Pre-covid era had many fast casual diners with long queues where hostesses would guess at the wait times, and customers would wait for an hour or more to get a table. The smart restaurant addressed this issue making the each table know when it was occupied, and for how long. Know this information an embedded computer then could accurately understand when the next available table would come up, and once prepared the system could actually direct customers to their tables.

BASE TECHNOLOGY

The company Co-Founder by Terry and a venture capitalist placed sensors under each table. The sensors detected thermal energy shifts under and near the table, which inferred the table was occupied. Terry created the hardware and firmware for these sensors. An embedded server received the messages from the table sensors keeping track of the time these tables were occupied. With a set table turn time, (usually 45 minutes) the status of each table appeared on a tablet at the hostess station with a color indicating it’s progression through the table turn cycle. From this table map hostesses could easily see how soon tables would be ready. This simple server was written in javascript and displayed table maps done in html.

FIRST PRODUCT

The company BeeTimer(R) was able to secure our first customer, a fast casual restaurant chain in the southeast.

END RESULT

Unfortunately two weeks after our initial installation, the United States shut down for COVID-19 pandemic and in dinning at restaurants was paused for longer than our burn rate would allow.