An automatic frozen food product vending machine includes a freezer barrel configured to produce a frozen food product, a spigot fluidly connected to the freezer barrel, the spigot for dispensing the frozen food product, a movable platform for supporting a container to receive frozen food product, the movable container movable among a home position and a fill position below the spigot, and a processing circuit configured to open the spigot and fill the container with an amount of frozen food product.

An automatic frozen food product vending machine includes a freezer barrel configured to produce a frozen food product, a spigot fluidly connected to the freezer barrel, the spigot for dispensing the frozen food product, a movable platform for supporting a container to receive frozen food product, the movable container movable among a home position and a fill position below the spigot, and a processing circuit configured to open the spigot and fill the container with an amount of frozen food product.

In embodiments, the sunblock lotion spray booth comprises a booth, a plurality of spray columns, a plurality of canisters, a pump, a ventilator, and one or more payment receiving devices. The booth may be adapted to spray one or more tanning products onto a user via the plurality of spray columns located within the booth once a payment receiving device and an activation button have been activated. As non-limiting examples, the one or more tanning products may be sunblock lotions having different SPF values, bronzers, or combinations thereof. One or more of the plurality of spray columns may be height-adjustable. The pump may move the tanning products from the plurality of canisters to a plurality of nozzles located on the spray columns via tubing within the walls of the booth. The ventilator may circulate air within the booth.

In embodiments, the sunblock lotion spray booth comprises a booth, a plurality of spray columns, a plurality of canisters, a pump, a ventilator, and one or more payment receiving devices. The booth may be adapted to spray one or more tanning products onto a user via the plurality of spray columns located within the booth once a payment receiving device and an activation button have been activated. As non-limiting examples, the one or more tanning products may be sunblock lotions having different SPF values, bronzers, or combinations thereof. One or more of the plurality of spray columns may be height-adjustable. The pump may move the tanning products from the plurality of canisters to a plurality of nozzles located on the spray columns via tubing within the walls of the booth. The ventilator may circulate air within the booth.

Systems and methods for dispensing consumable liquids are disclosed. An example networked system includes a server and a plurality of beverage dispenser stations. Each of the beverage dispenser stations includes a filler including a filler outlet configured to deliver a beverage into a container, an RFID reader configured to read an RFID tag fixed to a water filter through which water for the beverage is to flow, and a controller. The controller is configured determine a duration-of-use of the water filter and a volume of water that has passed through the water filter. Each of the beverage dispenser stations also includes a network communications interface configured to communicate the duration-of-use and the volume of water to the networked administrative server to track use of the water filter among the plurality of beverage dispenser stations.

Systems and methods for dispensing consumable liquids are disclosed. An example networked system includes a server and a plurality of beverage dispenser stations. Each of the beverage dispenser stations includes a filler including a filler outlet configured to deliver a beverage into a container, an RFID reader configured to read an RFID tag fixed to a water filter through which water for the beverage is to flow, and a controller. The controller is configured determine a duration-of-use of the water filter and a volume of water that has passed through the water filter. Each of the beverage dispenser stations also includes a network communications interface configured to communicate the duration-of-use and the volume of water to the networked administrative server to track use of the water filter among the plurality of beverage dispenser stations.

A distributed ledger based utility system architecture may be configured to enable secure payments, data transmission, and meter configuration of smart sensors. The utility system architecture may be a tiered architecture including multiple nodes at different levels of the architecture where each level may contain a different portion of the distributed ledger. As information is added to the distributed ledger, each portion of the distributed ledger may be updated based on whether the information is relevant to that node. The information may include rate contract transactions, meter configuration data transactions, payment transactions, or the like.

A fuel pre-purchasing and sharing system (and associated methods) is disclosed herein. The system allows consumers to pre-purchase fuel at a pre-purchased price, and redeem pre-purchased fuel at a subsequent time regardless of the current price of fuel posted at the point of re-fueling. The pre-purchased price can be based on current fuel prices of fuel at one or more service stations that are near to a consumer at the time that the fuel is pre-purchased. Pre-purchased fuel of one or more grades of fuel can be held in a pre-purchased fuel tank. The pre-purchased fuel tank can be shared with other consumers such that the other consumers can redeem pre-purchased fuel held in the pre-purchased fuel tank.

A networked system for providing and maintaining a set of liquid dispenser stations is described. The fluid dispensers communicate with a managing/supervisory cloud server via an interposed base station. The fluid dispensers communicate locally with the base station via wireless communication network links. The base station operates as an accumulator of status/usage information provided by the dispenser stations and bridge for passing information and control commands between the cloud server and the individual dispenser stations. The dispenser stations are configured with control processors (controllers) to facilitate performing a variety of local control operations associated with dispensing liquids that have been cooled (or heated) prior to dispensing by the dispenser stations. Additionally, the dispenser stations cooperatively operate with the cloud server (via the base station) to support a variety of real time control and maintenance operations relating to the dispenser stations operating at potentially thousands of distinct geographic locations.

A networked system for providing and maintaining a set of liquid dispenser stations is described. The fluid dispensers communicate with a managing/supervisory cloud server via an interposed base station. The fluid dispensers communicate locally with the base station via wireless communication network links. The base station operates as an accumulator of status/usage information provided by the dispenser stations and bridge for passing information and control commands between the cloud server and the individual dispenser stations. The dispenser stations are configured with control processors (controllers) to facilitate performing a variety of local control operations associated with dispensing liquids that have been cooled (or heated) prior to dispensing by the dispenser stations. Additionally, the dispenser stations cooperatively operate with the cloud server (via the base station) to support a variety of real time control and maintenance operations relating to the dispenser stations operating at potentially thousands of distinct geographic locations.