US 8,144,356 B2Granted

Promotional controller for financial transactions

AssigneeFuturelogic, Inc.

InventorMark Meyerhofer

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for a vending promotional printer for use within a vending machine are disclosed. A vending promotional printer includes a coupon database describing a stack of coupons that are specified using a template based couponing printer language. A coupon is selected for creation and issued to the customer based on a matrix of event-based triggers involving factors or parameters known to the vending promotional printer directly or supplied by master promotional controller. Triggers may include the time of day, the date or amount of a cash-out voucher to be issued to a customer, the duration of play on a vending machine, a customer classification, the amount of money or credits added to a game, or a random frequency of coupon issuance having satisfied any or all of the aforementioned factors. The vending promotional printer may further include the ability to store all of the coupons, trigger conditions, and related information resident in the vending promotional printer in a non-volatile fashion thus enabling a host system to download a promotional environment into the vending promotional printer which will run promotional campaigns on behalf of the hosting system.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A method of printing a promotional coupon by a system including a promotional controller coupled to a financial transaction promotional printer of a financial transaction machine that is a vending machine, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the promotional controller, coupon data to the financial transaction promotional printer;
receiving, by the financial transaction promotional printer, the coupon data from the promotional controller via an auxiliary communication port coupling the financial transaction promotional printer to the promotional controller separately from a financial transaction machine controller, the auxiliary communication port constructed to receive the coupon data separately from a main communication port, the main communication port coupling the financial transaction promotional printer to the financial transaction machine controller for receiving financial transaction data;
receiving, by the financial transaction promotional printer, the financial transaction data from the financial transaction machine controller via the main communication port;
generating, by the financial transaction promotional printer, a receipt using the financial transaction data;
generating, by the promotional controller, a trigger using trigger data, the trigger data including a location row and location column within the vending machine of a vended product;
transmitting, by the promotional controller to the financial transaction promotional printer via the auxiliary communication port, the trigger;
and
generating, by the financial transaction promotional printer, in response to the trigger, the coupon using the coupon data.

5 more elements

A system, comprising:

a promotional controller and a financial transaction promotional printer of a financial transaction machine that is a vending machine,
wherein the promotional controller comprises:
a processor constructed to:
transmit coupon data to the financial transaction promotional printer;
generate a trigger using trigger data, the trigger data including a location row and location column within the vending machine of a vended product;
and
transmit to the financial transaction promotional printer the trigger, and
wherein the financial transaction promotional printer comprises:
a main communication port coupling the financial transaction promotional printer to a financial transaction machine controller, the main communication port constructed to receive financial transaction data from the financial transaction machine controller;
an auxiliary communication port, separate from the main communication port, coupling the financial transaction promotional printer to the promotional controller, the auxiliary communication port constructed to receive the coupon data from the promotional controller separately of the financial transaction machine controller;
and
a printer processor constructed to:
receive the financial transaction data from the financial transaction machine controller via the main communication port;
generate a receipt using the financial transaction data;
receive the coupon data from the promotional controller via the auxiliary communication port;
and
receive the trigger from the promotional controller via the auxiliary communication port;
and
generate, in response to the trigger, the coupon using the coupon data.

16 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/710,348Filed 22 Feb 2010 · continuation
Priority: 7 May 2002
Published: US 2010/0253973 A17 Oct 2010
Granted: 27 Mar 2012
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification16 codes

G06Q 30/02
Commerce: marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
G06F 3/1208
Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. print management: resulting in improved quality of the output result, e.g. print layout, colours,…
G06F 3/121
Specifically adapted to achieve a particular effect: facilitating exception or error detection and recovery, e.g. fault, media or consumables depleted
G06F 3/1234
Printer resources management or printer maintenance, e.g. device status, power levels: errors handling and recovery, e.g. reprinting

Family

Application60/378,491Us provisional application · filed 7 May 2002
Application10/434,306Parent of this continuation · filed 7 May 2003
US 2010/0253973 A1Pre-grant publication · published 7 Oct 2010
US 7,666,078 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2005/0165637 A1Published application
US 8,144,356 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.