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US 12,637,346 B2Granted
Unattended beverage dispensing systems and methods
AssigneePepsiCo, Inc.
InventorsRobert Crawford, Sam Karol
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Unattended beverage dispensers configured to dispense one or more beverages after authenticating a customer and associating the customer with a customer account. An unattended beverage dispenser may include a user interface with a biometric sensor configured to identify a biometric characteristic of a customer. A controller associated with the unattended beverage dispenser may authenticate a customer based on a biometric characteristic and associate the authenticated customer with a customer account. After authenticating a customer, the controller may allow beverage dispensing from the unattended beverage dispenser in accordance with a beverage dispensing rule associated with the customer's account.
Claims20
A beverage dispensing system, comprising:
- a customer mobile device comprising a biometric sensor, wherein the biometric sensor is configured to collect a biometric characteristic of a customer, wherein the customer mobile device is configured to send data collected by the biometric sensor and comprising the biometric characteristic via a wireless communication link;
- and
- a beverage dispenser comprising a wireless communication device configured to communicate with the customer mobile device via the wireless communication link,
- wherein the beverage dispenser comprises a machine readable element identifying the beverage dispenser, and
- wherein the customer mobile device comprises a mobile device application that is configured to scan the machine readable element at the beverage dispenser to identify the beverage dispenser and allow the customer to select the beverage dispenser through the mobile device application on the customer mobile device;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- wirelessly receive the data comprising the biometric characteristic collected by the biometric sensor of the customer mobile device from the customer mobile device via the wireless communication link,
- associate the customer with a customer account based on the biometric characteristic collected by the biometric sensor of the customer mobile device, and
- allow a beverage to be dispensed from the beverage dispenser after associating the customer with the customer account.
7 more elements
A beverage dispenser, comprising:
- a wireless communication device configured to communicate with a customer mobile device via a wireless communication link and receive data comprising a biometric characteristic of a customer sent from the customer mobile device via the wireless communication link, wherein the biometric characteristic comprises biometric information collected by a biometric sensor of the customer mobile device;
- a machine readable element at the beverage dispenser capable of identifying the beverage dispenser to the customer mobile device, wherein the machine readable element comprises a barcode, a magnetic strip, a quick response code, or a radio frequency identification tag;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- wirelessly receive the data comprising the biometric characteristic from the customer mobile device via the wireless communication link,
- wirelessly receive the customer's selection of the beverage dispenser from the customer mobile device,
- associate the customer with a customer account based on the biometric information collected by the biometric sensor of the customer mobile device, and
- allow a beverage to be dispensed after associating the customer with the customer account.
5 more elements
A method of dispensing a beverage from a beverage dispenser, the method comprising:
- collecting a biometric characteristic of a customer with a biometric sensor comprised by a customer mobile device, wherein the customer mobile device is configured to send data collected by the biometric sensor and comprising the biometric characteristic via a wireless communication link;
- scanning at the beverage dispenser, with the customer mobile device, a machine readable element comprised by the beverage dispenser to identify the beverage dispenser and allow the customer to select the beverage dispenser through the customer mobile device;
- communicating data comprising the biometric characteristic collected by the biometric sensor of the customer mobile device to the beverage dispenser via a wireless communication link between the customer mobile device and the beverage dispenser, wherein the communicating comprises the customer mobile device sending the data comprising the biometric characteristic to the beverage dispenser via the wireless communication link, and wherein the beverage dispenser comprises a wireless communication device configured to communicate with the customer mobile device via the wireless communication link;
- associating the customer with a customer account based on the biometric characteristic collected by the biometric sensor of the customer mobile device;
- and
- dispensing a beverage after associating the customer with the customer account.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.