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:
Dec. 23, 2014
Filed:
Apr. 26, 2012
Applicants:
James M. Canter, Austin, TX (US);
William C. Royal, Jr., Oak Ridge, NC (US);
Steven Blachman, Pflugerville, TX (US);
Inventors:
James M. Canter, Austin, TX (US);
William C. Royal, Jr., Oak Ridge, NC (US);
Steven Blachman, Pflugerville, TX (US);
Assignee:
Crane Merchandising Systems, Inc., Bridgeton, MO (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G07F 11/00 (2006.01); G07F 9/02 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G07F 9/023 (2013.01);
Abstract
Synchronization of activities requiring coordinated timing across a bank of vending machines, such as harmonious actuation of illumination elements, is performed by specifying, in an application layer (e.g., Zigbee) of a network protocol, actions to be synchronized to a distributed timing event and distributing notice of the specified timing event using physical and media access control layers of the network protocol.