Patent ID: 9495465
Filing Date: 2016-11-15
CPC Classification: G06F,G06Q,G07F

Claim Text:
1. A method of searching for media content using a metadata database in communication with a processor, the metadata database comprising metadata identifying media content available at a plurality of article dispensing machines, the method comprising: receiving a search request from a user operated device that includes a search criteria, the search criteria identifying one or more attributes for a requested media content, wherein the user operated device is not included in the plurality of article dispensing machines; receiving device identifying information from the user operated device, the device identifying information comprising a MAC address or a digital certificate identifier of an audio/visual display interface; determining a geographic location of the user operated device based, at least in part, on the device identifying information; receiving a proximity limit that extends from the geographic location of the user operated device; parsing the metadata database, and identifying a search set of article dispensing machines based on the parsing, wherein the search set of article dispensing machines includes a plurality of article dispensing machines within the proximity limit from the geographic location of the user operated device; parsing the metadata database, and selecting selected media content satisfying at least one attribute from the search criteria based on the parsing; generating a search result set comprising article dispensing machines from the search set of article dispensing machines identified as having available the selected media content; when the search result set includes a plurality of the article dispensing machines: when the search result set does not include the plurality of the any article dispensing machines, providing, to the user operated device, matching media selections from one or more a la carte content providers identified as having available the selected media content.