Cantaloupe Systems, Inc.

USA Technologies, Inc.

Cantaloupe System, Inc.

Mandeep Singh Arora

Anant Agrawal

Eric Matthew Chu

Fred Cheng

A Louis Beaudoin

Justin Grant

Amedee Louis Beaudoin

Boris Glants

Iryna Bandura

Allen Aung Kyaw Lwin

Edward Jansson

Peter Lessels

Allen Lwin

Oleksa Chvala

Allan Stewart

Michael Marett

Igor Schtein

Tamara Baker

Lee Tanenbaum

Oleksii Chvala

Systems for vending products to a customer that encompasses a group of co-located vending machines managed by a vending company, a database of current inventory of products in the vending machines and customer purchase history; and the use of a personal electronic device by the customer. Embodiments include a single order by a customer from a sorted list of prior purchases, and where a single purchase comprises sub-products from multiple co-located vending machines. Embodiments include the customer selecting either products or vending machines from a list of options provided via the user interface of the personal electronic device, wherein the list of options depends on the actual available inventory in vending machines co-located with the customer, and the customer purchase history.

Method and system of personal vending

A security bin and a security bin controller are described that measure fullness or height of secure contents in a security bin; listen to radio beacons over a short-range radio to determine a bin distance from a first radio, such as by measuring received radio power; determine one of three bin security states: home, caution or warning; and then broadcast a status message, warning message or alarm message over long-range radio, dependent on both the fullness of the bin and the security state. Embodiments include shredder bins, adapted to receive secure or confidential documents. Status messages may be used to initiate a search for a lost bin or to schedule bin service. Embodiments include measuring rate-of-fill. Alarm messages may be responsive to both bin location and fill volume. Embodiments and use of a controller include waste bins, including industrial or medical waste.

Portable security bin

A method is described for the automatic determination of a planogram in a vending machine using image processing. Novel steps include the use of a Gaussian map in a two-dimensional color space, such as the HS plane, to create high-dimensionally color vectors for all and for selected portions of images. Multiple feature detection/extraction algorithms are run between multiple idealized reference images for a product and one image from one vending machine coil location. The large resulting candidate feature list is pruned in a series of steps using both color and gray-scale color vectors and small area image matching around features. Remaining candidate features are ranked by a RANSAC outlier removal step, with the top ranked product then being the correct product in that coil in the planogram. Steps are repeated for all coils in a vending machine.

Method and device of automatically determining a planogram in vending

A system and method for vending products to a customer that encompasses a group of vending machines managed by a vending company, a database of the inventory of products in the vending machines and information about customer purchase history from the vending machines; and the use of a personal electronic device by the customer. Embodiments include the customer selecting either products or vending machines from a list of options provided via the user interface of the personal electronic device, wherein the list of options depends on the actual available inventory on vending machines co-located with customer, and the customer purchase history. Methods are described to permit advance purchases with deferred dispensing, and methods of payment that are both fast and automatic. Also described are methods of identifying vending machines and ordering a group of products as single request.

Techniques are provided for calculating vending machines' service priorities and scheduling the vending machines for service taking into account a number of factors and thresholds (). In some embodiments, the machines () are subdivided into subroutes (). Each subroute has one or more machines, and at least one subroute has a plurality of machines. The vending machine service schedule is generated by selecting the highest priority subroute () and selecting the machines in that subroute (). Other subroutes can be selected () if there is time left in the Service Period.

Vending machine service scheduling

If a vending machine is selected for service at a particular location, other vending machines at the same location may or may not be selected depending on the importance of minimizing the number of service visits to the other machines at the location.

Vending machine service scheduling taking into account hardness data indicating importance of minimizing the number of service visits to a vending machine and/or to the vending machine's location

Systems and methods for remotely managing a vending machine system are provided. A host system transmits control data to an audit system installed in a vending machine system. This control data is used to modify a data collection parameter of the audit system, such as modifying alert conditions, reporting schedules, and filter terms used to parse DEX files received from a vending machine controller.

Remote management of vending machines

A vending machine door monitoring system for an audit system is provided. This door monitoring system may utilize the same door switch utilized by the vending machine controller (VMC) in order to detect the state of an access door for the vending machine. This door monitoring system may have a separate power supply for applying a back-up voltage to a door circuit in the event that the VMC fails to supply the voltage. The door monitoring system may be further configured to detect a state of the door circuit regardless of the order in which the terminals from the door switch are coupled to the audit system.

Vending machine door monitoring system

An audit system for a vending machine system is provided. This audit system is configured to retrieve operational data, such as a DEX file, from a vending machine controller in the vending machine system. The audit system is further configured to store a communications log of the data transmitted between the vending machine controller and the audit system. This communications log can be used by an operator at a host system to assist in debugging communication errors between the audit system and the vending machine controller.

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Danville, CA, United States of America

Mandeep Singh Arora