The Research And Realization Of Wireless Self-service Ordering System Based On Embedded Technology

Traditionally, the ordering, delivering orderings and payment in restaurants are made by manual ways. This workflow is inefficient, especially when it gets to the dining peak; the mistakes made by waiters may probably increase while they are busy recording the orderings and sending orderings. As a result this will cause complaints by customers and affect the quality of service and even undermine the credibility of the restaurant. In order to change the traditional ordering mode, and with the help of embedded technology and wireless network technology a modern food service management system was developed: the wireless self-service ordering system. The workflow of wireless self-ordering system can be described as below: Customers use handheld terminal to achieve self-ordering, and then the terminal will submit the ordering contents to the service center wirelessly. The service center then will receive the order and send back the processing results quickly to the terminal through the server-side management software, then the server will display the ordering context in a LCD screen which was hung on the wall of the kitchen, then the chivies become to cook according to the orderings. In addition to the ordering function of the handheld terminal, it also provides multimedia entertainment features, supporting for playback of audio and video files in multiple formats. The extended memory interface can be connected to large-capacity external memory. Such a flexible, fast and innovative information management system can not only improve the quality and efficiency of the restaurant's service, but also reduce the labor costs because of the self-ordering, which has brought benefits to the enterprises. In recent years it has gradually been widely used.Generally speaking, the wireless self-service ordering system is a kind of hardware and software system designed specially to improve the management of catering service. The system adopts the way of wireless data transmitting which happen between the handheld terminals and the server to provide customers with meal service, which take the place of traditional paper recording and other manual ways of working. The hardware of the system is composed by center server (PC), handheld terminal and wireless network access point (wireless router). They provide the basic platform for the system. The software of the system includes management software which is running on center server and ordering software which is running on handheld terminal. The wireless router was used to set up a WiFi LAN to provide the communication channel for data transmission. Data transmission works in the ISM band of 2.4GHZ. The server-side accesses to the network by cable while the handheld terminal wirelessly. How to design the hardware and software of the ordering system efficiently and rationally to make the data transmission stability, reliability, and security is the focus of this paper.We used the Samsung's S3C2440A development board which was based on ARM9 and coupled with 3.5-inch touch screen to simulate the handheld terminal. And the VIA VT6656 wireless USB network control chip was used as the terminal network module. The TP-LINK TL-WR340G+ was used as a wireless access point (AP). Through the combination of embedded technology, network programming, database programming, human-computer interface and multimedia programming techniques to develop the server-side and terminal's software. Finally we succeed in realizing a simulated wireless self-service ordering system.