System for providing remote audit, cashless payment, and interactive transaction capabilities in a vending machine

• US 6,505,095 B1
• Filed: 06/19/2001
• Issued: 01/07/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cantaloupe, Inc.
• Original Assignee: USA Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Kolls, H. Brock
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Khoi H.
• Application Number:
  US09/884,755
• Time in Patent Office: 567 Days
• Field of Search: 700/231, 700/236, 700/244, 221/9, 221/2
• US Class Current: 700/244
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 5/18 specially adapted for controlling several coin-freed apparatus from one place
• 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: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system that is scalable and configurable to include vending equipment audit capabilities, a card reader assembly having a card reader processor interface board for accepting card identification data as payment for items vended, an interactive interface and protocol for interconnecting the system to a computing platform, and support for a plurality of communication options that include wired, point-to-point wireless, and wireless WAN solutions. In addition, the present invention also relates to a system and method of effectuating a payment device for accepting card ID data, authorizing the validity of the card ID data, facilitating a vending transaction, settling the transaction to effect payment for the vended goods and services, gathering DEX and MDB audit data from the vending equipment, and data communicating with a plurality of remote locations.

Claims

1. An audit-credit-interactive system, said system comprising:

a microcontroller;

a vending machine interface interconnected with said microcontroller, said audit-credit-interactive system, by way of said vending machine interface, interconnects to and data communicates with a vending machine controller, said vending machine controller is interconnected to and controls a vending machine; and

an interactive interface interconnected with said microcontroller, said interactive interface interconnects said audit-credit-interactive system to a computing platform, said computing platform, by way of said interactive interface and based in part on data communicated between said audit-credit-interactive system and said vending machine controller, monitors said vending machine activity, and selectively controls said vending machine vending cycles.

2. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said vending machine interface is interconnected to at least one of the following:

said vending machine controller multi-drop-bus interface (MDB), or said vending machine controller data exchange interface (DEX).

3. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said computing platform is at least one of the following:

an online module, a card reader, a cashless payment device, an audit device, a coin mechanism, a bill validator, a personal computer, a communication module, or a microprocessor based system.

4. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said computing platform monitors a data communication originating from said audit-credit-interactive system to determine the operational state of a peripheral device interconnected to said vending machine controller.

5. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 4, wherein said peripheral device is at least one of the following:

said audit-credit-interactive system, an online module, a card reader, a cashless payment device, an audit device, a coin mechanism, or a bill validator.

6. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said audit-credit-interactive system is at least one of the following:

an online module, a card reader, a cashless payment device, an audit device, a coin mechanism, or a bill validator.

7. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said computing platform monitors a data communication originating form said audit-credit-interactive system to determine the message prompts to be displayed to a user.

8. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said interactive interface is a communication port.

9. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 8, wherein said communication port is at least one of the following:

an RS232 port, an RS485 port, a serial peripheral interface (SPI) port, or general purpose input output control line port.

10. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

a communication interface interconnected with said microcontroller for effectuating data communications to a plurality of remote locations.

11. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 10, wherein said communication interface is at least one of the following:

a modem, a wireless modem, a data link to a communication module, or a transceiver.

12. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

a network interface interconnected with said microcontroller for effectuating network data communications.

13. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 12, wherein said network interface is at least one of the following:

an ethernet interface, or a firewire interface.

14. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

a mimic MDB interface interconnected with said microcontroller for data communicating with a plurality of peripheral devices, said plurality of peripheral device being interconnected with said mimic MDB interface.

15. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 14, wherein said plurality of peripheral devices includes at least one of the following:

a coin mechanism, a bill validator, an online module, a communication mixture, or a card reader.

16. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said audit-credit-interactive system is retrofit to said vending machine.

17. An audit-credit-interactive system for interconnection with a vending machine, said vending machine having a vending machine controller, said audit-credit-interactive system being electrically connected to said vending machine controller comprising;

a microcontroller;

a vending machine interface interconnected with said microcontroller for data communicating with said vending machine controller; and

a mimic MDB interface interconnected with said microcontroller for data communicating with a plurality of peripheral devices, said plurality of peripheral devices being interconnected with said mimic MDB interface.

18. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 17, wherein said vending machine interface is interconnected to at least one of the following:

said vending machine controller multi-drop-bus interface (MDB), or said vending machine controller data exchange interface (DEX).

19. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 17, wherein a first plurality of data is communicated between said vending machine controller and said vending machine interface, and a second plurality of data is communicated between said mimic MDB interface and at least one of said plurality of peripheral devices;

wherein, said audit-credit-interactive system effectuates data communication between said vending machine controller and at least one of said plurality of peripheral devices by way of data processing said first plurality of data and said second plurality of data to provide a common communication protocol between said vending machine controller and at least one of said plurality of peripheral devices.

20. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 17, wherein said audit-credit-interactive system is a data processing gateway between said vending machine controller and said plurality of peripheral devices.

21. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 17, wherein said plurality of peripheral devices is at least one of the following:

said audit-credit-interactive system, an online module, a card reader, a cashless payment device, an audit device, a communication module, a coin mechanism, or a bill validator.

22. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 17, wherein said audit-credit-interactive system is at least one of the following:

an online module, a card reader, a cashless payment device, an audit device, a coin mechanism, or a bill validator.

23. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 17, further comprising:

an interactive interface interconnected with said microcontroller for interconnecting said audit-credit-interactive system to a computing platform, wherein said computing platform data communicates with said audit-credit-interactive system for the purpose of monitoring and selectively controlling said vending machine.

24. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 23, wherein said computing platform is at least one of the following:

an online module, a card reader, a cashless payment device, an audit device, a coin mechanism, a bill validator, a personal computer, a communication module, or a microprocessor based system.

25. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 23, wherein said computing platform monitors a data communication originating from said audit-credit-interactive system to determine the operational state of a device interconnected to said vending machine controller.

26. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 17, further comprising:

a communication interface interconnected with said microcontroller for effectuating data communications to a plurality of remote locations.

27. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 26, wherein said communication interface is at least one of the following:

a modem, a wireless modem, a data link to a communication module, or a transceiver.

28. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 17, further comprising:

a network interface interconnected with said microcontroller for effectuating network data communications.

29. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 28, wherein said network interface is at least one of the following:

an ethernet interface, or a firewire interface.

30. The audit-credit-interactive system in accordance with claim 17, wherein said audit-credit-interactive system is retrofit to said vending machine.