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US 6,663,004 B2Granted
Method and system for disposing of discarded items
OwnerFrederico Wagner, Geraldo Luiz Yoshikawa +1inventors
InventorsFrederico Wagner, Geraldo Luiz Yoshikawa, Fabio Zsigmond
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electronic trash disposal unit comprises a control unit which scans and identifies disposed items to store them in an appropriate recycling bin. The unit is connectable to a communication network which updates a central database with the contents of each unit. The unit initiates a reorder instruction to suppliers.
Claims21
An electronic discard unit comprising:
- a central processing unit (CPU);
- an identification database accessible by the CPU;
- a content database accessible by the CPU;
- at least one input device coupled to the CPU;
- the CPU executing programmatic software to perform functions including:
- using the at least one input device to obtain a code corresponding to a discarded item;
- identifying the discarded item by referring to the identification database, and if a match is not found within the identification database, by searching over a computer network for a match;
- updating the content database to include an entry corresponding to the identified discarded item;
- generating a re-order instruction for replacing the discarded item;
- and
- a pressure sensor that, at least partly in response to pressure from the discarded item, causes the identification of the discarded item.
8 more elements
A method of disposing of an item using an electronic trash unit having a storage bin comprising;
- sensing pressure caused by placement of the item on a cover for the storage bin;
- initiating the scanning of the item at least partly in response to the sensed pressure:
- scanning the item for a machine readable code;
- storing the machine readable code in an electronic storage medium;
- reading user preference data, including selection criteria for determining to which entity a re-order is to be placed;
- selecting the entity to whom the order is to be placed based at least in part on the selection criteria;
- generating a re-order instruction for the item based on the machine readable code and on user preference data;
- storing the item in the storage bin;
- and
- updating a content database with information regarding the item.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.