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US 7,086,592 B2Granted
Method and system for disposing of discarded items
AssigneeIkan Technologies Inc.
InventorsFrederico Wagner, Geraldo Luiz Yoshizawa, Fabio Zsigmond
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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.
Claims42
An electronic discard system comprising:
- a central processing unit (CPU);
- at least one user input device coupled to the CPU;
- a scanning device;
- and
- program software which, when executed by the CPU, performs functions including:
- reading a user bypass instruction via the user input device, and at least partly in response, accepting a first discarded item without scanning the first discarded item;
- reading a user specified order period from an account database;
- reading information scanned from a second discarded item by the scanning device;
- and
- generating a re-order instruction for replacing the second discarded item at least partly in response to the user specified order period and the information scanned from the second discarded item.
7 more elements
A discard processing system, comprising:
- a holding container;
- a computer;
- a content database accessible by the computer, the content database including information on items discarded into the holding container;
- and
- a second database that stores user specified preferences, the second database accessible by the computer;
- the computer being operable to execute programmatic software instructions to perform the functions of:
- receiving input from the at least one user operable input device, the received input including an instruction to reorder a discarded item;
- reading a user specified order period from the second database;
- reading a user specified supplier preference from the second database;
- generating a re-order instruction corresponding to the discarded item in the holding container and providing the re-order instruction to a first supplier at least partly in response to the user specified order period and the user specified supplier preference.
7 more elements
A trash receiving system comprising:
- a holding apparatus;
- a computer coupled to the holding apparatus;
- a content database accessible by the computer;
- a second database that stores user specified preferences accessible by the computer;
- an identification database accessible by the computer;
- and
- a display accessible by the computer;
- the computer being operable to execute programmatic software instructions to perform the functions of:
- offering a user the option to bypass scanning of a first discard item;
- scanning the first discard item;
- searching for a code on the first discard item;
- in response to failing to find the code, receiving a manually input code;
- in response to finding the code, locating corresponding first discard item information, including at least title and price, from the identification database;
- displaying the title and price on the display.
11 more elements
An electronic disposal unit, comprising:
- a storage container;
- an input device operatively configured to identify an item being discarded;
- a computer coupled to the input device;
- a display device;
- and
- a computer program executable by the computer, the computer program performing the functions of:
- receiving a code corresponding to the discarded item from the input device;
- retrieving information from a database that identifies the discarded item based at least in part on the code;
- displaying the information retrieved from the database on the display device;
- reading user specified preference information, including information on when a re-order is to be placed;
- generating a re-order instruction for the discarded item at least partly in response to the user specified preference information.
8 more elements
An electronic discard unit comprising:
- a processing unit;
- an identification database accessible by the processing unit;
- a content database accessible by the processing unit;
- at least one input device coupled to the processing unit;
- the processing unit 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 sensor that, at least partly in response to detecting the discarded item, causes the identification of the discarded item.
8 more elements
A method of processing a disposed of item using an electronic trash unit having a storage bin comprising:
- sensing the presence of an item being disposed of;
- initiating the scanning of the item at least partly in response to the sensed presence;
- 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.