IPRO 315: iiTHRU

IPRO 315

The purpose of this project is to improve the user experience and efficiency of a drive through
facility. Previous IPRO groups have gone so far as to create a kiosk, radio system, database, and a
mobile application. Although these groups have gone far, the state of many of the projects that have been
done are far from where they need to be and are becoming somewhat outdated. The current IPRO
group will be focusing on bringing this technology to the next level. This will be done through creating
a better, more realistic kiosk, creation and/or modification of our database, and drastic modification to
the current mobile application. Along with this, we will also be focusing on how to create a more user
friendly experience and how to make the whole process more time efficient. Finally, we will also try to
find out the extent of the current technology today to find out how we can possibly make our project
more wide reaching.

Expected Results

The goal of this IPRO is a large one. Previous IPRO's have mostly worked on the hardware
aspect, improving sound and creating a kiosk that worked well. The part of the project that needs to be
greatly improved is the software. Overall, the database is not set up correctly (and may need to be
completely redone) and the app itself is missing essential functions. In general the goals of some of the
groups are extremely difficult to accomplish in the time that we will have. For example, we want to
recreate the mobile application, however we have no computer science majors to help us accomplish
this. Since this in the case, we expect at least the a new kiosk to be completed. We want to set up future
IPRO groups with a good foundation and leave lots of resources and documentation so that they can
complete or improve however far we get with the software.

Background

The current semester of IPRO is the ninth in a series of IPRO's focusing primarily on the drive- thru system. The first seven IPRO's focuses primarily the design of the kiosk, such as efficient speakers and clear audio. All of these culminated into a working model intercom system that had a server side module inside the restaurant and a client side module within the kiosk containing a speaker and condenser microphone for the customer. The previous IPRO began to focus on the mobile application end of the project. Although the previous kiosk is good, it was outdated and need to be improved upon. Most current common kiosk technologies involve cameras and screens to make sure no orders get misplaced and efficiency slowed. This IPRO developed a mobile application in conjunction with a desktop program to order meals with. This program utilized a QR code to take in orders quickly and without much talking between restaurant and patron. There were still some problems with the applications, but nothing that was to big to fix. On top of that it functioned well. This semester's IPRO will attempt to go above and beyond this design. We will utilize the QR code as well as wireless connections to create an even more efficient design.