Merchandising – Customer service – Dining room service
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-09
2002-08-06
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Merchandising
Customer service
Dining room service
Reexamination Certificate
active
06427806
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a food and drink conveying system, set in a sushi bar and a like eating place, for making a circulation of e.g. dished-up sushi by means of a conveying path so that customers can take the circulating foods and drinks at their own choice.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, there have been increasing sushi bars and like eating places that introduce a food and drink conveying system having a conveying path that circulates along lots of tables or counters set in the sushi bar and like eating place. Foods (e.g. sushi) and drinks dished up on plates are served to the conveying path as occasion calls so that customers at the tables can take and eat a variety of foods and drinks passing in order through the conveying path at their own choice.
In this food and drink conveying system, the foods and drinks dished up on the plates are usually served to the conveying path as occasion calls, irrespective of the customers' liking, but sometimes are served to meet the customers' orders.
When ordering, the customer must pay attention to the conveyance of his/her order, but sometimes overlooks his/her order passing past him/her. In that case, the orderer must wait until his/her order is re-circulated through the conveying path before him/her and, what is worse, another person sometimes takes that order away without knowing it before reaching the orderer. Due to this, the orderer sometimes makes a complaint, “what happened to my order”.
In consideration of this circumstance, the present invention has been developed. It is the object of the invention to provide a food and drink conveying system that can prevent an ordered food or drink served to and conveyed through a conveying path from being taken out by another person by mistake and also can manage on whether the ordered food or drink is duly taken by the orderer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve the object above, the present invention provides a food and drink conveying system comprising a circulating conveying path for food and drink; a plurality of tables arranged along the conveying path; a conveying container to contain an ordered food or drink therein and to be placed on the circulating conveying path; and a guide means for giving an orderer a notice of an arrival of his/her order contained in the conveying container, wherein a conveying container side of the food and drink conveying system comprises an input means for inputting a specified table number, a food and drink detecting means for detecting presence of the food and drink in the container, a conveying-container-side transmitter for sending out information that is output from the input means and the food and drink detecting means, a conveying-container-side receiver for receiving specified information, and an operation control means for controlling operation of the guide means on the basis of the input from the input means, while on the other hand, a conveying path side of the food and drink conveying system comprises a conveying-path-side receiver for receiving signals output from the conveying-container-side transmitter, a conveying-path-side transmitter for sending out signals associated with the respective tables to the conveying-container-side receiver, a controller for controlling the conveying-path-side receiver and the conveying-path-side transmitter, and a display means for displaying a variety of information, so that, after the conveying container containing the food or drink therein arrived at the specified table having the table number input by the input means, the information, detected by the detecting means, on the presence of the food or drink to be taken out from the conveying container is sent out from the conveying-container-side transmitter to the conveying-path-side receiver to display the information on the display means through the controller.
This construction can provide the result that when the ordered food or drink is conveyed by means of the circulating conveying path, the orderer can be informed of the arrival of the ordered food or drink by the guide means near the orderer's table, so that the orderer can surely take the ordered food or drink without being taken away by another person by mistake and, in addition to this, the management can be made on whether the ordered food or drink was duly taken by the orderer.
Further, the food and drink conveying system is preferably provided with a take-away device for the conveying container from which the food or drink was taken out to be taken away from the circulating conveying path. This arrangement enables the conveying container sent along the orderer to be withdrawn.
Further, it is preferable that in the food and drink conveying system, the sending and receiving of the signals between the transmitters and their respective receivers is performed by use of infrared light. This can provide the result of preventing crossing of the transmission that can be caused by the use of radio waves, for example.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1330890 (1920-02-01), Mayne
patent: 3876038 (1975-04-01), Riller et al.
patent: 4349086 (1982-09-01), Yamada
patent: 6145628 (2000-11-01), Tanaka
patent: 6179088 (2001-01-01), Lai
Beauchaine Mark J
Frishauf, Holtz Goodman, Langer & Chick, P.C.
Kura Corporation Ltd.
Walsh Donald P.
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