# US 2017/0286649 A1 · Electronic storage system > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2017/0286649 A1 - Document ID: US20170286649A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 15/084,298 - Filed: 2016-03-29 - Published: 2017-10-05 - Earliest claimed: 2016-03-29 - Assignees: Tiburon Lockers Inc. - Applicants: Tiburon Lockers Inc. - Inventors: Jared Lowenthal; Thomas Little; Shuangqing Wang; Jianyun Gao; Sung-Yuan Chen - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20170286649A1 ## CPC - G06F 21/31: User authentication - G07F 11/62: in which the articles are stored in compartments in fixed receptacles - G06Q 20/40: Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists - G07F 9/001: {Interfacing with vending machines using mobile or wearable devices} - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) - G07F: COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS (coin sorting G07D3/00; coin testing G07D5/00; {handling coins or paper currencies apart from payment activated apparatus G07D; payment architectures, schemes or protocols G06Q20/00}) - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR ## Abstract An electronic storage system is provided. The system includes a housing, securable units within the housing, a kiosk to assign securable units to users and to provide the users with access credentials for accessing assigned securable units, and user portals within the housing and separate from the kiosk. Each user portal permits access to one or more of the securable units in accordance with access credentials entered into the portal. Each user portal is also operable to allow users to transfer rentals of assigned securable devices to other electronic storage systems. The system also permits access to assigned securable devices in accordance with access credentials received via text or SMS messages or via applications executing on a computer, NFC device, or smart device, such as a smart phone or tablet. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An electronic storage system, comprising: a housing; a plurality of securable units within the housing; a kiosk configured to assign at least one of the securable units to a user and to provide the user with access credentials for accessing an assigned securable unit; and a plurality of user portals within the housing and separate from the plurality of securable units and the kiosk, each user portal being configured to permit access to at least two of the plurality of securable units, at least one of the user portals being configured to permit access to the assigned securable unit in response to receiving the access credentials from the user. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The electronic storage system of claim 1, wherein the access credentials include at least one of a personal identification code and a compartment identifier. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The electronic storage system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of securable units is divided into subsets of securable units, each subset of securable units being assigned to at least one user portal, each user portal permitting access only to subsets of securable units assigned to the user portal. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The electronic storage system of claim 3, wherein each subset of securable units includes a column of securable units and the housing includes a plurality of rails, the plurality of user portals being respectively positioned on the rails, each user portal permitting access only to a column of securable units adjacent to the user portal. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The electronic storage system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the user portals is further configured to assign at least one of the securable units to the user and to provide the user with the access credentials for accessing the assigned securable unit. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The electronic storage system of claim 5, wherein the at least one user portal configured to assign at least one of the securable units to the user is further configured to process payments for renting the assigned securable unit. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The electronic storage system of claim 6, wherein the payments processed by the user portal include payments processed from at least one of a credit card, a debit card, an RFID device, an NFC device, and a barcode. ### Claim 8 (depends on 6) The electronic storage system of claim 6, wherein at least one of the user portals is further configured to permit a rental of the assigned securable device to be transferred to a new securable device. ### Claim 9 (depends on 5) The electronic storage system of claim 5, wherein the plurality of securable units is divided into subsets of securable units, each subset of securable units being assigned to at least one user portal, each user portal permitting access only to subsets of securable units assigned to the user portal. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The electronic storage system of claim 9, wherein each subset of securable units includes a column of securable units and the housing includes a plurality of rails, the plurality of user portals being respectively positioned on the rails, each user portal permitting access only to a column of securable units adjacent to the user portal. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The electronic storage system of claim 1, wherein the kiosk is further configured to receive a text or SMS message containing the access credentials and to unlock the assigned securable unit in accordance with the access credentials received from the text or SMS message. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The electronic storage system of claim 11, wherein the access credentials include at least one of a personal identification code and a compartment identifier. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The electronic storage system of claim 12, wherein the kiosk is further configured to obtain a telephone number from a caller-ID signal and to retrieve the compartment identifier from a database in accordance with the telephone number. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The electronic storage system of claim 13, wherein the kiosk is configured to unlock the assigned securable unit only if the telephone number obtained from the caller-ID signal matches a registration telephone number stored in a database during a rental process. ### Claim 15 An electronic storage system, comprising: a housing; a plurality of securable units within the housing; and a plurality of user portals within the housing and separate from the kiosk, at least one of the user portals being configured to assign at least one of the securable units to a user, to process payments for renting an assigned securable unit, and to provide the user with access credentials for accessing the assigned securable unit, wherein each user portal is further configured to permit access to at least one of the plurality of securable units, at least one of the user portals being configured to permit access to the assigned securable unit in response to receiving the access credentials from the user. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The electronic storage system of claim 15, wherein the plurality of securable units is divided into subsets of securable units, each subset of securable units being assigned to at least one user portal, each user portal permitting access only to subsets of securable units assigned to the user portal. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The electronic storage system of claim 16, wherein each subset of securable units includes a column of securable units and the housing includes a plurality of rails, the plurality of user portals being respectively positioned on the rails, each user portal permitting access only to a column of securable units adjacent to the user portal. ### Claim 18 (depends on 15) The electronic storage system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the user portals is further configured to permit a rental of the assigned securable device to be transferred to a new securable device. ### Claim 19 (depends on 15) The electronic storage system of claim 15, wherein each user portal is positioned on a respective one of the securable devices. ### Claim 20 An electronic storage system, comprising: a housing; a plurality of securable units within the housing; a kiosk configured to assign at least one of the securable units to a user and to provide the user with access credentials for accessing an assigned securable unit; and a unit configured to receive a text or SMS message containing the access credentials and to unlock the assigned securable unit in accordance with the access credentials received from the text or SMS message.