US 9,870,548 B1Granted

Off network order operations for pickup locations

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsRucheek Hasmukh Sangani, Piyush Gupta, Neha Goswami, Nicholas John Morren, Ameya Rahane

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Abstract

A pickup location may be enabled to continue to operate when communication over a network is not available by preemptively synchronizing certain data. For the delivery of an item, order data such as the expected tracking identification for an item may be sent to the pickup location before the item is delivered. An access code that will be used by the user for retrieving the item from a storage compartment at the pickup location may also be generated and synchronized between the pickup location and a remote computing resource before the item is delivered. A delivery of an item as confirmed by a carrier may be reported to a user when communication with the pickup location is unavailable if the carrier meets a certain confidence threshold requirement based on past performance.

Claims25

Dependent claims

A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving from a user an order for an item;
identifying a pickup location apparatus where the item will be delivered for retrieval by the user, wherein the pickup location apparatus includes a storage compartment where the item will be stored and a control station, the storage compartment having a locking mechanism that the control station is configured to control;
storing an access code that will be used by the user by inputting the access code through interaction with an input device of the control station in response to which the control station will control the locking mechanism to unlock the storage compartment so as to enable the user to retrieve the item from the storage compartment;
receiving a carrier delivery confirmation from a carrier indicating that the item has been delivered to the pickup location apparatus and placed in the storage compartment;
determining that communication with the control station of the pickup location apparatus is not available and that a pickup location apparatus delivery confirmation has not been received from the control station to confirm the actual delivery of the item to the pickup location apparatus, on the basis of which a notification that indicates that the item has been delivered to the pickup location apparatus will not be sent to the user unless a delivery confidence threshold is determined to be satisfied, wherein the determination that communication with the control station of the pickup location apparatus is not available is based at least in part on at least one of a communication check that is performed on demand or an evaluation of an elapsed amount of time since a last successful communication;
determining that the delivery confidence threshold is satisfied as representing a confidence that the item has been delivered by the carrier to the pickup location apparatus, wherein the determination that the delivery confidence threshold is satisfied is based at least in part on a determined level of correspondence between carrier delivery confirmations that have previously been received from the carrier and confirmations of actual corresponding deliveries by the carrier;
and
sending a notification to the user in response to the determination that the delivery confidence threshold is satisfied, wherein the notification indicates that the item has been delivered to the pickup location apparatus and includes the access code.

5 more elements

A system, comprising:

a pickup location apparatus, comprising:
a storage compartment with a locking mechanism;
and
a control station configured to control the locking mechanism;
and
a computing system, comprising:
one or more processors;
and
a memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing program instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to at least:
receive a carrier delivery confirmation from a carrier indicating that an item has been delivered to the pickup location apparatus and placed in the storage compartment;
determine that communication with the control station of the pickup location apparatus is not available and that a pickup location apparatus delivery confirmation has not been received from the control station to confirm the actual delivery of the item to the pickup location apparatus, on the basis of which a notification that indicates that the item has been delivered to the pickup location apparatus will not be sent to the user unless a delivery confidence threshold is determined to be satisfied, wherein the determination that communication with the control station of the pickup location apparatus is not available is based at least in part on at least one of a communication check that is performed on demand or an evaluation of an elapsed amount of time since a last successful communication;
determine that the delivery confidence threshold is satisfied as representing a confidence that the item has been delivered by the carrier to the pickup location apparatus, wherein the determination that the delivery confidence threshold is satisfied is based at least in part on a determined level of correspondence between carrier delivery confirmations that have previously been received from the carrier and confirmations of actual corresponding deliveries by the carrier;
and
send a notification to the user in response to the determination that the delivery confidence threshold is satisfied, wherein the notification indicates that the item has been delivered to the pickup location apparatus.

11 more elements

A computer implemented method, comprising:

under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions,
receiving a carrier delivery confirmation from a carrier indicating that an item has been delivered to a pickup location apparatus, wherein the pickup location apparatus includes a storage compartment where the item is stored and a control station, the storage compartment having a locking mechanism that the control station is configured to control;
determining that communication with the control station of the pickup location apparatus is not available and that a pickup location apparatus delivery confirmation has not been received from the control station to confirm the actual delivery of the item to the pickup location apparatus, on the basis of which a notification that indicates that the item has been delivered to the pickup location apparatus will not be sent to the user unless a delivery confidence threshold is determined to be satisfied, wherein the determination that communication with the control station of the pickup location apparatus is not available is based at least in part on at least one of a communication check that is performed on demand or an evaluation of an elapsed amount of time since a last successful communication;
determining that the delivery confidence threshold is satisfied as representing a confidence that the item has been delivered by the carrier to the pickup location apparatus, wherein the determination that the delivery confidence threshold is satisfied is based at least in part on a determined level of correspondence between carrier delivery confirmations that have previously been received from the carrier and confirmations of actual corresponding deliveries by the carrier;
and
sending a notification to the user in response to the determination that the delivery confidence threshold is satisfied, wherein the notification indicates that the item has been delivered to the pickup location apparatus.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.