Patent ID: 7677450

Claim:
A vending control system comprising: a first node of a local area network, wherein the first node is to receive an input in the form of account identification data; a second node of the local area network, wherein the second node is to receive the input from the first node via a transport layer protocol; a vending control device connected to the second node, the vending control device includes a relay to be activated and deactivated by the second node, the relay is to enable and disable the functioning of an output device, and a circuit that is to meter an amount of output processed by the output device, the vending control device is to communicate the amount of output that has been processed to the second node; and wherein the second node is to calculate a cost of the processed output, the second node is to send the cost via a transport layer protocol to a remote server that is to send the cost to a gateway through which a payment transaction is settled.