Patent Publication Number: US-2016247212-A1

Title: Vending machine and methods for vending items

Description:
CLAIM TO PRIORITY OF EARLIER FILED PROVISIONAL APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of the filing date of the following earlier filed co-pending U.S. provisional patent applications: 
     1: U.S. Ser. No. 61/613,769 filed on Mar. 21, 2012, entitled “TAXI TREATS” and
 
2: Ser. No. 61/764,823 filed Feb. 14, 2013, entitled “MODULAR VENDING MACHINE WITH RELOADABLE CARTRIDGE SYSTEM”
 
The entire contents of these two provisional applications is hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     Conventional vending machines exist in a variety of locations. As an example, in a typical food court in a shopping mall, conventional vending machines exist as large upright freestanding devices that are often as tall as a grown adult (e.g. 6 feet tall) and that can weigh over one hundred pounds or more. In operation of a conventional vending machine, a customer approaches the machine and decides on an item that he or she would like to purchase from the machine (e.g. by viewing the items through a glass window). The customer then inserts money into the machine or swipes a credit card on a credit card reader of the machine. After all of the money is inserted into the machine or after credit card processing completes and authorizes the purchase, the customer is able to press a button or pull a lever to actuate a mechanism within the machine that causes the selected item to be dispensed from an opening on the front of the machine. The customer then reaches into the opening and retrieves the purchased item. 
     Owners of conventional vending machines employ a vending maintenance person who has the responsibility of periodically visiting the vending machine to determine the inventory of items contained in the machine (i.e. to determine if any items need to be restocked). The vending maintenance person typically has a daily route in which he or she visits numerous vending machines all day long, restocking each machine as needed along the route. The vending maintenance person often has a truck or van fully stocked with the various items that the vending machines on his or her route are capable of vending to customers. When the vending maintenance person arrives at a location of one or more vending machines, he or she typically retrieves a wheeled dolly or cart from the truck or van and places boxes of the items that the vending machines at that location can dispense onto the dolly or cart. The vending maintenance person then leaves the truck or van and takes the cart to the location of the vending machine (e.g. in a building). The maintenance person approaches the vending machine with the new stock of items on the cart and uses a key to unlock a door on the vending machine to inspect the inventory of the vending machine. If a particular type of item such as a candy bar has been vended numerous times to customers, the inventory of that candy bar will be low. In response, the vending maintenance person finds the corresponding type of candy bar in the boxes of new stock items on his or her cart, opens the box of items, retrieves a handful of items and inserts the new items one by one into the machine to replace the items that had been vended from the machine since the last time that vending maintenance person restocked the machine. 
     To vend each item, a typical conventional vending machine might include a spiral or corkscrew shaped motorized wire that can rotate one full turn in order to dispense a single item from the vending machine in response to a customer paying for that item. As more and more items are dispensed from the vending machine (in response to different customers purchasing those items), the spiral shaped wire will begin to have open spaces (one for each item vended) in between its spirals due to the purchase of those items. The vending maintenance person manually restocks each spiral for a given type of item (e.g. a certain type of candy bar) by placing individual items such as the candy bars within the open spaces of any unfilled spirals. When all items have been restocked in this manner, the vending maintenance person closes and locks the housing of the vending machine and moves on to the next machine on the route. This process is repeated periodically by the vending maintenance person on a daily or weekly basis depending upon how frequently items are purchased from the machine. 
     SUMMARY 
     Conventional vending machines suffer from a variety of deficiencies. In particular, the process of restocking conventional vending machines using a vending maintenance person who must visit the machine in remote locations is burdensome and inefficient. As an example, the vending maintenance person must visit a given vending machine location a number of times before he or she begins to understand the rate of consumption of items vended from the machine. The vending maintenance person may arrive in a vending machine only to find that only a small number of items have been purchased from the machine thus making the trip to the machine to restock the machine a waste of time. 
     Additionally, the vending maintenance person must transport from his or her vehicle all of the possible items that the vending machine can vend in case any of those items need to be restocked. It may be the case that the vending maintenance person transports an entire case of candy bars from his or her van to the vending machine, only to find out that no candy bars of that type have been purchased from that vending machine since the vending maintenance person&#39;s last visit. Further still, the conventional design of vending machines requires the vending maintenance person to manually stock each item one by one into the vending machine. This is slow and cumbersome and causes the entire process of restocking the vending machine to full capacity to take a substantial amount of time, thus reducing the overall number of vending machines that a given vending maintenance person can restock in a given time (e.g. within one day of work). 
     Other deficiencies of conventional vending machines exist as well. In particular, the transaction of a consumer purchasing an item from a conventional vending machine is a standalone transaction. That is, the amount of money that the consumer provides to the vending machine is equivalent to the purchase price of the item that is dispensed from the machine. The consumer is not able to combined the purchase of other items that are external to the vending machine with one or more items dispensed by the vending machine. 
     Another deficiency of conventional vending machines is that due to their large size and form factor, they are not mobile or easily movable. As a result, customers must approach the vending machine. Conventional vending machine is not able to approach the customer. 
     In contrast, a vending machine and methods of operation of a vending machine as disclosed herein significantly overcome at least some of these and other deficiencies found in conventional vending machines. 
     An example vending machine as disclosed herein is contained as a small transportable unit that may be, for example, mounted within a vehicle such as a taxicab, bus, car, van, train, boat or other type of mobile vehicle. By reducing the physical size of the vending machine, the vending machine as disclosed herein can be mounted for example, on the backside of a front seat of a taxicab for example. This allows the vending machine to come to the customer in a manner such that when a customer enters a taxicab, the vending machine is presented in front of the customer allowing that customer to purchase items from the vending machine during the transport of that customer in the taxicab. 
     An example vending machine configured in accordance with embodiments disclosed herein utilizes a cartridge loading system in which items are pre-stocked within cartridges that may be inserted into the vending machine in a central restocking facility. In this manner, individual items dispensed from the vending machine do not have to be individually stocked into each vending machine within each vehicle. Rather, the vehicle can arrive at the restocking facility and individual cartridges containing a plurality of items that are fully stocked can be simply inserted into the vending machine in order to replace cartridges that are either fully or partially empty which are simply removed from the vending machine. This cartridge exchange system significantly reduces the time required to restocked a vending machine as disclosed herein. 
     Additionally, an example vending machine as disclosed herein can allow for the purchase price of an item to be combined with the cost of an external product or service also purchased by the customer such as the fair of the taxicab to arrive at the destination. In this manner, as the customer sits in the back of the taxicab, he or she can purchase one or more items from the vending machine in the purchase price of these items is added to the fair of the taxi ride. When the customer arrived at his or her destination, the customer can pay for both the taxi fare and the purchase price of the items vended from the machine in a single transaction, either using the payment system in the taxicab or using a payment system within the vending machine which includes the taxicab fare. Other features of example vending machines disclosed herein will be described in more detail below. 
     In a particular embodiment, the system provides a vending machine for use in a vehicle. The vending machine comprises a vending housing operable to dispense at least one of a plurality of items stored within the vending housing, a display screen and a processor coupled to the display screen and the vending housing. A vending computer program is configured to execute on the processor. The vending computer program, when executing on the processor, is operable to perform operations of displaying a selection of items on the display screen that can be purchased and dispensed from the vending housing. The machine receives an identification of at least one item to be purchased. The machine receives a payment indicator indicating that payment has been received for the at least one item. The vending computer program controls the vending machine (e.g. controls an electronic and/or mechanical dispensing mechanism within the housing) to dispense the item(s) for which payment has been received. The vending housing encases the display screen and the processor. The vending housing is sized appropriately to mount within a taxicab or other vehicle. When the identification of the at least one item to be purchased is received from a passenger of the taxicab, the vending housing dispenses the item(s) to the passenger of the taxicab within the taxicab. 
     An example vending machine configured in accordance with embodiments disclosed herein is referred to as a taxitreats machine in parts of this disclosure. Taxitreats is the name for the machine within a taxi cab and is not intended to be limiting of the system disclosed herein. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES 
         FIG. 1 . is a view of the machine in an example vehicle from the exterior side of the taxi on the driver&#39;s side. 
         FIG. 2  is a vending machine (e.g. a TaxiTreats machine) installed in the example from the passenger point of view. 
         FIG. 3 . is a closer view of the TaxiTreats machine in  FIG. 3 . 
         FIG. 4 . is a view of the passenger experience immediately following the selection of one of the items available to vend, whether the item is physical or virtual or whether the item is to be collected immediately or in the future. 
         FIG. 5 . is a view of the user experience following the selection of an item (selection of item seen in  FIG. 4 ). 
         FIG. 6 . is a view of the user experience to the extent the user completes a purchase of one unit of 5-Hour Energy. 
         FIG. 7 . shows an example relationship that the TaxiTreats machine can have with the mode of transportation&#39;s existing technology and payment system which is a taxi cab fare payment system in this example. 
         FIG. 8 . is an alternative view of the TaxiTreats machine that accentuates the depth of the machine, the locking mechanism discussed in  FIG. 4  and the restocking process. 
         FIG. 9 . is a view of the TaxiTreats machine designed by a mechanical engineer using CATIA engineering software. 
         FIG. 10 . is a side view of  FIG. 10 . 
         FIG. 11 . is a third view of the TaxiTreats machine consisting of four separate views of the TaxiTreats machine from separate angles. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Generally then, the system disclosed herein is a vending machine with the purpose of generating commerce within modes of transportation. Modes of transportation may include, but are not limited to, vehicles-for-hire, taxis, trains, planes, subways and commuter boats in metro and suburban areas. 
       FIG. 1  shows a vehicle  100  that is configured with an example vending machine  110  as disclosed herein. Note that the vehicle is mobile thus the vending machine  110  is also mobile and is transported to the customers by way of the vehicle  100 . It is to be understood that a taxicab is shown as the vehicle by way of example only and embodiments of the invention are not limited to a vending machine mounted within a taxicab. Rather, any type of vehicle can include a vending machine as disclosed herein. 
       FIG. 2  shows the vending machine from the customer&#39;s point of view, installed in the example taxi cab as a “taxitreats” vending machine. 
       FIG. 3  shows a front view of the vending machine. The view in  FIG. 3  includes the vending machine, its housing  112  fits seamlessly into its environment (a taxi in this example), and the figure demonstrates its components: the touch screen display  114  with six available items  116  (Touching each item brings up the view in  FIG. 4  and then  FIG. 5 ), the sample point-of-sale banner advertisement  122  (e.g. pain medication), the credit card processor  118  (the slot underneath the touch screen in this example), the area or opening  120  to collect the vended physical item or access to a future item or a receipt, and the TaxiTreats logo (lower left of machine). 
       FIG. 4  shows another front view of the vending machine. The system provides a touch-screen or display  114  that displays information to the passenger(s), a storage area for retail goods, a mechanism  118  for collecting payment via credit card, a mechanism (shown in some detail in  FIG. 10 ) to vend selected retail item(s) upon credit card payment approval, a mechanism for collecting payment via a wireless telephone through an application (the wireless phone communicating with a processor  130  (contained within the housing an in electrical communication with the display  114  in the vending machine housing  112 ), a mechanism for printing receipts  132  and a software program (vending computer program)  134  to execute the menu of items available  116  for purchase, the transactions and a wireless communication mechanism  136  that is operable to communicate between the machine and the TaxiTreats headquarters to wirelessly relay transactions, malfunctions and inventory. 
     The machine may also transmit information to the centralized location of the organization or owner of the mode of transportation whether public or private (e.g. a central restocking facility). In this manner, the system can include an inventory tracking module  138  integrated with the processor  130 . The inventory tracking module  138  is operable to keep track of inventory of items that can be vended form the vending machine. The inventory tracking module  138  is also operable to communicate inventory information of items in the vending machine to a remote location (via wireless device  136 ) to allow the remote location to identify, to a vending machine operator, the inventory information. Thus the wireless communication mechanism  136  is operable by the vending computer program  134  to wirelessly transmit product data to and from the vending machine. The product data can including, some or all of the following: data concerning items to be vended by the vending machine at specific times of the day; data concerning items to be vended by the vending machine when a taxicab is located in proximity to specific locations; data concerning quantity of items stocked within the vending machine; data concerning advertising information to be displayed on the display; and data concerning items to be delivered to a passenger of a taxicab at alternate locations that are not within confines of the taxicab. By communicating wirelessly, the vending machine does not require a person to inspect the machine periodically to determine what inventory of items is required to replaced or restocked in the machine  110 . 
     In  FIG. 5 , the screen or display  114  will offer a quantity selection choice  140  to purchase multiple items. The passenger can now select to purchase multiple quantities of the selected item. The screen or display  114  displays visualizations  116  of retail items available for purchase and collection immediately. These retail items may be stored within the machine (e.g. within the columns  155  in which cartridges  156  are installed as shown in  FIG. 9 ), behind or above the screen  114  or the items (depicted by the icons  116  on the display, and as item  170  vended in  FIG. 6 ) may be stored within the mode of transportation (e.g. within the taxi) at an alternate location from the screen, including, but not limited to, the mode of transportation floor, the console, the trunk or the roof (e.g. of the taxi). The items may or may not be held in a cartridge system  146  in  FIG. 9 ) within the machine that facilitates fast restocking. The screen  114  may have several pages of different items available for view and purchase. The items may or may not change regularly or be wholly different in various regions or at various time of day. 
     In one example configuration, when the vending machine  110  displays a selection of items  116  on the display screen  114  that can be purchased, the vending computer program performs operations of identifying a location associated to the vending machine. In one configuration, the location can be a final destination location of the taxi cab or a current location of the taxicab. Based on the location, the program identifies a selection of products related to the location. A GPS receiver can be used for purposes of determining a location of the machine as it travels in the vehicle. The program displays the selection of products available for purchase from the vending machine that is contingent on the location. In another configuration, identifying a selection of products related to the location can include identifying, for example, event tickets for an event that will take place at a venue that is proximate to the location (i.e. that is near the GPS location of the taxicab), and/or it can identify discounts for at least one product or service at a venue that is proximate to the location. This can be done by keeping a database of locations along with tickets or discounts for places near those GPS locations. When the program detects that a location is near a location of a venue, it can display the availability of tickets or a discount for those locations, along with information concerning the location (such as advertising for the venue). 
     The screen  114  (i.e. display) may also contain/display items available for purchase that will be delivered to an alternate location at a current or future time. The screen may print a receipt for the passenger to serve as documentation of the transaction or to function as a ticket to redeem a good or service in the future. The machine may provide a physical card with a magnetic strip or bar code that may serve as to facilitate access to a good or service. 
     The machine may integrate with the existing transportation meter or payment system and allow for payment of the fare through the invention. The invention may integrate payment of the transportation fare with payment of the retail good(s) or services sold and receive a consolidated payment. The payment will be inclusive of all required state and local sales taxes. The invention may provide the current location of the mode of transportation and other pertinent information to the passenger such as information about the mode of transportation or its operator. The invention may sell tickets to events in the region of the mode of transportation. The invention may offer advertising and/or deals specific to the location of the destination of the mode of transportation or the general region of the mode of transportation. 
     In this manner, the fare payment system of the taxicab is integrated into the vending machine and the processor in the vending machine enables payment to be received for both the item(s) to be purchased and the fare for passenger use of the taxicab. The display of the vending machine displays both the fare for the taxicab as well as the cost of the at least one item on the same display. The system can identify a cost of the at least one item to be purchased (e.g. from a database, or from the cartridge that can be encoded with a bar code, RFID tag, or other mechanism that can be read by the processor when the cartridge is installed. This enables a passenger of the taxicab to provide a single payment that includes the cost of the item(s) to be purchased/vended and the fare of the passenger for use of the taxicab to reach a destination. In one configuration, the processor is electrically coupled to a fare payment system in the taxicab used to allow the passenger to pay a fare. When the processor provides the cost of the item(s) to be purchased to the fare payment system, the fare payment system combines the cost of the item(s) with the fare of the passenger to produce and display a total cost for the passenger to pay. 
       FIG. 6  shows an item  170  vended from the machine opening, and  FIG. 7  shows how the cost  171  ($2.50 in this example) of the item is included in the fare for the taxi cab by integrating with the taxicab payment system  178 . In this example, the TaxiTreats purchase may trigger the TaxiTreats machine to send an electronic signal to the existing taxi payment system  178  to add the TaxiTreats purchase price to the price of the taxi fare. The price of the vended item, in this example, $2.50, will be paid along with the fare to the taxi driver in cash or to the taxi owner by credit card. The taxi owner may then pay TaxiTreats at the end of each day the price of total TaxiTreats purchases by reducing the taxi&#39;s credit card purchases by an equal amount. The configuration in  FIG. 7  thus provides  2  display screens  114  and  178 . In another configuration the display screen upon which the processor displays a selection of items to be purchased is a same display screen upon which a fare is displayed to the passenger for use of the taxicab to reach a final destination. It is important to note that the vending machine in accordance with an example embodiment does not enable payment with cash or money inserted into the vending machine. This enables a small form factor thus allowing the vending machine to be mounted in areas of limited space, such as in the back of taxicabs (e.g. behind the front seats). Mechanisms that receive cash or money (e.g. change such as quarters, dimes and nickels) take up a significant amount of depth in space and thus to keep the machine small (the dimensions of the housing are less than approximately 2 feet wide, less than approximately 2 feet tall, and less than approximately 5.5 inches deep), no cash is accepted in this example embodiment. Accordingly, when the software performs the operation of receiving payment for the at least one item using a payment system, the software in this configuration only accepts either credit card processing or payment by communicating with wireless communication (e.g. with an external device). 
     As shown in  FIG. 8 , the vending machine will be locked (lock  190 ) and bolted within the mode of transportation and may be restocked at the centralized starting and ending point for the shift of the mode of transportation. The front of the machine may be a door  191  that can, in this example, open towards the rear passenger seat based on the hinge  192  in the far back right corner. As noted herein, once opened, the vending machine  110  can receive a plurality of removable cartridges  155  mounted within the vending housing  112  in cartridge slots  156 . Each cartridge  155  maintains (e.g. holds) a set of pre-stocked items that can be dispensed from the vending machine under control of the vending computer program executing on the processor. The removable cartridges  155  are operable to be inserted into the vending housing while being preloaded with the set of items. This facilitates fast restocking since loading a large number of items only requires loading a single cartridge. As an example, if there are 6 items, the vending maintenance person only needs to load 6 separate cartridges. In example embodiments as shown, the plurality of removable cartridges  155  are (can be) stocked with items that include such things as a food item (e.g. mints, candy), a beverage item (an energy drink), gum, condoms, or a medicinal item (e.g. pain killer, heartburn relief or aspirin). It is to be understood that these are examples only and other items could be stored in the cartridges  155  as well, such as hair care items, makeup, office supplies, etc. 
     For a taxi, for example, the restocking of preloaded cartridges into the machine  110  can take place at taxi fleet parking garages. Stocking can include programming the computer program  134  to display electronic information in which case the item is simply a printed receipt that allows the passenger to redeem the receipt for a product or service, such as entry into a show, or a discount at a local restaurant. In addition to deals, goods and services, the invention may or may not have advertising  122  on the screen  114  and/or the remaining physical components of the machine. The advertising may or may not be for the goods or services available for purchase through the invention (point-of-sale advertising). 
     The user experience broadly consists of 1) passenger shift triggers reset of TaxiTreats software 2) TaxiTreats logo (shown in diagram below) and welcome screen 3) TaxiTreats purchase instructions and demo 4) TaxiTreats menu appears on touch screen in addition to point-of-sale banner ad 5) Passenger selects desired retail item, daily deal purchase, lottery ticket or location-based offer 6) Passenger selects quantity of desired item 7) Passenger either pays for item via credit card and credit card approval triggers transaction or purchase is tacked onto the fare of the mode of transportation and the passenger confirms purchase, triggering sale 8) Passenger either collects retail item directly from the invention, collects receipt or card to collect a good or service in the future or scans a unique identification from the invention to a device held by the passengers, such as, but not limited to, a wireless smartphone. In one configuration, receiving a payment indicator indicating that payment has been received for the item(s) includes receiving the payment indicator from a fare payment system of the taxicab  178 . The payment indicator indicates to the vending machine  110  that a passenger of the taxicab has provided payment for the at least one item (e.g. via the taxi fare payment system). Alternatively, the vending machine can provide for payment of the item as well as the taxi cab fare. 
       FIGS. 9 through 11  show an example of the internal mechanics of the vending machine. Those skilled in the art of vending machine manufacture will appreciate that not all details have been shown, and that there are many different configurations of such a machine as outlined herein. These example configurations show a small machine that can be easily mounted in a taxi or other vehicle to provide the functionality described herein. In  FIG. 9 , there is a lock  190  on the left side of the machine towards its middle. The machine will have a heavy-duty key lock  190 . The key will be available to TaxiTreats employees only. The machine is designed to facilitate fast restocking time by TaxiTreats employees without requiring the “restocker” to enter the car. The “restocker will be able to refill the machine by standing outside the rear passenger door on the driver&#39;s side, in this example. The cartridges  155  enable loading of the machine with a set of items all at once, as opposed to loading each item one by one. 
     Actions—Hardware Mechanics and Software/Hardware Interaction 
     The vending machine mechanics to dispense an item (e.g. a physical item, or a virtual item such as a ticket to a show, or a discount at a restaurant (delivered to the passenger via a printed receipt that can be used, for example, as a voucher to pick up a ticket at a will-call window of a venue) will be triggered by step  7  of the user experience “Passenger either pays for item via credit card and credit card approval triggers transaction or purchase is tacked onto the fare of the mode of transportation and the passenger confirms purchase, triggering sale.” At that point, the TaxiTreats software program  134  will trigger the invention&#39;s main mechanism, starting the motor (e.g. the motor being an integral part of each cartridge, or a separate motor that engages a given cartridge to dispense an item) which triggers the release of retail product, printing of receipt or ability to scan a code or identification.