Secondary Market And Vending System For Devices

• US 20130226679A1
• Filed: 04/13/2013
• Published: 08/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ecoatm Incorporated (Coinstar Asset Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Ecoatm Incorporated (Coinstar Asset Holdings, LLC)
• Inventors: Bowles, Mark Vincent
• Granted Patent: US 9,904,911 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/30 Administration of product recycling or disposal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0237 at kiosk
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0278 Product appraisal
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/06 by returnable containers , i.e. reverse vending systems in which a user is rewarded for returning a container that serves as a token of value, e.g. bottles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0287 being disposable or recyclable
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 30/82 Recycling of waste of electrical or electronic equipment [WEEE]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 90/00 Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation

Abstract

A recycling kiosk for recycling and financial remuneration for submission of a mobile telephone is disclosed herein. The recycling kiosk includes an inspection area with at least one camera and a plurality of electrical connectors in order to perform a visual analysis and an electrical analysis of the mobile telephone for determination of a value of the mobile telephone. The recycling kiosk also includes a processor, a display and a user interface.

Claims

1. A kiosk for analysis of an electronic device and financial remuneration to a user for submission of the electronic device, the kiosk comprising:

a housing having an input region for placement of an electronic device therein;

an electrical connector to connect to the electronic device within the input region;

a processor in communication with the electrical connector, the processor configured to perform an electrical inspection of the electronic device to determine a status of at least one of a battery, screen, memory, button functionality and structural integrity of the electronic device; and

a communications component for transmitting communications from the kiosk and receiving communications for the kiosk.

2. The kiosk according to claim 1 wherein the communications component is a wireless modem.

3. The kiosk according to claim 1 wherein the communications component is a wired Ethernet connection to the Internet.

4. The kiosk according to claim 1 further comprising a display screen on an exterior surface of the housing.

5. The kiosk according to claim 1 further comprising a dispenser for dispensing remuneration to a user.

6. The kiosk according to claim 1 wherein the processor is a personal computer.

7. The kiosk according to claim 1 further comprising a weight scale positioned within the inspection area for weighing the electronic device.

8. The kiosk according to claim 1 further comprising a memory comprising a database of information on a plurality of electronic devices, the information comprising at least images, physical characteristics and current prices.

9. The kiosk according to claim 1 wherein the kiosk is configured to bin a plurality of electronic devices according to parameters comprising vendor/model, condition, value, visual quality, physical damage, water damage, locked or unlocked, carrier compatibility, frequency of phone, or type of cellular standard supported.

10. A system for analysis of electronic devices and financial remuneration to users for submission of the electronic devices, the system comprising:

a plurality of kiosks, each of the plurality of kiosks positioned in a public location, each of the plurality of kiosks comprising

a housing having an input region for placement of an electronic device therein,

an electrical connector to connect to the electronic device within the input region,

a processor in communication with the electrical connector, the processor configured to perform an electrical inspection of the electronic device to determine a status of at least one of a battery, screen, memory, button functionality and structural integrity of the electronic device, and

a communications component for transmitting communications from the kiosk and receiving communications for the kiosk; and

a kiosk server in communication with each of the plurality of kiosks, the kiosk server communicating with each of the plurality of kiosks over a network through the communication component of each of the plurality of kiosks.

11. The system according to claim 10 further comprising a database in communication with the server.

12. The system according to claim 10 further comprising a content server in communication with the server, the content server comprising images, audio, video, electronic documents and instructions to enable each of the plurality of kiosks to render the content correctly.

13. The system according to claim 10 wherein each of the plurality of kiosks further comprises a plurality of electrical connectors, at least one electrical connector of the plurality of electrical connectors capable of directly connecting to the electronic device placed within the inspection area.

14. The system according to claim 10 wherein the communications component of each of the plurality of kiosks is a wireless modem.

15. The system according to claim 10 wherein each of the plurality of kiosks further comprises a display screen on an exterior surface of the housing.

16. The system according to claim 10 wherein each of the plurality of kiosks further comprises a dispenser for dispensing remuneration to a user.

17. The system according to claim 10 wherein each of the plurality of kiosks further comprises a memory comprising a database of information on a plurality of electronic devices, the information comprising at least images, physical characteristics and current prices.

18. A method for recycling an electronic device at a kiosk, the method comprising:

receiving an electronic device from a user at an input region of a kiosk, the electronic device selected from the group of mobile phone, a GPS receiver, a camera, a printer, a computer, a televisions and a stereo;

connecting to the electronic device;

performing an electrical analysis of the electronic device to determine a status of at least one of a battery, screen, memory, button functionality and structural integrity of the electronic device, the electrical inspection performed by a processor of the kiosk;

determining a compensation value for the electronic device, the compensation value based on the identification and the electrical analysis of the electronic device; and

offering the compensation value to the user on a display screen of the kiosk.

19. The method according to claim 18 further comprising transmitting the identification of the electronic device over a communications network to a kiosk server to determine the compensation value for the electronic device, determined by a current market price obtained via communication to a recycling server using the communications network and receiving the compensation value from the kiosk server over communications the network at the kiosk.

20. The method according to claim 18 wherein the electronic device is a mobile phone and the method further comprises contacting a phone carrier for the mobile phone for at least one of validation, authentication, registered ownership, account status, and time in service.