US 12,265,985 B2
System, method, and apparatus for collecting confectionery products
Chris Brody, Montclair, NJ (US); Caroline Caparyan, Long Valley, NJ (US); Teresa Fernandes, Lafayette, NJ (US); Sandeep Dadlani, McLean, VA (US); Shubham Mehrish, Bridgewater, NJ (US); Romain Apert, Windsor (GB); Balakrishnan Subramanian, St. Albans (GB); Jess Smith, Cottleville, MO (US); Rick Keller, Long Valley, NJ (US); Sid Chaudhary, Langley (GB); Leonard J. Bogner, Jr., Malverne, NJ (US); Balu Arumugam, Flanders, NJ (US); Jason Burich, Greenbay, WI (US); Seth T. Dobbs, Evanston, IL (US); Megan N. Donahue, Glencoe, IL (US); and Praveen Moturu, McLean, VA (US)
Assigned to Mars, Incorporated, McLean, VA (US)
Appl. No. 18/031,813
Filed by MARS, INCORPORATED, McLean, VA (US)
PCT Filed Oct. 15, 2021, PCT No. PCT/US2021/055184
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Apr. 13, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/081974, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 21, 2022.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/092,825, filed on Oct. 16, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0394519 A1, Dec. 7, 2023
Int. Cl. G06Q 30/0226 (2023.01); G06Q 30/0235 (2023.01)
CPC G06Q 30/0233 (2013.01) [G06Q 30/0235 (2013.01)] 27 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising, by a computing device:
obtaining a current location of a first client device;
generating, for the first client device, a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising a perspective map interface centered on the current location of the first client device and a counter of confectionary credits;
accessing a database that comprises a list of virtual doorways and corresponding physical addresses, and determining a subset of virtual doorways of the list of virtual doorways that can be visible on the GUI based on the current location of the first client device and settings associated with each of one or more distribution points comprised in a confectionery distribution network, wherein the one or more distribution points are represented by the subset of virtual doorways on the GUI;
sending, to the first client device, instructions for visualizing the subset of virtual doorways on the GUI of the first client device;
when multiple virtual doorways of the subset of virtual doorways are located at a same physical address, generating a single virtual doorway icon in the GUI that indicates a number of the multiple virtual doorways located at a particular location in the GUI corresponding to the same physical address;
registering a first account with the computing device via a mobile application executed on the first client device, linking a particular virtual doorway of the subset of virtual doorways to the first account, obtaining location sensor data from a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver of the first client device, automatically determining a physical address of the first client device, and linking the physical address to the particular virtual doorway;
receiving, via an interaction by the first client device with a first virtual doorway of the subset of virtual doorways on the GUI, a request from the first client device to access a first distribution point of the one or more distribution points, wherein the first distribution point is represented by the first virtual doorway;
granting permission to the first client device to access the first distribution point;
sending an Application Programming Interface (API) call from the first client device to the computing device to determine in real-time a second account associated with the first distribution point and a quantity of confectionary credits in the second account that are currently available for distribution;
transmitting, from the second account to the first account, one or more confectionary credits from among the quantity of confectionery credits in the second account;
updating, based on the transmitting, one or more properties of the confectionery distribution network; and
updating the GUI for the first client device, wherein the updating comprises updating visibility of the subset of virtual doorways based on settings associated with each virtual doorway of the subset of virtual doorways and updating the counter of confectionary credits to include the one or more confectionary credits that were transmitted.