Drop box item deposit sensor system and methods of using the same

An item drop box sensor system comprising:

• one or more tray movement sensors configured to detect movement of a drop box deposit tray and to generate a movement signal upon detection of movement of the drop box deposit tray;
• one or more item detection sensors configured to detect items deposited in a drop box housing;
• and
• an onboard controller comprising at least one non-transitory memory storage medium, one or more processors, and one or more wireless transmitters, wherein the onboard controller is configured to:
• detect, via the one or more processors, signals generated by the one or more tray movement sensors;
• in response to the detected signals upon from the one or more tray movement sensors, activate, the one or more item detection sensors;
• generate, via the one or more processors, status data, wherein the status data identifies a status of the sensor system;
• and
• transmit, via the one or more wireless transmitters, the status data to one or more external computing entities.

A drop box network monitoring system comprising:

• a central server;
• and
• a plurality of geographically spaced item drop boxes, each item drop box of the plurality of item drop boxes comprising:
• an item sensor system configured to detect one or more items deposited within the item drop box;
• a tray movement sensor configured to detect movement of a deposit tray of the drop box;
• and
• an onboard controller is configured to activate the item sensor system in response to a signal from the tray movement sensor indicating movement of the deposit tray, generate drop box status data indicative of a status of the item sensor system and transmit the drop box status data to the central server;
• and
• wherein the central server is configured to:
• receive drop box status data from a plurality of drop boxes;
• and
• based at least in part on the drop box status data, generate one or more alerts identifying one or more drop boxes containing items.