Patent ID: 8714444

Claim:
A method of acquiring metrics at a facility adapted to accomplish transactions, wherein the facility includes: a telephone system, wherein the telephone system is operative to use dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signals, at least one drive-through lane, at least one transaction device operative to exchange items with persons in vehicles in the at least one drive-through lane, at least one vehicle sensor operative to sense a vehicle at at least one position in the at least one drive-through lane, at least one telephone switching interface device in operative connection with the at least one vehicle sensor and the telephone system, wherein the at least one telephone switching interface device is operative to produce telephony communication signals that correspond to DTMF signals, at least one processor in operative connection with at least one data store and in operative connection with the at least one telephone switching interface device, wherein the at least one processor is operative to determine at least one characteristic associated with the vehicle at the at least one position, wherein the at least one processor is operative to cause a determined characteristic to be stored in the at least one data store, the method comprising: (a) operating the at least one vehicle sensor to sense a vehicle at a position in the at least one drive-through lane; (b) subsequent to step (a), operating the at least one vehicle sensor to communicate at least one signal associated with the vehicle sensed in step (a) to the at least one telephone switching interface device; (c) subsequent to step (b), operating the at least one telephone switching interface device to communicate at least one telephony communication signal associated with the vehicle sensed in step (a) to the telephone system, wherein the at least one telephony communication signal corresponds to at least one DTMF signal; (d) subsequent to step (c), operating the telephone system to communicate at least one signal associated with the vehicle sensed in step (a) to the at least one processor; (e) subsequent to step (d), determining at least one characteristic associated with the vehicle sensed in step (a) responsive to operation of the at least one processor; and (f) subsequent to step (e), storing in the at least one data store, responsive to operation of the at least one processor, the at least one characteristic determined in step (e).