Mobile Ticket Dispenser System With Waiting Time Prediction

Abstract

A ticket dispenser (TD) is used to assist customers with the waiting process in, e.g., a restaurant. This paper deploys a mobile TD system (MTDS) with waiting time prediction to enhance the user experience while waiting. For example, the MTDS for a restaurant allows a customer to remotely draw a ticket for a meal order anywhere through a smartphone before she/he arrives at the restaurant and therefore reduces her/his waiting time. The developed MTDS system can dynamically adjust the predicted waiting time. We propose two output indicators and develop a discrete-event simulation model to investigate the performance of the predicted time adjustment (PTA) mechanism for the MTDS. With a proper frequency of recalculation for the predicted waiting times, this paper indicates that the waiting times can be more accurately predicted without consuming more wireless network resources and power of mobile devices.