Inventory Monitor for an Article Dispenser
First Claim
1. A monitoring system for developing information data, for use in association with an opening that provides access for manual removal by a customer of articles stored in an article storage area, said monitoring system including:
- a device positioned near said opening for automatically detecting the removal of said articles and for developing data about inventory and other information, which inventory and other information can also be transmitted to a remote site.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A monitoring system for developing information data, for use in association with an opening that provides access for removal by a customer of articles stored in an article storage area. In one embodiment, the monitoring system includes a beam forming device adapted to be arranged about the perimeter of the opening so as to form at least one radiation beam that spans the opening. The radiation beam has a position with respect to the opening that is sufficient to detect manual removal by the customer of one or more of the articles from inside the article storage area, by the article and hand of the customer causing a temporary blockage of at least a portion of the radiation beam as the article and hand of the customer pass through the opening. A processing circuit coupled to the beam forming device senses the blockage of the radiation beam, and in response to the sensing, develops the information data.
-
Citations
31 Claims
-
1. A monitoring system for developing information data, for use in association with an opening that provides access for manual removal by a customer of articles stored in an article storage area, said monitoring system including:
a device positioned near said opening for automatically detecting the removal of said articles and for developing data about inventory and other information, which inventory and other information can also be transmitted to a remote site. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
- 9. The monitoring system of claim 4, wherein said article storage area includes storage devices that divide the opening in the storage area into a plurality of individual storage locations, each storage location having a dispensing end from which said articles are removed during dispensing, and said beam forming device is adapted to be affixed inside said article storage area so as to overlay said opening in close proximity to the dispensing ends of said storage locations.
-
9-1. The monitoring system of paragraph 7, wherein said storage devices are a plurality of elongate article storage bins.
-
10-2. The monitoring system of claim 9, wherein said storage devices include extending devices adapted to extend the position of the dispensing end of the storage devices from a position not in close proximity to the beam forming device, to be in a position in close proximity to the beam forming device.
-
24. The monitoring system of 23, wherein said patterns of use are one or more of:
- multiple purchases of the same type article, most likely multiple purchases (such as one chocolate ice cream, and one vanilla ice cream), amount of time from when door opened to when an article is selected and removed.
Specification