TWI716020B - Smart food serving system - Google Patents

Abstract

A smart food serving system is provided, which includes a rotary conveyor, a plurality of ultra-high frequency antennas, a plurality of readers, and a computing device. The rotary conveyor drives a plurality of food items to move along a specific direction. A plurality of food containers of the food items respectively includes an electronic tag recording an identification code. The ultra-high frequency antennas are disposed at one side of the rotary conveyor, and the sensing range of the ultra-high frequency antennas cover the whole rotary conveyor. Each reader is coupled to part of the ultra-high frequency antennas to detect the electronic tags of all of the food containers carried by the rotary conveyor through the ultra-high frequency antennas. The computing device collects the identification codes of all of the electronic tags carried by the rotary conveyor from the readers. The computing device obtains food serving condition information of the food items according to the collected identification codes, so as to perform food management operation according to the food serving condition information.

Description

Smart Food System

The present invention relates to a catering system, and particularly relates to an intelligent catering system with a rotary conveyor belt.

With the rapid increase in the frequency of modern people eating out, the tastes and service methods of various restaurants have become more and more varied and varied, and the conveyor belt sushi restaurant is a very popular restaurant type. At present, the general way of serving food in conveyor belt sushi restaurants is that the staff put the finished meal on the conveyor belt and set the position of the customer next to the conveyor belt. As a result, these meals will pass in front of the customers along with the operation of the revolving conveyor belt, so that the customers can remove their favorite meals from the revolving conveyor belt for enjoyment.

The richness and freshness of the food on the conveyor belt is a very important topic for this kind of food serving method of the conveyor belt sushi restaurant. If the meal is not taken by the customer for a long time, the food will be exposed to room temperature air for a long time, which will greatly reduce the freshness of the meal. In addition, if there are insufficient types of meals or lack of popular items on the revolving conveyor belt, customer satisfaction will be greatly reduced. At present, the conveyor belt sushi restaurant is made up of experienced staff to determine which meal items should be supplemented and how much should be supplemented. However, there are too many factors that affect the actual number of customers, and even experienced staff may have inaccurate judgments. If the food supplemented by the staff does not match the items that the customers want to eat or the number of supplemented meals is still insufficient, it will not only cause customers to wait longer, but also may be based on freshness control As a result, the amount of food scraps increased. In addition, how to improve the serving efficiency of the staff is also an issue worthy of attention, because the serving efficiency of the staff will also directly affect customer satisfaction and restaurant operating costs. It can be seen that the way of feeding meals using the rotary conveyor belt still faces many problems that can be improved.

In view of this, the present invention provides a smart catering system, which can efficiently ensure the richness and freshness of the meals on the revolving conveyor belt.

The present invention proposes a smart catering system, which includes a revolving conveyor belt, multiple UHF antennas, multiple readers, and a computer device. The revolving conveyor belt drives a plurality of meals to advance in a specific direction, wherein each of the plurality of food containers of the meals includes an electronic label with an identification number recorded. The UHF antenna is arranged on one or both sides of the revolving conveyor belt, wherein the sensing range of the UHF antenna covers the entire revolving conveyor belt. The readers are respectively coupled to parts of the UHF antenna, and detect the electronic tags of all food containers on the revolving conveyor belt through the UHF antenna. The computer device is coupled to the reader, and collects the identification numbers of all the electronic tags above the revolving conveyor belt from the reader. The computer device obtains meal serving state information according to the collected identification serial number, and executes meal control operations based on the meal serving state information.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned UHF antenna includes a strip-shaped flexible antenna and is arranged along the closed conveying path of the revolving conveyor belt.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned UHF antenna is arranged under the revolving conveyor belt.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the aforementioned UHF antenna includes a first UHF antenna and a second UHF antenna, and the RF output power of the first UHF antenna is different from that of the second UHF antenna. RF output power.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the aforementioned UHF antenna includes a first UHF antenna and a second UHF antenna, and the RF output power of the first UHF antenna is the same as that of the second UHF antenna. Output Power.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the aforementioned meal serving status information includes location information. The sensing range of the UHF antenna respectively covers different path sections of the enclosed conveying path, and the computer device obtains the path area where the meal is located on the enclosed conveying path according to the identification number of each part sensed by the UHF antenna segment.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned meal serving state information includes a moving state. According to the identification serial numbers of the parts sensed by the UHF antennas, the computer device obtains the movement status of the meal through different path sections.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the computer device confirms whether one of the meal items passes the ultra-high frequency based on the identification serial numbers of the parts sensed by the UHF antennas and the plurality of meal items corresponding to the identification serial numbers. The path section corresponding to one of the frequency antennas.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned rotary conveyor belt passes through the vegetable discharge area. The above-mentioned UHF antenna includes a first UHF antenna located in the dish area. When an electronic tag with a new identification number is detected through the first UHF antenna, the computer device will associate the new identification number with the corresponding meal. The aging information is recorded to the storage device, and the new identification number is matched with the meal item.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned smart meal serving system further includes a user input interface device. The user input interface device is coupled to the computer device, and the user input interface device receives human operations, and the meal item paired with the new identification serial number is determined in response to the human operation.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned smart meal serving system further includes an image capturing device disposed in the dish area. The image capturing device is coupled to the computer device, and the computer device performs image recognition on the image captured by the image capturing device to determine the meal item paired with the new identification serial number.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned smart meal serving system further includes a tray withdrawal device coupled to the computer device, and the tray withdrawal device is arranged beside the revolving conveyor belt. The above-mentioned UHF antenna includes a second UHF antenna arranged in the withdrawal area. Through the sensing of the second high frequency antenna, the computer device judges the meal that has entered the withdrawal area according to the identification number and corresponding meal time information. Check whether one of them needs to be removed from the revolving conveyor belt. If so, the computer device triggers the tray withdrawal device to evacuate one of the meals in the tray withdrawal area from the revolving conveyor belt.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned computer device counts the current remaining quantity of a plurality of meal items according to the identification serial number reported by the reader, and obtains the supplementary quantity according to the current remaining quantity and the recommended quantity, and obtains the quantity of the supplement through the user The interface device prompts the number of supplements.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the aforementioned computer device estimates the suggested quantity based on at least one of historical statistical information, people flow information, length of the revolving conveyor belt, supply period, weather information, and the area where the store is located.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the aforementioned historical statistical information includes the historical meal quantity, historical consumption quantity, and historical scrap quantity of each meal item.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the identification serial numbers reported by the reader at different specific time points respectively form multiple sequence lists. The computer device judges whether the meal has been removed from the revolving conveyor belt by comparing the sequence list, and accumulates the cumulative consumption of a plurality of meal items based on this, so as to count the historical consumption.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the aforementioned computer device triggers the withdrawal device to evacuate one of the meals that enter the withdrawal area, the computer device accumulates the cumulative scrap quantity of meal items, thereby calculating the historical scrap quantity.

Based on the above, in the embodiment of the present invention, the food container for the meal has an electronic tag, and a plurality of UHF antennas are deployed along the conveying path of the revolving conveyance. The sensing range of these UHF antennas covers the entire revolving conveyor. Therefore, the intelligent meal serving system of the present invention can simultaneously detect the presence of all meals on the revolving conveyor belt through these UHF antennas. Based on this, the smart meal serving system of the present invention can obtain the identification serial numbers of the electronic tags of all meals on the revolving conveyor belt and the corresponding meal status information (such as meal items, meal time information, movement status, etc.) ) To perform meal control operations based on the serving status information of these meals. In this way, compared to setting a low-frequency reader for one-to-one sensing at a predetermined distance beside the revolving conveyor belt, the smart meal serving system of the present invention can comprehensively control the meals served on the revolving conveyor belt. And adjustment.

In order to make the above-mentioned features and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, the following specific embodiments are described in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Part of the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The reference symbols in the following description will be regarded as the same or similar elements when the same symbol appears in different drawings. These embodiments are only a part of the present invention, and do not disclose all the possible implementation modes of the present invention. To be more precise, these embodiments are just examples of the smart food service system in the scope of the patent application of the present invention.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a smart meal serving system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to Fig. 1, the smart meal serving system 10 includes a rotary conveyor belt 101, a plurality of UHF antennas 102_1~102_N, and a plurality of readers 103_1~103_M (Figure 1 shows an example of N=8 and M=4. However, the present invention is not limited to this), the computer device 104, the user interface device 105, the image capture device 106, and the disk eject device 107.

The revolving conveyor belt 101 is arranged on the revolving table, and can drive a plurality of meals (for example, meals 60, 61, 62) along a specific direction D1. The meals transported through the revolving conveyor belt 101 are contained in food containers, which may be plates, bowls, cups, and so on. Each food container containing a meal includes an electronic tag with an identification serial number recorded. For example, the food container containing the meal 61 has an electronic label 611. For example, the electronic label can be attached to the bottom of the plate, but the invention is not limited to this. In addition, the electronic tag on each food container has a tag antenna and a storage circuit recording the identification number.

The UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 are arranged on one or both sides of the revolving conveyor belt 101, and the sensing range of the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 covers the entire revolving conveyor belt 101. Here, FIG. 1 takes the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 arranged below the rotating conveyor belt 101 as an example of implementation, but the present invention is not limited to this. In other embodiments, part of the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 can be arranged under the revolving conveyor belt 101, and another part of the high frequency antennas 102_1 to 102_8 can be placed above the revolving conveyor belt 101. In the embodiment of the present invention, the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 may be strip-shaped flexible antennas and are arranged along the closed conveying path of the revolving conveyor belt 101. That is, the flexible UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 can be bent corresponding to the bending of the rotary conveyor belt 101 (such as the UHF antenna 102_4 shown in FIG. 1). In other embodiments, the UHF antenna can also be deployed along the revolving conveyor belt 101 in other ways. However, no matter on which side or both sides of the revolving conveyor belt 101 the UHF antennas are deployed, the sensing range of multiple UHF antennas will cover the entire revolving conveyor belt 101. In addition, it should be noted that the length and number of UHF antennas can be designed according to actual requirements, and the present invention is not limited to this. For example, if the length of the UHF antenna is between 1 and 1.5 meters, a revolving conveyor belt with a length of more than 50 meters may require more than 40 UHF antennas.

In addition, the readers 103_1 to 103_4 are respectively coupled to parts of the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8, and detect the electronic tags of all food containers on the revolving conveyor belt 101 through the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8. In the embodiment of the present invention, the readers 103_1 to 103_4 may be coupled to more than one UHF antenna, and control the UHF antenna coupled thereto to transmit and receive radio frequency signals. In other words, through the firmware settings inside the readers 103_1 to 103_4, the sensing range and data read by each UHF antenna 102_1 to 102_8 can be determined. In the embodiment of the present invention, when the electronic tag on the food container is within the sensing range of the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8, the readers 103_1 to 103_4 can detect the existence of the electronic tag and obtain the record on the electronic tag. The identification number in the label. In addition, since the sensing range of the UHF antennas 102_1～102_8 will cover the entire revolving conveyor belt 101, as long as the food container with electronic tags is placed on the revolving conveyor belt 101, the electronic tags above the revolving conveyor belt 101 must be The combination of the readers 103_1 to 103_4 and the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 detects it.

It should be noted that in one embodiment, in order to prevent these UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 from interfering with each other and to cover the entire revolving conveyor belt 101, the RF output power of these UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 can be the same or different , And controlled by readers 103_1 to 103_4. For example, the RF output power of the UHF antenna 102_2 may be different from the RF output power of the UHF antenna 102_3.

1 shows an example in which the readers 103_1 to 103_4 are respectively coupled to two UHF antennas. For example, the reader 103_1 is coupled to the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_2, but the invention is not limited thereto. In the embodiment of the present invention, in order to enable the sensing range of the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 to cover the entire revolving conveyor belt 101, the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 and the electronic tags on the food containers use radio frequency identification (Radio Frequency Identification, RFID) UHF band (860 MHz ~ 960 MHz). The reason is that compared to low-frequency RFID with a sensing range of less than 10 cm, UHF electronic tags using electromagnetic waves as the transmission medium can reach a longer reading distance, that is, a larger sensing range, and the electronic tags The design size can also be reduced a lot. In addition, low-frequency RFID can only sense a single electronic tag within the sensing range one to one. If the meal passes the sensing range of low-frequency RFID at too fast speed, or if multiple food containers with electronic tags overlap each other and pass the sensing range of low-frequency RFID together, low-frequency RFID will fail Read the information in the electronic label. In contrast, because the UHF antennas 102_1～102_8 and the electronic tags on the food containers use the UHF frequency band for radio frequency identification, UHF RFID can sense one-to-many through multiple sensing ranges. Electronic tags, and the sensing speed is lower. The sensing speed of RFID is faster, and the revolving conveyor belt 101 can drive meals at a faster speed.

The computer device 104 is coupled to the readers 103_1 to 103_4, and includes a processor 108 and a storage device 109. The processor 108 can execute the software components in the storage device 109 to complete various functions in the embodiment of the present invention. The computer device 104 collects the identification serial numbers of all the electronic tags above the rotary conveyor belt 101 from the readers 103_1 to 103_4. The computer device 104 is an electronic device with computing capability, which can be a computer, a server device, or a combination thereof. Taking the example of Figure 1 to illustrate, the meals 60, 61, and 62 are located within the sensing range of the UHF antenna 102_3, so the reader 103_2 can detect three food containers on the food containers containing the meals 60, 61, and 62 Electronic tags, and report the identification serial numbers in the three electronic tags to the computer device 104.

It can be seen that by using UHF antennas 102_1～102_8 and readers 103_1～103_4 to detect all the electronic tags above the revolving conveyor belt 101, the computer device 104 can obtain the identification numbers of all the electronic tags from the readers 103_1～103_4 , And know which UHF antenna 102_1～102_8 all the electronic tags are located within the sensing range. After that, the computer device 104 can obtain the serving status information of all meals according to the collected identification serial numbers, and execute the meal control operation based on the serving status information of the meals. The above-mentioned meal serving status information may include the movement state of the meal, the location information of the meal, the time limit information of the meal, and the meal items, etc. The above-mentioned meal control operations may be to withdraw the meal, prompt the number of supplementary meals, adjust the recommended number of meals, and prompt for special circumstances, and so on. The above-mentioned special situation may be that a certain meal item has not made a complete circle with the revolving conveyor belt, which means that customers in certain seats may have not seen a certain meal item, so the computer device 104 can send out Prompt to inform the staff to deal with this situation in a timely manner.

For example, after the computer device 104 collects all the identification serial numbers reported by the readers 103_1 to 103_4, based on the meal items and meal time information matched with these identification serial numbers, the computer device 104 can obtain the information shown in Table 1. Sequence list. Time: XX points XX minutes XX seconds UHF antenna Identification number Meal items Meal timeliness information Antenna 1 'Serial Number A1' 'Item B1' 'Time information T1' 'Serial Number A2' 'Item B2' 'Time Information T2' Antenna 2 'Serial Number A3' 'Item B1' 'Time information T1' Antenna 3 'Serial Number A4' 'Item B3' 'Time Information T3' 'Serial Number A5' 'Item B3' 'Time Information T4' 'Serial Number A6' 'Item B2' 'Time Information T2' Antenna 4 'Serial Number A7' 'Item B4' 'Time Information T5' Antenna 5 'Serial Number A8' 'Item B4' 'Time Information T5' 'Serial Number A9' 'Item B1' 'Time Information T6' 'Serial Number A10' 'Item B5' 'Time Information T7' 'Serial Number A11' 'Item B5' 'Time Information T7' Antenna 6 'Serial Number A12' 'Item B1' 'Time Information T6' Antenna 7 'Serial Number A13' 'Item B6' 'Time Information T8' 'Serial Number A14' 'Item B1' 'Time Information T6' Antenna 8 'Serial Number A15' 'Item B2' 'Time Information T9' Table 1

Based on the data in Table 1, the computer device 104 can know which section of the antenna is above each meal. In addition, it can be seen from the example in Table 1 that, in the embodiment of the present invention, it is assumed that the meal aging information may include serving time, meal aging length, and meal expiration time. Based on this, for meals of the same item, since they have the same meal duration, if the serving time is the same, they will have the same meal duration information. In contrast, for meals of the same product, if the serving time is different, they will have different meal timeliness information. In detail, the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 respectively correspond to different path sections of the enclosed conveying path according to the installation positions, so the computer device 104 can know which of the enclosed conveying paths of the revolving conveyor belt 101 each meal runs to On the path section. In other words, the sensing ranges of the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 respectively cover different path sections of the enclosed conveying path, and the computer device 104 can obtain the meal according to the identification numbers of the parts sensed by the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8. Point on the path section on the closed conveying path.

In addition, by comparing two sequence lists at adjacent time points, the computer device 104 can know that a meal was taken and the location of the meal based on the disappeared identification serial number. Or, according to multiple sequence lists at different time points, the computer device 104 can know the movement status of each meal from the time the meal is served to when it is taken by the customer. In other words, according to the identification serial numbers of the parts sensed by the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8, the computer device 104 can obtain the moving state of the meal through different path sections.

It is worth mentioning that, according to the identification serial numbers of the parts sensed by the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 and the multiple meal items corresponding to the identification serial numbers, the computer device 104 can confirm whether one of the meal items passes the super The path section corresponding to one of the high-frequency antennas. For example, the computer device 140 can determine whether the meal item "salmon" passes through the path section corresponding to the UHF antenna 102_7 based on the identification serial number reported by the reader 103_4 and its corresponding meal item, and then indicate The staff perform appropriate processing. In this way, it can be avoided that the customers at the end of the revolving conveyor belt 101 cannot enjoy the meal item "salmon".

It should be noted that the meal items of each meal can be paired with its identification serial number during the serving operation, and the time-sensitive information of each meal can also be determined and recorded during the serving operation. Please refer to FIG. 1, in the embodiment of the present invention, the rotary conveyor belt 101 may pass through the vegetable discharge area Z1, and the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8 include the UHF antenna 102_1 and the UHF antenna 102_2 located in the vegetable discharge area Z1 . However, FIG. 1 takes an example where one dish area includes two UHF as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. The present invention does not impose restrictions on the number of vegetable serving areas and the number of UHF antennas in the vegetable serving areas, and can be configured according to actual needs.

Therefore, when an electronic tag with a new identification number is detected through the UHF antenna 102_1 or the UHF antenna 102_2 in the dish area Z1, the computer device 104 records the new identification number and the corresponding meal time information to the storage Device 109, and pair the new identification number with the meal item. Specifically, the computer device 104 can obtain the newly-appearing sequence list by comparing the sequence list of all the identification numbers recorded at adjacent time points or the identification number corresponding to the UHF antenna 102_1 or UHF antenna 102_2 in the serving area Z1. With the new identification number, the computer device 104 can then match the new identification number to a meal item determined by manual operation or image analysis. In addition, the computer device 104 can obtain the meal timeliness information based on the time when the new identification number is sensed and/or the preservation period, and pair the meal timeliness information with the corresponding new identification number to record. Meal aging information may be time information related to the preservation time, such as expiration time, remaining time before expiration, serving time, and so on. In this way, the identification serial number of each meal can correspond to a meal item and meal timeliness information. Therefore, for the staff performing the serving operation, they only need to place the prepared meal directly on the revolving conveyor belt 101, and do not need to approach the prepared meal to a specific reader first. After the induction, the food is placed on the rotating conveyor belt 101, which can reduce the serving steps of the staff and improve the serving efficiency.

Furthermore, in one embodiment, the user input interface device 105 is coupled to the computer device 104, such as a computer, a tablet, a mobile phone, etc., an electronic device with an input interface and a screen. The user input interface device 105 can receive human operations, and the meal item paired with the new identification serial number is determined in response to the human operation. More specifically, the screen of the user input interface device 105 can display various meal items for the staff to choose, and the staff can select a meal by operating the staff through input methods such as touch input or voice input. Item, and then the staff began to make meals belonging to this meal item.

Another question worthy of this is that, in one embodiment, the computer device 104 can calculate the consumption information of the guests within a preset time period (for example, hourly, daily, etc.) according to the collected identification number. The above-mentioned guest consumption information may include the consumption quantity and the scrap quantity of each meal item in a preset time period, etc. In this way, the computer device 104 can combine the consumption information of the guests in the historical time period (for example, yesterday and a few days ago, etc.) to generate historical statistical information that can be used in the future. In addition, the computer device 104 can also calculate the most popular meal items and unpopular meal items based on the customer's consumption information, so that the restaurant can adjust the menu in time.

Alternatively, in another embodiment, the smart meal serving system 10 further includes an image capturing device 106 disposed in the dish area Z1, and the image capturing device 106 is coupled to the computer device 104. The image capturing device 106 captures images of the meal that has just been served, and the computer device 104 can use machine learning to perform image recognition on the image 106 captured by the image capturing device to determine which one is paired with the new identification number Meal items. The above-mentioned machine learning may be a deep learning algorithm. The computer device 104 may use a pre-trained classifier to classify the image objects, so as to identify which type of meal item the meal just served belongs to. The present invention does not limit the number of image capture devices. In other embodiments, the number of image capture devices may be more than one, and they are respectively arranged in more than one dish area. In other words, a dish area can have more than one image capture device. In this way, more accurate image recognition can be accomplished through multiple images in different shooting directions.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the disk withdrawal device 107 is arranged beside the rotary conveyor belt 101. The UHF antennas 102_1～102_8 include UHF antennas 102_8 arranged in the withdrawal zone Z2. Through the sensing of the high frequency antenna 102_8, the computer device 104 judges to enter the withdrawal zone Z2 according to the identification serial numbers and corresponding meal aging information Does one of the meals need to be removed from the rotating conveyor belt 101? If so, the computer device 104 triggers the tray withdrawal device 107 to evacuate the meal that enters the tray withdrawal zone Z2 from the rotating conveyor belt 101. The tray withdrawal device 107 can be provided with a lever X1, and when the tray withdrawal device 107 is triggered, the lever X1 can pull a specific meal away from the rotating conveyor belt 101. More specifically, the computer device 104 can obtain the meal time information of the meal that enters the sensing range of the UHF antenna 102_8 according to the identification number of the meal that enters the sensing range of the UHF antenna 102_8, and According to the time information of the meal, it is determined whether the meal that enters the sensing range of the UHF antenna 102_8 needs to be evacuated.

In one embodiment, the computer device 104 can estimate the recommended quantity based on at least one of historical statistical information, traffic information, length of the revolving conveyor belt, weather information, and the area where the store is located. In addition, the computer device 104 can count the current remaining quantity of multiple meal items according to the identification serial numbers reported by the readers 103_1 to 103_4, and obtain the supplement quantity according to the current remaining quantity and the recommended quantity, and use the user interface device 105 Prompt the number of supplements. In addition, the user interface device 105 can provide different display effects according to the number of supplements corresponding to each meal item, so as to inform the staff of which kind of meal is most needed. For example, the user interface device 105 can display the number of supplements corresponding to each meal item through lights of different colors.

In view of the above, the computer device 104 can calculate the current remaining quantity of each meal item based on the identification serial number reported by the readers 103_1 to 103_4 and the corresponding meal item. Taking the example of Table 1 as an example, the computer device 104 can know that there are currently 5 meals of "item B1" on the revolving conveyor belt 101. That is, the closed transportation path of the entire revolving conveyor belt 101 is sensed through the UHF antennas 102_1 to 102_8, and the current remaining quantity of various food items above the revolving conveyor belt 101 can be accurately known. Therefore, the staff can quickly and accurately perform supplementary operations based on the gap between the current remaining quantity of various meal items and the recommended quantity (that is, the number of supplementary meals for each meal item).

It is worth mentioning that the suggested quantity of each meal item can be different, which can be determined based on at least one of historical statistical information, people flow information, length of the revolving conveyor belt 101, supply period, weather information, and the area where the store is located. Estimated. In an embodiment of the present invention, the people flow camera can be deployed in the store, and the computer device 104 can know the number of customers, the number of people waiting, the number of people dining and other related information based on the flow information returned by the people flow camera. The length of the rotary conveyor belt 101 can also be used as one of the parameters for estimating the recommended quantity. In addition, the suggested quantity of each meal item can also be flexibly changed. For example, the computer device 104 can adjust the suggested quantity of each meal item in a timely manner according to the current supply period. In addition, weather and regionality are also factors that affect customer preferences. Therefore, the computer device 104 can obtain current weather information from a specific website and estimate the number of recommendations based on the weather information and the area where the store is located.

It should be particularly noted that the aforementioned historical statistical information includes the historical meal quantity, historical consumption quantity, and historical scrap quantity of each meal item. The above-mentioned historical meal quantity, historical consumption quantity, and historical scrap quantity can be counted in hour, day or week as time units. Specifically, the identification serial numbers reported by the readers 103_1 to 103_4 at different specific time points respectively form multiple sequence lists. The computer device 104 can determine whether the meal has been removed from the revolving conveyor belt 101 by comparing the sequence list, and accumulate the cumulative consumption of multiple meal items on the day or hour, thereby calculating the historical consumption. In addition, when the computer device 104 triggers the tray withdrawal device 107 to evacuate one of the meals that enter the meal withdrawal area, the computer device 104 accumulates the cumulative scrap quantity of the meal item on the day or hour, thereby calculating the historical scrap quantity. Since the embodiment of the present invention uses a multi-segment UHF antenna to sense the status of all meals, the computer device 104 can clearly count the cumulative number of meals, cumulative consumption, and cumulative scrapping of various types of meals in a specific time period. The statistical information will also be recorded in the storage device 109 as historical statistical information. Therefore, the computer device 104 can refer to these historical statistical information to estimate the recommended quantity of various meal items.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a smart meal serving method according to an embodiment of the invention. The steps shown in FIG. 2 can be implemented based on the foregoing description, and will not be repeated here. Please refer to FIG. 2. First, in step S201, multiple readers detect electronic tags of all food containers on the revolving conveyor belt through multiple UHF antennas. In step S202, the computer device collects the identification numbers of all the electronic tags above the revolving conveyor belt from the reader. In step S203, the computer device obtains the serving status information of the meal according to the collected identification serial number, and executes the meal control operation based on the serving status information of the meal.

In summary, in the embodiment of the present invention, the sensing range of the UHF antenna can cover the entire revolving conveyor belt, and the flexible strip-shaped UHF antenna can correspond to the shape of the revolving conveyor belt. bending. Compared with setting a low-frequency reader at a specific location, the smart meal serving system of the present invention can obtain the complete meal information on the current revolving conveyor belt in real time, and can further obtain each plate of meal from the time it is served to the time it is taken by customers The state of movement between using or being evacuated can more accurately obtain the consumed and scrapped quantities of each meal item. In this way, the smart meal serving system of the present invention can prompt the staff to make up an appropriate and appropriate amount of meals to ensure the richness of meals on the revolving conveyor belt, reduce customer waiting time, and greatly improve customer satisfaction. In particular, the smart meal serving system of the present invention can obtain the complete movement trajectory of each plate of the meal on the revolving conveyor belt, and can determine whether a certain meal item has circled with the revolving conveyor belt to avoid being located Customers at the end of the revolving conveyor belt have been unable to enjoy a certain meal item. In addition, since the smart meal serving system of the present invention can count the daily, hourly, or even per minute consumption and scrapped quantities, the smart meal serving system of the present invention can more accurately estimate the appropriate recommended quantity. To reduce the waste of ingredients.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone with ordinary knowledge in the technical field can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The scope of protection of the present invention shall be determined by the scope of the attached patent application.

10: Smart Food System 101: Rotary conveyor belt 102_1～102_N: UHF antenna 103_1～103_M: Reader 104: computer device 105: User interface device 106: Image capture device 107: Disk withdrawal device D1: specific direction 60, 61, 62: Meals 611: Electronic label 108: Processor 109: Storage device X1: lever Z1: Serving area Z2: Withdraw panel S201～S203: steps

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a smart meal serving system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a smart meal serving method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

10: Smart Food System 101: Rotary conveyor belt 102_1～102_N: UHF antenna 103_1～103_M: Reader 104: computer device 105: User interface device 106: Image capture device 107: Disk withdrawal device D1: specific direction 60, 61, 62: Meals 611: Electronic label 108: Processor 109: Storage device X1: lever Z1: Serving area Z2: Withdraw panel

Claims (15)

A smart meal serving system includes: a revolving conveyor belt that drives a plurality of meals to advance in a specific direction, wherein the multiple food containers of the meals each include an electronic tag recording an identification number; multiple UHF The antennas are arranged on one or both sides of the revolving conveyor belt, wherein the UHF antennas include strip-shaped flexible antennas and are arranged along the closed conveying path of the revolving conveyor belt to make the ultra-high The sensing range of the high-frequency antenna covers the entire revolving conveyor belt, each of the UHF antennas senses multiple electronic tags within the sensing range of each of the UHF antennas one-to-many, and the UHF antennas use The UHF frequency band is 860MHz to 960MHz; multiple readers are respectively coupled to the UHF antennas, and the UHF antennas detect all the food on the rotating conveyor at the same time The electronic tags of the container; and a computer device, coupled to the readers, collect the identification numbers of all the electronic tags above the revolving conveyor belt from the readers, according to the collected The identification serial number obtains the serving status information of the meals, and executes the meal control operation based on the serving status information of the meals. The serving status information includes location information, and the UHF antennas The sensing range covers different path sections of the enclosed conveying path. The computer device obtains the path of the meals on the enclosed conveying path according to the identification serial numbers of the parts sensed by the UHF antennas. Section. As described in item 1 of the patent application, the UHF antennas are arranged under the revolving conveyor belt. As for the smart catering system described in claim 1, wherein the UHF antennas include a first UHF antenna and a second UHF antenna, and the radio frequency output of the first UHF antenna The power is different from the radio frequency output power of the second UHF antenna. As for the smart catering system described in claim 1, wherein the UHF antennas include a first UHF antenna and a second UHF antenna, and the radio frequency output of the first UHF antenna The power is the same as the RF output power of the second UHF antenna. For example, in the smart food service system described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, the food service status information includes the movement status, and the computer device obtains the plurality of identification numbers according to the respective identification numbers of the portions sensed by the UHF antennas. The moving state of the meal through different path sections. For example, according to the intelligent meal feeding system described in the first item of the scope of patent application, the computer is based on the identification serial numbers of the parts sensed by the UHF antennas and the plurality of meal items corresponding to the identification serial numbers. The device confirms whether one of the food items passes through the path section corresponding to one of the UHF antennas. For example, in the smart food service system described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, the rotary conveyor belt passes through a vegetable discharge area, and the UHF antennas include a first UHF antenna located in the vegetable discharge area. A UHF antenna has detected a new identification number The computer device records the new identification serial number and the corresponding meal aging information to the storage device, and matches the new identification serial number with the meal item. For example, the smart food service system described in item 7 of the scope of patent application further includes a user input interface device, the user input interface device is coupled to the computer device, the user input interface device receives a human operation, and is connected to the new The meal item paired with the identification number is determined in response to the operation of the person. For example, the smart meal serving system described in item 7 of the scope of patent application further includes an image capturing device disposed in the dish area, the image capturing device is coupled to the computer device, and the computer device is the image capturing device The captured image is subjected to image recognition to determine the meal item paired with the new identification number. For example, the smart meal serving system described in item 7 of the scope of patent application further includes a disk withdrawal device coupled to the computer device, wherein the disk withdrawal device is arranged beside the rotating conveyor belt, and the UHF antennas include The second UHF antenna in the withdrawal area, through the sensing of the second high-frequency antenna, the computer device determines which of the meals entering the withdrawal area according to the identification serial numbers and corresponding meal time information Whether it needs to be removed from the revolving conveyor belt, if so, the computer device triggers the tray withdrawal device to evacuate one of the meals entering the tray withdrawal area from the revolving conveyor belt. For example, in the smart meal serving system described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, the computer device counts the current remaining quantity of a plurality of meal items according to the identification serial numbers reported by the readers, and according to the current remaining quantity Obtain the number of supplements with the recommended amount, and prompt the number of supplements through the user interface device. For example, the intelligent food service system described in item 11 of the scope of patent application, wherein the computer device estimates the food based on at least one of historical statistical information, traffic information, the length of the revolving conveyor belt, supply period, weather information, and the area where the store is located. Suggested quantity. For example, in the smart meal supply system described in item 12 of the scope of patent application, the historical statistical information includes the historical meal quantity, historical consumption quantity, and historical scrap quantity of each of the meal items. For example, in the intelligent food service system described in item 13 of the scope of patent application, the identification serial numbers reported by the readers at different specific time points respectively form a plurality of sequence lists, and the computer device compares the sequence lists It is judged whether the meals are taken off from the revolving conveyor belt, and the cumulative consumption of multiple meal items is accumulated based on this, so as to calculate the historical consumption. For example, the smart meal serving system described in item 13 of the scope of patent application, wherein when the computer device triggers the withdrawal device to evacuate one of the meals into the meal withdrawal area, the computer device accumulates the accumulation of the meal items The number of scrapped, so as to count the historical scrapped quantity.

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