Patent ID: 7228200

Claim:
A dispensing apparatus, comprising: a housing; a chain of bins in the housing; a dispensing station on the housing; a loading station on the housing: an entry device for generating dispense requests; means near the loading station for reading transaction information from marks on products when the products are in the bins; bin array data structure means for storing the transaction information obtained by the reading means in association with the locations of the bins that contain the products; a controller means coupled to the entry device, to the reading means, and to the bin array data structure means for: placing transaction information read by the reading means into the bin array data structure means in association with the locations of the bins in which the products are loaded; and, producing control information in response to a dispense request and the transaction information stored by the bin array data structure means, the control information indicating a bin containing a product; a mechanism in the housing coupled to the chain for moving the chain to place a the bin at the dispensing station in response to the control information; and, a door mechanism at the dispensing station for providing access to the bin in response to the control information.