Patent ID: 8401697

Claim:
A device for storing and dispensing tobacco products, the device comprising: a housing containing a plurality of chambers, wherein each chamber is configured to store tobacco product packages; a tracking system supported by the housing and configured to track the number of tobacco product packages in each chamber as tobacco product packages are dispensed from the chambers, wherein the tracking system comprises at least two pairs of light emitting elements and at least two pairs of light detection elements, where the light emitting elements in a particular pair of light emitting elements, or the light detection elements in a particular pair of light detection elements, are positioned on opposing sides of an interior of the housing; and an electronic system in communication with the tracking system and configured to enable dispensing of the tobacco product packages from the chambers, wherein the electronic system is further configured to: determine, based on detection by at least one of the light detection elements of a in the particular pair of light detection elements, a collimated beam of light emitted from a corresponding light emitting element in the particular pair of light emitting elements, that a tobacco product package has been dispensed from a particular chamber of the plurality of chambers; generate a data entry in response to the determination that the tobacco product package has been dispensed, the data entry comprising a tobacco product package identifier associated with the particular chamber, an operator identifier, and time information; and store the data entry in a data log.