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US 2002/0161475 A1Published application
Apparatus and method for improved vending machine inventory maintenance
AssigneeSkywire, LLP
InventorsSteve Varga, Bryan Eagle III, Richard Desmarais, Robert Cowling, Michael D. Lemieux, John Hall
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Inventory maintenance is improved for a system of one or more vending machines by providing one or more vending machines with unique identifiers, and means for collecting and transmitting information concerning goods dispensed and other status to a remote location where processing means provide an efficient service schedule.
Claims1
A vending machine system, comprising:
- a vending machine, comprising:
- a compartment comprising a plurality of supply columns that stores a plurality of different types of goods to be dispensed;
- a dispenser that dispenses selected goods from said different types of goods;
- a CPU that counts said selected goods dispensed by said dispenser to generate a total number of said selected goods dispensed for each of said plurality of supply columns;
- a machine identifier that identifies said vending machine;
- and
- a transmitter that communicates a signal comprising said machine identifier and said total number of said selected goods dispensed for each of said plurality of supply columns to a remote processing center;
- and
- said remote processing center receives said signal and calculates the capacity and velocity of each of said different types of goods based on said total number of said selected goods dispensed to determine an optimal configuration of said different types of goods in said plurality of supply columns that would maximize time efficiency between service periods for restocking of said different types of goods.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.