Patent ID: 8639578

Claim:
A system for dispensing optical storage media from, and maintaining inventory in, a kiosk, the kiosk remote from a system server and communicatively connected to said system server, said system comprising: a plurality of optical storage media each storing data for a particular program; a storage carousel in the kiosk for storing said plurality of optical storage media, the kiosk inventory comprising an inventory of said plurality of optical storage media; a first central processing unit in said kiosk; a database including information representative of the kiosk inventory and accessible by a user via a kiosk interface and the Internet; a first media readable by said first central processing unit, having a first set of instructions for directing said first central processing unit to: read data from a selected one of said plurality of optical storage media stored in said kiosk; dispense said selected one of said plurality of optical storage media and/or display data from said selected optical medium on a display in said kiosk; and receive a returned optical medium, identify said returned optical medium, determine playability of the returned optical medium based on scanning the returned optical medium for error detection, and transmit identity of said returned optical medium to said system server; maintain information of the kiosk inventory; remove a one of said optical storage media from said kiosk inventory information when dispensing said selected one; add a one of said optical storage media to said kiosk inventory information when receiving said returned optical medium; a second central processing unit in said system server, having a second media including a second set of instructions for directing said second central processing unit to: maintain an inventory of optical storage media in said kiosk in said database; receive a message indicating said returned optical storage medium has been returned to the kiosk; receive an update of the kiosk inventory from said first central processing unit when said first central processing unit updates said kiosk inventory information; and cause optical storage media to be added to the kiosk inventory based on said kiosk inventory information.