.

[0011] Also in the present and available queue management system, which consists of merely taking a number and waiting, there is NOT enough statistical analysis data and real-time datum. This would include average customer wait time, time with each individual and other variables. This system is flexible and scalable with numerous user options and configurations. It is able to easily be adjusted and fine tuned once parameters, variables and statistics for each individual entity are detected for ultimate efficiency. It will then be able to inform the customer and staff more accurately as to how long the estimated waiting time would be as well as personnel and asset usage. The Queue Management system is a valuable asset to modem government or business.

SUMMARY

[0012] A queue management system (NOQ) and methods for performing the system are provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] Fig 1. Queue Management system Architecture

[0014] The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this present disclosure, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the present disclosure will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the present disclosure taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0015] The queue management system and method have been represented where appropriate by drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present disclosure so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] Before describing in detail embodiments that are in accordance with the present disclosure, it should be observed that the embodiments reside primarily in combinations of method steps and components of computing system related to computation of electrical characteristics of interconnect lines.

[0017] In this document, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, device or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, device, or apparatus. An element proceeded by "comprises ...a" does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, device or apparatus that comprises the element.

[0018] Any embodiment described herein is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. All of the embodiments described in this detailed description are illustrative, and provided to enable persons skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure and not to limit the scope of the disclosure, which is defined by the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0019] This description of the embodiments is divided into four sections. The first section provides an introduction to the embodiments of the invention, while the second section describes examples of Queue management device architecture. The third section describes examples of operations performed by some embodiments and the fourth section describes examples of the Queue management device in more detail.

First Section

[0020] Before people enter into the service area or waiting hall, the customer must normally reach as early as they can so as to make sure their work is done without waiting too long.

[0021] The current existing queue (take a number) machine requires the customer to be physically present in front of it to take a number to enter the queue. Realizing that productivity and resources could be lost when people go to a hospital or business and wait all day for appointment was the impetus for the creation of this system. A new modernized method is developed to allow people to remotely send or receive and reserve a queue number without having to be present in person.

[0022] The firmware in the queue management device, and the program will send or receive the SMS text for queue number to or from the customer. The device will generate the queue number and manage all other queue numbers and will estimate waiting time based on statistics of past activities and program adjustments. This new queue management device will also allow the customer in the building to touch the screen button and receive the printed queue number ticket. Program will also interact with remote requests from other means of communication to create a cohesive unit. So a customer can use his or her mobile telephone, hand set, computer or land line to receive a queue number and/or status as well as receive a number and check status in the building.

[0023] The SMS format examples are as below: Syntax:
1. Noq
2. Noq help
3. Noq
4. Noq cancel
5. Noq resch
6. noq feedback
The description of the processing of the messages is as below:

The example of the message of customer is "#11234567890 J2123 J3107" This example is one of many configurable requirement sets. The "#1" followed by the 9 numbers would represent the code number of the customer allotted to him by the queue management system at the time of enrollment. This code number is unique to each service provider i.e. the bank or the hospital or the restaurant would have individual codes. The #2 followed by 123 would indicate doctor number/service code. For example Dr. Sharma or money withdraw. The #3 followed by 107 would be department number or movie name etc or any item set by the system. Once the SMS is received the management system check for validity of keywords or service codes and the client code. If the SMS is requesting the machine to be added into the queue a queue number will be assigned to him/her by the firmware/software. The queue management system will calculate and analyze the waiting time and send the SMS text containing an assigned queue number with approximate service time to the requester.

If the SMS request is for cancellation or reschedule the system processes the request and sends back the new time or cancellation confirmation.

The queue management firmware knows where to send the SMS by identifying the caller ID mobile/telephone number.

The example of the reply SMS text message would be: #4A2172, 3:20, A2084. The #4 would indicate the queue number would be A2172. The 3:20 would be the waiting time of about 3 hours and 20 minutes. The A2084 is shown to be the currently serviced number of A2084. So, a patient or customer can plan when to drive his or her car, be dropped off, or take a bus or a taxi, to the hospital/service provider's location.

The Queue Management and system can also be configurable to set the SMS request format and reply format. Various combinations and permutations of the SMS text may be received, processed and sent by the system depending on formats set by the system administrator.

[0024] This detailed description refers to specific examples in the drawings and illustrations. These examples are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the inventive subject matter. These examples also serve to illustrate how the inventive subject matter can be applied to various purposes or embodiments. Other embodiments are included within the inventive subject matter, as logical, mechanical, electrical, and other changes can be made to the example embodiments described herein. Features of various embodiments described herein, however essential to the example embodiments in which they are incorporated, do not limit the inventive subject matter as a whole, and any reference to the invention, its elements, operation, and application are not limiting as a whole, but serve only to define these example embodiments. This detailed description does not, therefore, limit embodiments of the invention, which are defined only by the appended claims. Each of the embodiments described herein are contemplated as falling within the inventive subject matter, which is set forth in the following claims.

We Claim:

1. A method named as NOQ comprising: performing a queue management and appointment scheduling functionality; for enabling a customer to remotely send the request and receive back a Short Message Service (SMS) text message along with the assigned queue number, the estimated waiting time, the currently being served number, and numerous other configured functions deemed necessary by the software administrator

the SMS may include a currently being served number and an approximate time the customer is recommended to be present at the service provider's location

the SMS may include the details of what happens if customer misses the time of appointment

the SMS may contain a queue number from the central control subroutine in the software, or from the server software wherein the queue number will be sent to the customer with or without estimated waiting time and with or without current serving queue number.
the SMS may contain an identification number, driver license number, UID number, or an acceptable identification source from the remote customer

the method keeps track of currently called or served number.

the method enables the customer from choosing and specifying a specific slot on current date or a future date, for enabling the customer to schedule, change, cancel or get status updates about the service time or appointment slot.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the software comprises at least one of a queue management device, a queue management device software or firmware, an operating system, an add-on, an upgrade, and a component of an operating system.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said performing the first receipt of SMS

comprises one of determining that a SMS message is received to request the queue number by a non duplicated requester and then issues the queue number obtained from the central memory or local database or central database and or local subroutine queue number generator. The piece of software or firmware on the queue management machine, also keeps track of all SMS messages, and determines that no duplicated number is given throughout the systems within the network. All SMS messaging formats can be user configurable.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said keeping track of the queue number currently serving and keeping track of each number serving time and calculate the elapsed time between one queue number to the next. The queue management software will predict the estimated time of a future appointment based on seed values, historical trend values and by using rolling average schemas and or other predictive algorithms. the method can be combined and then take the elapsed time result and inform customers of the approximate waiting time. The customer can use the information and make adjustment to apportion their time schedule to do other things without having to waste time, go in and wait in the waiting hall.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 and 4, wherein the estimated wait time and current number being served are provided to the customer would be beneficial as to the following:

a) Time that could have been efficiently used to do other things is not wasted

b) No petrol is wasted, if one must drive around to find a parking space.

c) No overtime parking meter cost or more parking cost to customer. Could be dropped off or take public transportation if approximate times were known.

d) No customer would be unnecessarily waiting in the waiting room of a hospital fiall sick people. It would reduce chances of having a pandemic disease spread quicker throughout the community.

6. An embedded device or computer systems consisting of a thermal printer, printable paper, power supply, touch screen, USB/serial ports, CPU and system board, the GSM/GPRS modem, SIM card from Cellular telephone company, hard drive, operating system, firmware/software to control and provide all functionality from all claims here in. web browser, touch screen kiosks, monitors , ipads, (othjer input/output devices)

and wherein the first piece of software comprises at least one of an executable queue and appointment management device and an operating system.

and wherein the second piece of software comprises at least one of an upgrade, an additional queue management device feature, and an operating system component.

7. A method comprising: The telephony software/firmware is implemented to handle the voice commands. In other words, the invented queue management device will be receiving a voice call, which allows customer who is the caller to press the key for options or speak out the commanding words. This method would help people who cannot read or write, or for the regular telephone that has no ability to compose the text nor send it via Short Message Service, i.e. land line, public telephone, etc. other inputs can be email, web browser, IVR based or kiosk based entries.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further comprising successfiilly performs the reply fiinction providing the queue number. The customer must keep referenced number and inform the service provider who will look up in the system and verify data.

the method as, wherein the system may allow the customers to call or sms in day or days in advance. Thus, this would become an appointment system as well

can fiarther introduce the automated voice call from the System to its users to update the queue status or registration status from time to time or on demand.

the system can use the SMS broadcasting for its customers for different important announcements about the service or its clients.

the method wherein the code comprises at least one of a queue management, an operating system upgrade, an operating system patch, and a feature list.

9. One or more machine-readable media or the queue machine having stored therein instructions executable by a processor, wherein executing the instructions causes the processor to perform operations that comprise: performing a first security measure with a security dongle for enabling a piece of software on a queue management machine;

the machine-readable media, wherein the piece of software comprises at least one of a queue management device, a queue management device theme, an operating system, an add-on, an upgrade, and a component of an operating system

the machine-readable media, wherein said operation of performing the first security measure with the security module.

10. The queue machine may as claimed in claim 9, also employ an additional electronic sensor to allow a "non tactile" option to sense object, finger or hand from the customer without actually touching a surface. Electronic sensor would trigger the printing and dispensing of a physical queue ticket from queue machine. This would fiinction the same as sequence being triggered by activation of a physical button, or touch screen. In other words, a Queue machine may be placed at the service provider's location also deploy an electronic sensor. The customer would simply place his finger, his object, or hand close to the sensor, the sensor will trigger the dispensing of the queue ticket and number. This would be within the scope and framework of the invention in addition to the previously cited alternatives, and would not be mutually exclusive. This invention would allow the customer especially patients to avoid touching any potentially contaminated surface button or touch screen. It would help alleviate contamination from germs and virus's such as the flu or HlNl or any pandemic disease. The use of a "hands free" or "no touch" option to dispense a ticket number would be especially advantageous in a hospital or clinic environment. Or in any venue where germ or disease contagion is possible, which is anywhere that people congregate in proximity.

11. In addition to the previously cited means/method in preceding claims of transmitting pertinent data to clients via the Queue Management System could be the use of MMS, or multimedia messaging system. This is the standard for sending multimedia objects (images and text.) This could be sent to cell phone, PDA/smart phone, email or any other communications device. Within the scope of this invention this could take the form of a picture, bar code, coupon, prescription, demonstration, instructions, or ticket. in addition it can use Kiosk system for updating/managing the queue by the users with in client premises.

the system can use missed call service for its customers to confirm the registration or phone identity.

can send the regular campaigns or embedded campaigns in the messages to its users from various partners.

12. The apparatus of claims 1 to 11, wherein the queue service provider routine is further applicable to: Other government business offices and/or any other industry that requires queue management such as restaurants, hospitals, temples, banks, bill pay centers, salons, ticketing queues or any office which may find this system beneficial.