Vending System and Method
AssigneeTTI Club, LLC
InventorsSanford Mark Sellers, Kevin Blaine Ferguson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an embodiment, a method includes: receiving a short message service (SMS) text message from a first user, the SMS text message including a vending token for a vending machine and a source phone number of the first user; obtaining user data associated with the source phone number; determining whether the vending token may be redeemed by the first user according to the user data; and vending a product to the first user from the vending machine in response to determining the vending token may be redeemed by the first user, the vending being performed without requiring payment by the first user to the vending machine at the time of the vending.
Claims21
A method comprising:
- receiving a short message service (SMS) text message from a first user, the SMS text message comprising a vending token for a vending machine and a source phone number of the first user;
- obtaining user data associated with the source phone number;
- determining whether the vending token may be redeemed by the first user according to the user data;
- and
- vending a product to the first user from the vending machine in response to determining the vending token may be redeemed by the first user, the vending being performed without requiring payment by the first user to the vending machine at the time of the vending.
A method comprising:
- receiving a message comprising a vending token, a source phone number, and a destination phone number;
- determining a user associated with the source phone number;
- determining a vending machine associated with the destination phone number;
- determining whether the user is permitted to redeem the vending token for a free vend of a product from the vending machine;
- vending the product to the user from the vending machine in response to determining the user is permitted to redeem the vending token, wherein vending the product comprises:
- selecting a first interface type for the vending machine from a plurality of interface types;
- determining a destination address for the vending machine;
- and
- transmitting a vend command to the destination address according to the first interface type.
A method comprising:
- receiving a first message comprising a first vending token and a first destination phone number;
- obtaining first user data associated with the first vending token, the first user data comprising a first reward point counter for a first user;
- obtaining first vending machine data associated with the first destination phone number, the first vending machine data comprising a first destination address and a first interface type for a first vending machine;
- determining whether the first user is permitted to redeem the first vending token for a free vend of a product from the first vending machine;
- and
- transmitting a first vend command to the first destination address according to the first interface type in response to determining the first user is permitted to redeem the first vending token.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.