GB2352063A

GB2352063A - Household management

Info

Publication number: GB2352063A
Application number: GB9916170A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Edwin Turner; Robert John Boffin
Original assignee: Fujitsu Services Ltd
Current assignee: Fujitsu Services Ltd
Priority date: 1999-07-10
Filing date: 1999-07-10
Publication date: 2001-01-17
Also published as: GB9916170D0

Abstract

A household management system is based on an inventory of data relevant to the household and stored electronically, such as on a web server (5) disposed at the household. The inventory may include information regarding goods purchased, services employed and household events, such as birthdays. To facilitate data entry for goods purchased or services provided, it is proposed that the retailer (2, 3) involved provides it to the consumer in a suitable form, since such information is already available to retailers with EPOS etc systems. This could be achieved by providing a receipt with barcoding or even direct download over the Internet (4) to the server (5) in the consumer's home (1). For maintaining the data, "used" items need to be deleted from the inventory. This can be achieved manually or, for example, by means of intelligent trashcan (9) reading barcodes on the items. The data in the inventory can be used in connection with many software applications, such as to re-order staple goods periodically and automatically, menu planning, organising car maintenance etc.

Description

2352063 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT This invention relates to household

management, and in particular to the simplification and organisation of tasks involved in running a household.

The Internet is increasingly being used for activities such as shopping and various retailers now make it possible to perform supermarket shopping without visiting the store. The order is placed by selecting items on-line and the goods are delivered to the customer's door during a preselected delivery time interval. This does not, however, free the customer from the chore of deciding what is required at any one time, and they are still tied to the home whilst waiting for the delivery. Recently the so-called intelligent refrigerator has been proposed, which can track what is stored in it, what is used and thus what needs to be replaced and can even place an order directly to the store for the replacements. The present invention is not, however, restricted to the tracking of food and other consumable items, as will be apparent from the following.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a household management system comprising computer means for the electronic storage of data relevant to the household, said data including details of goods purchased from a retailer and/or services provided by a service provider, and means connectable to the computer means whereby members of the household can perform data input, data deletion or request information, and wherein at least some of the data for electronic storage is supplied by the retailer/service provider in a form facilitating input.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of managing a household including the steps of inputting data relevant to the household to a computer means, whereby to provide electronic storage thereof, said data including details of goods purchased from a retailer and/or services provided by a service provider; deleting data, if required; performing operations on the stored data whereby to answer requests for information from a member of the household, if required; and wherein at least some of the data for electronic storage is supplied by the retailer/service provider in a form facilitating input.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying schematic drawing of a home management system.

As mentioned above, the invention is concerned with a household management system and method, in particular the simplification and organisation of tasks involved in running a household, and this includes, but is not limited to, the tracking of all the food and other consumable items, as will be apparent from the following.

A basic feature of such a household management system or method is the creation and maintenance of an electronic inventory of at least some of the consumables, including foodstuffs, used in the running of the household. The key to the success of such a system or method will be the ease with which item information can be added to or deleted from the inventory as items are sourced and discarded by any member of the household, and the discipline with which this is policed. Clearly there is work involved in the initial setting up of an inventory, but it is not as daunting as it may seem since a lot of the information involved is already stored electronically, albeit not in the household itself in an inventory form. The information, or rather individual 'gretailer/service provider" parts of it, is already available to the retailers/service providers involved in their EPOS systems or in other back office systems, or in the case of barcodes, on the product itself.

Referring now to the accompanying drawing which indicates a home 1, connected to two retailer/service providers 2 and 3 via the Internet 4, it is proposed that the inventory is stored on a computer, such as an inhome web server 5, which can be accessed by the household members both within the home and remotely from a wide variety of terminals, not all shown, such as a PC (personal computer), mobile telephone or WEB TV 6. An appropriate firewall 7 can be employed for security purposes. Other terminals which can access the server 5 include an intelligent refrigerator 8, an intelligent trashcan (dustbin) and an intelligent delivery locker 10. In connection with the latter, attention is directed to our co-pending GB patent application (C 1434). The connections to the server 5 within the home can be over a local area network (LAN), indicated schematically by dotted connection line I I and double-headed arrows, which may be RF, Infra Red, cabled or a mixture of them.

Data entry to the inventory primarily will be from lists of items bought, be these items of food, cleaning materials etc from supermarkets, items to complete DIY projects etc. Information stored with the item code can include description, cost, date purchased, use-by date, location of purchase, warranty period, related project, packaging material etc. The premise is that much of this information can be provided by the retailer or service provider in one of a number of forms:

(a) A simple statement of information provided by the retailer or service provider which the householder inputs manually into the system e.g. to the server via the WEB TV 6 or a PC (not shown). Whilst this may be satisfactory for the occasional item purchased from a "non home-IT friendly" supplier, this is not a viable option for the bulk of products purchased, particularly in the food area.

(b) A simple statement of information provided by the retailer or service provider as a receipt with the items coded in the form of a 2D barcode. The householder can input this information into the system using a barcode reader located, for example, on the refrigerator 8.

(c) A statement of information generated by the retailer or other service provider in electronic format which is then passed to the householder such as by a network connection, a smartcard, for example one employed during delivery of goods to the intelligent locker 10, or portable storage device, such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or even a floppy disc.

As discussed above, much of the information is already available to the retailer/service provider. It simply remains to consolidate the information in electronic form and make it available to the householder. There is a one-off cost on such a consolidation exercise, but as this information becomes increasingly valuable to the householder, the retailer/service provider who is prepared to make such an effort will be perceived as one who deserves the householder's loyalty.

Equal in importance to the data entry process, is that for removing items from the inventory. If information is not purged from the inventory (database) as a matter of routine, such a database will quickly become inaccurate and any forecasting process, based on the contents of the household at any point in time, will be so inaccurate that it will quickly fall into disuse. Removal of items from the inventory can be achieved by a number of mechanisms:

(a) Manual deletion of the item or items from any terminal attached to the server, possibly assisted by the use of the item barcode and a barcode reader on such a terminal. (Input of data for an individual item which is bar-coded may also be accomplished with the barcode reader.) (b) Automatic deletion of the item or items by use of a barcode reader attached to the disposal site, i.e. the intelligent trashcan 9. It should be noted that if the packaging material is also stored as an item attribute, the intelligence of the trashcan can be used to assist sorting the packaging for recycling and disposal.

The information stored in the inventory can be employed in a number of different ways. In particular, the described basic platform architecture, as illustrated in the drawing, can be used as the host for a number of service applications supplied either by one or more retailers or by independent third parties. Such applications can operate in a "once only" mode, or in an ongoing "monitor and supply" mode. The former may be resident on the home server, or could be downloaded on demand. Typical "once only" applications comprise the following:

(a) an application to interrogate a recipe, identify missing items and place an order for the missing items from a local, or remote, supermarket; (b) an application to plan a week's menu for the household, taking into account items, for example in the refrigerator/freezer/larder, which are reaching the end of their "use by" period; (c) an application to identify a recipe which will make maximum use of items in stock which are approaching the end of their "use by" period; (d) to maintain an inventory of "capital" items added to the home; together with serial numbers, pictures, descriptions, warranties etc which will assist in insurance claims in the event of theft or loss. Such an inventory may also be of use when "shopping" for new insurance quotes.

The "monitor and supply" applications will be resident on the home server and will monitor "activities" throughout the year. They can use intelligent agent software to perform the following:

(a) to use a built-in diary as a prompt, bringing up "festival" dates (birthdays etc), ensuring that greetings cards are available, invitations are sent to a party, planning a party menu (see also the above "once only" suggestions) and bringing up a list of gift ideas collected previously (compare with the bridal service offered by most department stores); (b) to monitor the consumption of "staple" items, such as regularly used food and drinks (milk, soft drinks, bread, cereals etc), cleaning materials, and prompt, or re-order, as appropriate; (c) to monitor the frequency of regularly used services such as dry cleaning, car maintenance, gardening and other property maintenance, and to prompt at the appropriate time, perhaps scheduling the external contractors as appropriate; (d) to advise collection agencies when an amount of their respective material (bottles, paper, plastics etc) is available for collection as a result of the pre-sorting possible with the aid of the intelligent trashcan.

It should be noted that the amount of input from the consumer (householder) will decrease and the usefulness of the service will increase, as the amount of data collected over time increases.

Whilst many of the service providers, for example retailers, financial services, would clearly like to see as much as possible of the information resident on their own servers in order to control the 46access" to their consumers, most consumers would prefer to have control over what they see as their private information. Realising the value of this information, consumers will, however, see the need for secure management of it, backup etc, but might be persuaded to give access to it, under tightly controlled conditions, in exchange for such management. The key to successful adoption by a wide variety of consumers will be the ease of use and non-intrusive nature of its use, rather than its cost. The server must be seen as a "black box", easy to install and accessible by a wide variety of readily available "terminals", most of which will not be perceived as "computers". The terminals and interconnections must be easy to install and upgrade and will probably use radio as the primary medium for the LAN, although other media such as cable or Infra Red could be used. The server itself will be perceived as a "fit and forget" device, available continuously and capable of handling interruptions, such as power failures, with no user intervention.

In summary, the invention can provide a consumer (householder) with the ability to build up a household inventory that can be updated directly by a retailer using a "consumer data interchange" protocol and maintained using automated waste management technology. The invention is not limited to such trackings of food and other consumer items. There is, however, considerable scope for offering services based on intelligent agent software which will "lead" the consumer, and for other services offered by retailers and service providers to ease the data input and output to the system, such data already being available from EPOS and similar systems. These services can offer, at minimal cost, ways for the retailers to engender loyalty to them.

Claims

1. A household management system comprising computer means for the electronic storage of data relevant to the household, said data including details of goods purchased from a retailer and/or services provided by a service provider, and means connectable to the computer means whereby members of the household can perform data input, data deletion or request information, and wherein at least some of the data for electronic storage is supplied by the retailer/service provider in a form facilitating input.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the computer means is located at the household.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the computer means is a Web server connectable to the retailer/service provider via an Internet connection.

4. A system as claimed in any one of claims I to 3, and including application software employing the data in order to supply a said household member with requested information.

5. A system as claimed in any one of claims I to 4, wherein the system includes a barcode scanner connectable to the computer means, and wherein the retailer/service provider provides data in the form of a document containing barcodes.

6. A system as claimed in any one of claims I to 3, wherein the retailer/service provider provides the data in an electronic format and the system includes means to accept the data in that format.

7. A system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the system includes a smartcard reader connectable to the computer means and the data is supplied in a smartcard format.

8. A system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the system includes a floppy disc drive connectable to the computer means and the data is supplied on a floppy disc.

9. A system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the computer means is connectable to the said retailer/service provider via a network, and the data is downloaded directly to the computer means via said network.

10. A system as claimed in any one of claims I to 3, wherein the goods purchased carry item barcodes and the system includes a barcode scanner connectable to the computer means, and wherein goods are input to and/or deleted from the electronic data storage in response to scanning of their item barcodes.

11. A system as claimed in claim 10 and wherein the scanner is associated with an intelligent trashcan which serves to delete discarded goods from the electronic data storage.

12. A system as claimed in any one of claims I to 3 and including application software serving to monitor consumption of predetermined goods and to prompt re-order, or to re-order said goods automatically.

13. A system as claimed in any one of claims I to 3 and including application software serving to monitor the frequency of regularly used services and to prompt re-use at relevant time intervals.

14. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the means connectable to the computer means are in communication therewith using a Local Area Network (LAN), the connection medium of which comprises Radio Frequency (RF), Infra Red (IR), cable or any mixture thereof.

15. A method of managing a household including the steps of inputting data relevant to the household to a computer means, whereby to provide electronic storage thereof, said data including details of goods purchased from a retailer and/or services provided by a service provider; deleting data, if required; performing operations on the stored data whereby to answer requests for information from a member of the household, if required; and wherein at least some of the data for electronic storage is supplied by the retailer/service provider in a form facilitating input.

16. A method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the computer means is located at the household, and including the step of loading software applications for performing said operations onto the computer means.

17. A method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the computer means is located at the household, and including the steps of the retailer/service provider providing data in the form of a document containing barcodes and a said member of the household inputting the data to the computer means by scanning the document by means of a barcode scanner connected to the computer means.

18. A method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the computer means is located at the household and wherein the computer means is connectable to the retailer/service provider via a network, and including the step of the retailer/service provider providing the data by direct download to the computer means via said network.

19. A household management system substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

20. A method of managing a household substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.