Patent ID: 7181501

Claim:
A remote data acquisition, transmission and analysis system for vending machines, comprising: a plurality of application controllers, each application controller interfacing with a vending machine controller of a vending machine from which operation data is acquired by the application controller; an application host communicating with the application controllers via a local area network, the application host comprising a wide area network interface for communicating with a network operations center; the network operation center communicating with the application host via a wide area network to receive the operation data acquired by the application controllers; the application controllers and the application host operating to auto configure the local area network upon initialization; the network operation center maintaining a database for the operation data and providing third party access to the database; handheld wireless equipment operable to communicate with the network operations center using a wide area network to obtain information from the database; the handheld wireless equipment operable to communicate with the application controllers using the local area network; and the handheld wireless equipment operable to obtain information for each vending machine including product dispensing, inventory data and cash levels to determine current requirements for maintenance and servicing of the respective vending machine.