Menu Personalisation System

In recent times, more restaurant customers prefer to place their food orders on their own, using mobile apps, due to the convenience of doing so. Many restaurant owners also prefer this method of food ordering because it helps to reduce waiters’ workload and issues arising from customer orders, such as wrong food orders due to miscommunication between the customer and the waiter. Such a solution is also useful in achieving social distancing, as required by the Covid-19 situation. Restaurant owners, staff, and customers are experiencing the benefits that digitalisation is bringing to the traditional way of working in a restaurant, hence it is highly anticipated that they will accept more digital solutions in the near future.

This technology offer is a menu personalisation system, which allows restaurant customers to generate a personalised menu that is formulated based on the customer's personal information and the restaurant’s available menu items and ingredients.

In this menu personalisation system, the restaurant customer will scan a restaurant identifier, e.g., a QR code, with a smartphone. The system will then gather the relevant menu information, e.g., cooking methods and ingredients of each dish of the restaurant, as well as the customer’s personal information relating to food preferences, e.g., favourite taste, order history, medical history, real-time vital signs, diet restrictions and allergies, etc. After that, the system will generate a personalised menu that is suitable for the customer, and display it on the smartphone for subsequent order placement. The customer can pre-authorise the use of their personal data in a Personal Information Management System (PIMS) before or upon using the application.

This technology offer can be used by restaurants providing personalised menus, and may be applied to the following systems:

• Applications running on smartphones
• Restaurant systems used to handle customer orders
• Database systems used to manage personal information, e.g., PIMS (Personal Information Management System)

It is highly anticipated that personalised services will be provided in a wide variety of industries. The personal information can be used in a secure manner, in accordance to the policies pre-set by the user. As digitalisation becomes more entrenched in society, novel uses of personal data will bring new value-added services, and improve the user’s experience and quality of life.

The following are benefits of this technology offer that can be derived by these different groups:

1.         Restaurant Customers

• A personalised menu based on the customer’s taste, medical history, vital signs, diet restrictions, food allergies, etc, just by scanning a QR code

2.         Restaurant owners and staff

• A personalised menu and order system based on the various aspects of the customer’s preferences
• A unique user experience and sales opportunity compared to a static menu
• Social distancing while reducing staff workload and potential issues with customers

3.         System developers and integrators

• An opportunity to bring personalised services into the restaurant business
• An opportunity to collaboratively file a patent for the co-development work done in implementing this system
• An opportunity to file a patent in countries where the system is developed/commercialised

The technology owner is keen to out-license this patented/patent pending technology to software providers/system integrators for the restaurant business, or to software providers/system integrators for digital payment services.