Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F9/00—Details other than those peculiar to special kinds or types of apparatus
  • G07F9/02—Devices for alarm or indication, e.g. when empty; Advertising arrangements in coin-freed apparatus
  • G07F9/026—Devices for alarm or indication, e.g. when empty; Advertising arrangements in coin-freed apparatus for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
  • G06F16/20—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor of structured data, e.g. relational data
  • G06F16/27—Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
  • G06F16/273—Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F9/00—Details other than those peculiar to special kinds or types of apparatus
  • G07F9/001—Interfacing with vending machines using mobile or wearable devices
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F9/00—Details other than those peculiar to special kinds or types of apparatus
  • G07F9/002—Vending machines being part of a centrally controlled network of vending machines

Definitions

• the disclosure relates to combining and processing vending machine operational data from multiple sources within a machine.
• a vending machine includes, but is not limited to, a beverage machine, a food/snack machine, a full line vending machine, a kiosk, a drink machine, a ticket terminal, and automated teller machine (ATM), or any other device capable of accepting items of value in exchange for goods or services
• the VMC is configured to store the product information and the transaction information.
• operational data e.g., coin tube empty, coin tube jam, banknote recycler empty, etc.
• the audit devices currently used and known in the art are capable of obtaining the product and transaction information from a single source since this information is available from the vending machine controller.
• additional operational data stored within a peripheral device must be separately audited and thus two or more vending data files or records (e.g., DEX files) will be generated.
• the audit module (or its functionality) is integrated into a device within the vending machine.
• the audit module can be integrated into a coin mechanism, vending machine controller, a bill mechanism, a bill recycler (a type of bill mechanism which can also dispense bills to a user), a card reader, or any other device connected to the vending machine.
• Figure 2 illustrates multiple devices operatively connected within a
• Figure 5 illustrates a series of operations that can be performed by an audit module.
• Figure 8 illustrates a series of operations that can be performed by an audit module.
• an audit module 100 can be integrated into vending machine 10 to obtain device data from at least two different source and combine this device date into a single record.
• vending machine 10 includes a vending
• vending machine 10 can include multiple buttons
• vending machine 10 can include coin mechanism 30, a bill mechanism 40, and a cashless card reader 50 as shown in Figure 2.
• each of the peripheral payment devices 20 communicate with vending machine controller 15 to provide accepted monies and dispensed monies information as required by the type of vending machine controller 15.
• each of the peripheral payment devices 20 keeps records of transactional data related to its respective operation.
• coin mechanism 30 can be configured to include a coin validation module 1 10, an audit module 100, a local area network (LAN) module 130, a wide area network (WAN) module 140, and a communications interface 160 (Figure 3).
• Coin validation module 1 10 can be a component of coin mechanism 30 configured to evaluate coins or tokens inserted into vending machine 10, and to determine their respective acceptability.
• the various details of coin validation are known in the art, and the details of the function of coin validation 1 10 are not the subject of the current disclosure.
• FIG. 7 shows an implementation of audit module 100 as a separate device operatively coupled to vending machine 10 and other device (e.g., VMC 15, coin mechanism 30, bill mechanism 40, and cashless device 50).
• Audit module 100 can include a controller 101 configured to control the overall operation of audit module 100, a memory unit 102 for storing various data and programming associated with audit module 100, LAN module 103 for operatively coupling audit module 100 to a local area network 65, WAN module 104 for operatively coupling audit module 100 to a wide area network 66, and communication interface 160 for operatively coupling audit module 100 to at least VMC 15 and one other peripheral device 20 (e.g., coin mechanism 30, bill mechanism 40, or cashless device 50).
• a controller 101 configured to control the overall operation of audit module 100
• a memory unit 102 for storing various data and programming associated with audit module 100
• LAN module 103 for operatively coupling audit module 100 to a local area network 65
• WAN module 104 for operatively coupling audit module 100
• Step 100 shows a multi-step process of how audit module 100 processes multiple vending data files so as to generate a single audit record indicative of the operation of vending machine 10 since the last such file was generated.
• Step 100 depicts the activity of audit module 100 obtaining device data files (i.e., vending data) from multiple sources within vending machine 10.
• device data files i.e., vending data
• audit module 100 polls each of the associated devices 20 within a vending machine according to a standard protocol.
• audit module 100 obtains device data files from multiple devices by means other than a polling event.
• audit module 100 performs an operation at step 400 to begin merging each of the device data files into one file. Details of how multiple audit files can be merged is described in greater detail below. Once the device data files have been merged in step 400, audit module 100 generates a merged audit record in step 500.
• audit module 100 performs the operation of merging the at least two device data files [shown as step 400 in Figure 5], each device data file steps through each data group.
• a reference table [shown in Table 2] stored within audit module 100 is used to determine how the data between each device data file will be managed according to a predetermined relationship for a given data group. For example, in some cases only VMC 15 device data is retained in the merged record and in some cases both the VMC and at least one peripheral device data (e.g., coin mechanism 30 data) are retained in the merged audit record.
• Table 2 shows an example reference table stored within audit module 100 as used for a vending machine having device data files only from VMC 15 and coin mechanism 30. However any number of other devices could be included to have a predetermined relationship as to data groups.
• a second type of data relates to interim data (i.e., the total value since the last device data file was generated). For example, a data field relating to 1 $ coins received, would contain the total number of 1 $ coins received since the last time a device data file was generated. In some configurations of vending machine 10, interim data fields in a device are reset after each device data file is generated.
• audit module 100 can be configured to retain a merged audit record in memory.
• a merged audit record can further be flagged or otherwise identified so as to differentiate it from future merged audit records.
• audit module 100 is configured to retain a
• Figure 8 depicts a series of operations of audit module 100 to merge

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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
• Computing Systems (AREA)
• Data Mining & Analysis (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Control Of Vending Devices And Auxiliary Devices For Vending Devices (AREA)

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• 2011
  • 2011-04-11 MX MX2012011955A patent/MX2012011955A/es not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2011-04-11 BR BR112012026171A patent/BR112012026171A2/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2011-04-11 JP JP2013504982A patent/JP2013524384A/ja active Pending
  • 2011-04-11 AU AU2011240839A patent/AU2011240839A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2011-04-11 EP EP11721147A patent/EP2559013A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2011-04-11 US US13/640,660 patent/US9547950B2/en active Active
  • 2011-04-11 WO PCT/US2011/031971 patent/WO2011130177A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2011-04-11 CN CN2011800288831A patent/CN102947869A/zh active Pending

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