Patent ID: 6839775

Claim:
A system comprising: a vending machine including (i) a plurality of coils onto which items are attached and (ii) a plurality of motors to control rotation of the plurality of coils for dispensing the items; a controller to generate control signals including user interface control signals; a display responsive to the user interface control signals to interactively prompt a user to provide user inputs to the controller, the user inputs including a selection of an item to be dispensed; and switching control circuitry connected to each of the plurality of motors of the vending machine, the switching control circuitry, responsive to the control signals, to provide power to at least one of the plurality of motors to dispense the selected item, wherein the controller to monitor and analyze power profiles of each of the plurality of motors to determine a condition experienced by the vending machine that requires human intervention by executing a software module that causes the controller to record the power profiles and to compare the power profiles with power profiles pre-stored in a database.