Patent ID: 8003931

Claim:
In a transparent-front vending machine which has at least one mechanism arranged for initiating operation upon selection by a customer for vending an article into a vend space through which the article falls freely into a customer-accessible hopper, an optical vend-sensing system comprising: a pair of movable members positioned on opposite sides of the vend space; each of the movable members including at least one emitter and at least one detector; the pair of movable members exhibiting movement that is relative to the vend space so that electromagnetic radiation emitted from the emitters will create a dynamic detection zone that substantially spans a cross-section of the vend space; whereby at least some electromagnetic radiation emitted by each of said at least one emitter can be detected by opposing detectors so that articles freely falling through the vend space will interrupt electromagnetic radiation between at least one emitter and at least one detector; (B) a machine control unit arranged to control operation of the respective at least one mechanism; and (C) control circuitry operatively connecting the article sensing system with said machine control unit, and arranged to cause the machine control unit to complete a vend operation procedure of the at least one mechanism upon the article sensing system sensing a transition of a vended article through the vend space.