The Coca-cola Company

Clayton Keith Burnett

Ryan West

John Boyd

Thomas G North, Iii

Chih-Shang Fu

John Foster Gerling

George Clarke Monroe, Iv

Steven Romel Givens

Lee Alan Hawkins

Michael J Goclon

A microwave appliance provides safe heating of packaged food products at an efficiency greater than 90%. A temperature sensor positioned about a product holder is configured to sense a temperature of the package. A product identification scanner identifies a type of food product, a type of packaging, and/or a size of packaging being inserted into the microwave appliance. The product identification may be used to obtain a dielectric constant and/or electrical conductivity of the product. An electric field detector verifies that a suitable product has been inserted into the microwave appliance and is used to estimate a volume of the packaged food product. Accordingly, even partially full packaged food products may be safely re-heated to a desired temperature. As opposed to a time-based operation with traditional microwave appliances, operation of the microwave appliance may be adjusted based on the product identification scanner, temperature sensor, and electric field detector.

Packaged food product microwave system and method

A system and method of vending product items may include storing product items within a product storage area. A product item may be released from the product storage area. The product item may be hoisted over at least a portion of the product storage area. The hoisted product item may be presented to a user. In one embodiment, the product storage area may be positioned within a vending machine, and the vending machine may be mobile. The vending machine may also be self-propelled. In an embodiment, the vending machine may be moved via a controller being used by an operator. Alternatively, the vending machine may be moved autonomously.

Vending mechanism

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Atlanta, GA, United States of America

Clayton Keith Burnett