Patent ID: 8631093

Claim:
A remote data acquisition, transmission and analysis system, comprising: a plurality of application controllers, each application controller configured to interface with a respective vending machine from which operation data is acquired by the application controller, each vending machine located at one of one or more geographical sites, each application controller including a serial interface configured to communicate with the respective vending machine using a Data EXchange/Uniform Communication Standard (DEX/UCS) protocol, and a RFID transceiver configured to scan inventory associated with the respective vending machine using the DEX/UCS protocol; and at least one application host configured to communicate with the application controllers via a local area network and communicate with a network operations center remote from the one or more geographic sites using a wide area network, wherein a first of the application controllers is configured to function as a relay for communication between the at least one application host and a second of the application controllers when the second application controller is not capable of direct communication with the at least one application host, wherein the network operations center is configured to maintain a database storing the operation data and to communicate an alert message regarding at least one of the vending machines, the alert message comprising a real-time notification of at least one of an out-of-stock condition, a power outage and an incident of vandalism at the at least one vending machine.