Digital information gathering and analyzing method and apparatus

An apparatus for forecasting preferred selections from a menu of a restaurant, the apparatus comprising:

• a) a face recognition system including at least two cameras, wherein a first camera of the two cameras is arranged to capture facial images of customers visiting the restaurant and a second camera of the two cameras is arranged to capture the facial image of the customers leaving the restaurant, wherein the face recognition system is capable of creating demographic profiles of the customers based on the captured facial images of customers, wherein the demographic profiles include estimated age, gender and ethnicity of the customers;
• b) a point of sales system (POS) including a portable terminal linked thereto for inputting orders from the customers, and for displaying transaction data including the preferred selections from the menu, wherein inputted orders are transmitted to the POS from the portable terminal;
• c) a server for running algorithms comprising steps of;
• receiving the demographic profiles of the customers from the face recognition system;
• obtaining environmental information including weather information and event information from relevant websites via internet;
• obtaining the transaction data of the customers from the POS;
• correlating the inputted orders including types of dishes from the customers within a predetermined time period with demographic profiles of the customers staying at the restaurant within the predetermined time period and the environmental information including weather information and event information to accumulate correlated data into database in the server;
• selecting the preferred selections from the database based on a criterial to narrow down a number of the preferred selections;
• and
• transmitting the selected preferred selections onto SNS (Social Network Service).

An apparatus for forecasting preferred selections from a menu of a restaurant, the apparatus comprising:

• a) a face recognition system including at least two cameras, wherein a first camera of the two cameras is arranged to capture facial images of customers visiting the restaurant and a second camera of the two cameras is arranged to capture the facial image of the customers leaving the restaurant, wherein the face recognition system is capable of creating demographic profiles of the customers based on the captured facial images of customers, wherein the demographic profiles include estimated age, gender and ethnicity of the customers;
• a) a point of sales system (POS) including a portable terminal linked thereto for inputting orders from the customers, and for displaying transaction data including the preferred selections from the menu, wherein inputted orders are transmitted to the POS from the portable terminal;
• b) a server for running algorithms comprising steps of:
• receiving the demographic profiles of the customers from the face recognition system;
• obtaining environmental information including weather information and event information from relevant websites via internet;
• obtaining the transaction data of the customers from the POS;
• correlating the inputted orders including types of dishes from the customers within a predetermined time period with demographic profiles of the customers staying at the restaurant within the predetermined time period and the environmental information including weather information and event information to accumulate correlated data into database in the server;
• selecting the preferred selections from the database based on a criterial to narrow down the a number of the preferred selections;
• and
• displaying the selected preferred selections onto a digital signage installed in the restaurant or outside the restaurant.