Power and telecommunications access vending machine

• US 6,721,400 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2002
• Issued: 04/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Wayport, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Poweroasis Incorporated
• Inventors: Schelberg, Charles C. Jr., Duff, Thomas M. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAN, WING F
• Application Number:
  US10/270,108
• Publication Number:
  US 20030091168A1
• Time in Patent Office: 546 Days
• Field of Search: 379/91.01, 379/91.02, 379/93.12, 379/93.37, 379/110.01, 379/111, 379/114.01, 379/114.09, 379/143, 379/144.01, 379/144.04, 379/100.03, 379/100.04, 235/381, 235/380, 902/22, 902/24, 902/30, 902/31, 320/109, 320/111, 700/231
• US Class Current: 379/93.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/127 Shopping or accessing services according to a time-limitation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/003 for electricity
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/12 in which metering is on a time basis
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0014 for vending, access and use of specific services not covered anywhere else in G07F17/00 meter-controlled dispensing of liquid, gas or electricity G07F15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/16 for devices exhibiting advertisements, announcements, pictures or the like
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/001 Interfacing with vending machines using mobile or wearable devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/002 Vending machines being part of a centrally controlled network of vending machines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1432 Metric aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1453 Methods or systems for payment or settlement of the charges for data transmission involving significant interaction with the data transmission network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/38 Graded-service arrangements, i.e. some subscribers prevented from establishing certain connections queuing arrangements H04Q3/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0066 Details of access arrangements to the networks where the access arrangement is a PSTN/ISDN access H04M7/122

Abstract

A vending machine for dispensing telecommunications access is disclosed. A customer interested in using the telecommunications access makes a payment into the payment processing unit which forwards the payment information to the central control unit. The central control unit reports the transaction information to a central computer system via its modem connected to a telecommunication channel. Access to the same telecommunication channel or another channel can be made available to the customer via a switchable telecommunications access circuit which is also controlled by the central control unit. The customer connects to the telecommunications channel via the telecommunications access connector. The central control unit provides information on the progress of the vending transaction to the customer via the user interface. The central control unit determines when the transaction is completed by sensing the cessation of usage via the usage detection circuit or via customer action at the user interface.

Claims

1. A vending machine for vending telecommunications channel access to a customer, said vending machine comprising:

a payment mechanism for obtaining information from the customer to initiate a vending transaction;

a customer interface for indicating the status of said vending machine;

an electronic circuit for determining when the vending transaction is completed;

a telecommunications channel access circuit adapted to be connected to at least one external telecommunications channel for enabling access to the at least one external telecommunications channel at the beginning of a vending transaction and disabling access at the end of the vending transaction;

a telecommunications channel access connector connected to said telecommunications channel access circuit for enabling connection to an external telecommunications device of the customer; and

a control unit having a device for receiving payment information from the customer and for controlling said electronic circuit and said telecommunications channel access circuit.

2. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said payment mechanism is a cash payment receiving mechanism.

3. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said payment mechanism is an electronic payment mechanism.

4. A vending machine as claimed in claim 3, wherein said electronic payment mechanism comprises at least one of a credit card, debit card, smart card, prepaid card and RF ID card.

5. A vending machine as claimed in claim 3, wherein said electronic payment mechanism comprises a device for reliably authenticating the customer.

6. A vending machine as claimed in claim 5, wherein said device for reliably authenticating the customer comprises a fingerprint recognition device.

7. A vending machine as claimed in claim 5, wherein said device for reliably authenticating the customer comprises a voice recognition device.

8. A vending machine as claimed in claim 5, wherein said device for reliably authenticating the customer comprises a retinal pattern recognition device.

9. A vending machine as claimed in claim 3, wherein said electronic payment mechanism comprises a device for authorizing a billing transaction.

10. A vending machine as claimed in claim 9, wherein said device for authorizing the billing transaction is a separate billing computer.

11. A vending machine as claimed in claim 9, wherein said device for authorizing the billing transaction comprises a billing computer located within the vending machine.

12. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said customer interface comprises at least one light on a surface of said vending machine.

13. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said customer interface comprises a video display unit on a surface of said vending machine.

14. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said customer interface comprises an auditory signal generated by said vending machine.

15. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said customer interface comprises a mechanism that interfaces with software supplied by the customer.

16. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said customer interface comprises a card reader for approving a card supplied by the customer.

17. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications channel access circuit is switchable.

18. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications access channel connector comprises a high bandwidth channel connector.

19. A vending machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein said telecommunications access channel connector comprises a fiber optic line connector.

20. A vending machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein said telecommunications access channel connector comprises a copper line connector.

21. A vending machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein said telecommunications channel access connector comprises an infrared connector.

22. A vending machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein said telecommunications access channel connector comprises a local telephone line connector.

23. A vending machine as claimed in claim 18, further comprising a modem disposed in said vending machine.

24. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications access channel connector comprises a local telephone line connector.

25. A vending machine as claimed in claim 24, wherein said telecommunications channel access connector further comprises an RJ-11 connector.

26. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications access channel connector is adapted to be connected to a dial-up telephone line.

27. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications access channel connector comprises an RJ-11 connector.

28. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications channel access connector further comprises a fiber optic line connector.

29. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications channel access connector further comprises an infrared line connector.

30. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a modem disposed in said vending machine.

31. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications channel access circuit is adapted to be connected to a direct Internet connection via an Internet Service Provider selected by the vending machine.

32. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications channel access circuit is adapted to be connected to a direct Internet connection via an Internet Service Provider selected by the customer.

33. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a microphone and a speaker disposed in said vending machine and said microphone and said speaker are adapted to transmit and receive voice communications over the external telecommunications channel.

34. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a video camera connected to said vending machine to send video images over the external telecommunications channel.

35. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications channel access connector comprises a transceiver to connect wirelessly to an external telecommunications device of the customer.

36. A vending machine as claimed in claim 35, wherein said transceiver is an infrared transceiver.

37. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an electrical generation device for supplying said vending machine with power when locally supplied electricity is not available.

38. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said control unit is located remote from said vending machine.

39. A vending machine as claimed in claim 38, wherein said telecommunications channel access circuit is located remote from said vending machine.

40. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said control unit further comprises circuitry for controlling a plurality of vending machines.

41. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vending machine is disposed within a booth.

42. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vending machine is disposed on a kiosk.

43. A vending machine as claimed in claim 42, wherein a plurality of vending machines are present on said kiosk so that multiple users can simultaneously use each of said plurality of vending machines.

44. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said vending machine is disposed within a storage locker.

45. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said vending machine is disposed on a wall mounting device.

46. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications channel access circuit is wired to a building so that the external telecommunications channel can be located remotely from said vending machine to vend telecommunications to the building.

47. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said telecommunications channel access circuit comprises at least two different types of data lines.

48. A vending machine as claimed in claim 47, wherein said data lines include at least two of T1, ISDN, xDSL, broadband, baseband, ethernet and Appletalk™

.

49. A vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said payment mechanism comprises a mechanism that interfaces with software resident on equipment of the customer.