Method and apparatus for a vending promotional printer
First Claim
1. A method of printing a promotional coupon in a vending environment, comprising:
- receiving coupon data by a vending promotional printer from a promotional controller via a communications network, the coupon data including a coupon template; and
generating the coupon by the vending promotional printer in response to a trigger, the coupon generated using variable data and the coupon template.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for a vending promotional printer for use within a vending machine are disclosed. A vending promotional printer includes a coupon database describing a stack of coupons that are specified using a template based couponing printer language. A coupon is selected for creation and issued to the customer based on a matrix of event-based triggers involving factors or parameters known to the vending promotional printer directly or supplied by master promotional controller. Triggers may include the time of day, the date or amount of a cash-out voucher to be issued to a customer, the duration of play on a vending machine, a customer classification, the amount of money or credits added to a game, or a random frequency of coupon issuance having satisfied any or all of the aforementioned factors. The vending promotional printer may further include the ability to store all of the coupons, trigger conditions, and related information resident in the vending promotional printer in a non-volatile fashion thus enabling a host system to download a promotional environment into the vending promotional printer which will run promotional campaigns on behalf of the hosting system.
47 Citations
28 Claims
-
1. A method of printing a promotional coupon in a vending environment, comprising:
-
receiving coupon data by a vending promotional printer from a promotional controller via a communications network, the coupon data including a coupon template; and
generating the coupon by the vending promotional printer in response to a trigger, the coupon generated using variable data and the coupon template. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A method of printing a promotional coupon in a vending environment, comprising:
-
transmitting coupon data by a promotional controller to a vending promotional printer via a communications network, the coupon data including a coupon template; and
transmitting variable data by the promotional controller to the vending promotional printer via the communications network; and
transmitting trigger data by the promotional controller to the vending promotional printer whereby the vending promotional printer generates a coupon using the coupon template and the variable data in response to the trigger data. - View Dependent Claims (14)
-
-
15. A vending promotional printer, comprising:
-
a processor; and
a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having program instructions executable by the processor stored therein, the program instructions including;
receiving coupon data from a promotional controller via a communications network, the coupon data including a coupon template; and
generating a coupon in response to a trigger, the coupon generated using variable data and the coupon template. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
-
-
27. A promotional controller, comprising:
-
a processor; and
a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having program instructions executable by the processor stored therein, the program instructions including;
transmitting coupon data to a vending promotional printer via a communications network, the coupon data including a coupon template; and
transmitting variable data to the vending promotional printer via the communications network; and
transmitting trigger data to the vending promotional printer whereby the vending promotional printer generates a coupon using the coupon template and the variable data in response to the trigger data. - View Dependent Claims (28)
-
Specification