Vending machine for vending age-restricted products using a credit card and associated methods
First Claim
1. A method of vending products from a vending machine, the method comprising:
- (a) inputting customer information into the vending machine;
(b) sending the customer information to a first database to retrieve age information indicative of the customer'"'"'s age;
(c) determining, on the basis of the age information, whether a product in the vending machine can be vended to the customer; and
(d) storing the customer information and the age information to an intermediate base in a server farm upon vending the product to the customer.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An improved vending machine for vending age-restricted products is disclosed. The vending machine preferably uses a customer'"'"'s credit card to obtain age verification information from a consumer reporting agency via a modem. In a preferred embodiment, a customer inputs customer information, preferably a credit card number, into the vending machine. The vending machine obtains permission from the customer to use the customer information to retrieve the customer'"'"'s age. Thereafter, the age data is either retrieved from a server farm containing the age of the customer corresponding to the credit card, or is retrieved via modem from the database of a consumer reporting agency. Additionally, the modem connection allows the creditworthiness of the credit card to be checked via access to a credit card company database. If the age and credit card of the customer can be verified in this fashion, the vending machine then vends the product to the customer.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of vending products from a vending machine, the method comprising:
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(a) inputting customer information into the vending machine;
(b) sending the customer information to a first database to retrieve age information indicative of the customer'"'"'s age;
(c) determining, on the basis of the age information, whether a product in the vending machine can be vended to the customer; and
(d) storing the customer information and the age information to an intermediate base in a server farm upon vending the product to the customer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification