Automated food vending system

A method of using a food package unit for automatic programming of microwave oven having a code reader to cook the food package unit, comprising the steps of:

• providing a food package unit having walls defining a hollow, quadrangular-sided tray portion, a rectangular, laterally projecting lip around the upper edges of the tray portion, and a code for controlling the microwave oven printed at a predetermined position on an outside surface of the package unit extending in a linear direction, said code being printed at a predetermined position on the package unit, so that it can be read by a code reader positioned adjacent the code in the oven cavity as the package unit is driven in the linear direction,
• providing a microwave oven having a door at a front portion thereof which is openable to allow insertion of the food package unit into an interior cavity of the oven, the interior cavity having interior walls defining a shape corresponding to and adapted to have the quadrangular-sides and laterally projecting lip of the food package unit inserted therein, said shaped interior cavity thereby constraining the insertion of the correspondingly-shaped food package unit to substantially one degree of freedom of insertion movement, and a code reader located in a predetermined position in the interior cavity corresponding to the predetermined position of the code printed on the food package unit, and
• inserting the food package unit into the interior cavity of the oven wherein its insertion movement is constrained by the shaped walls of the interior cavity so that the printed code in the predetermined position on the food package unit is readable automatically by the code reader in the corresponding predetermined position.

A method of using a food package unit for automatic programming of a microwave oven having a code reader to cook the food package unit, comprising the steps of:

• providing a food package unit having walls defining a cylindrical shape, and a code for controlling the microwave oven printed at a predetermined position on an outside surface of the cylindrical shape extending in a circumferential direction, so that it can be read by a code reader positioned adjacent the code in the oven cavity as the cylindrical package unit is driven in circumferential rotation,
• providing a microwave oven having a door at a front portion thereof which is openable to allow insertion of the food package unit into an interior cavity of the oven, the interior cavity having interior walls defining a shape corresponding to and adapted to have the cylindrical food package unit inserted therein, said shaped interior cavity thereby constraining the insertion of the correspondingly-shaped food package unit to substantially one degree of freedom of insertion movement, a drive means for driving the cylindrical food package unit inserted in the interior cavity in circumferential rotation, and a code reader located in a predetermined position in the interior cavity corresponding to the predetermined position of the code printed on the food package unit, and
• inserting the food package unit into the interior cavity of the oven wherein its insertion movement is constrained by the shaped walls of the interior cavity so that the printed code in the predetermined position on the food package unit is readable automatically by the code reader in the corresponding predetermined position when the package unit is inserted in the oven's interior cavity and driven by the drive means in circumferential rotation.