RICH CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND DISPLAY FOR USE IN REMOTE FIELD ASSETS

• US 20080083770A1
• Filed: 12/18/2006
• Published: 04/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crane Payment Innovations, Inc. (Crane Company)
• Original Assignee: Crane Merchandising Systems Incorporated (Crane Company)
• Inventors: Harris, William Hamilton, Godwin, Bryan W., Canter, James M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,997,484 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 221/9
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/16 for devices exhibiting advertisements, announcements, pictures or the like

Abstract

A field asset such as a vending machine includes a coin acceptor, a bill validator, and a card reader all operatively connected to a shared bus. A rich content display device displays color graphics and an extended function adapter (EFA) coupled to the shared bus includes a rich content agent (RCA) to manage rich content displayed on the display. The RCA may include a content management agent (CMA) coupled to a rich content player that executes rich content file for display on the display device. The EFA may include a cashless agent to generate procedural state information. The CMA detects the procedural state information and controls the presentation of rich content on the display device based at least in part on the detected procedural state information. The EFA may include an analytic agent to determine a substantive state of the vending machine including an inventory state and an environmental state.

Claims

1. A vending machine, comprising:

a coin acceptor, a bill validator, and a card reader all operatively connected to a shared bus;

a rich content display device operable to display color graphics;

an extended function adapter (EFA) operatively coupled to the shared bus, wherein the EFA includes a rich content agent (RCA) operable to manage rich content displayed on the display device.

2. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein the RCA comprises a content management agent (CMA) operatively coupled to a rich content player operable to execute a rich content file for display on the display device.

3. The vending machine of claim 2, wherein the EFA further includes a cashless agent operable to facilitate cashless transactions initiated via the card reader and further operable to generate information indicative of a procedural state of the vending machine, wherein the procedural state is indicative of a current stage in a cashless transaction sequence.

4. The vending machine of claim 3, wherein the CMA is enabled to detect the procedural state information and control the presentation of rich content on the display device based at least in part on the detected procedural state information.

5. The vending machine of claim 2, wherein the EFA further includes an analytic agent operable to determine a substantive state of the vending machine.

6. The vending machine of claim 5, wherein the substantive state of the vending machine includes an inventory state and an environmental state of the vending machine.

7. The vending machine of claim 6, wherein the CMA is enabled to detect the substantive state information and manage the presentation of rich content on the display device based at least in part on the substantive information.

8. The vending machine of claim 2, wherein the RCA further includes a structural file providing a mapping between directives provided to the CMA and indicative of a procedural state of the vending machine and rich content management rules.

9. The vending machine of claim 8, wherein the structural file comprises an XML manifest file.

10. The vending machine of claim 9, further comprising an XML wizard application operable to create the XML manifest file based on input provided by a user via a user interface.

11. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein the RCA is operable to provide targeted messages to consumers and potential consumers.

12. The vending machine of claim 11, wherein the content of the targeted message is based on a criterion selected from a group of criteria of an product offered for sale by the vending machine, a transaction history associated with a consumer.

13. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein the RCA is operable to manage the rich content to provide electronic coupons to a consumer.

14. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein the RCA is operable to manage the rich content to provide an incentive program to a consumer.

15. The vending machine of claim 14, wherein the incentive program is based on a criterion selected from the group of criteria consisting of date, time, and location of the vending machine.

16. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein the RCA is operable to manage the rich content to provide a loyalty program to a consumer including providing reward points to the consumer with selected transactions.

17. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein the RCA is operable to manage the rich content to provide a sweepstakes or contest to consumers.

18. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein the rich content display device is selected from a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and a plasma display panel (PDP) device.

19. A remote field asset suitable for use in a machine to machine network environment, the field asset comprising:

a color graphics display device;

a rich content player application having access to rich content files and configured to play at least some of the rich content files on the display device; and

a rich content agent operable to manage the rich content player including sending at least one message to the rich content player indicative of a rich content file to display.

20. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions, stored on computer readable medium, for implementing rich content displays on a vending machine field asset, the computer program product comprising:

instructions for processing a directive indicative of a procedural state of the vending machine;

instructions for processing a substantive state of the vending machine, wherein the substantive state includes a product inventory status of the vending machine;

instructions for generating a management message indicative of a rich content file based at least in part on the processed substantive state and the procedural state; and

instructions for managing a rich content display device to display the rich content file.