Interactive network for remotely controlled hotel vending systems
First Claim
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1. A hotel room vending network comprising:
- a central control unit;
a plurality of vending units remote from said central control unit, each vending unit containing a plurality of vendable articles and comprising vending unit control means connected to said central control unit;
display means in each of said vending units;
said central control unit comprising means for transmitting price information representing the prices of a plurality of said vendable articles contained by at least one of said vending units to the vending unit containing those articles;
storage means in each of said vending units for contemporaneously storing price information for a plurality of said vendable articles received from said central control unit; and
said vending unit control means comprises display control means responsive to operator interaction for retrieving price information from said storage means and controlling said display means to display the price of one of said vendable articles represented by said price information.
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Abstract
The hotel vending network includes a central control at the hotel main desk and a vending unit in each hotel guest room. The microprocessor controlled vending units include a display arrangement for displaying prices of articles to be rended and a user allocatable keyboard for use in article selection and final purchase from the vend unit. Each purchase is a cooperative action between the central control and a vend unit and is completed by an acknowledgment signal from the vending unit which signal is required before actual billing of a rended article occurs. The keyboard is also used to control service access to the vending unit by means of passwords assigned from the central control.
232 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A hotel room vending network comprising:
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a central control unit; a plurality of vending units remote from said central control unit, each vending unit containing a plurality of vendable articles and comprising vending unit control means connected to said central control unit; display means in each of said vending units; said central control unit comprising means for transmitting price information representing the prices of a plurality of said vendable articles contained by at least one of said vending units to the vending unit containing those articles; storage means in each of said vending units for contemporaneously storing price information for a plurality of said vendable articles received from said central control unit; and said vending unit control means comprises display control means responsive to operator interaction for retrieving price information from said storage means and controlling said display means to display the price of one of said vendable articles represented by said price information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of operating a hotel room vending system comprising a central control unit connected to a plurality of remotely located guest room vending units each including vending unit control means, the method of vending an article contained by one of said guest room vending units comprising:
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transmitting from said one guest room vending unit to said central control unit a request to purchase an article contained by said one vending unit; transmitting from said central control unit, in response to said request to purchase, a permission to purchase signal to said one guest room vending unit; permitting, at said one guest room vending unit in response to said permission to purchase signal, the purchase requested in the request to purchase; and transmitting an acknowledgement signal from said one guest room vending unit to said central control unit upon completion of the purchase of said article. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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11. A hotel room vending network comprising:
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a central control unit connected to a plurality of vending units; said central control unit comprising means for generating a password for each of said vending units and means for transmitting each generated password to the vending unit associated therewith; each of said vending units comprising a vending unit controller for receiving and storing in a storage means the password associated therewith; input means at each vending unit responsive to operator action for generating signals representative of a password; means at each vending unit for comparing said password signals with the password stored in said storage means; and means responsive to said comparing means for granting service access to the vending unit only when said password representing signals represent the password stored in said storage means. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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13. A method of operating a vending unit containing a plurality of articles to be vended and comprising a plurality of article push buttons each associated with one of said articles, a buy push button and a display means, said method comprising:
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displaying, in response to the press of an article push button, the price of the item associated with the pressed article push button; illuminating the buy push button at substantially the same time that the price is displayed in said displaying step; terminating the display provided in said displaying step and the illumination of said lamp when said buy push button is not pressed within a predetermined period of time after commencement of said displaying step; and completing the vending of said article when said buy button is pressed within said predetermined period of time.
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14. A hotel room vending network comprising:
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a central control unit; a plurality of vending unit containing a plurality of vendable articles and comprising vending unit control means connected to said central control unit; said central control unit comprising means for transmitting password information to the vending units; storage means in each of said vending units for storing password information received from said central control unit; input means, at each of said vending units, responsive to operator action for generating service access request signals including password signals; and said vending unit control means is responsive to said service access request signals for retrieving said password information stored in said storage means and for selectively granting and denying service access to the vending unit. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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Specification