Top it or Stop it

DESCRIPTION:

The specific origin of the mixed drink also known as the “cocktail” is obscure, but it is reputed to have been as far back as the early nineteenth century. The first publication of the bartenders’ guide occurred in 1862 which included recipes for mixed drinks. The key ingredient for these mixes was the use of bitters, sugar, water, and of course spirits. The most popular spirits in that period was whiskey, rum, gin, in the United States and England with schnapps and absinthe being popular in Europe. Whiskey, rum, and gin were the most likely spirits to be used in a mixed beverage during the nineteenth century in the United States and England. The distillation of spirits can be traced to the middle ages, but it is possible that it existed well before that. There simply is no historical data to support any records of spirits being distilled at any earlier dates.

The United States experienced prohibition during 1919 through 1933 when it was repealed. During the prohibition period, the manufacture and consumption of alcoholic beverages were illegal. However, liquor was still consumed and was available on the black market and sold in the bars known as “speakeasies.” The quality of spirits dropped, and the unpleasant taste was often masked by exotic mixes of various ingredients. The favored liquor shifted from whiskey to gin. Gin did not require any aging making it much faster and easier to produce. Once the repeal of prohibition happened the resurgence of quality liquors took place, but the popularity of mixed drinks remained. Mixed drinks or cocktails became less popular in the 1960s and through the 1970s than beer and wine until a resurgence occurred in the 1980s. Vodka experienced a new-found acceptance after the 1980s and usually replaced gin in the mixed drink and continues that trend to this day.

Bars and clubs are still popular places to get mixed drinks and other alcoholic beverages and are experiencing attractiveness with the public as meeting places and establishments where food and drinks are served. Along with this popularity comes the influx of people to these businesses and are encouraged to frequent them by introducing attractions such as happy hours, free food buffets and other means of enticing people to the establishments. Visiting a popular bar or club is fun but along with the crowds the bartenders and waiters become very busy, and it can be very difficult to get the attention of the staff to get a drink, a refill, pay the tab or any other reason that the attention of the staff might be needed. Waiting a long time for service is detrimental to the business as well as annoying to the customer. A lot of revenue is lost simply because a customer cannot get service because the staff is overloaded and drinks go unsold and are not refilled as well as frustrated customers wanting service.

The Top It or Stop It is an innovative and ingenious product designed to enhance the experience a customer at a drinking establishment receives. The Top It or Stop It will accelerate the process of getting a drink, a refill, or pay the tab for a business that is busy serving drinks or cocktails. The product consists of a device that is available in two distinct types of arrangements. The first type involves a manufactured version that is built into the bar glass. The glass is completely waterproof and can be cleaned in the usual manner without affecting the product. The second version employs a stand-alone “puck” that can be attached to the bottom of a typical bar glass and can be removed for cleaning of the glass and for storage and charging of the puck. Either model can have rechargeable batteries or replaceable ones depending on preference. Motion-activated switch at the base of each glass or puck activates by tapping the glass on the bottom with a finger tip. Tapping once activates a green light that signals the server that a refill is desired. Tapping twice activates an orange light indicating that service and attention of the server are desired. Tapping three times activates a red light that signals that the customer is ready to pay the tab and check out. The third stage will flash to be more noticeable to the server. The puck style of the Top It or Stop It product can be stored in a stacking charging station and charged, via a conductive pad located on each puck, overnight to be ready for service the next day. The built-in model can charge with conductive pads integrated into the base of the glass or replaceable batteries in a waterproof compartment. The Top It or Stop It can accelerate the process of servicing a customer in a beverage serving establishment resulting in additional revenue that would ordinarily go unrealized and relieve the frustration of customers in busy and crowded clubs and bars.

SPECIFIC, UNIQUE FUNCTIONS OF INVENTION:

• Additional unrealized revenue
• Assist servers waiting on customers
• Reduces frustration of customers waiting
• Bright noticeable lights
• Built-in or detachable puck versions
• Puck system charges multiple units at once
• Built-in version glasses are washable
• Re-chargeable or replaceable batteries
• Three level lighting indicators activated by tapping with finger on the bottom of glass
• Flashing third stage
• Green, orange and red light indicators

PRODUCT COMPONENT CLARIFICATION:

The “Top It or Stop It” is an innovative bar or restaurant product that has been designed to improve the service to the bar patrons while minimizing labor and maximizing profitability. The product consists of pager style coasters that light up when they are tapped by the patron’s finger. Flashing green indicates that the patron wants a refill, flashing yellow indicates they want to change drinks or need some other service related action, and finally flashing red indicates they are through and want to check out. The pager/coaster also transmits back to the assignment station and indicates the action. The color of the lighting encourages the bartender’s actions on a more-timely basis.

• In this document, the product is described as a sealed pager style coaster, but as an option, could be a waterproof device that is adhesively bonded to the bottom of the drinking glass. This would be activated by the patron tapping the glass firmly on the bar top. All other functions would then be the same. Because the glasses need to be washed (waterproof), it is assumed that the charging method would be wireless and a large, or multi-layer, charging station would be required to accept the glasses for recharging overnight. If the glass was inadvertently broken, it and a replacement glass could be returned to the manufacturer for removal and placement on the new glass. All programming would remain intact and would not need to be refreshed.

Currently, in a busy bar environment, it is very difficult for the bartender(s) to keep track of all the patrons and move the alcohol at a very efficient pace. If they are not attentive, they may not see a raised arm, finger, or glass, indicating a refill or service. Any increase in delivery times means reduced bar income and can result in a dramatic decrease in bartender tips. If the bar is understaffed, additional problems can occur, resulting in a bad reputation that requires significant work and time from which to recover.

The “Top It or Stop It” resolves almost all of these problems by providing a pager style coaster that lights up in various colors to stimulate the bartender’s response. If the flashing coaster is green, the patron needs a refill of the same drink. If the coaster is flashing yellow, the patron wants some service, which may mean a drink change, directions, description of other services, etc. If the coaster is flashing red, the patron wants to terminate the service and check out. After the patron service issue is resolved, the bartender lays their finger on the capacitive touch switch for 3 seconds and the coaster returns to the quiescent state awaiting the next touch instruction. The coaster blinks yellow once every 30 seconds in its assigned, quiescent state. When the patron has checked out, the coaster is retrieved, turned off by holding the finger on the touch pad for 5 seconds, and then is placed upon the charging station, which holds up to 10 units.

The coaster is easy to set up, requiring only 3 or 4 keystrokes to engage, whereupon it cycles through all 3 colors twice to indicate it is assigned and operating. The transceiver can support up to 100 units at a time, with larger count systems being available upon request. Then the coaster and drink are delivered to the customer. The customer sets the drink on the coaster or next to it on the bar surface, where it can be easily accessed by the customer and observed by the bartender. The patron engages the coaster through the use of the touch pad when they wish to engage any service action.

• As an option: The waitresses and waiter could be provided with and wear a bracelet similar to a smartwatch. This bracelet would be smart enough to be encoded with that waitstaff’s ID and when any one of them was tapped for refill, service or cash out, the bracelet would vibrate and blink. This would encourage the waitress/waiter to review each of their patrons and through the use of the lighted pager/coaster, determine which one was requiring service. When any pager/coaster was turned off after use, it would drop out of the waitstaff’s queue.

The system consists of 3 major components. These are the pager/coaster, the transceiver, and the charging station. They are detailed below.

The Pager/coaster: This coaster consists of, but is not limited to, the following components.

• The coaster module: This lower housing is injection molded from polypropylene plastic. This plastic is very durable, is highly resistant to household and bar chemicals, is easy to clean, resists drop shocks, and is often used in this type of application. The housing can be supplied in almost any vibrant color, so a distinctive color may be chosen to enhance the product recognition factor, which can dramatically improve the market adoption of the product. The lower housing contains all the electronics and interfaces with the upper translucent housing to make sealed unit. These are as follows.
• The battery: This is a 5 VDC, 1810 MAHr Li-Ion battery. It is configured for this application and provided by a world class battery manufacturer. Connections are pre-configured using a common connector available in the industry. These connections are adhesively sealed to prevent water intrusion.
• The electronics: These are low power consumption components including the microprocessor. Obsolete cellular phone devices are ideal for this application and should be researched before other components are selected.
• The LED modules: These are red, yellow, green modules that are commercially available. The through-hole devices are mounted on their sides on the PCB with the LEDs oriented outward. The light emitted from the LEDs is slightly diffused by the frosted surface on the interior of the upper housing.
• The RF section: This section consists of the transceiver operating at 402 to 470 MHz RF band, are serialized, and are capable of being programmed to be matched to the controlling module. The antenna is circular and made up of a run on the PCB.
• The upper housing: This translucent housing is manufactured using polypropylene plastic and is supplied with a slightly roughened interior surface. The housing is designed to be mated with the lower housing and adhesively bonded to it to make a waterproof housing.

The control station: This station assigns and listens to the output of the coaster modules. The serialized pager/coaster modules are assigned to the controlling transceiver at the factory. The housing and keys are molded from polypropylene plastic. This plastic is very durable, is highly resistant to household and bar chemicals, is easy to clean, resists drop shocks, and is often used in this type of application. The commercially available electronic components are purchased, assembled on a PCB, tested, and then inserted in the housing. The RF section uses the commercially available antenna to effectively couple the transceiver to the pager/coaster and the transceiver has a range of up to 500’ in free air.

The charging station(s): These charging stations consist of a polypropylene plastic housing into which up to 10 page/coasters can be placed. The charger is polarized so the coasters cannot be placed in the tower improperly. The tower charges the Li-Ion batteries in the coasters at a slow rate so there are no safety issues. The coaster modules will operate for up to 3 days on an 8-hour full charge. The tower’s housing can easily be wiped down using soap and water and dried to prevent any inadvertent accumulation of drink residue.

The printed circuit boards (PCB): The PCBs for all devices are fabricated to the final assembler’s requirements in a world class contract electronic assembler facility. The standard thickness, double sided FR4 circuit board material is populated with surface mounted components where possible. Any through-hole devices are inserted after the surface mounted assembly, soldering, and cleaning. Both circuit boards are designed to have all the components oriented so they can be mounted with the LED illuminators projecting out of the lenses mounted in the housings. After assembly, the PCBs are protected with a moisture adsorption preventive conformal coating.

The Top It or Stop It is designed to be aesthetic and effective in the application. The relative ease of manufacture and the moderately inexpensive components provide good marketability for the manufacturer. The user benefits from improved timeliness in drink delivery and improved service, which should provide considerable market interest in the product.

The invention is illustrated in the following drawings of the essential points as explained to us in the documentation.

Drawing 1, Block 1: Top It or Stop It – Pager Module Detail

(1) The rechargeable battery will operate the pager/coaster for up to multiple days.

(2) The translucent plastic diffuses the LED projected light so the pager is easy to see when lighted.

(3) The multi-color LEDs project light outward in a 60-degree solid cone.

(4) The multi-color LED modules allow red, green, or yellow light to dramatically illuminate the pager/coaster.

(5) The pager/coasters operate using a 402 to 470 MHz signal and system can support up to 100 units.

(6) The pager/coaster is charged using polarized charging ports in the charging tower and is engaged by placing the finger on the capacitive keypad.

(7) The pager/coaster has 3 lighting conditions, I tap equals green flashing light for a refill, tap 2 times equals flashing yellow for a service issue, and 3 taps equals flashing red for check out. The flashing rate is 0.5 sec on and 0.5 sec off.

(8) The non-marking, non-skid feet keep the pager/coaster from sliding around on the bar top.

Drawing 1, Block 2: Top It or Stop It – Transceiver Module Detail

(9) The system controller can handle up to 100 pagers and has a range of up to 500’ in free air.

(10) The controller is easy to use and assigns the coasters in 3 to 4 keystrokes.

(11) The system is powered using the building’s 120 VAC mains.

(12) The non-marking, non-skid feet keep the controller form sliding around on the bar top.

Drawing 1, Block 3: Top It or Stop It – Pager Charger

(13) The charging tower holds up to 10 units and will recharge fully depleted units in about 8 hours.

(14) The recharging rate is slow enough to recharge the Li-Ion batteries safely to prevent any overheating issues.

(15) The charging system is powered using the building’s 120 VAC mains. The 120 VAC is converted to 5 VDC to recharge the batteries.

(16) The recharging tower is easy to wipe down and keep clean.

(17) The sealed pager/coasters can be washed and dried after each use before they are placed in the charging tower.

Although a single embodiment of the invention has been illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described in the above detailed description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiment developed herein, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications, substitutions of parts and elements without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

This document has been prepared for the manufacturer’s elucidation. The manufacturer’s decision makers should consider this product for licensing (providing intellectual property protection for their sales of the product in return for a royalty payment for a period of years) or an outright purchase of the patent for a negotiated fee. The inventor and his team are standing by to consider offers for licensing or outright purchase of the patent.