Remote data acquisition and transmission system and method

• US 20020194387A1
• Filed: 07/30/2002
• Published: 12/19/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crane Merchandising Systems Incorporated (Crane Company)
• Original Assignee: Isochron Data Corporation (Isochron Data Corp /Harris/)
• Inventors: Defosse, Erin M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,171,451 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/251
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 5/18 specially adapted for controlling several coin-freed apparatus from one place
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/001 Interfacing with vending machines using mobile or wearable devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/002 Vending machines being part of a centrally controlled network of vending machines
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty

Abstract

A remote data acquisition and transmission system and method are disclosed. A plurality of application controllers are interfaced with remote equipment from which operation data is acquired by the application controllers. The application controllers communicate with an application host via a local area network, and the application host can communicate with a network operations center using a wide area network interface. In one embodiment, each application controller interfaces with remote equipment that comprises a vending machine.

Claims

1. A system for communicating with vending machine using a wireless hand-held portable computer, the system comprising:

an application controller interfacing with a vending machine to acquire operation data from the vending machine;

an application host communicating with at least one application controller via a local area network (LAN) to receive the operation data;

a wireless hand-held portable computer configured to communicate with the application controller; and

an interface in the wireless hand-held portable computer, wherein the wireless hand-held portable computer uses the interface to retrieve the operation data for the vending machine from the application controller.

2. A method for using a wireless hand-held portable computer for vending machine communications, the method comprising:

automatically receiving, at an application controller associated with at least one vending machine, operation data from the vending machine;

receiving a query at the application controller from a wireless hand-held portable computer; and

in response to the query from the wireless hand-held portable computer, automatically using a wireless interface of the application controller to transmit the operation data for the vending machine to the wireless hand-held portable computer.

3. A system for communicating data for vending machines using digital paging network and a dedicated message mailbox, the system comprising:

an application controller interfacing with a vending machine to acquire operation data from the vending machine;

an application host communicating with the application controller to receive the operation data from the vending machine; and

a wide area network (WAN) interface in the application host, wherein the application host uses the WAN interface to transmit the operation data acquired by the application controller across a digital paging network for access by a remote transaction server.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein transmissions from the application host to the remote transaction server comprise messages transmitted across the digital paging network and stored in one or more dedicated message mailboxes for access by the remote transaction server.

5. A two-way data acquisition and transmission system for remote vending machines, the system comprising:

multiple application controllers interfacing with respective vending machines;

the multiple application controllers operable to acquire operation data from and supply incoming data to the respective vending machines;

an application host in communication with the multiple application controllers via a local area network (LAN);

the application host operable to receive the operation data from the multiple application controllers and to supply the incoming data to the respective multiple application controllers;

the application host having at least one wide area network (WAN) interface operable to transmit the operation data from the multiple application controllers to a network operations center; and

the application host and the WAN interface operable to transmit the incoming data from the network operations center to the respective application controllers for the multiple vending machines.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the incoming data comprises configuration information, firmware, and other information used to operate the multiple vending machines.

7. A remote data acquisition and transmission system, comprising:

first and second application controllers, the first application controller interfacing with a first machine to acquire operation data from the first machine, and the second application controller interfacing with a second machine to acquire operation data from the second machine;

an application host communicating with at least one of the first and second application controllers via a local area network (LAN) to receive the operation data from the first and second machines;

a transceiver in the first application controller that transmits the operation data from the first machine to the second application controller;

the first application controller operating as a relay when necessary to establish communication between the application host and the second application controller, such that the first application controller relays the operation data from the second machine to the application host on behalf of the second application controller; and

a wide area network (WAN) interface in the application host, wherein the application host uses the WAN interface to transmit the operation data acquired by the first and second application controllers to a remote transaction server.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the application host and at least one of the application controllers perform operations to autoconfigure the LAN, the operations including configuring the first application controller to operate as a relay for the second application controller when the second application controller is not within a primary communication range of the application host.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the application host receives incoming data for the first and second machines from the remote transaction server via the WAN;

the application host forwards the incoming data to at least one of the first and second application controllers via the LAN; and

the first and second application controllers provide the incoming data to the first and second machines, respectively.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the application host and at least one of the application controllers comprise a wire-line LAN transceiver for communicating via the LAN.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the application host and at least one of the application controllers comprise wireless LAN transceivers for communicating via the LAN.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the application host comprises a portable computer.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the wide area network interface of the application host comprises a WAN wire-line interface.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein the WAN interface of the application host comprises a WAN wireless transceiver.

15. The system of claim 7, wherein the WAN interface of the application host connects the LAN with the remote transaction server via a narrowband PCS wireless link.

16. The system of claim 7, wherein:

at least one of the first and second machines comprises a vending machine; and

at least one of the application controllers interfaces with the vending machine via a serial interface to a vending machine controller.

17. The system of claim 7, wherein:

at least one of the first and second machines comprises a vending machine; and

at least one of the application controllers interfaces with the vending machine via a vending machine multi-drop bus.

18. The system of claim 7, wherein:

at least one of the first and second machines comprises a vending machine; and

the operation data acquired from the vending machine comprises product dispensing and inventory data.

19. The system of claim 7, wherein the operation data acquired from the first and second machines comprises equipment status data.

20. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

the remote transaction server;

a database in the remote transaction server, used to store the operation data; and

a software module in the remote transaction server that provides secure third party access to the database via a web browser to connect to the remote transaction server across an internet based network.

21. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

the remote transaction server; and

a second LAN in communication with the remote transaction server, the second LAN containing third and fourth application controllers and a second application host communicating with at least one of the third and fourth application controllers, wherein the application hosts in the at least one LAN and the second LAN use a wireless two way paging network to connect with the remote transaction server, to establish an efficient and low cost wide area network.