The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 08, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 19, 1998
Thomas P. Howell, Suwanee, GA (US);
Kevin Ward, Charles, MO (US);
The Coca-Cola Company, Atlanta, GA (US);
Abstract
A wide area network (WAN) of vending machines connected to a host that builds a database of vending-related information received from the vending machines. Also, a communications system within each vending machine having a vending machine data acquisition unit and a multiple-communication-technology adapter to interface the data acquisition unit to multiple communication technologies including at least one wireless technology. Also, a data structure used to build the database, the data structure having data elements corresponding to an identity of a machine, recent and previous prediction information for the machine, and recent and previous refill-visit information for the machine, the elements being linked together. The multiple vending machines communicate with a communications concentrator via one of many communication technologies. The communications concentrator interfaces the multiple vending machines to a data warehouse that builds a database using the data structure mentioned above. The data warehouse is made available to one or more bottlers for analysis of individual vending machine routing needs and profitability.