Vending machine inventory system and method
First Claim
1. A vending machine that vends products, comprising:
- a housing;
at least one rack that contains the products to be vended;
a controller that is coupled to said at least one rack to vend the products when a product selector coupled to said controller and associated with said at least one rack is selected; and
an array of capacitive switches coupled to said controller and placed in said at least one rack wherein each of said capacitive switches in said array of capacitive switches is aligned each position for said products in said at least one rack;
said controller adapted to determine the height of the products contained in said at least one rack by sensing the capacitance of said positions for the products using said array of capacitive switches.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A vending machine containing one or more racks that contain stacked products to be vended to customers. An array of capacitive switches or capacitive switches are aligned on one or more racks. The capacitive switches are each aligned with the height of a product to be vended. A controller coupled to the array of capacitive switches senses the presence or lack thereof of a product in the rack, and correlates this presence or absence to a height and/or inventory count of products in the racks. The vending machine, using the controller and communication electronics, may communicate the height and/or inventory count of products in the racks to a device located outside of the vending machine, such as a hand-held computing device and/or a management system, over a communication link.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. A vending machine that vends products, comprising:
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a housing;
at least one rack that contains the products to be vended;
a controller that is coupled to said at least one rack to vend the products when a product selector coupled to said controller and associated with said at least one rack is selected; and
an array of capacitive switches coupled to said controller and placed in said at least one rack wherein each of said capacitive switches in said array of capacitive switches is aligned each position for said products in said at least one rack;
said controller adapted to determine the height of the products contained in said at least one rack by sensing the capacitance of said positions for the products using said array of capacitive switches. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method of constructing a vending machine that vends products and contains an inventory counter, comprising the steps of:
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placing an array of capacitance switches in a rack in the vending machine;
aligning said array of capacitive switches with the products;
coupling said array of capacitive switches to a controller; and
placing said array of capacitive switches in a strip. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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30. A method of determining the inventory count of products vended in a vending machine, comprising the steps of:
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(a) sensing the capacitance of a first position in a rack;
(b) determining if the product is located at said first position in said rack; and
(c) determining the height of the products in said rack by repeating steps (a)-(b) for all other positions in said rack until a product is not detected in said rack. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification