STORED-VALUE CONTAINER

• US 20130270142A1
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Published: 10/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Po-Hung Yao, Wei-Chung Chao
• Original Assignee: Po-Hung Yao
• Inventors: YAO, Po-Hung, Chao, Wei-Chung
• Granted Patent: US 8,925,820 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 206/459.1
• CPC Class Codes: A47G 19/2227 with means for amusing or giving information to the user A47G23/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B65D 25/00 Details of other kinds or types of rigid or semi-rigid containers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices

Abstract

A stored-value container has a body and a stored-value chip mounted on the body. The stored-value chip stores payment information for transaction deduction after being read by an external device. When using the stored-value container to buy beverage, instead of paying with cash or a stored-value card, a consumer can hand the stored-value container to a store clerk to finish payment directly through the stored-value chip. Accordingly, with the stored-value container, consumers can finish the purchasing procedure quickly without carrying cash or a stored-value card and also take environmental protection into account.

Claims

1. A stored-value container comprising:

a body having a bottom; and

a stored-value chip mounted on the body and storing payment information.

2. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 1, wherein the payment information is a stored value.

3. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 1, wherein the payment information is an identification number.

4. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stored-value chip stores consumer information and container information.

5. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stored-value chip is a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip.

6. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stored-value chip is an integrated circuit card mounted on the bottom of the body.

7. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a display mounted on an outer wall of the body, electrically connected to the stored value chip through a control circuit, and serving to display the payment information; and

a solar panel mounted on the outer wall of the body, and electrically connected to the stored-value chip, the display and the control circuit.

8. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 7, wherein the body further has:

a cup having;

a bottom; and

a chamber defined in the cup; and

a lid detachably mounted on the cup to seal the chamber along with the cup.

9. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a temperature detector mounted on an inner wall of the body, electrically connected to the control circuit and the solar panel, detecting a temperature inside the chamber of the body, and outputting a temperature-sensing signal to the control circuit for the control circuit to convert the temperature-sensing signal into temperature data and drive the display to display a current temperature inside the chamber according to the temperature data.

10. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 9, wherein the body further has a color-changing plate mounted on the bottom of the cup, and changing an intensity and a color of light emitted from the color-changing plate according to the temperature sensed inside the chamber.

11. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 10, wherein the color-changing plate has:

a light guide mounted on the bottom of the cup and having an inverted cone-shaped recess centrally formed in a top of the light guide; and

a light-emitting element mounted in the inverted cone-shaped recess of the light guide and electrically connected to the control circuit and the solar panel.

12. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 11, wherein the light-emitting element is a light-emitting diode.

13. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 7, wherein the control circuit is integrated in the display.

14. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 12, wherein the control circuit is integrated in the display.

15. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 7, wherein the display is a flexible display.

16. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 12, wherein the display is one of a liquid crystal display, an electronic ink display, an electroluminescent (EL) display and an LED display.

17. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 12, wherein the display is a flexible display.

18. The stored-value container as claimed in claim 17, wherein the display is one of a liquid crystal display, an electronic ink display, an EL display and an LED display.