GB2420115A

GB2420115A - Brochure dispensing machine

Info

Publication number: GB2420115A
Application number: GB0423739A
Authority: GB
Inventors: William James Gibson
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2004-10-26
Filing date: 2004-10-26
Publication date: 2006-05-17
Also published as: GB0423739D0

Abstract

A brochure dispensing machine includes a brochure printer or selection device 6 attached to the interior side of a door or wall 9. Paper guides 7 and a paper stop 8 are positioned so as to hold a brochure in a convenient position to be extracted through a suitable aperture 10. The aperture may be an existing letterbox and the stop 8 can be displaced to allow the normal delivery of mail. A customer chooses a brochure by means of a display 3 and input device 4. The display 3 and input device 4 may be shared with another system.

Description

Brochure Dispensing Machine The invention relates to equipment that

dispenses advertising or other printed material on demand to prospective customers when a businesses office is closed.

Businesses such as Estate Agents and Car Dealers can not easily deliver brochures to potential customers from their offices at unsociable times. Furthermore, it is difficult to design a machine that can deliver printed material on demand without considerable structural work to the Business premises to create a hole large enough to allow the passage of brochures from inside to the customer outside.

A further problem of a brochure dispensing machine is the cost of the components required to communicate with a customer such as a display and a keypad. Another disadvantage of a Printed Brochure Dispensing Machine is that it requires a user to identify a product of interest to the Printed Brochure Dispensing Machine using a product code which the user must remember between viewing a product and entering the product code into the Printed Brochure Dispensing Machine. A further problem of a brochure dispensing machine which uses an existing letter box is the possible obstruction of the letterbox for normal use by uncollected brochures.

An object of this invention is to provide a machine that can dispense a selected brochure on demand from inside business premises to a waiting customer outside business premises. A further object of this invention is to minimise the structural work to business premises necessary to deploy the invention. A further object of this invention is to optionally share components of the Printed Brochure Dispensing Machine with other machines where these components already exist. A further object of this invention is to provide integration with an existing interactive advertising display system to allow a user to select a product of interest by selecting the product on the screen of the interactive advertising display system. A further object of this invention is to provide a means by which uncollected brochures are cleared when normal mail is delivered.

Accordingly, the invention provides a machine which delivers advertising material through an aperture in a door or wall on request from a potential customer. The aperture may comprise an existing letterbox which allows a customer to withdraw advertising material through the letterbox in the reverse direction whilst not interfering with the normal function of the letterbox. Additionally the invention provides a means of supporting the printed material behind the letterbox or other aperture in a manner that allows easy retrieval from outside the business whilst not restricting the use of the letterbox as a normal letterbox. Additionally the invention provides an optional means of sharing some components that exist on another existing interactive system and a means of selecting a product of interest from an existing interactive advertising display system.

Preferably the Dispensing Machine is of lightweight construction allowing easy installation on glass or wood. Preferably the Dispensing Machine is of small size permitting direct mounting on the back of a door.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing in which FIGURE 1 shows a block diagram of the whole Machine; FIGURE 2 shows a cross section through the Dispensing part of the Machine; FIGURE 3 shows one implementation of a paper stop which supports printed material in a position suitable for collection by a customer; FIGURE 4 shows a view looking through the letterbox aperture from the outside; FIGURE 5 shows an alternative means of supporting advertising material in a position suitable for collection by a customer.

As shown in Figure 1 the Brochure Dispensing Machine comprises a dispensing mechanism 1 which is controlled by a computer 2. A display 3 and keypad 4 provide a means for a customer to interact with the Machine. The computer 2 connects to a database 5 containing a list of products and the location of files containing the relevant brochure. If the printer 6 is replaced with an alternative device which selects pre-printed brochures from trays then the database will contain information about the physical location of the pre-printed brochures.

An administration computer 11 provides a means of editing the information stored in the database.

The display 3 and keypad 4 may optionally be shared with another system such as an interactive advertising display system.

As shown in Figure 2, the dispensing mechanism I comprises a printer 6 (or alternatively a brochure selection device which selects one or more brochures from a pre-printed collection of brochures); paper guides 7 and a paper stop 8. The dispensing mechanism is mounted on or close to an aperture in a door or outside wall 9. The aperture may comprise an existing letterbox. Paper 12 is delivered by the printer (or other brochure dispensing device) 6 through the paper guides 7 until the paper rests in a position suitable for retrieval by a customer. In this particular embodiment, paper is dropped vertically until it hits the paper stop 8. However, an alternative embodiment would be to feed the paper upwards and again hold the paper in a convenient position for collection by a customer.

Figure 3 shows one design of paper stop 8 which allows easy collection through a letterbox or similar aperture. In this design, the paper stop provides one or more flexible fingers 13 which are sufficiently rigid to support paper, but can be easily bent out of way to allow normal postal items to be placed through the letterbox. The paper stop is shown mounted to the door or wall; however it could also be mounted on the dispensing mechanism 1. The paper stop 8 is designed to bend at the position marked 16. The portion of the paper stop which is rigidly mounted is shown hatched.

Figure 4 shows a view looking through the aperture 10 in the door or wall showing how the paper 12 is conveniently supported at a convenient height. This design allows human fingers to enter the aperture 10 and withdraw the paper 12 without the fingers 13 getting in the way. The portion of the paper stop which is rigidly mounted is shown hatched.

Figure 5 shows an alternative design of paper stop in which a rigid paper stop 14 is mounted on a sprung loaded hinge 15. The paper 12 can be conveniently reached because of the scallop 17 formed in the paper stop 14. If the aperture is a letterbox, mail may be delivered as normal because the paper stop 14 is hinged allowing it to momentarily swing whilst post is passing through the letterbox. The portion of the paper stop which is rigidly mounted is shown hatched.

Paper 12 which is left uncollected can be readily cleared from the normal path of mail by being displaced by the entry of normal mail material into the letterbox.

An example of the invention comprises a dispensing mechanism 1; a computer 2; a display screen 3 a keypad 4 and a database 5. A potential customer enters information into the keypad 4 which is recognised by the computer 2 as a reference to a particular product. The computer 2 interrogates the database to determine where the document is and prints the document on the printer 6. The printed brochure falls by gravity until arrested by the paper stop 8. The paper stop allows paper to be easily withdrawn by the customer. When mail is inserted into the letter box, the paper stop and any uncollected brochures are pushed out of the way by the incoming mail.

Claims

1 A brochure dispensing machine including a brochure selection or printing device mounted inside premises and a guide and stop to allow collection of the brochure from outside the premises through a slot or existing letterbox and an associated electronic display and data entry device to allow a customer to select which brochure to dispense.

2 A brochure dispensing machine as claimed in claim 1 which incorporates a guide and stop arranged to allow an existing letterbox to be used to dispense brochures and also to receive normal mail.

3 A brochure dispensing machine as claimed in claim 1 incorporating a guide and stop arranged to clear uncollected brochures when normal post is delivered

4 A brochure dispensing machine as claimed in any preceeding claim which incorporates an electronic display and data entry device to allow the selection and preview of detailed information before dispensing a brochure.

A brochure dispensing machine as claimed in claim 4 which shares an electronic display and data entry device with another machine or system.

6 A brochure dispensing machine as claimed in any preceeding claim which incorporates an interactive display and data entry components which allows a customer to request dispensing of a brochure by selecting a product from a screen and without entering a reference code 7 A brochure dispensing machine substantially as herein described above and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.