Remote management of vending machines

• US 20060219517A1
• Filed: 03/31/2005
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cantaloupe, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cantaloupe Systems Incorporated (Cantaloupe, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cheng, Fred, Agrawal, Anant, Beaudoin, A. Louis, Chu, Eric M., Arora, Mandeep S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,103,380 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 194/217
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty

Abstract

Systems and methods for remotely managing a vending machine system are provided. A host system transmits control data to an audit system installed in a vending machine system. This control data is used to modify a data collection parameter of the audit system, such as modifying alert conditions, reporting schedules, and filter terms used to parse DEX files received from a vending machine controller.

Claims

1. A method of operating a vending machine system comprising a vending machine controller (VMC) and an audit system, comprising:

receiving control data from a host via a wide area network, wherein the control data comprises a command to modify a data collection parameter of the audit system; and

in response to the command, using the audit system to collect data according to the modified data collection parameter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the audit system is configured to communicate with the VMC via a DEX interface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the audit system is configured to respond to detection of one of a plurality of predetermined alert conditions by transmitting a report corresponding to that alert condition; and

said modifying the data collection parameter comprises changing the predetermined alert conditions.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

said changing the predetermined alert conditions comprises adding an alert condition to the plurality of predetermined alert conditions or deleting an alert condition from the plurality of predetermined alert conditions.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein:

said changing the predetermined alert conditions comprises modifying information contained in the report transmitted in response to one of the plurality of alert conditions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the audit system is configured to transmit a report to the host system according to a reporting schedule; and

said modifying the data collection parameter comprises modifying the reporting schedule.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the audit system is configured to transmit a report to the host system, said report comprising a plurality of types of operational data; and

said modifying the data collection parameter comprises modifying the plurality of types of operational data contained in the report.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the audit system is configured to interrogate the VMC according to an interrogation schedule; and

said modifying the data collection parameter comprises modifying the interrogation schedule.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

said interrogation comprises requesting sales data from the VMC.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said audit system is configured to retrieve an operational data file from the VMC; and

said data collection parameter comprises logic for parsing the operational data file and for generating a report to be transmitted to the host system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

said parsing comprises selecting predetermined fields from the operational data file to be included in the report transmitted to the host system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

said generating the report comprises reordering data from the selected predetermined fields to generate the report.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein:

said parsing comprises searching for a predetermined string of characters in the operational file from the VMC.

14. A method of operating a vending machine system comprising a vending machine controller (VMC) and an audit system, comprising:

receiving control data from a host via a wide area network, wherein the control data comprises code for execution by the audit system for interfacing with a device contained in the vending machine system; and

storing the code in a nonvolatile memory of the audit system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

said code comprises code to cause the audit system to become operable to interface with a peripheral device not previously contained in the vending machine system.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

installing the peripheral device in the vending machine system.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein:

said device contained in the vending machine system comprises the VMC; and

said code comprises code for retrieving data from the VMC using the audit system.

18. An audit system for a vending machine system, comprising:

a communications interface for receiving data over a wide area network (WAN); and

an audit control system configured to receive control data from the communications interface, wherein the control data comprises a command to modify a data collection parameter of the audit system, said audit control system being configured to collect data from a vending machine controller (VMC) according to the modified data collection parameter.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein:

the audit control system is configured to communicate with the VMC via a DEX interface.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein:

said audit control system is configured to respond to detection of one of a plurality of predetermined alert conditions by transmitting a report corresponding to that alert condition, and is configured to modify the data collection parameter by changing the predetermined alert conditions.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein:

said audit control system is configured to change the predetermined alert conditions by adding an alert condition to the plurality of predetermined alert conditions or deleting an alert condition from the plurality of predetermined alert conditions.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein:

said changing the predetermined alert conditions comprises modifying information contained in the report transmitted in response to one of the plurality of alert conditions.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein:

the audit system is configured to transmit a report to the host system according to a reporting schedule; and

said modifying the data collection parameter comprises modifying the reporting schedule.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein:

the audit system is configured to transmit a report to the host system, said report comprising a plurality of types of operational data; and

said modifying the data collection parameter comprises modifying the plurality of types of operational data contained in the report.

25. The system of claim 18, wherein:

the audit system is configured to interrogate the VMC according to an interrogation schedule; and

said modifying the data collection parameter comprises modifying the interrogation schedule.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein:

said audit system is configured to interrogate the VMC by requesting sales data from the VMC.

27. The system of claim 18, wherein:

said audit system is configured to retrieve an operational data file from the VMC; and

said data collection parameter comprises logic for parsing the operational data file and for generating a report to be transmitted to the host system.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein:

said parsing comprises selecting predetermined fields from the operational data file to be included in the report transmitted to the host system.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein:

said generating the report comprises reordering data from the selected predetermined fields to generate the report.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein:

said parsing comprises searching for a predetermined string of characters in the operational file from the VMC.