Patent ID: 9373109
Filing Date: 2016-06-21
CPC Classification: G06Q

Claim Text:
1. At a computer system, the computer system communicatively coupled to a plurality of checkout lane computer systems, the plurality of checkout lane computer systems at a plurality of checkout lanes in a physical store location, each checkout lane computer system corresponding to a checkout lane at the physical store location, the computer system comprising a congestion processor and being in communication with a database, a method for determining checkout lane congestion for the physical store location, the method comprising: for one or more of the plurality of checkout lane computer systems: receiving, at the computer system, a lane identification and congestion data from the checkout lane computer system, the congestion data being a value indicative of customer congestion at a corresponding checkout lane, the congestion data entered by a cashier at the corresponding checkout lane; updating, with the congestion processor of the computer system, a lane congestion report for the physical store location based on the congestion data received from the one or more checkout lane computer systems, the updated lane congestion report indicating customer congestion for each of the plurality of checkout lanes, and wherein the congestion processor is further configured to update the lane congestion report by referring to lane mappings stored in the database to identify the checkout lane from the received lane identification and to associate the identified checkout lane with corresponding congestion data in the lane congestion report; receiving, with a wireless network module of the computer system, one or more requests for the updated lane congestion report from one or more mobile devices within the physical store location, the one or more mobile devices including a lane congestion viewer application for facilitating wireless communication with the wireless network module to send the request when the wireless network module determines that a wireless network connection has been established with the one or more mobile devices upon detecting the one or more mobile devices within the physical store location; and wirelessly transmitting, with the wireless network module of the computer system, the updated lane congestion report to the one or more mobile devices in response to receiving the one or more requests to trigger the lane congestion viewer application to present the updated lane congestion report at a display of the one or more mobile devices to assist users of the one or more mobile devices with checkout lane selection.