Apparatus for and method of creating delivery route maps

Apparatus for employing a computer program through a console having a touch screen operated CRT and related memory to produce a route map with customer address, delivery route instructions and directions on an area map which relates the location of the store from which a customer's order is made up for delivery to that customer. The make up of the apparatus includes an audio system for voice input and output to the motherhood of the CPU, and a modem which allows the computer to communicate to the outside world for purposes of updating the software and map data from a remote data base source.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention is directed to apparatus for and method of producing 
instruction maps for effecting delivery of customer orders from a store or 
place where customer's orders are received. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
In the past delivery of goods to customers, especially foods such as pizza, 
from a store or location where pizza is prepared has followed the plan of 
employing delivery personnel who are familiar with the territory served by 
a store or similar location. Such a person is counted upon to deliver a 
customer's order as rapidly as possible and in an acceptable condition. 
There are many problems in such a delivery system, such as late 
deliveries, need to train delivery people for service areas, allowing the 
delivery people to seek addresses, and the inability to give accurate 
instructions on preferred delivery routes between the store and the 
address of one or more customers living in a common area or adjoining 
streets. The past method has caused the store to choose a geographical 
place that has the potential to serve customers who are counted upon to 
place repeat orders by telephone for delivery on a rapid time schedule. 
Therefore, the geography of chosen areas is an important consideration to 
the success of the business of stores, as well as where stores may be 
located to serve customers rapidly. 
When considering store location due consideration must be given to area 
maps where customers and potential customers are located. It is known that 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,513 has disclosed an automated map display system for 
electronically storing, accessing, and displaying video images generated 
from physical maps having field of view data representing a geographic 
coverage in longitude and latitude as a displayed image which is derived 
after the map image is generated. The object of the system of the 
aforesaid patent is to be able to store map images on an optical disk and 
selectively access and display portions of maps having various fields of 
view, and different map scales. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An important object of the invention is to provide a store with apparatus 
that will enable, upon receiving a customer's order, prompt delivery by 
producing an area map in such detail that the address of any customer can 
be identified and the most efficient route can be identified between the 
store and a given customer, with the result that on-time deliveries can be 
made through the route best suited to save time with the use of delivery 
personnel who may not be sufficiently familiar with the location of 
streets and addresses in the customer area being served. 
It is also an important object to provide each store with an efficient and 
current customer area map having address details that show the most 
efficient route to be followed by the person making a delivery, and to 
produce the area maps quickly and in a simple easily understood paper 
print-out. 
A further object is to provide computer programs for producing map 
print-outs having the customer's address, street route designation, detail 
area of the geographical location of the store which serves the customer, 
and details of street names and turns to be made by the delivery person. 
The objects of the invention are practiced through the arrangement of 
apparatus which accesses the software computer program through a touch 
screen to feed a printer with the customer's street address, and activate 
the printer to produce a paper map having the customer's street address 
and route from the store to the address of that customer designated 
thereon.

DETAIL DESCRIPTION 
The apparatus of this invention is embodied in a console 10 having a cathod 
ray tube 11 (CRT) presented behind a touch screen 12. When the console is 
turned on the program presented on the CRT is a keyboard divided into a 
numeric block 13, an alphabetic block 14, a street name or address window 
display block 15, a selected street address window display block 16, and 
peripheral controls such as control 17 to actuate the street address 
display block to scroll up further street names, a control 18 to cancel 
the information being selected through the touch screen, and a control 19 
to actuate a map print out which is delivered from the console 10 at the 
delivery slot 20. The program embodies the keyboard so that the touch 
screen 12 is able to enter address information into the central processing 
unit 21 (CPU) to access the address and map information stored in a hard 
disk 23. 
The block diagram of FIG. 4 details the several elements and components in 
the system. The 120 volt module 24 is a fused, filtered, and switched 
power supply having an external pack for plugging into a conventional 120 
VAC power source. Module 24 provides an outlet lead 25 and an outlet lead 
26. Lead 25 supplies the main power supply module 27 with powr take-off 
having varying regulated voltages. A power take-off lead 28 supplies 5 to 
12 volt power to a hard disk drive module 29, a second power take-off lead 
30 of twelve volts powers the speaker amplifyer module 31, a third power 
take-off lead 32 of twelve volts power the ventilation fan module 32A, and 
a fourth power take-off lead 33 of reduced voltage operates the central 
processor unit 21 which is an IBM 286-12 AT Compatible very large scale 
integration (VSLI) module. 
The output of the CPU 21 is connected to a video graphic array (VGA) module 
35 by lead 36, and that module 35 is connected to a motor controller board 
in module 37 by lead 38. In addition, the latter board 37 is connected by 
lead 26 to the module 24 for energizing the cathod ray tube 11. In order 
to energize the various program block seen in FIG. 2, the touch screen 12 
is connected by game lead 40 to an IBM module 41 which is an AT I/O board 
with parallel /series/ game ports that cause the CPU 21 to execute the 
responses that are touched on the touch screen 12. The touch screen 12 is 
a product of Edmark Corporation, "TOUCHWINDOW" division. It allows the 
user to press on the screen and obtain a response from the CPU where the 
press was made. The screen 12 replaces a keyboard on a conventional 
computer. In this system, the CRT is a Magnivox unit, the monitor 
controller board (Magnivox) and the video graphic array (VGA) adapter (PC 
House) allows the computer 21 to output information to the user on a black 
and white screen. The screen of the CRT shows the touch response from the 
screen 12. The VGA adapter 35 connects by lead 36 directly to the main CPU 
motherboard. The AT I/O board 41 provides the functions of connecting the 
CPU motherboard by lead 42 to the printer 43 by parallel lead 44, and the 
external jack 45 by serial lead 46. 
The apparatus includes a modem system for interconnecting the individual 
apparatus of FIG. 4 with a central data base. Thus, the modem 56, 
connected by lead 57 from the CPU 21, receives signals from the external 
jack 45 by lead 57A so that update information can be incorporated. 
The method of the present invention is disclosed in the flow diagram of 
FIG. 5. At the start 59, the video screen 60 will identify the subject 
matter of the system. Then in sequence, the system will allocate the 
memory for a voice buffer 61, then load and allocate the street data 62 
(such as a number), then load and allocate the street name data 63 (such 
as the name of the street), then load and allocate the master copy of the 
map image 64. In connection with the master copy of the map, the master 
map copy relates to the area map for a given store identified in the 
computer program and is different for each store, but every map produced 
at a given store is the same. However, the enlargement part of the map 
changes depending on the address location in the master area map. In FIG. 
3, the area map is seen at AM, while the enlarged map EM is only a local 
portion of the area map. At this stage, the system announces a output 
ready message to the speaker 66 followed by validating the street name 67. 
If the street address is valid, the system will deliver a vocal message 68 
that the information is being printed at 68A on a route map 69, and the 
text of the route map 69 is being added and that is followed by printing 
the graphics 71 so that the finished map is delivered at 72. At this time, 
the system operates at 73 to reload a working copy of a map from the 
master copy. 
The thermal printer 43 (Eltron) is used to output a map showing delivery 
routing information from the map storage, and prints it onto thermal 
paper. The printer produces the graphics depicted in FIG. 3, and has its 
own thermal paper drive module 47 with a 120 V power supply from lead 48. 
The system seen in the block diagram of FIG. 4 includes a module 49 which 
is a voice I/O board which converts the digital voice information from the 
CPU 21 to analog signals and visa versa (bidirectional analog to digital 
conversion) with an I/O board which connects to an external microphone 50 
by lead 51. For voice output, the board connects by lead 49A to the 
amplifier speaker 31 which is powered through lead 30. The voice I/O board 
in module 49 connects by lead 52 directly to the CPU motherboard in the 
CPU 21. 
The program for the system is in the hard disk controller 23 having hard 
disk drive module 29. Permanent storage for the map source, its data for 
routing, and map program are manipulated by the hard disc controller 23, 
and the hard drive 29 also provides additional storage for the map program 
while it is manipulating the map data. The hard disc controller 23 
connects directly to the hard drive 29 by lead 54 and connects directly to 
the CPU motherboard by lead 55. 
In view of the foregoing disclosure, it is apparent that the apparatus of 
the invention is directed to making it relatively easy for a delivery 
person to pick up an order at a store and deliver it to the customer's 
address with a minimum of effort to locate the proper address. The 
apparatus includes means for electronically storing the map of the area of 
a store where a store is located and means for selecting from that stored 
map when required an enlarged portion EM of the area map AM which includes 
the location of the store and the location of the customer's address. In 
producing the map a route is indicated RI from the store to the customer's 
address and on printing of the map there is produced for the assistance of 
the delivery person a locator map which includes the customer's address 
with instructions to make the necessary travel direction from the location 
of the store to the customer's address by designating streets and right 
and left turns which will get the delivery person to the eventual address. 
The printout will also include a bar graph BG of the block in which the 
address is located so that by following the length of the bar graph the 
delivery person will travel whatever distance in a given block is 
necessary to locate the specific address. The printout of the map will 
give the delivery person an adequate visual guidance to effect the 
delivery. 
The apparatus includes a software or computer program for storing portions 
of geographic maps corresponding to the customer area served by the store 
so that delivery instructions can be shown visually on a map as to what 
streets and turns are necessary in order to make a delivery. The console 
10 which houses the computer program is provided with a touch screen 12 
having the necessary numeric, alphabetic, and address street names block 
13, 14 and 15 respectively arranged in a keyboard layout so that a 
customer's address can be keyed in merely by touching the various block 
areas 13-14 on the monitor screen to produce an address in a window 19 
that will provide a visual way of checking the correct address, after 
which an instruction is given to touch the screen in a proper place for 
energizing the printer mechanism to deliver a map according to what is 
disclosed in FIG. 3 of the drawings. 
The subject invention is adaptable for use in a subscriber related network 
so that a number of stores located in different geographic areas can be 
connected by a modem hook up to a central data base so that it will be 
possible for a given subscriber to receive updated information as to 
customer addresses and as to entering other parts of the system into the 
subscriber's console without, in most cases, being required to send a 
service person from the location of the data base to the subscriber's 
store. 
With reference to the flow diagram in FIG. 5 and making the necessary 
visual comparison with FIGS. 2 and 3, it is understood that the 
subscriber's console of FIG. 1 can be turned on so as to bring the 
computer program and memory up to operating condition preparatory to 
entering a customer's address by operating the numeric pad 13 and the 
alphabetic pad 14 after visually checking the street name pad 15 for the 
correct spelling which can then be entered by touching the various letters 
on the alphabetic pad 14. It then follows that the operator of the console 
when satisfied with the address information can then touch the screen to 
effect production of a map of the character shown in FIG. 3. The flow 
diagram includes a voice system for indicating orally when the computer 
program has produced the address information and the related map, followed 
by the voice system to indicate when the screen is to be touched to 
produce the map. Accordingly, a route map RM with the address printout 
text is produced and is then ready to be given to a delivery person. The 
computer program after issuing a route map is then returned to a ready 
condition to be again operated upon the touch screen entering a new 
address in the manner set forth above. 
It is understood that the foregoing description has set forth a presently 
preferred embodiment of the invention in its aspects as to apparatus, its 
method of operation and its association in a subscriber related network, 
and the scope of the invention includes a method heretofore expressed for 
mapping at least one route to a given address from the location of a map 
printer which includes feeding in the address information, getting back a 
printed map with a route marked on it to use in travelling to the address, 
and