CA2127600A1 - Information vending machine - Google Patents
Information vending machineInfo
- Publication number
- CA2127600A1 CA2127600A1 CA 2127600 CA2127600A CA2127600A1 CA 2127600 A1 CA2127600 A1 CA 2127600A1 CA 2127600 CA2127600 CA 2127600 CA 2127600 A CA2127600 A CA 2127600A CA 2127600 A1 CA2127600 A1 CA 2127600A1
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- information
- vending machine
- computer
- vending
- customer
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Abandoned
Links
Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
- G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
- G07F17/00—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services
- G07F17/26—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services for printing, stamping, franking, typing or teleprinting apparatus
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
- G06Q20/08—Payment architectures
- G06Q20/18—Payment architectures involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
- G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
- G07F17/00—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services
- G07F17/16—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services for devices exhibiting advertisements, announcements, pictures or the like
Landscapes
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
- Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
- Finance (AREA)
- Strategic Management (AREA)
- General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
- Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)
- Control Of Vending Devices And Auxiliary Devices For Vending Devices (AREA)
Abstract
A coin operated, computer controlled information vending machine which not only displays classified advertisements, information from encyclopedias, and incoming and outgoing messages but also upon request prints such information.
The information vending machine comprises a computer, a keyboard, a video screen, a printer and a coin accepter.
The information vending machines in different locations may be interconnected by modems or they may be connected to a central master computer by modems to exchange the latest updated data.
When a user chooses his or her request from the menu and inserts a fixed amount of money, the computer gives instructions, such as, how to input information for classified advertisements or how to print the information requested.
The information vending machine comprises a computer, a keyboard, a video screen, a printer and a coin accepter.
The information vending machines in different locations may be interconnected by modems or they may be connected to a central master computer by modems to exchange the latest updated data.
When a user chooses his or her request from the menu and inserts a fixed amount of money, the computer gives instructions, such as, how to input information for classified advertisements or how to print the information requested.
Description
G
, .
1 FIELD OF 1~ INVENTION
3 This invention relates to a coin operated, computer 4 controlled vending machine of information: classified advertisements, personal messages, general knowledge from 6 encyclopedias.
8RAC~GROUND OF THE INVENTION
10A variety of vending machines are known wherein a customer 11may purchase an article or articles upon depositing a fixed 12amount of money. Known vending machines dispense a variety of 13products including books of stamps, movie cassettes, computer 14programs, food and beverages, photographs of the customer and 15the like. While useful as far as they go, none of the vending 16~ch-nes known sells information such as classified 17advertisements, personal messages and general knowledge from 18reference materials.
22The present invention provides a vending machine for the 23buying and selling of information displayed such as 24classified advertisements, personal messages and general 25knowledge from reference materials.
26The subject invention includes a housing , display means, 27data entry means, control means with data storage means, 28processing means to control the vending operations, printing 29means and money accepting means.
30According to another aspect of the invention the vending 31~chine for displaying classified advertisements and selling 32information includes a housing, video screen to display "how ~-~ 2127600 1 to use" instructions, classified advertisements and 2 information, a keyboard to input data, a computer with hard 3 disk and floppy disk, a program to control the vending 4 operation, a printer and a coin accepter or credit card reader to accept a fixed amount of money.
9 The invention will be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which 11 Figure 1 is a perspective view of the vending machine of the 12 subject invention;
13 Figure 2 is a perspective view of the vending machine which 14 shows the inside layout;
Figure 3 is a schematic which shows the vending machines are 16 connected to the central computer with communication means 17 such as a modem.
18 Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7 shows a flow chart 19 of a program controlling the vending operations. For purposes of clarification, the different steps of the operation are 21 indicated by the step numbers prefixed by the letter S in the 22 flow chart.
26 The preferred embodiment of the vending machine of the 27 subject invention will be discussed with reference to the 28 figures wherein like numerals refer to like parts.
29 Referring first to figures 1 and 2, the subject vending machine shown at 10 includes a computer 17 located beslde the 31 housing door 19 in a housing 18. Computer 17 comprises a hard 32 disk drive or a floppy disk drive to store programs to control 33 the vending -ch1ne and information data to sell.
34 On the top of housing 18 a keyboard 12 to input information 1 and request of customers and a video screen or cathode ray 2 tube (CRT) 11 to display a menu, instructions to users, 3 classified advertisements and information to sell are 4 installed.
Vending machine 10 is provided with a printer 16 held by a 6 bracket 20 in the front side of housing 18. Rolled blank 7 printer paper 15 is held by shaft 21 installed to bracket 16.
8 One end of printer paper is fed to printer 16 and when a print 9 is requested by a customer, printed information 14 comes out of housing 18 through slot 22 which has a sharp edge to tear 11 the paper off easily. In an alternative embodiment, blank 12 sheet papers may be used provided with appropriate storage 13 means and feeding means to replace rolled printer paper 15.
14 Vending machine 10 includes a coin acceptor 13 mounted on the outside front of housing 18. In an alternative embodiment, a 16 credit card reader may be included to accept a monetary 17 equivalent such as a credit card.
18 Display 11, keyboard 12, printer 16 and coin accepter 13 are 19 connected to computer 17 and controlled by the program shown as a flow chart in Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7.
22 Referring now to Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7, 23 the program flow chart to control vending machine 10 will be 24 explained.
26 First of all there is a time limit to keep data such as 27 classified advertisements and messages in the data base. The 28 program updates the data base deleting expired data at the 29 beginning of the vending process as shown in step 1.
31 First the process of buying and selling items will be 32 explained.
33 When not in use the vending machine 10 displays the menu a 34 customer can choose from as shown in step 2. When a customer i ¢~
~-~ 212760 1 selects "buy/sell", for instance, the vending machine 10 will 2 ask if the customer wants to buy or to sell. When the customer 3 wants to sell, the vending machine 10 asks for a fixed amount 4 of money. Once the customer pays the required amount of money the vending machine 10 will prompt the customer to input the 6 information of the item he or she wants to sell through the 7 key board 12.For instance when the customer wants to sell a 8 car, the information he or she has to input is: the make of 9 the car, the model, the year made, the price, the condition, the address of the vendor and the telephone number to 11 contact. The vending machine 10 will ask the customer if the 12 information he or she has input is correct. When the customer 13 confirms the information is correct, the vending machine 14 stores the information in the data base for future retrieval and sale. Then the program goes back to step 2 to show the 16 original menu.This process to advertise item(s) for sale is 17 shown step 1, step 2, step 3,step 4,step 7, step 8, step 9, 18 step 10, step 11 and step 12.
When a customer wants to buy a car, he or she selects "cars 21 for sale" from the menu at step 13. Then the vending machine 22 10 asks how the list of cars is to be sorted. For example when 23 the customer chooses the list sorted by price, the display 11 24 of the vending m~Chi ne 10 shows the list of the cars starting with the lowest priced one. Similarly, when the customer wants 26 the list sorted by area, the display 11 of the vend-ng machine 27 shows the list of the cars, for instance, by a block into 28 which a city is divided, or in accordance with the postal 29 code. The vending machine 10 will ask the customer to pay if a print is required. When the customer pays a fixed amount of 31 money, a print of the requested list 14 comes out of the 32 vending machine 10 through the slot 22, then the customer 33 tears off the print-out 14 using sharp edge of slot 22. After 34 the printing process is done the display 11 returns to step 2 1 and shows the original menu.This buying item(s) process is 2 shown as step 1, step 2, step 3, step 4, step 7, step 13, step 3 14, step 15, step 16, step 17, step 18 and step 19.
4 When the customer dose not want any print the program bypass step 17, step 18 and step 19 then goes back to original menu.
7 The buying and selling items which the vending machine 10 8 can handle will be cars, electric appliances, computers, 9 computer games, furniture, houses and any item which has market value.
12 Next the process to sell information from encyclopedias will 13 be explained.
14 When a customer chooses "encyclopedia" from the menu, the vending machine 10 prompts the customer to key in the subject 16 about which he or she wants to have information. Once the 17 customer inputs the subject, the video screen 11 displays the 18 information and asks if a print is required. When the customer 19 replies "yes" through the key board 12, vending machine 10 will prompt the customer to pay a fixed amount of money. After 21 the customer pays the amount of money, the print of the 22 information will come out through slot 22. This process is 23 shown by step 1, step 2, step 3, step 5, step 20, step 21, 24 step 22, step 23, step 24 and step 25.
When the customer tells vending machine 10 that he or she does 26 not require a print through keyboard 12, the video screen 27 display returns to original menu step 2 bypassing step 23, 28 step 24 and step 25.
Lastly the process to use vending machine 10 as a message 31 centre will be discussed.
32 When a customer chooses "message" from the menu, vending 33 -~hi~e 10 will ask if he or she wants to leave or to check 34 for any personal messages. When the customer tells vending 1 ~ch;ne 10 that he or she wants to leave a message through 2 keyboard 12, vending machine 10 will prompt the customer to 3 pay a fixed amount of money. After paying the required money, 4 the customer can leave a message through keyboard 12. To leave a message the customer may use a pass word, so that, only the 6 person to whom the customer leaves the message can access it.
7 After the customer confirms the message is correct the message 8 will be stored in the data base then display of video screen 9 11 returns to the original menu shown step 2. ~his process of leaving a message is shown by step 1, step 2, step 3, step 6, 11 step 26, step 27, step 28, step 29, step 30 and step 31.
12 When a customer wants to see if any message is left for him 13 or her, he or she chooses "message" from the menu and chooses 14 to see or check for a message as shown at step 26 then keys in the pass word. When any message is left for him or her, video 16 screen 11 tells the customer so and prompts him or her to pay 17 a fixed amount of money. When the customer pays the amount 18 money requested, vending machine 10 will ask if a print is 19 required or just display. When the customer inputs through key board 12 that he or she wants a print of the message, it will 21 be printed and comes out through slot 22 and the display of 22 video screen 11 goes back to the original menu.
23 When the customer tells vending machine 10 that he or she does 24 not need a print the video screen 11 displays the message then returns to the original menu.This process of checking if a Z6 message was left is shown by step 1, step 2, step 3, step 6, 27 step 26, step 32, step 33, step 34, step 35, step 36, step 37, 28 step 38 and step 39.
29 When no message was left for the customer video screen 11 displays "no message" then the display changes to the original 31 menu bypassing step 35, step 36, step 37, step 38 and step 39.
34 The above preferred embodiment is an independent vending 212760~
~ch1ne. The disadvantage of an independent one is that the 2 number of users are limited to the area where the vending 3 machine is located. To overcome this disadvantage the vending 4 machines located in different places can be connected with communication means such as a modem (MOdulator-DEModulator) to 6 a central computer which can distribute the common data base 7 which is always updated adding new information or deleting 8 expired old information. This network of the vending machine 9 is shown with the schematic of Figure 3. The vending machine 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 and 37 which are located in 11 different locations are connected to a central computer 38 by 12 communication means such as a modem and telephone network as 13 shown with arrow 39 in Figure 3.It is obvious that by using 14 communication means such as a modem it is possible to network these vending machines in different locations so that they can 16 exchange data among themselves without central control means 17 such as a central computer.
18 Another alternative preferred embodiment is to use a fax 19 (facsimile) modem as communication means.The advantage of this embodiment is that by adding an image scanner, users can 21 send a fax of hand written letters or pictures.Users can also 22 receive a fax which will be kept in the data base until it is 23 retrieved.
24 While the present invention has been described and illustrated with respect to the preferred and alternative 26 embodiments, it will be appreciated that numerous variations 27 of these embodiments may be made without departing from the 28 scope of the invention, which is defined in the appended 29 claims.
, .
1 FIELD OF 1~ INVENTION
3 This invention relates to a coin operated, computer 4 controlled vending machine of information: classified advertisements, personal messages, general knowledge from 6 encyclopedias.
8RAC~GROUND OF THE INVENTION
10A variety of vending machines are known wherein a customer 11may purchase an article or articles upon depositing a fixed 12amount of money. Known vending machines dispense a variety of 13products including books of stamps, movie cassettes, computer 14programs, food and beverages, photographs of the customer and 15the like. While useful as far as they go, none of the vending 16~ch-nes known sells information such as classified 17advertisements, personal messages and general knowledge from 18reference materials.
22The present invention provides a vending machine for the 23buying and selling of information displayed such as 24classified advertisements, personal messages and general 25knowledge from reference materials.
26The subject invention includes a housing , display means, 27data entry means, control means with data storage means, 28processing means to control the vending operations, printing 29means and money accepting means.
30According to another aspect of the invention the vending 31~chine for displaying classified advertisements and selling 32information includes a housing, video screen to display "how ~-~ 2127600 1 to use" instructions, classified advertisements and 2 information, a keyboard to input data, a computer with hard 3 disk and floppy disk, a program to control the vending 4 operation, a printer and a coin accepter or credit card reader to accept a fixed amount of money.
9 The invention will be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which 11 Figure 1 is a perspective view of the vending machine of the 12 subject invention;
13 Figure 2 is a perspective view of the vending machine which 14 shows the inside layout;
Figure 3 is a schematic which shows the vending machines are 16 connected to the central computer with communication means 17 such as a modem.
18 Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7 shows a flow chart 19 of a program controlling the vending operations. For purposes of clarification, the different steps of the operation are 21 indicated by the step numbers prefixed by the letter S in the 22 flow chart.
26 The preferred embodiment of the vending machine of the 27 subject invention will be discussed with reference to the 28 figures wherein like numerals refer to like parts.
29 Referring first to figures 1 and 2, the subject vending machine shown at 10 includes a computer 17 located beslde the 31 housing door 19 in a housing 18. Computer 17 comprises a hard 32 disk drive or a floppy disk drive to store programs to control 33 the vending -ch1ne and information data to sell.
34 On the top of housing 18 a keyboard 12 to input information 1 and request of customers and a video screen or cathode ray 2 tube (CRT) 11 to display a menu, instructions to users, 3 classified advertisements and information to sell are 4 installed.
Vending machine 10 is provided with a printer 16 held by a 6 bracket 20 in the front side of housing 18. Rolled blank 7 printer paper 15 is held by shaft 21 installed to bracket 16.
8 One end of printer paper is fed to printer 16 and when a print 9 is requested by a customer, printed information 14 comes out of housing 18 through slot 22 which has a sharp edge to tear 11 the paper off easily. In an alternative embodiment, blank 12 sheet papers may be used provided with appropriate storage 13 means and feeding means to replace rolled printer paper 15.
14 Vending machine 10 includes a coin acceptor 13 mounted on the outside front of housing 18. In an alternative embodiment, a 16 credit card reader may be included to accept a monetary 17 equivalent such as a credit card.
18 Display 11, keyboard 12, printer 16 and coin accepter 13 are 19 connected to computer 17 and controlled by the program shown as a flow chart in Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7.
22 Referring now to Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7, 23 the program flow chart to control vending machine 10 will be 24 explained.
26 First of all there is a time limit to keep data such as 27 classified advertisements and messages in the data base. The 28 program updates the data base deleting expired data at the 29 beginning of the vending process as shown in step 1.
31 First the process of buying and selling items will be 32 explained.
33 When not in use the vending machine 10 displays the menu a 34 customer can choose from as shown in step 2. When a customer i ¢~
~-~ 212760 1 selects "buy/sell", for instance, the vending machine 10 will 2 ask if the customer wants to buy or to sell. When the customer 3 wants to sell, the vending machine 10 asks for a fixed amount 4 of money. Once the customer pays the required amount of money the vending machine 10 will prompt the customer to input the 6 information of the item he or she wants to sell through the 7 key board 12.For instance when the customer wants to sell a 8 car, the information he or she has to input is: the make of 9 the car, the model, the year made, the price, the condition, the address of the vendor and the telephone number to 11 contact. The vending machine 10 will ask the customer if the 12 information he or she has input is correct. When the customer 13 confirms the information is correct, the vending machine 14 stores the information in the data base for future retrieval and sale. Then the program goes back to step 2 to show the 16 original menu.This process to advertise item(s) for sale is 17 shown step 1, step 2, step 3,step 4,step 7, step 8, step 9, 18 step 10, step 11 and step 12.
When a customer wants to buy a car, he or she selects "cars 21 for sale" from the menu at step 13. Then the vending machine 22 10 asks how the list of cars is to be sorted. For example when 23 the customer chooses the list sorted by price, the display 11 24 of the vending m~Chi ne 10 shows the list of the cars starting with the lowest priced one. Similarly, when the customer wants 26 the list sorted by area, the display 11 of the vend-ng machine 27 shows the list of the cars, for instance, by a block into 28 which a city is divided, or in accordance with the postal 29 code. The vending machine 10 will ask the customer to pay if a print is required. When the customer pays a fixed amount of 31 money, a print of the requested list 14 comes out of the 32 vending machine 10 through the slot 22, then the customer 33 tears off the print-out 14 using sharp edge of slot 22. After 34 the printing process is done the display 11 returns to step 2 1 and shows the original menu.This buying item(s) process is 2 shown as step 1, step 2, step 3, step 4, step 7, step 13, step 3 14, step 15, step 16, step 17, step 18 and step 19.
4 When the customer dose not want any print the program bypass step 17, step 18 and step 19 then goes back to original menu.
7 The buying and selling items which the vending machine 10 8 can handle will be cars, electric appliances, computers, 9 computer games, furniture, houses and any item which has market value.
12 Next the process to sell information from encyclopedias will 13 be explained.
14 When a customer chooses "encyclopedia" from the menu, the vending machine 10 prompts the customer to key in the subject 16 about which he or she wants to have information. Once the 17 customer inputs the subject, the video screen 11 displays the 18 information and asks if a print is required. When the customer 19 replies "yes" through the key board 12, vending machine 10 will prompt the customer to pay a fixed amount of money. After 21 the customer pays the amount of money, the print of the 22 information will come out through slot 22. This process is 23 shown by step 1, step 2, step 3, step 5, step 20, step 21, 24 step 22, step 23, step 24 and step 25.
When the customer tells vending machine 10 that he or she does 26 not require a print through keyboard 12, the video screen 27 display returns to original menu step 2 bypassing step 23, 28 step 24 and step 25.
Lastly the process to use vending machine 10 as a message 31 centre will be discussed.
32 When a customer chooses "message" from the menu, vending 33 -~hi~e 10 will ask if he or she wants to leave or to check 34 for any personal messages. When the customer tells vending 1 ~ch;ne 10 that he or she wants to leave a message through 2 keyboard 12, vending machine 10 will prompt the customer to 3 pay a fixed amount of money. After paying the required money, 4 the customer can leave a message through keyboard 12. To leave a message the customer may use a pass word, so that, only the 6 person to whom the customer leaves the message can access it.
7 After the customer confirms the message is correct the message 8 will be stored in the data base then display of video screen 9 11 returns to the original menu shown step 2. ~his process of leaving a message is shown by step 1, step 2, step 3, step 6, 11 step 26, step 27, step 28, step 29, step 30 and step 31.
12 When a customer wants to see if any message is left for him 13 or her, he or she chooses "message" from the menu and chooses 14 to see or check for a message as shown at step 26 then keys in the pass word. When any message is left for him or her, video 16 screen 11 tells the customer so and prompts him or her to pay 17 a fixed amount of money. When the customer pays the amount 18 money requested, vending machine 10 will ask if a print is 19 required or just display. When the customer inputs through key board 12 that he or she wants a print of the message, it will 21 be printed and comes out through slot 22 and the display of 22 video screen 11 goes back to the original menu.
23 When the customer tells vending machine 10 that he or she does 24 not need a print the video screen 11 displays the message then returns to the original menu.This process of checking if a Z6 message was left is shown by step 1, step 2, step 3, step 6, 27 step 26, step 32, step 33, step 34, step 35, step 36, step 37, 28 step 38 and step 39.
29 When no message was left for the customer video screen 11 displays "no message" then the display changes to the original 31 menu bypassing step 35, step 36, step 37, step 38 and step 39.
34 The above preferred embodiment is an independent vending 212760~
~ch1ne. The disadvantage of an independent one is that the 2 number of users are limited to the area where the vending 3 machine is located. To overcome this disadvantage the vending 4 machines located in different places can be connected with communication means such as a modem (MOdulator-DEModulator) to 6 a central computer which can distribute the common data base 7 which is always updated adding new information or deleting 8 expired old information. This network of the vending machine 9 is shown with the schematic of Figure 3. The vending machine 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 and 37 which are located in 11 different locations are connected to a central computer 38 by 12 communication means such as a modem and telephone network as 13 shown with arrow 39 in Figure 3.It is obvious that by using 14 communication means such as a modem it is possible to network these vending machines in different locations so that they can 16 exchange data among themselves without central control means 17 such as a central computer.
18 Another alternative preferred embodiment is to use a fax 19 (facsimile) modem as communication means.The advantage of this embodiment is that by adding an image scanner, users can 21 send a fax of hand written letters or pictures.Users can also 22 receive a fax which will be kept in the data base until it is 23 retrieved.
24 While the present invention has been described and illustrated with respect to the preferred and alternative 26 embodiments, it will be appreciated that numerous variations 27 of these embodiments may be made without departing from the 28 scope of the invention, which is defined in the appended 29 claims.
Claims (5)
1. A vending machine for displaying classified advertisements and selling information comprising:
a) a housing;
b) control means mounted in the housing provided with data storage means;
c) processing means for controlling the operation of the control means, the processing means responsive to data input by a user, wherein the processing means provides instructions to the user at various stages in the vending procedure which must be carried out in order to advance to the next stage of the vending procedure;
d) display means connected to the control means to display the instructions to use the vending machine, classified advertisements and information ;
e) data input means connected to the control means for the user to respond to the instructions shown on said display means and to input information;
f) printing means connected to the control means to print requested information; and g) payment means operable by customer on the outside of said housing to proceed to further appropriate steps in the process.
a) a housing;
b) control means mounted in the housing provided with data storage means;
c) processing means for controlling the operation of the control means, the processing means responsive to data input by a user, wherein the processing means provides instructions to the user at various stages in the vending procedure which must be carried out in order to advance to the next stage of the vending procedure;
d) display means connected to the control means to display the instructions to use the vending machine, classified advertisements and information ;
e) data input means connected to the control means for the user to respond to the instructions shown on said display means and to input information;
f) printing means connected to the control means to print requested information; and g) payment means operable by customer on the outside of said housing to proceed to further appropriate steps in the process.
2. The vending machine according to claim 1 including communication means so that it can exchange data with other control means provided with data storage means in said vending machines located in different places or central master control means with data storage means.
3. A vending machine for displaying classified advertisements and selling information comprising:
a) a housing;
b) a computer mounted in the said housing provided with minimum one hard disk or minimum one floppy disk;
c) an interactive control program for controlling the operation of a computer, including displaying instructions on the video screen prompting the user to input data, commanding the memory and video screen to respectively store and display the input data, and commanding the printer to print requested information;
d) a video screen connected to said computer to display instructions to use the vending machine, classified advertisement and information;
e) a keyboard connected to said computer for the user to respond to the instructions shown on said video screen and to input information;
f) a printer connected to said computer to print requested information; and g) a coin accepter or credit card reader or both operable by the customer on the outside of said housing to proceed to further appropriate steps in the process.
a) a housing;
b) a computer mounted in the said housing provided with minimum one hard disk or minimum one floppy disk;
c) an interactive control program for controlling the operation of a computer, including displaying instructions on the video screen prompting the user to input data, commanding the memory and video screen to respectively store and display the input data, and commanding the printer to print requested information;
d) a video screen connected to said computer to display instructions to use the vending machine, classified advertisement and information;
e) a keyboard connected to said computer for the user to respond to the instructions shown on said video screen and to input information;
f) a printer connected to said computer to print requested information; and g) a coin accepter or credit card reader or both operable by the customer on the outside of said housing to proceed to further appropriate steps in the process.
4. The vending machine according to claim 3 including a modem (modulator-demodulator) so that it can exchange data with the computer in said vending machines in different locations or a master central computer.
5. The vending machine according to claim 3 including a fax(facsimile) modem and an image scanner so that it can send and receive fax and it can exchange data with the computer in said vending machines in different locations or a master central computer.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2127600 CA2127600A1 (en) | 1994-07-07 | 1994-07-07 | Information vending machine |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2127600 CA2127600A1 (en) | 1994-07-07 | 1994-07-07 | Information vending machine |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2127600A1 true CA2127600A1 (en) | 1996-01-08 |
Family
ID=4153969
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2127600 Abandoned CA2127600A1 (en) | 1994-07-07 | 1994-07-07 | Information vending machine |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA2127600A1 (en) |
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US6594548B2 (en) | 2001-04-12 | 2003-07-15 | Hani Bagnordi | Portable digital assistant |
-
1994
- 1994-07-07 CA CA 2127600 patent/CA2127600A1/en not_active Abandoned
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US6594548B2 (en) | 2001-04-12 | 2003-07-15 | Hani Bagnordi | Portable digital assistant |
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