Unattended beverage dispensing systems and methods
AssigneePepsiCo, Inc.
InventorsRobert CRAWFORD, Sam KAROL
Life of this patent
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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 database configured to:
- receive biometric data from a mobile device, wherein the biometric data comprises biometric characteristics, and
- store authorized biometric characteristic profiles, each of the authorized profiles comprising a customer account and a biometric characteristic from among the biometric characteristics;
- a beverage dispenser comprising a dispensing nozzle configured to dispense one or more beverages and a biometric sensor configured to identify a customer biometric characteristic;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- authenticate a customer based on the customer biometric characteristic by comparing the customer biometric characteristic to the authorized biometric characteristic profiles,
- associate the authenticated customer with a particular one of the authorized biometric characteristic profiles in the database, and
- allow beverage dispensing from the dispensing nozzle based on the particular authorized biometric characteristic profile after authenticating the customer.
A method of dispensing a beverage from a beverage dispenser, the method comprising:
- receiving, in a database, a user biometric characteristic from a user device;
- storing, in a database, a biometric characteristic profile comprising a customer account and the user biometric characteristic;
- acquiring a customer biometric characteristic with a biometric sensor of the beverage dispenser;
- authenticating a customer based on the customer biometric characteristic by comparing the customer biometric characteristic to the authorized biometric characteristic profile;
- and
- allowing beverage dispensing from the beverage dispenser based on the authorized biometric characteristic profile after authenticating the customer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.