APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DISPENSING MACHINE CONTROL

• US 20080116262A1
• Filed: 01/17/2007
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tuttoespresso S RL
• Original Assignee: Tuttoespresso S RL
• Inventors: Majer, Doglioni
• Granted Patent: US 7,950,578 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/381
• 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

In order to control the status and the operation of a dispensing machine assembly comprising one or more modules or sub-assemblies, at least one of modules or sub-modules is provided with an electronic tag and the machine is provided with a tag controller device for interacting with said tag by reading, writing and transmitting information data on or through said tag and operating said dispensing machine according to the information gathered from said tag or tags.

Claims

1. A dispensing machine assembly comprising one or more modules or sub-assemblies, at least one of said modules being provided with a readable memory device, or tag, having a read-only portion and a write-once portion, said machine comprising a controller device for interacting with said readable memory device, characterized in that said tag contains module identification data to identify said module and said controller device comprises information to identify said module.

2. A dispensing machine according to claim 1, wherein said module identification data comprise initialization data selected from date of production of said module, date of pre-delivery inspection and date of first use of said module or their combination.

3. A dispensing machine according to claim 1, wherein said tag comprises a read-only memory containing first data and a second, writable, memory portion containing second data, said second data containing said first data written through a coding algorithm, to provide at least part of said module identification data.

4. A dispensing machine according to claim 2, wherein said initialization data are algorithm coded.

5. A dispensing machine according to claim 1, wherein said controller device comprises means to compare said identification data of the module to said information to produce a comparison result and means to allow or deny use of said module according to said comparison result.

6. A dispensing machine according to claim 5, wherein said information comprises at least one of:

a date, a configuration table and an algorithm for data coding.

7. A dispensing machine according to claim 1, wherein said tag further comprises a re-writable portion containing data concerning an amount of consumables, said data being progressively altered in said re-writable portion with the module use.

8. A dispensing machine according to claim 7, wherein said module is a food product module comprising a food product container, said tag being a food module tag comprising initialization data and algorithm coded data.

9. A dispensing machine according to claim 7, wherein said tag includes a tag of said food product container that is detached from said container and has data concerning an amount of consumables.

10. A method of controlling the operation of a dispensing machine assembly comprising one or more modules or sub-assemblies, having a readable memory device, or tag;

said machine having a tag controller device for interacting with said module tag by reading and/or writing and/or transmitting information data on or through said tag, characterized in comprising the steps of providing said tag with identification data to identify the module to said machine, comparing said identification data to controller information provided to said tag controller device so as to produce a result of data comparison and operating said dispensing machine according to the information gathered from said tag and the result of said data comparison.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the tag is provided with a read-only memory comprising first data and with a writable memory, wherein said identification data are obtained by reading said first data, elaborating said first data through an algorithm and writing algorithm coded data in a portion of the writable memory on the tag.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein said first data are tag identification data written on a read-only memory of said tag by the tag producer.

13. A method according to any claim 11,