Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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TITLE OF THE INVENTION
ARTICLE DISPENSING APPARATUS AND METHOD
HAVING REMOTE PURCHASE INITIATION AND
DELIVERY STATIONS
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
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The present invention relates to article
dispensing systems, and more particularly to such
systems that employ a dispensing apparatus remotely
located with respect to a purchase initiation station.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
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Many articles that have a relatively high
selling price but are sold in large volume have become
very problematic to the retailer because of the
problems of pilferage and inventory shrinkage.
Examples of such articles are pre-recorded audio and
video tape cassettes. If these articles are displayed
on open shelves, the losses may be so high as to make
sales entirely unfeasable from a business point of
view. On the other hand if the articles are kept in
locked cabinets, they require an inordinate amount of
the time of sales clerks and the problem of theft by
employees is not solved.
One approach to this problem is the use of
vending machines. However, vending machines generally
require that the purchaser use coins and have a
limited ability to make change. They are regarded as
inconvenient and unsuitable for higher priced items.
Moreover, many vending machines are so constructed
that they do not prevent pilferage.
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An objective of the present invention is to
overcome the above problems by combining the concept
of an array of vending or dispensing machines with the
more traditional concept of a central station at which
a cashier collects the purchase price. A further
objective is to provide such a system that is
relatively secure against theft by the general public
and by employees. Still another objective is to
provide such a system that is readily compatible with
computerized inventory control and accounting systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
r
According to the present invention, an
article purchase and dispensing apparatus that
accompanies the above objectives includes a purchase
initiation station that has a writer for encoding a
message carrier with indicia corresponding to a
particular category of articles to be dispensed. A
reader at the initiation station is capable of
decoding the message carrier to determine whether that
carrier has been used.
One or more dispensing stations are remotely
located from the initiation station. Each includes a
plurality of receptacles in which various categories
of articles can be stored. A releasing mechanism is
associated with each receptable to selectively
dispense articles upon the actuation thereof. Also
forming part of the dispensing station is a reader for
decoding the carrier and producing a signal that
actuates the releasing mechanism associated with the
receptacle corresponding to the encoded indicia. A
second writer, at the dispensing statîon, reencodes
the carrier to indicate that a particular article has
been dispensed.
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Preferably, indicia are recorded on the
carrier magnetically. The dispensing station may
include a sensor for detecting one of the articles
after it has been dispensed by the releasing mechanism
and for actuating the writer at that dispensing
station to reencode the carrier.
Another aspect of the invention is a method
for operating the system described above. According
to this method, a message carrier is encoded at a
purchase initiation station with indicia corresponding
to a particular category of articles to be dispensed.
The message carrier is presented at a remote
dispensing station were the carrier is decoded and the
article is dispensed. The carrier is then reencoded
with different indicia to indicate that the article
has been dispensed. Upon return of the carrier to the
initiation station the carrier can be decoded again to
determine that the article has been dispensed.
Other features and advantages of the present
invention will become apparent from the following
detailed description, taken in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of
example, the principles of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a
dispensing station constructed in accordance with the
present invention;
FIG. 2 is a partially broken away left side
elevation of the dispensing station of FIG. 1, showing
the article, receptacles and delivery mechanism;
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FIG. 3 is a fragmentary front elevation
taken inside the dispensing station to show two of the
receptacles and the conveyor mechanism;
FIG. 4 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view
taken from the left inside the dispensing system and
showing a receptacle of the bottom row and the
conveyor mechanism;
FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of the portion of
FIG. 4 indicated by the arrow 5 with the delivery
mechanism in an actuated position;
FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-
sectional view taken crosswise through the delivery
mechanism in the closed position and showing that
mechanism in phantom lines in its open position;
FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary front view
of the delivery mechanism;
FIG. 8 is an enlarged fragmentary top view
of the delivery mechanism in its closed position, the
open position being illustrated in phantom lines; and
FIG. 9 is a schematic representation of the
purchase initiation station and the delivery station
of the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
An article purchase and dispensing apparatus
constructed in accordance with the present invention
includes a purchase initiation station 10 and a
plurality of article dispensing stations 11 that are
remotely located from the initiation station but
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preferably within the same retail establishment (see
FIG. 9 for a schematic representation) of the
initiation station 10 and one of the dispensing
stations 11. The initiation station 10 includes a
writer 12 for encoding a strip of magnetic tape on a
plastic card, similar to a common credit card that
serves as a message carrier. The writer 12 is a
conventional piece of equipment of the type commonly
used to encode credit cards and cards used to operate
such devices as magnetically actuated locks.
A sales clerk uses a keyboard 13 to encode
the carrier with indicia identifying a particular type
of article 14 to be dispensed. For example, if the
articles 14 are prerecorded tape cassettes, a cassette
containing musical selections by a particular artist
may be identified. The identifying information is
also supplied to a computer 15 where the sale can be
recorded for accounting and inventory purposes.
However, the use of this information for other
purposes, while convenient and compatible with the
invention, does not form part of the invention itself.
All that is required is that the message carrier be
encoded with indicia corresponding to an article 14 to
be dispensed. The format in which the information is
recorded can be selected arbitrarily and preferably is
unique to a particular system so that a message
carrier encoded at one retail establishment cannot be
used at another.
As a separate, non-automated function the
sales clerk collects payment for the article 14. An
electronic display sign 16 can be included at the
initiation station 10 to display the same information
with which the carrier is encoded, thus enabling the
customer to verify immediately that the clerk has
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understood the transaction and entered it properly.
Once the carrier had been encoded, the
customer takes it to the dispensing station 11 that
contains the article 14 to be dispensed. An exemplary
dispensing station 11 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. It
includes a cabinet 17 that houses a plurality of
horizontal rows of receptacles 18 extending front to
back. Each receptacle 18 is dedicated to a particular
type of article 14, with each article in that
receptacle being alike. Thus the indicia on the
message carrier that corresponds to a particular
category of article 14 also corresponds to a
particular receptacle 18 in which that article can be
found.
At the front of each receptacle 18 is a
releasing mechanism 20 including an open frame 21 with
a trap door-like support member 22 that forms the
bottom. This releasing mechanism 20 is best shown in
Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5 and a very similar mechanism is
described in greater detail in Patent No. 4,215,800
issued to Collins et. al. on August 5, 1980.
A solenoid 23, that is part of the releasing
mechanism 20, is mounted beneath the corresponding
receptacle 18, as shown in Fig. 4. When actuated, the
solenoid 23 causes the door 22 to pivot into an open
position while a bail 24 simultaneously presses
downwardly on the top of the article 14 pushing it out
through the bottom of the releasing mechanism 20 as it
compresses a leaf spring 25 and slides across two
guide parallel fingers 26. The remaining articles 14
are then moved to the front of the receptacle 18 by a
spring driven carriage 27. In this way, each article
14 can be released from the receptacle 18
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sequentially.
Extending across the cabinet 17, just behind
a front panel 19 and forward of the releasing
- mechanisms 20, is an elongated trough-like chamber 28,
best shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Positioned just below
the bottom row of receptacles 18, the purpose of the
chamber 28 is to receive the articles 14 as they are
dispensed by the releasing mechanisms 20. The bottom
30 of the chamber 28 is defined by two vertical walls
32 spaced apart just eno~gh to contain one of the
articles 14 in the same orientation in which it would
be held in the receptacle 18. The top portion 34 of
the walls 32 of the chamber 28 fan out toward the
front and back of the cabinet 17 to guide the articles
14 into the narrower bottom part 30.
A conveyor mechanism 36, formed by endless
belts 38 driven by pulleys 40 and a motor (not shown),
extends horizontally across the bottom of the chamber
28 forming the floor of the chamber. The conveyor has
two sections 36(a) and 36tb) that carry the articles
14 toward a delivery mechanism 42 that is centered
with respect to the cabinet 17 and positioned between
the two conveyor belts 38.
As shown in Fig. 2, the delivery mechanism
42 includes a carrier 44 of U-shaped cross section
that, with the delivery mechanism in a closed position
as illustrated, forms a center part of the bottom 30
of the chamber 28 where a rectangular portion of the
chamber structure is cut away. Forward of the carrier
44 and just below it is an exit tray 46 supported by
the front panel lS. Extending upwardly from the tray
46 and integrally formed therewith is a tube 47, the
top end of which de~ines an escape opening 48. Once
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an article 14 passes through the tube 47 to the exit
tray 46 it is readily accessible from outside the
cabinet 17 and may be withdrawn.
When an article 14 within the carrier 44 is
to be delivered, the carrier moves forward to an open
position ~shown in phantomlines in Figs. 6 and 8) in
which the open bottom of the carrier is aligned with
an escape opening 48, thus allowing the article to
fall into the tray 46. The carrier 44 then returns to
its closed position in a reciprocatory manner, its
movement being perpendicular to the direction of
travel of the conveyor belts 38 and the elongation of
the chamber 28.
Extending forward from the front edge of the
carrier 44 is a guard plate 52. With the delivery
mechanism 44 in its closed position, the guard plate
52 covers the escape opening 48. When the carrier 44
moves forward, the quard plate 52 slides forward
beyond the tube 47 and out of the way.
A motor 56 causes movement of the carrier 44
and guard plate 52, the motor being mounted on a shelf
57 beneath the receptacle 18 directly behind the
carrier 44 and connected to the carrier by a rigid
link 58. The force of the motor 56 is insufficient to
cause injury to a hand inserted in the mechanism. A
single complete revolution of the motor 56 causes the
carrier 44 to move from its closed position to its
open position and back to its closed position. The
carrier 44 naturally dwells over the exit tray 46 as
the link 58 reaches the farthest extent of its travel
and the end of the link attached to the motor moves
arcuately but primarily cross-wise with respect to the
transverse movement of the carrier.
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An operating cycle of the machine 10 will
now be explained. First, a selected releasing
mechanism 20 is actuated, causing one of the articles
18 to be ejected forwardly and downwardly into the
narrow space between the receptacles 16 and the front
panel 15. Simultaneously, the conveyor belts 38 are
actuated. The released article 18 falls into the
chamber 28 and is guided into the lower chamber
portion 36(a) where it comes to rest on one of the
belts 38. The belt 38 then carries the article 18
transversely toward the center of the machine 10 and
loads it into the carrier 44. If the article 14
should initially enter the portion of the chamber 28
directly above the carrier 44, it will, of course,
fall directly into the carrier without first coming to
rest on either of the belts 38.
Once the released article 14 has entered the
carrier 44, its presence will be detected by either or
both of two optical article sensors 60, thus actuating
the motor 56. The carrier 44 then moves forward and
allows the article 14 to fall through the escape
opening 48 into the exit tray 46. When the carrier 44
again returns to its closed position, it is sensed by
an optical position sensor 62, the signal from the
SenSGr deactivating the motor 56 and providing a
positive indication that the article 14 has been
dispensed. It should be noted that a signal will not
be produced by the position sensor 62 unless two
events take place: (1) the article 14 must enter the
carrier 44, and (2) the carrier must reciprocate. If
an article 14 is not dispensed, due to an empty
receptacle 18 or a malfunction, no signal will be
produced by the position sensor 62.
O The anti-theft characteristics of the
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machine should be appreciated. With the delivery
mechanism 42 in its normal closed position there is no
access to the interior of the dispensing station
through the exit tray 46. By reaching into the exit
tray 46, one can at most reach the top of the tube 47
where the escape opening 48 is blocked by the guard
plate 52.
For the dispensing station 11 to commence a
normal operating cycle, the appropriate releasing
mechanism 22 must be actuated. This is accomplished
by inserting the message carrier in a conventional
card reader 70 of the type used to read magnetically
encoded credit cards and the like. Upcn reading the
card, the releasing mechanism 20 of the receptacle 18
that corresponds to the recorded indicia is actuated,
through a control unit 71, which may be a
microprocessor, by energizing the solenoid 23 and the
desired article 14 is dispensed.
After the article 14 has been released from
the receptacle 18, it is detected by the article
sensor 60 and the position sensor 62. A signal thus
generated by one of these sensors 60, 62 activates a
writer 72 at the dispensing station 11. Preferably,
the activity signal is taken from the position sensor
62 because this signal indicates the occurrence of the
last event that must take place before the article 14
is physically made available to the purchaser. The
writer 72 at the dispensing station 11 cannot be
activated until the article 14 has actually been
released, as the writer is not activated by the
energization of the solenoid 23 and the operation of
the releasing mechanism 20.
When the writer 72 is activated, it
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reencodes the message carrier. The writer 72 at the
dispensing station 11 is of the same construction as
the writer 12 at the purchase initiation station 10.
It simply rewrites the information identifying the
article dispensed and the corresponding receptacle 18,
but in a different format. Alternatively, the
original information recorded on the message carrier
can be retained and the reencoding step may consist of
adding or removing indicia. It is preferable,
however, to make a complete new recording because it
is thereby rendered more difficult to make an
unauthorized alteration of the message carrier to
permit it to be reused. Moreover, a completely new
recording is readily accomplished by conventional
magnetic tape recording devices that need not be
specially constructed for this purpose.
The used and reencoded message carrier can
now be returned to the purchase initiation station 10
where it can be read by a reader 74. Thus, the
message carrier serves as a receipt. Moreover, if the
dispensing station 11 should fail to deliver the
desired article 14, due to a malfunction or because
the designated receptacle 20 is empty, the message
carrier will not be altered and it can be determined
at the purchase initiation station that the customer
is entitled to a refund.
It will be appreciated that the present
invention provides a highly secure and reliable system
for dispensing articles. The system is particularly
well suited to video and audio tape cassettes that
present serious pilferage problems. Moreover, the
system is readily compatible with computerized
inventory control and accounting systems since it can
provide input to those systems indicating the purchase
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made and the merchandise dispensed.
While a particular form of the invention has
been illustrated and described, it will be apparent
that various modifications can be made without
departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
