Patent ID: 7040566

Claim:
A dispenser apparatus for dispensing sheet material from a roll of the type including a housing, a roll support supporting the roll for rotation within the housing, a discharge apparatus and a drive apparatus powering the discharge apparatus to discharge the sheet material from the dispenser, the improvement comprising: a sensor mounted in the housing, said sensor being positioned to read a code associated with the roll and generate a code signal corresponding to the code; a control circuit operatively connected to the sensor, said control circuit being adapted to (a) receive the code signal, (b) compare the code represented by said code signal to at least one code in a code database, and (c) set a dispenser-enabled state in which the dispenser is enabled corresponding to agreement between the codes and a dispenser-disabled state in which the dispenser is disabled when no such agreement exists; and power supply apparatus adapted to supply electrical energy to the sensor and control circuit.