Abstract:
An automatic vending machine having a front door with at least one opening. A translucent image carrier bears two or more images cut into information strips and arranged on the image carrier by an intercalation process. The image carrier is mounted behind an array of cylindrical lenses. At least one light source is disposed behind the image carrier. A relative, linearly reciprocating movement is produced between the array of lenses and the image carrier in a direction perpendicular to an axial extent of the lenses. In the course of the relative movement, the array of cylindrical lenses provides, in succession enlarged views of the images borne by the image carrier, thereby producing an animated effect.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to an automatic vending machine which provides a dynamic display of its merchandise. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Automatic vending machines are located in public places and offer a variety of merchandise such as hot and cold drinks, pastry, sweets, etc. Capturing the attention of passersby, that is, of potential customers, has a decisive effect on the sales volume of these machines. The operators of the machines therefore make every effort to catch the eye, e.g., by colorful graphic representations of their wares. Here, however, they must overcome the resistance developed, perhaps in self-defense, by the over-stimulated eyes of a public inundated with advertisements, posters, fliers, etc., and who is thus less and less attracted by static pictures. However, as research has shown, whenever advertisers realized that “motion sells” and switched from static to dynamic representation, sales increased by 10-15%. 
     DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION 
     It is thus one of the objects of the present invention to provide, at very little additional expense, an automatic vending machine that provides a dynamic, attractive display of the merchandise offered on its front face, is largely vandal-proof, and can be disposed in public places without a need to watch over it. 
     According to the invention, the above object is achieved by providing an automatic vending machine having a front door, comprising at least one window-like opening in said front door; a panel consisting of an array of cylindrical lenses located and fixedly mounted in said window-like opening; a translucent image carrier bearing a computer-processed image of at least one object to be shown in dynamic display, said image carrier being mounted behind said array of lenses; at least one light source disposed behind said image-carrying panel, and means for producing a relative, linearly reciprocating movement between said array of lenses and said image carrier in a direction perpendicular to the axial extent of said lenses; wherein, in the course of said relative movement, said array of cylindrical lenses provides a succession of compound, virtual, enlarged images, producing an animated effect. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The invention will now be described in connection with certain preferred embodiments with reference to the following illustrative figures so that it may be more fully understood. 
     With specific reference now to the figures in detail, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the preferred embodiments of the present invention only, and are presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the invention. In this regard, no attempt is made to show structural details of the invention in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention, the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the invention may be embodied in practice. 
     In the drawings: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the vending machine according to the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the machine of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of detail A of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view along plane IV—IV of FIG. 3; 
     FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the inside of the door of the embodiment of FIG. 1, with part of the door&#39;s rear wall and the image carrier partly removed; 
     FIG. 6 is a diagram relating to the problem of parallax; 
     FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the invention; 
     FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the inside of the door of the embodiment of FIG. 7; 
     FIG. 9 is a partial, perspective view, at a larger scale, of the embodiment of FIG. 7; 
     FIG. 10 is an embodiment of a vending machine having a flat lens array and image carrier that are accessible without opening the vending machine&#39;s door; 
     FIG. 11 represents an embodiment with a combination of static and dynamic displays; 
     FIG. 12 shows an embodiment of the invention having a general display and a number of specific displays; 
     FIG. 13 is a perspective view of a further embodiment of the invention; 
     FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the lens array, image carrier and mechanism of the embodiment of FIG. 13, and 
     FIG. 15 is a cross-sectional view of the mechanism of FIG.  11 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring now to the drawings, there is shown in FIG. 1 a first embodiment of the vending machine according to the present invention, comprising a housing  2 , a door  4 , a control panel  6  comprising the coin slots, coin tester mechanism, selector keys, coin return key, etc., all of which are per se known and will not be described here. Also shown is the outlet window  8  of a delivery chute  10 . 
     The front face of door  4  consists of a convex panel constituted by a coherent array  12  formed of cylindrical lenses  14  extending in a horizontal direction. It is this lens array that, in a way to be explained further below, produces the above-mentioned dynamic display having an animated appearance. 
     FIG. 2, a cross-sectional view of the vending machine of FIG. 1, shows outlet windows  8  and chute  10 , the array  12  of lenses  14 , compartments  16  storing the merchandise, in this case, soft drink cans  18 , an image carrier  20  which can be either a film, a plastic panel, or the like, and the display mechanism  22 , shown to better advantage in FIG.  3 . Also shown is one of two or more fluorescent tubes  24  which serve as light sources. 
     FIG. 3 is an enlargement of detail A of FIG.  2 . Shown is an electric motor  26  mounted on a bracket  28  and having a shaft  30  carrying an eccentric  32 . The active part of eccentric  32  is constituted by the outer race of a ball bearing  34  slidingly seated in an elongated recess  36  (seen to better effect in FIG. 4) that is part of a guide rail  38 . Image carrier  20  is attached to guide rail  38  by means of a number of pins  40  (also see FIG.  5 ). The image carrier  20  can be easily replaced with a carrier bearing different images by lifting it off pins  40 , thus detaching it from guide rail  38 . 
     When motor  26  rotates, eccentric  32  obviously rotates as well and, via ball bearing  34 , whose only function is to reduce friction, causes guide rail  38  to move vertically upwards and downwards. The total stroke of image carrier  20  equals the dimension M of a cylindrical lens  14 , as shown in FIG.  3 . 
     Guide rail  38  is constrained by two symmetrically positioned guide slots  42  (only one of which is shown) and two pins  44 , to move only in a straight vertical line. The proper distance of image carrier  20  from lens array  12  is maintained with the aid of U-shaped guide profiles  46  (FIG. 5) arranged on both lateral edges of image carrier  20  and fixedly attached to elements of door  4 . Also shown in FIG. 3 is a vertical slot  48  in guide rail  38 , which permits rail  38  to move vertically relative to shaft  30 , but supports it against lateral forces. 
     While from the purely mechanical point of view, the ideal orientation of the elongated recess  36  would be horizontal, this would result in a substantial reduction of the speed of movement of image carrier  20  towards its extreme positions, which would seriously interfere with the desired animation effect imparted to the display. The slant of elongated recess  36 , seen in FIG. 4, enhances the uniformity of that speed, thereby promoting the animation effect. For the sake of simplicity, the curved shape of guide rail  39  has been disregarded in FIG.  4 . 
     FIG. 5 illustrates the inside of door  4  of the embodiment of FIG. 1, clearly indicating the curved shapes of lens array  12 , image carrier  20  and guide rail  38 . Also shown is part of guide profile  46 . 
     The basics of the dynamic display will now be briefly explained with reference to the upper portion of FIG.  3 . Using a computer program, images of three objects A, B, C, or of one object in three different stages of movement, are cut into information strips, each strip of a width W=M/3, where M is the modular distance between adjacent lenses  14 . By a process of intercalation, these information strips are then arranged in successive groups A, B, C, A, B, C . . . and applied to image carrier  20 . In the stage shown in FIG. 3, all information strips B are located exactly opposite lenses  14  of array  12 . Given the optics of the arrangement, strips B will be magnified and, as seen by an observer, will completely fill all lenses  14 , in their totality representing object B. Moving image carrier  20  upwards will reveal object C, all lenses  14  now being filled with the enlarged images of strips C. Continuing to move image carrier  20  further upwards will fill all of the lenses with the enlarged images of strips A, revealing object A. 
     A problem that needs addressing is the problem of parallax. As long as displays are of postcard size, one may assume that they are viewed in a direction which is substantially perpendicular to the plane of the image carrier and that the problem of parallax does not, therefore, arise. However, with displays of a height larger than 40 cm, parallax is already felt. 
     In order to better explain, reference is now made to FIG. 6, which represents a display device having an array of lenses  12  and an image carrier  20  carrying three images, similar to the schematic drawing of FIG.  3 . The eye of an observer is located at a distance D from image carrier  20  and looks at point P 1  of a given image, e.g., that of strip A, in a direction substantially perpendicular to the device. However, the higher the observer raises his eyes, or the more he lowers his eyes, the more is what he sees affected by parallax; in other words, the more the observer is likely to see strips of a different basic image, e.g., the images of strip B or strip C. If the distance from carrier  20  to the rear surface of the lens array is f; and the height of carrier  20  after the intercalation step is  20  (assuming that the center of image carrier  20  is at eye level), the parallactic shift is          Δ                 H     =       fH     D   -   f       .                            
     As f is mostly rather small relative to the distance D, it can be neglected, resulting in a definitely useful approximation          Δ                 H     =       fH   D     .                            
     A second permissible approximation is based on the assumption that the parallactic shift increases linearly from point P 1  to point P 2 , while strictly speaking, this shift is a trigonometric function of the angle included between the ray from a given lens  14  to the observer&#39;s eye, and the horizontal. However, even for the uppermost point P 2 , this angle rarely exceeds 15°, at which magnitude the tangent curve still approximates a straight line. 
     Feeding the computer the numerical values of distances D and f as well as H, ΔH for H=50 cm, D=200 cm and f=8 cm, is computed as            50   ×   8     200     =     2                   cm   .                              
     The stretching required to turn H into H+ΔH, is then computed as                Δ                 H     +   H     H     =   1.04     ,                          
     that is, for the entire height 2H, a stretch of 8%, to be carried out by the computer program. 
     A preferred embodiment of the present invention is represented in FIGS. 7-10. The distinctive features of this embodiment are three: (1) the cylindrical lenses  14  extend in the vertical, rather than in the horizontal, direction; (2) as seen from the outside, the lens array  12 , as well as the image carrier  20 , are concave rather than convex, and (3) the image carrier  20  is in direct contact with the rear surface of lens array  12 , rather than a small, predetermined distance away. 
     FIG. 8 shows the inside of door  4  of the embodiment of FIG.  7 . Apart from lens array  12  and image carrier  20 , there are shown electric motor  26  in its bracket  28 , as well as one of two guide rails  38 , the second rail on the left being partly hidden by the curvature of image carrier  20 . These details are seen to better advantage and at a larger scale in FIG. 9, which also shows elongated recess  36 , guide slots  42  and pins  44 . Motor bracket  28  is mounted by means of screws on part  50  of the door body. 
     As mentioned above, in the embodiment of FIG. 7 the image carrier  20  is in direct contact with the rear side of lens array  12 . Provision is therefore made for elements that are connected to guide rails  38  and, by spreading them apart, pull image carrier  20  tightly against the curved rear of lens array  12 . This is achieved by means of two flat springs  52  (FIG.  8 ), of which only the lower one is seen in FIG.  9 . 
     The effect of springs  52  is best understood from FIG.  10 . Springs  52  have holes  53  at both of their ends, which holes fit over pins  54  that are fixedly attached to guide rails  54 . The distance between holes  53  is larger than the peripheral distance between pins  54 , and thus, in order to attach both ends of each spring  52  to its respective pins  54 , the spring must be elastically flexed to assume a curvature larger than that of image carrier  20 , until both holes  53  will slip over pins  54 . The required elastic deformation provides the spreading force required to ensure good contact. FIG. 10 clearly shows that the curvature of spring  52  is larger than that of image carrier  20 . Also shown is a window-like, transparent cover portion  55  which serves to protect the lens array against vandalism. 
     FIG. 11 represents an embodiment having both a static display  56  showing a can pouring out a drink, and a dynamic display  58  showing ice cubes bobbing up and down. 
     FIG. 12 represents a further embodiment having a general display representing a soft-drink can  56  and a number of specific, small displays  60  showing different types of soft drinks, each small display also including a push-button  62  for ordering a specific drink. 
     The embodiment of FIG. 13 has a flat lens array  12  and a removable cover plate  64 , facilitating access to the display for maintenance and replacement of image carriers, without the need to open door  4 . This is of importance in cases where the front of the vending machine is to be rented out to a firm not directly connected to its owners. 
     FIG. 14 represents the lens array  12 , image carrier  20  and mechanism of the display unit of FIG.  13 . Also shown are electric motor  26 , guide rail  38 , elongated recess  36 , eccentric  32 , all of which are known from FIG.  3 . The mechanism is mounted on a panel  66 . The position of image carrier  20  relative to lens array  12  is maintained by two small ball bearings  68  mounted on shafts  70  in grooves  72  passing along lens array  12  and panel  66 . 
     While in all embodiments referred to, the relative motion required between lens array  12  and image carrier  20  is produced by moving the latter, the same effect could obviously be attained also by moving the lens array  12 . 
     It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the details of the foregoing illustrated embodiments and that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.