Abstract:
Among other things, a hardware-agnostic speech port carries, to and from any arbitrary speech device, analog speech signals associated with an order placed by a customer of a quick serve restaurant. A network port carries digitized versions of the speech signals through a packet-switched network to and from any arbitrary device that has access to the packet-switched network. A processor connected to the speech port and the network port processes and routes the speech signals to enable the arbitrary device to provide a function associated with processing the customer order. The function provided by the processor can include enabling a representative of the quick serve restaurant to listen in on a conversation associated with the order and/or to take over a conversation between the customer and an order taker.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    This description relates to communication in a commercial context. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    In a quick-serve restaurant, for example, customers in the restaurant and in a drive-thru lane, employees at order-taking locations, employees in the kitchen, agents at remote call centers, and other employees may communicate with respect to orders being placed and filled at the restaurant. Some of the communications occur electronically, for example, when a customer in a drive-thru lane speaks through an intercom system to an order taker in the restaurant. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0003]    In general, in an aspect, a hardware-agnostic speech port carries, to and from any arbitrary speech device, analog speech signals associated with an order placed by a customer of a quick serve restaurant. A network port carries digitized versions of the speech signals through a packet-switched network to and from any arbitrary device that has access to the packet-switched network. A processor connected to the speech port and the network port processes and routes the speech signals to enable the arbitrary device to provide a function associated with processing the customer order. 
         [0004]    Implementations may include one or more of the following features. The arbitrary speech device includes an intercom at a drive-thru of the quick serve restaurant. The apparatus is located at the quick serve restaurant. The arbitrary device that has access to the packet-switched network is an order-taking station at a call center that is remote from the quick-serve restaurant. The function provided by the processor includes responding to control signals from a participant selector to govern the parties to a conversation related to the order. The function provided by the processor includes enabling a representative of the quick serve restaurant to listen in on a conversation associated with the order. The representative may listen in but not participate in the conversation. The representative is a person who is preparing food for the order. The representative is a person who is managing the restaurant. The function provided by the processor can be controlled by a representative of the restaurant. The function provided by the processor includes enabling a representative of the quick serve restaurant to take over a conversation between the customer and an order taker. The order taker is excluded from the conversation. The order taker is permitted to listen to but not participate in the conversation. 
         [0005]    These and other aspects and features, and combinations of them, can be expressed as methods, systems, apparatus, means for performing functions, program products, databases, business methods, and in other ways. 
         [0006]    Other aspects, features, and advantages will become apparent from the following description and from the claims. 
     
    
     
       DESCRIPTION 
         [0007]      FIGS. 1 and 3  are schematic views of quick-serve restaurants. 
           [0008]      FIGS. 2 and 4  are block diagrams of communication systems. 
           [0009]      FIG. 5  is a block diagram of a communication system. 
           [0010]      FIG. 6  is a block diagram of an I/O module. 
       
    
    
       [0011]    In what follows, we use the term “order” to include, for example, a set of items (goods or services or both) to be delivered to a customer. A “delivery point” includes, e.g., a location where the customer receives the order, for example, at a table in a restaurant, at the front counter at a restaurant, or at a window in a drive-thru lane. “Business-originated speech” (“BOS”) includes, for example, speech of an order-taker or other employee or agent in the quick-serve context. Business-originated speech can be directed at a customer or another representative of the restaurant. “Customer-originated speech” (“COS”) includes, for example, speech of a customer that is directed to an order-taker or other employee or agent of the store. We use “commercial context” to mean, for example, any situation in which goods and/or services are ordered and the orders are filled, at retail or wholesale. Commercial contexts can include physical locations such as quick-serve restaurants, or other restaurants, or other retail or wholesale facilities where the order is filled and delivered in person to the customer, or may include contexts such as the Web, or telephone, or others, in which the customer does not appear in person at the place where the order is being filled. 
         [0012]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , in some examples of a commercial context in which orders are taken and filled, a quick-serve restaurant  100  includes a front counter  102 , a dining area  104  that includes tables  109 , a kitchen  108 , one or more drive-thru lanes having order stations  132 , and one or more drive-thru order-taking areas  114 . 
         [0013]    In some modes of operation, front-counter workers  120 ,  122  at the front counter  102  take food orders and payments from customers  103 ,  105  who arrive on foot. At a kitchen  108 , workers  107 ,  111  receive the food orders, produce food items to fulfill the food orders and send at least some of the food items to a landing zone  106 . The front-counter workers  120 ,  122  deliver the food items from the landing zone (and sometimes other food items that belong to orders) to the customers at the front counter  102  or sometimes at tables in the dining area. Customers leave the restaurant  100  with the food orders or eat the food orders in the dining area  104 . Other orders can be taken and delivered at the drive-thru lane as explained later. 
         [0014]    The taking, reporting, filling, and delivery of orders is sometimes recorded and managed electronically using an order entry system that can include terminals  121 ,  123 ,  125  on the front counter  102 , in the kitchen  108 , and in the drive-thru order-taking area  114 . A central server  127 , for example, in a manager&#39;s office  110 , can interact with the terminals. In addition, an audio intercom system can be used in taking orders. The audio intercom system may include a central intercom base station  136  and intercom substations  138 ,  140  at-the drive-thru lane, the drive-thru order-taking area  114 , the front counter  102 , and the kitchen  108 . The intercom substations can be in the form of squawk boxes or in some cases headsets (not shown) worn by order-takers, cooks, and others. 
         [0015]    In some modes of order processing, a customer  101  in a car  139  can place and pick up orders at a drive-thru lane outside the restaurant. In the drive-thru mode, the approach of the customer  101  is detected by an inductive loop sensor  130  located in the drive-thru lane. A drive-thru order taker  124 ,  126  at the drive-thru order-taking area  114  greets the customer  101  by speaking into a microphone  141  of a headset or other intercom substation  140 . The order taker&#39;s voice is conveyed through the intercom base station to a speaker  133  at the station  132  and heard there by the customer. The customer  101  can respond by placing a food order by speaking into a microphone  134  of the drive-thru order station  132 . The customer  101  and the drive-thru order taker  124 ,  126  may converse through drive-thru order station  132  and the intercom substation  140  respectively. 
         [0016]    Customer-originated speech is converted into an electrical signal by the microphone  134  and sent in analog form to the intercom base station  136 , which forwards it to the intercom sub-stations  138  and  140 , where it is played over the speakers  139  and  143  respectively and possibly in headphones worn by representatives of the restaurant. Business-originated speech from the drive-thru order taker  124 ,  126  (such as the initial greeting to the customer  101 ) is converted into an electrical signal by the microphone  141  and sent in analog form over a wired connection to the intercom base station  136 . The intercom base station  136  forwards the signal both to the drive-thru order station  132  (where it is played to the customer  101  by a speaker  134 ), and also to an intercom sub-station  138  located in the kitchen  108  (where it is played by a speaker  139 ). 
         [0017]    Although there might be a microphone  137  in the intercom substation  138 , it is not used by the kitchen -workers-to take part in the conversation. 
         [0018]    Thus, the order-takers  124 ,  126  hear customer-originated speech over speaker  143 , and workers in the kitchen  108  can hear both sides of the order-related conversation between the customer  101  and the order-takers  124 ,  126 . The workers can follow the conversation and begin preparing the food items relating to the food order while the conversation is still in progress and before the order is formally entered into the order entry system. 
         [0019]    After placing the food order, the customer  101  drives to a drive-thru cashier  112  and pays for the food. Workers in the kitchen  108  produce food items to fulfill the food order and send the food items to a drive-thru delivery station  116 , where an employee of the restaurant delivers the order to the customer  101 . 
         [0020]    The restaurant  100  may also include a manager&#39;s office  110  from which both sides of the order-related conversation can be heard on a speaker  137  of another intercom sub-station or on the headphones of a headset used by the manager (not shown). 
         [0021]    Thus, the intercom sub-station serves as an intermediary to send and receive analog audio signals to and from each of the intercom substation and headsets to facilitate the taking, entry, fulfilling, and delivery of each order. 
         [0022]      FIG. 2  shows a communication system in a quick-serve restaurant with respect to a drive-thru lane. An inductive loop sensor  261  (or a wide variety of other kinds of sensors or vehicle detection devices) detects the approach of a customer  258 . The customer  258  has an order-related conversation with an employee or agent of the restaurant using a speaker/microphone unit  260 . The speaker/microphone unit  260  (which can be part of an intercom substation, for example) converts the customer&#39;s customer-originated speech into an electrical signal and plays signals representing business-originated speech to the customer  258 . The speaker/microphone unit  260  is in two-way communication with a communication interface  262 , which processes and adapts the electrical signals for compatibility with a communication board  264 . The communication board does not contain logic or processing capability but provides an easy way to connect to the PBX  278 . 
         [0023]    The PBX is configurable to communicate speech signals (through the communication board) to and from any one or more of: a manager telephone  274  or (through an intercom interface  265 ) a store intercom system  266 . The PBX  278  also monitors the inductive loop sensor  261  to automatically initiate a call when the customer  258  arrives (e.g., drives on the loop) and/or automatically ends a call if the customer  258  departs (e.g., drives off the loop). 
         [0024]    The store intercom system  266  comprises an intercom base station  268  and intercom substations  270 ,  272  (although only two are shown, there can be many more intercom substations, as needed). The intercom substations can be in the form of speaker/microphone combinations, squawk boxes, or headsets. When the PBX  278  is configured to communicate with the store intercom system  266 , the customer  258  can have an order-related conversation with a drive-thru order taker (not shown). During such a conversation, other intercom substations may “overhear” the conversation as explained above with reference to  FIG. 1 . For example, a cook in the kitchen  108  may overhear when someone in a car in the drive-thru lane orders a hamburger with everything on it. 
         [0025]    The PBX  278  interfaces with a phone network  280 , through which it communicates with an order-taker telephone  282 . The order-taker telephone  282  may be in the restaurant or at a remote location such as a remote call center of the kind described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,110,964, incorporated here by reference. An order-taker  284  uses the order-taker telephone  282  to have an order-related conversation with the customer  258 . Thus in some cases, the order-taking process is conducted between a customer at the drive-thru lane and an order-taker located at a call center that is remote from the restaurant. 
         [0026]      FIG. 3  shows a quick-serve restaurant that provides for better communication in a commercial context. In the implementation illustrated in  FIG. 3 , better communication is facilitated by a communications device  350  which connects, on one hand, agnostically to any cable that carries analog speech signals, for example, from the drive-thru intercom, and on the other hand provides a connection to any Internet protocol network to send and receive voice over IP (VoIP) packets that correspond to analog speech signals. The communications device can therefore be easily and cheaply installed in any location where an analog speech cable carries order-related speech and where an IP-network (such as the Internet) is accessible. The existing equipment at the commercial establishment need not be altered or replaced. 
         [0027]    The communications device can be located, for example, in a quick-serve restaurant  300 , which includes a front counter  302 , a dining area  304 , a kitchen  308 , and customer speech devices  332 ,  358  (including possibly one located in the dining area  304 ). The placing, reporting, filling and delivery of orders may be recorded and managed electronically using an order entry system that can include terminals (not shown) on the front counter  302 , the kitchen  308 , and in an order-taking area  314 . A central server (not shown), located for example in a manager&#39;s office  310 , can interact with the terminals. 
         [0028]    As in  FIG. 1 , some walk-in customers order food and pay the front-counter workers  320 ,  322  for the order at the front counter  302 . Kitchen employees get the orders, make the food items to fill the orders and drop the food items at a landing zone  306 . The customers collect the food from the front-counter workers  320 ,  322 , or else have it delivered to them in the dining area  304 . 
         [0029]    Some walk-in customers order food by speaking into a microphone  357  of a customer speech device  358  inside the restaurant  300 . For example, the customer speech device  358  may be a telephone on a dining table (not shown) in the dining area  304 . In another example, the customer speech device  358  might be a telephone in a free-standing telephone tree in the restaurant. The microphone  357  transmits customer-originated speech, and a speaker  359  plays business-originated speech 
         [0030]    The communications device  350  is also connected to a network  352  (such as a LAN, a WAN, or a publicly accessible network such as the Internet) and other speech devices. These other devices might include a store intercom system, comprising an intercom base station  336  and one or more intercom substations  338 , headsets and microphones (not shown) of front-counter workers  320 ,  322 , and a phone (not shown) in the Manager&#39;s office  310 . The communication device  350  can connect to the intercom base station  336  as if the communication device were an intercom substation, again making the installation of the communication device  350  in the commercial establishment cheap and simple. In addition, the communications device  350  can use the computer network  352 , to communicate with an order-taker  324 ,  326  in the order-taking area  314 . The order-taking area  314  may be within the restaurant  300  or offsite—for example, in a remote call center  353 . Communication over the network  352  might use network protocols for encoding and transmitting audio data over a computer network, such as a protocol that uses the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). 
         [0031]    The communications device  350  routes customer- and business-originated speech to a customer and to the employees and mangers, or the call-center agents, depending on the configuration of a participation selector  351 . Additional customers can be served at the same time by adding additional communication devices each of which can serve one customer. 
         [0032]    Each device connected directly to the communications device  350 , as well as any devices with which it communicates via the network  352 , may be assigned an independent participation level using a participation selector  351 . The participation levels may include: participation both as a destination for speech (customer- or business-originated or both) and as a source for business-originated speech; participation as a destination for speech only (customer- or business-originated or both); participation as a source only for business-originated speech; and no participation in the conversation. Multiple devices may be chosen as destinations for each type of speech, and multiple sources may be chosen for business-originated speech. 
         [0033]    For example, the participation selector  351  may be configured so that the communications device  350  routes all customer-originated speech both to the order-taker  324  (via the network  352 ) and to the store intercom system (via the intercom base station  336 ), but accepts business-originated speech only from the order-taker  324 . In this configuration, the customer and the order-taker  324  have an order-related conversation in which other employees do not actively participate. However, other employees—for example, workers in the kitchen  308 —overhear the conversation (listen in) through the speaker  339  of the intercom substation  338 , and can, for example, begin preparing the food items relating to the food order while the conversation is still in progress. Although there might be a microphone  337  in the intercom substation  338 , it may or may not be used to take part in the conversation. 
         [0034]    The participation selector  351  may also be reconfigured on-the-fly in the middle of a conversation. For example, a manager (not shown) in the manager&#39;s office, listening in to a conversation between the customer  301  and an order-taker  324 ,  326 , might dynamically reconfigure the participation selector  351  so as to take control of the conversation from the order-taker  324 ,  326  upon hearing something that requires the manager&#39;s input. For example, the manager might jump in to inform the customer  301  that the restaurant is out of one of the items being ordered. In this example, the manager might either reduce the order-taker&#39;s  324 ,  326  participation in the conversation to permit the order-taker to listen only, take over the conversation and thereby remove the order taker  324 ,  326  from the conversation entirely, or else leave the order-taker&#39;s participation level unchanged while the manager is participating in the conversation. Once the conversation is pulled back in this manner, the conversation must be completed with the manager and cannot be returned to the order taker. 
         [0035]    In some embodiments, the participation selector  351  might allow for only a subset of the complete range of configuration options described above. For example, the participation selector  351  might be just a single toggle. In one position, this toggle might make the order-takers  324 ,  326  the sole sources of business-originated speech; and in the other position, make the manager&#39;s telephone the sole source of such speech. In either position, the store intercom may be allowed to “listen in.” The participation selector  351  may be physically inside the restaurant  300  as shown in  FIG. 3 , or located elsewhere, or both. 
         [0036]    Workers in the kitchen  308  prepare the food items ordered and deliver them to a landing zone  306 . The customer may collect these food items from the front-counter workers  320 ,  322  at the front counter  302 . Alternatively, other employees (not shown) may deliver the food items directly to the customer. 
         [0037]    In other examples, the customer sensor  330  could be a weight sensor, an infrared sensor, radar, a rubber hose sensor, a motion sensor, a light beam, ultrasonic, video, or another kind of sense. The customer sensor  330  is preferably stateful—meaning that it indicates the period when a car is present, not just the moment when one arrives or departs—but this is not necessary. 
         [0038]    The customer  301  speaks into a microphone  333  of a customer-speech device  332  which is connected to the communications device  350 , and hears business-originated speech through a speaker  334 . The communications device  350  routes customer- and business-originated speech depending on how the participation selector  351  is configured, and thereby enables the customer  301  to have an order-related conversation with an order taker  324 ,  326  and/or other employee-participants as already described. The customer  301  then pays for the order at a drive-thru cashier  312  and collects the food items which have been prepared in response to the order at a drive-thru presenter window  316 . 
         [0039]    The communications device  350  is capable of interfacing with a variety of possible customer-speech devices, including drive-thru lane order-stations commonly found in existing quick serve restaurants and existing store intercom systems. This makes it cheap to install the modular communications apparatus  350 , because it works with existing store hardware. 
         [0040]      FIG. 4  shows a communication system in a quick-serve restaurant  456  that has a modular communications apparatus. A customer  408  uses a customer speech device  410  to have an order-related conversation with store employees and agents. The customer speech device  410  routes customer-originated speech to a speech port  422  in a modular communications apparatus  420  and to a store intercom system  412 , which comprises an intercom base station  436  and intercom substations  416 ,  414 . 
         [0041]    The modular communications apparatus  420  comprises, in addition to the speech port  422 , a processor  424  and a network port  426 . The processor  424  monitors a customer sensor  409 , and uses the information so gained to establish and terminate conversations when a customer arrives or departs. The processor  424  also monitors a communication initiator  411 , which is an element through which the customer  408  can manually request a new conversation. The customer  408  may do so if, for example, the customer sensor  409  failed for some reason to detect the customer  408 &#39;s presence, or if the conversation failed or was terminated for some other reason. The communication initiator  411  may be, for example, a simple button near the customer speech device  410 . If the customer activates the communication initiator  411 —for example, by pressing the button—the processor  424  tries to establish a new conversation, perhaps by trying to contact a new order-taker. 
         [0042]    The processor  424  also monitors a participation selector  428 , and routes customer- and business-originated speech based on the configuration of the participation selector. The processor  424  routes customer-originated speech to all selected recipients, irrespective of whether they are connected to the modular communications apparatus  420  directly, or indirectly through a network  440  or the intercom system. Likewise, the processor receives business-originated speech from each selected source and forwards it to the customer  408  (via a speaker (not shown) on the customer speech device  410 ) and to the other recipients selected for business-originated speech. When communication takes place over the network  440 , the processor  424  converts speech signals from and to a form suitable for network transmission. In one example, this form is VoIP packets. The processor  424  transmits the speech in this form via the network port  426  to, for example, an order-taker speech device  442 . This order-taker speech device  442  may be located inside the restaurant-or at a remote location such as a call center. 
         [0043]    For example, the participation selector  428  can be configured so that the processor  424  receives business-originated speech from the order-taker speech device  442  via the network  440  and the network port  426  and routes this speech both to the customer speech device  410  via the speech port  422  as well as to the store intercom system  412 . This configuration lets store intercom devices such as the intercom substations  416 ,  414  “listen in” on the order-related conversation between the customer  408  and the order-taker  444 . 
         [0044]    In another example, the participation selector  428  can also be configured so that processor  424  does not use the network  440 , but instead sends and receives business-originated speech to and from the store intercom system  412  by means of the intercom base station  336 . In this example, a store employee such as a manager (not shown) uses one of the intercom substations  416 ,  414  to talk to the customer  408 . 
         [0045]    As explained above, the participation selector  428  may be reconfigured on-the-fly during a conversation to change the set of participants in the conversation and their levels of participation. 
         [0046]    In some implementations, the processor can also send speech to and from other sources and recipients (other than the order takers) through the network using VoIP. The choice of other sources and recipients could be based on how the participation selector is configured. The other sources and recipients could be at the commercial establishment or remote from it. 
         [0047]      FIG. 5  shows another configuration of a modular communications apparatus. A customer  508  interacts with a customer speech device  510  to have an order-related conversation with store employees and agents. The customer speech device  510  communicates with a speech port  520  in a modular communications apparatus  516 . The speech port  520  is hardware agnostic: it is configured to receive and send standard analog electrical signals representing audio to and from any kind of device. This hardware agnosticism makes it relatively cheap to install the modular communications apparatus  516 . 
         [0048]    The speech port  520  is part of a switching module  518 , which also monitors a participation selector  514 , a customer sensor  512 , and a communication initiator  511 . The switching module  518  routes conversations based on how the participation selector  514  is configured. For example, the participation selector  514  can be configured so that the switching module  518  routes speech to a store intercom system  530 . If the store intercom  530  is selected as a recipient for customer-originated speech, the switching module forwards such speech from the customer speech device  510  to the store intercom  530  via an intercom base station  532 ; and if the store intercom  530  is selected as a source of business-originated speech, the switching module  518  accepts such speech from the intercom base station  532  and routes it to the customer speech device  510  through the speech port  520 . Similarly, if the participation selector  514  is configured to make a network device (such as an order-taker speech device  542 ) a recipient of any kind of speech, or a source of business-originated speech, then the switching module  518  cooperates with an audio module  522  and an I/O module  524  (both described below) to route speech signals to and from it. 
         [0049]    The audio module  522  controls audio settings (for example, the microphone and speaker volume) of some or all of the devices involved in the conversation. Some or all of the audio signals involved can be made to pass through the audio module  522  en route from their source to their destination. For example, customer- and business-originated speech signals pass through the audio module  522  on their way from the switching module  518  to the I/O module  524 , and on their way back. Similarly, speech signals travelling from the switching module  518  to the store intercom  530  and back might be detoured (not shown) through the audio module  522 . The audio module  522  includes a device database  523  of information about the audio characteristics of various devices—such as, for example, any order stations being used as customer speech devices, the store intercom  530 , the order-taker speech device  542 , and other speech devices (not shown) connected to the modular communications apparatus  516  either directly or through a network  540 —and the control instructions that can control them. Based on the information in the device database  523  and the audio characteristics of the speech signals passing through, the audio module  522  might generate audio control signals for some or all of the devices. For example, it might generate a signal to a drive-thru order-station (not shown) operating as the customer speech device  510  to increase its microphone volume if the customer-originated speech signal is too soft, or decrease it, if the signal is too loud. 
         [0050]    The main purpose of the I/O module  524  is to control transmission and routing of speech over the network  540 . The I/O module  524  contains a processor unit  526  and a network port  528 . From the switching module  518 , the I/O module  524  receives status information, including the configuration of the participation selector  514 , the status of the customer sensor  512 , and the status of the communication initiator  511 . From the audio module  522 , the I/O module  524  receives speech signals and also possibly audio control information. In return, I/O module  524  sends network status information—such as whether a live network connection exists and is working properly—to both the audio module  522  and the switching module  518 , which can use this information to determine whether or not to try and send speech and control information via the network  540 . 
         [0051]    The processor unit  526  transforms audio information to and from a form suitable for transmission over the network  540 . For example, if VoIP is being used, the processor unit  526  might convert analog audio signals from the audio module  522  into VoIP packets suitable for sending over the network  540  (including compressing and encrypting them, if desired), and convert incoming VoIP packets into analog audio signals for the audio module  522 . The processor unit  526  also places appropriate destination information into these packets based on how the participation selector  514  is configured. For example, it might put the network addresses of all devices selected as recipients of each form of speech (customer- and business-originated) into the packets representing that form of speech sent out on the network  540 . 
         [0052]    The processor unit  526  also begins and ends conversations as customers are detected arriving and departing by the customer sensor  512 , and when the customer  508  manually requests a new conversation by activating the communication initiator  511 . OK . . . do we also want to say how/when conversations end? If the customer presses the button, the call terminates in a different way than if they drive off the mag loop. Plus with inline, calls aren&#39;t terminated by drive offs. 
         [0053]    The processor unit  526  may also support other management functions, such as detecting viruses in incoming information; running a network firewall; recording and time-stamping conversations and information about conversations in a database (not shown) for later playback and analysis; hosting configuration software for the components of the modular communications apparatus  516  and connected devices; and providing remote access to this configuration software via the network, for example by providing a remote desktop control service. 
         [0054]    The network port  528  transmits and receives information over the network  540 . Among other devices (not shown) on the network  540 , it might communicate with the order-taker speech device  542 , which an order-taker  544  uses to have an order-related conversation with the customer  508 . 
         [0055]      FIG. 6  shows an example of the I/O module  524 . A softphone  602 —a software program for making voice calls over a computer network—receives incoming audio information from an audio module (not shown) via an audio driver  604  and incoming control information (such as the statutes of a participation selector, a customer sensor, and a communication initiator (all not shown)) over a hardware serial interface device  614  via a software serial interface driver  606 . The softphone  602  uses the control information to identify actions (for example to initiate or end a conversation) to perform using a network (not shown), and to identify appropriate routing information for packets on the network. The softphone  602  then uses a network stack  609  to transform the audio information into a form suitable for transmission over a network to the correct recipients, and sends it to a hardware network interface device  614  by way of a network interface driver  612 . 
         [0056]    The softphone  602  also receives audio information from the network through the network interface device  614 , the network interface driver  612 , and the network stack  610 . The softphone  602  converts this information into a form suitable for use with the audio module and passes it along through the audio driver  604 . In addition, the softphone  602  might send incoming audio information back through the network, depending on how the participation selector is configured. For example, it might forward business-originated speech received over the network to other network devices (not shown) that are configured to “listen in” on the conversation. 
         [0057]    The I/O module  524  also contains a communication database  616  which records network status information and possibly order information for later analysis. For example, the data in the communication database  616  may later be used to train order-takers, or to evaluate and respond to customer complaints. The data may also be used to help debug network-related errors. In some examples, the communication database  602  is a Structured Query Language (SQL) database, e.g., a Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) database. 
         [0058]    In addition, the I/O module  524  might contain a graphical user interface  608  to the softphone  602  and to various management programs (not shown) such as anti-virus software, configuration utilities, firewall software, database access and management software, and so on. The graphical user interface  608  (and by extension the management programs) may be made accessible remotely by a remote desktop manager  610 . The remote desktop manager  610  may be any of a number of desktop sharing and/or control systems, such as a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) server or a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) service. The remote desktop manager  610  sends and receives the data it requires to function over the network by means of the network stack  610 , the network interface driver  612 , and the hardware network interface device  614 . 
         [0059]    The discussion has focused on quick-serve restaurants but the techniques described are applicable to other types of restaurants, other types of quick-serve retail businesses, other types of non-quick-serve retail businesses, and other types of non-retail businesses. As one example, the techniques are also applicable to the food service component of convenience stores that also provide gasoline to automobiles. The items to be included in the orders need not be food items and need not be items that are prepared to order or on the premises where they are to be delivered. 
         [0060]    Although many of the techniques described involve wired devices, they may also be applied using wireless devices, including wireless telephones, personal assistants, and other wireless devices. 
         [0061]    The customers need not be physically present on the premises to order. They may place orders from other locations, for example, from a desktop computer at home or work or from a device such as a mobile phone while traveling in the vicinity of the place where delivery of the order is to occur. 
         [0062]    Although a single participation selector is described that controls the participation level of all the devices involved, multiple participation selectors could be used instead. As an example, each physical location—such as the store and each call center, if any—could have a participation selector controlling only the subset of devices in that location. In this example, some of the participation selectors may be connected to the modular communications apparatus directly, while others would be connected indirectly over a network. These latter selectors would communicate their status to the modular communications apparatus over the network. 
         [0063]    Other implementations are also within the scope of the following claims.