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US 6,886,744 B2Granted
Automatic vending apparatus involving contract and vending system
AssigneesHitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Asahi Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsSeiji Ichihara, Kunihiro Nomura, Jirou Kino, Kazuya Seo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
After a contract terminates in a contract part with personal identification and the input of contract contents, a control part controls the door of a sales storing box in which a product to be purchased is stored, and vends the product by opening the door.
Claims8
An automated vending apparatus for portable telephones, comprising:
- an input part for receiving information from a user;
- a display part for displaying selection screens, from which to select a portable telephone to be purchased;
- a communication control part for sending information received by the input part to a remotely-located center;
- a payment part for accepting a payment;
- sales storing boxes for storing portable telephones displayed in the display part, which boxes are controllably unlockable so that the user can take a new portable telephone after completion of payment by the payment part;
- and
- an IC card slot to receive an IC card from the user, the IC card including information about a first telephone plan the user had previously accepted.
4 more elements
An automated vending apparatus for portable telephones, comprising:
- an input part for receiving information from a user;
- a display part for displaying selection screens, from which to select a portable telephone to be purchased;
- a communication control part for sending information received by the input part to a remotely-located center;
- a payment part to receive payment from the user;
- a sales storing box for storing a portable telephone, the box being controllably unlockable so that the user can take a new portable telephone after completion of a requested action;
- a receiving compartment to receive a portable telephone returned by the user,
- wherein the user is allowed to receive a new portable phone from the sales storing box in exchange for returning a portable phone that the user has previously obtained,
- wherein the storing box for the new portable telephone is unlocked upon receiving a price difference between the new telephone and the return telephone from the user via the payment part if the new telephone is more expensive than the returned telephone.
5 more elements
An automated vending apparatus for portable telephones, comprising:
- an input part for receiving information from a user;
- a display part for displaying selection screens, from which to select whether to download a program or purchase a portable telephone;
- a communication control part for sending information received by the input part to a remotely-located center;
- a sales storing container for storing a portable telephone, the container being controllably unlockable so that the user can take a new portable telephone if the user indicates that the user wishes to purchase the portable telephone using the input part;
- and
- a downloading part configured to be coupled to a component of portable telephone of the user, wherein the vending apparatus downloads the program to the component of the portable telephone of the user via the downloading part if the user indicates that the user wishes to download the program using the input part.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.