Methods and apparatus for determining wait times

US11244529B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Walmart Apollo, LLC · US

Inventors

• Shengyang Zhang · Santa Clara, US
• Mingang Fu · Palo Alto, US
• Arun Prasad Nagarathinam · Santa Clara, US
• Apeksha Mehta · Mountain View, US
• Pawan Kumar · Norwalk, US
• Madhavan Kandhadai Vasantham · Dublin, US
• Ankit Jasuja · San Jose, US
• Surnaik Srivastava · Santa Clara, US
• Jennifer Chen · Union City, US
• Vidyanand Krishnan · Sunnyvale, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 28, 2019
• Grant date: Feb 8, 2022
• Expiry date: Oct 28, 2039

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G07C2011/04
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A system is provided and generally includes a server, an associate computing device, and a customer computing device. The server may receive data from the customer computing device indicating that a customer is picking up items from a predetermined location. The server may compute an estimated wait time for the customer based on one or more machine learning processes. In some examples, a number of unexpected customers that may arrive is determined. The machine learning process may compute the estimated wait time based on the number of unexpected customers. The machine learning process may be trained with historical data. The estimated wait time is transmitted to the customer computing device, and is displayed to the customer. In some examples, the server sends a list of customers waiting to be serviced to the associate computing device. The list may be prioritized based on estimated wait times for those customers.