Secure Delivery Receptacle

Abstract

A secure-delivery receptacle includes a delivered-package vault having a selectively-lockable access portal controlled, at least in part, by a control circuit that also operably couples to a radio-frequency identification (RFID)-tag reader. The RFID-tag reader serves, by one approach, to read RFID tags in the immediate vicinity of the delivered-package vault. So configured, the control circuit can, for example, verify a delivery-vector RFID tag (such as an RFID tag uniquely associated with a given delivery person) and responsively unlock the selectively-lockable access portal. Also so configured, the control circuit can verify when at least one expected package RFID tag is placed within the delivered-package vault to confirm delivery of a corresponding expected package (by, for example, sending one or more messages to the intended recipient, the delivery service, the shipping party, and so forth).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.