Patent ID: 7446302

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) an article sensing subsystem arranged athwart said vend space, said article sensing subsystem comprising: (a1) a first emitter/detector array comprising at least one emitter and a plurality of detectors, and (a2) a second emitter/detector array comprising at least one emitter and a plurality of detectors, said first and second emitter/detector arrays positioned and arranged so that at least some electromagnetic radiation emitted by each said at least one emitter of said first array can be detected by at least two active but not all of said detectors at one time of said second array, and so that at least some electromagnetic radiation emitted by each said at least one emitter of said second array can be detected by at least two active but not all of the detectors at one time of said first array, and so that articles freely falling through the vend space will interrupt electromagnetic radiation between at least one emitter and at least one detector, wherein said first and said second emitter/detector arrays are positioned on opposite sides of said vend space to create a generally planar and fixed detection zone that substantially spans a cross-section of said vend space and wherein at least one emitter in each of said first and second arrays is active at one time; (B) a machine control unit arranged to control operation of the respective at least one mechanism; and (C) control circuitry operatively connecting said article sensing subsystem with said machine control unit, and arranged to cause the machine control unit to complete a vend operation procedure of said at least one mechanism upon said article sensing subsystem sensing a transition of an article through said article sensing subsystem.