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US 7,353,079 B2Granted
Vending system for personalized pet collars and method therefor
OwnerWilliam Rodriguezinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vending system for personalized pet collars. The vending system allows a user to conveniently personalize pet collars with letter, number, and design charms. The user may select a pet collar along with any charms. The user may also select the placement of each charm so that letter and number charms may be combined to indicate the pet's name or the pet owner's phone number and/or address.
Claims20
A vending system for personalized pet collars comprising:
- a vending machine housing, said housing containing a plurality of pet collars and a plurality of charms to be coupled to said pet collars;
- at least one pet collar storage area within said housing, said at least one pet collar storage area being dimensioned to store said plurality of pet collars;
- at least one charm storage area within said housing, said at least one charm storage area being dimensioned to store said plurality of charms;
- a payment acceptor mechanism capable of at least one of receiving payment from a user and providing change to said user;
- a user interface mechanism for prompting said user to enter information, said information corresponding to at least one of a pet collar selected by said user from said plurality of pet collars and at least one charm selected by said user from said plurality of charms;
- a control mechanism for receiving said information and for locating said pet collar selected by said user and for locating said at least one charm selected by said user and for generating drive signals;
- a retrieval mechanism for responding to at least one of said drive signals and for retrieving said pet collar selected by said user from said at least one pet collar storage area and for retrieving said at least one charm selected by said user from said at least one charm storage area and for placing said pet collar selected by said user and said at least one charm selected by said user in position for assembly;
- an assembly mechanism for responding to at least one of said drive signals and for coupling said at least one charm selected by said user to said pet collar selected by said user;
- and
- a dispensing mechanism for responding to at least one of said drive signals and for dispensing a completed personalized pet collar.
7 more elements
A vending system for personalized pet collars comprising:
- a substantially transparent vending machine housing;
- a plurality of pet collars, said plurality of pet collars comprising at least two types of pet collars, each type of pet collar varying in at least one of size, style, and color;
- a plurality of charms to be riveted to said pet collars, said plurality of charms comprising at least two types of charms, each type of charm varying in at least one of size, style, and color;
- a plurality of refillable pet collar storage areas, each pet collar storage area being dimensioned to store one said type of pet collar;
- a plurality of refillable charm storage areas, each charm storage area being dimensioned to store one said type of charm;
- a payment acceptor mechanism capable of at least one of receiving payment from a user and providing change to said user;
- a user interface mechanism prompting a user to enter information, said information corresponding to at least one of a pet collar selected by said user from said plurality of pet collars, at least one charm selected by said user from said plurality of charms, and placement of said at least one charm selected by said user on said pet collar selected by said user;
- a control mechanism for receiving said information and for locating said pet collar selected by said user and for locating said at least one charm selected by said user and for generating drive signals;
- a retrieval mechanism for responding to at least one of said drive signals and for retrieving said pet collar selected by said user from said at least one pet collar storage area and for retrieving said at least one charm selected by said user from said at least one charm storage area and for placing said pet collar selected by said user and said at least one charm selected by said user in position for assembly;
- an assembly mechanism for responding to at least one of said drive signals and for riveting said at least one charm selected by said user to said pet collar selected by said user;
- and
- a dispensing mechanism for responding to at least one of said drive signals and for dispensing a completed personalized pet collar.
9 more elements
A method of personalizing a pet collar comprising the steps of:
- providing a vending system comprising:
- a vending machine housing, said housing containing a plurality of pet collars and a plurality of charms to be coupled to said pet collars;
- at least one pet collar storage area within said housing, said at least one pet collar storage area being dimensioned to store said plurality of pet collars;
- at least one charm storage area within said housing, said at least one charm storage area being dimensioned to store said plurality of charms;
- a payment acceptor mechanism capable of at least one of receiving payment from a user and providing change to said user;
- a user interface mechanism for prompting said user to enter information, said information corresponding to at least one of a pet collar selected by said user from said plurality of pet collars and at least one charm selected by said user from said plurality of charms;
- a control mechanism for receiving said information and for locating said pet collar selected by said user and for locating said at least one charm selected by said user and for generating drive signals;
- a retrieval mechanism for responding to at least one of said drive signals and for retrieving said pet collar selected by said user from said at least one pet collar storage area and for retrieving said at least one charm selected by said user from said at least one charm storage area and for placing said pet collar selected by said user and said at least one charm selected by said user in position for assembly;
- an assembly mechanism for responding to at least one of said drive signals and for coupling said at least one charm selected by said user to said pet collar selected by said user;
- and
- a dispensing mechanism for responding to at least one of said drive signals and for dispensing a completed personalized pet collar;
- receiving payment from said user by said payment acceptor mechanism;
- receiving by said user interface mechanism said information entered by said user, said information corresponding to at least one of said pet collar selected by said user from said plurality of pet collars and said at least one charm selected by said user from said plurality of charms;
- locating by said control mechanism said pet collar selected by said user and said at least one charm selected by said user;
- generating drive signals by said control mechanism;
- retrieving by said retrieval mechanism said pet collar selected by said user from said at least one pet collar storage area and placing said pet collar selected by said user in position for assembly;
- retrieving by said retrieval mechanism said at least one charm selected by said user from said at least one charm storage area and placing said at least one charm selected by said user in position for assembly;
- coupling by said assembly mechanism said at least one charm selected by said user to said pet collar selected by said user;
- and
- dispensing by said dispensing mechanism a completed personalized pet collar for retrieval by said user.
17 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.