Patent ID: 7191933

Claim:
A compact, automatic exact-fare payment accepting device enabling use of a vehicle by a user comprising: a housing having a first opening for receiving coins, a second opening for receiving bills, and a third opening for receiving a card including a credit, debit, and smart card, the housing further having an antenna location indicated on the housing for interacting with a transponder; means for automatically verifying the authenticity of one or more coins tendered in a single exact-fare payment transaction through the first opening and means for computing the total monetary value of the one or more coins tendered in the single exact-fare payment transaction; means for automatically verifying the authenticity of one or more bills tendered in a single exact-fare payment transaction through the second opening and means for computing the total monetary value of the one or more bills tendered in the single exact-fare payment transaction; a display on the housing to indicate when an exact-fare payment amount is reached through user tendered coins, bills, or a combination thereof; means for returning to a user all tendered coins and bills from a single exact-fare payment transaction when a total computed value of all coins and bills tendered by the user in the single exact-fare payment transaction exceeds the exact-fare amount; means for providing a predetermined time period, which is initiated by the entrance of a first one of the one or more tendered coins or bill; and means for activating the return of all coins and bills tendered for a single exact-fare payment transaction when the predetermined time period expires before an exact-fare value is computed from either or both of the means for computing the monetary value of the tendered coin and the means for computing the monetary value of the tendered bill, wherein the compact, automatic exact-fare paying device does not require intervention by an operator of the vehicle to process exact-fare transactions, and the compact, automatic exact-fare payment device only accepts a tendered amount equal to the exact-fare in every transaction and enables use of the vehicle by the user.