Grub Masters 
Present to you      

The "Wait Mate"

Figure 1
Wireless Restaurant Pager
   Team Members                                                                                                                
         Julio C. Alvarez                    Cynthia S. Lee                       Jason Schroggins                              Aaron Metzler  
           Major: EE                              Major: EE                                  Major: Anthropology                  Major: Entrepreneur
           Role: Project Designer        Role: Project Designer            Role: Human Factor Researcher     Role: Business Planner
           Graduates: Dec., 2008       Graduates: May, 2008     


     Course Coordinator          E-Team Advisor         Technical Advisors
        Dr. Gregory Kriehn                     Dr. Hank Delcore             Dr. Daniel Bukofzer & Dr. Charles Won


ABSTRACT
The Wait Mate, currently in progress, is an innovative project designed to alleviate the waiting experiences at restaurants, airports, doctor’s offices, and other businesses where patrons face extended periods of waiting by allowing them access to an updatable, wireless waiting timer.  This project entails three units, one for the businesses to send information wirelessly to patrons, two other units carried by patrons will receive such information from said business and display the information onto a screen.
 
LCD
Introduction to the Restaurant Paging System:

Many of today's casual dining restaurants employ their own version of a wireless paging system. Typically this comprises of two main units: a transmitting device (base station) capable of sending a signal wirelessly to a second unit, the paging unit (pager). The base station is a desktop device usually containing multiple buttons(i.e. numbers, letters, arrow keys etc...), while the pager is a mobile unit with a built-in radio receiver tuned to receive signals from the base station. Typically the operation of the paging system is like so: a patron arrives at a restaurant and receives a pager from the hostess, the patron then has the freedom and flexibily to wander nearby the restaurant waiting for their table. When the hostess determines that the patrons table is ready, the base station will be used to transmit a "table ready" signal wirelessly to the pager notifying the patron that its time to enjoy a good meal.
Wait Mate Employed Technology:

This Wait Mate system employs the newest Chipcon wireless technology, the CC2500 2.4GHz RF low power programmable tranceiver.  This 2.4 GHz is free and world-wide used frequency band used to transmit data wirelessly.  This chip enables the Wait Mate to transmit or receive data more effienctly and accurately over a distance of 450-feet.  The CC2500 transceiver is intergrated with a TI MSP430 family microprocessor that serves as the brain used to drive the entire Wait Mate system.  The MSP430 microcontroller has ultra-low power consumpition which can operated in optimized modes to extend the battery life in designed portable applications.  Futhermore, the Wait Mate uses Crystal Fontz's high quality, low cost 20 by 4 characters Liquid Crystal display abbrievated as LCD to display necessary information for both the transmitter and receiver units.

Tx_BD Base Station Unit:

One of the main units of the Wait Mate system is the transmitter, also known as the base station. Its main role is in bridging the gap between a restaurant hostess and patrons by sending a signal to a receiver commonly known as the pager. The base station will be sending the "ready signal" to the pagers along with other information. The new information being transmitted contains the amount of time the patrons need to wait before they may be seated. The Wait Mate base station will consist of several essential elements: an alpha-numeric keypad, a microprocessor to serve as the brain, a transmitting unit and an LCD screen. The key feature being the LCD screen. A hostess would input the following information to be displayed on the screen, the patron's name, an estimated waiting time, and a corresponding pager identificaiton number located on the pager the patron will be holding. The microprocessor would display the information on the screen and keep track of the patrons currently waiting along with their estimated waiting times. The system will continously update the information. The waiting time information will be sent to the specified pager and the patron is off. If at any time the estimated waiting time should change, the hostess is then capable of transmitting the new information to the correct pager for patron notification. 

Rx_BD Pager Unit:

The Wait Mate pager is used to keep patrons entertained during extended periods of waiting meanwhile keeping track of the patrons waiting time. The entertainment is created using an interactive interface consisting of a portable, handheld pager which allows a patron to view their waiting time information through a built-in LCD screen and keypad buttons for browsing through multiple applications. Information being displayed on the screen may comprise of company advertisements, restaurant menus and some possible character based games. An important element of the pager is that it is a wireless mobile device capable of receiving information through its own onboard receiving device. The information being received from the base station is a waiting time for the patron. This is the time the patron has to wait for their table to be ready. This time information will also be displayed on the LCD screen to allow the patron to keep track of their waiting time. If the time should change due to various possible reasons, the restaurant hostess may send the new information to the pager and allow the time to be updated. The patron will then be notified by the hostess that their table is ready by either sending a "table ready" signal or when the pager counts down the time to zero activating the alarms.

Future improvements on the pager may include technologically advanced display screens, better interactive entertainment such as video clips and movie trailers, handheld games and wireless internet connectivity. 
  

Technical Sections

Team PictureProject Documents

--->  Project Proposal  <---  Want to know more about Wait Mate! (PDF)
--->  Video Clip 1   <---   Check out a Sample Clip of the Base Station home screen.
--->  Video Clip 2 <---   Check out a Sample Clip of the Pager Screen.
-----> Watch Up for Future Progress with Wait Mate <-----









                           
Aaron
Business Section

To Be Updated!		 Jason
Human Factor Research Section

To Be Updated!