A novel food station comprises first and second pluralities of cubbies, each sized to enclose a food portion container, and a food collection hatch that is selectively externally accessible. A heating system can controllably heat one or more of the first plurality of cubbies independently of the first plurality of cubbies, and a cooling system can cool one or more of the second plurality of cubbies independently of the first plurality of cubbies. An internal transport system including an end effector that temporarily couples to the portion container carrier of a selected cooled cubby of the second plurality of cubbies and can controllably move the food portion container carrier to a selected heated cubby or to the food collection hatch.

An electronic gaming machine with a plurality of separate payment acceptors to keep funds received for different betting purposes separate.

An interactive frozen confectionery vending machine with a freezer enclosure, a delivery and toppings dispensing enclosure and a control system enclosure. A programmable control system allows a customer to select a frozen confectionery cup stored within the freezer enclosure and to select a hard and soft topping that are automatically dispensed into the cup and the cup is delivered to the waiting customer through a customer access door that closes after the transaction is completed. A centrally located gear motor rotates an arm that terminates in a cup. The cup receives a topping from a canister and then rotates to drop the topping into the frozen confectionery cup. A soft topping is pumped via flexible liquid topping delivery tubes into a dispensing arm located above the frozen confectionery cup. A standard payment system and touch screen allow the customer to pay for and select frozen confectionery and toppings.

A managing apparatus for positioning rental vehicles includes a memory storing instructions and a processor configured to execute the instructions to cause the managing apparatus to access model information and location information for a plurality of autonomous vehicles, receive a request including a delivery location and a chosen model for renting, select an autonomous vehicle of the chosen model from among the plurality of autonomous vehicles based on the model information, the location information, and the delivery location, instruct the selected autonomous vehicle to fully-autonomously or semi-autonomously travel to the delivery location, and instruct the selected autonomous vehicle to switch to manual operation mode at the delivery location for manual operation by a vehicle rental customer.

Storage and dispensing stations for a blister machine for separable small piece goods include a storage container having a housing and a separating device having a coupling device with a lower coupling portion and having a holding device with an actuation member. The storage container is releasably arranged on a dispensing station having a rotary drive having a hub seated on a shaft and having an opening member for interaction with the actuation member. The lower coupling portion, the hub, the actuation member, and the opening member are set relative to one another so that when arranging the storage container on the dispensing station prior to an effective interaction between the actuation members and the opening member, an effective interaction occurs between the lower coupling portion and the hub, and the hub is rotatable in the de-energized state. Methods of operating storage and dispensing stations are also provided.

An identification module is disclosed for use in a key making machine. The identification module may have a key receiving assembly configured to receive only a shank of an existing key. The identification module may also have a tip guide, configured to receive a tip of the shank of the existing key. The tip guide may have a slot that exposes a tip end of the shank. The identification module may also have an imaging assembly configured to capture an image of the tip end through the slot.

A vehicle starting control system includes a server for managing a starting state of a vehicle and a vehicle-mounted device for controlling the starting state of the vehicle based on a control command for controlling the starting state of the vehicle provided from the server. The server is accessibly connected to a financial system and can monitor a status of payment of a predetermined charge for the vehicle via the financial system. When the payment of the predetermined charge for the vehicle is detected, the server can control the starting state of the vehicle by providing the vehicle-mounted device with the control command for controlling the starting state of the vehicle via at least one of a communication means, a mobile terminal, and an IC card.

A blockchain system for providing ticketing within a blockchain network of participating electronic devices includes an electronic gaming machine (EGM) configured to participate in the blockchain network. The EGM a memory storing a local blockchain and a system blockchain. The EGM also includes at least one processor configured to execute instructions which, when executed, cause the at least one processor to identify a first ticket creation blockchain transaction in the local blockchain from a ticket creation device of the first plurality of electronic gaming devices, the first ticket creation blockchain transaction including at least a ticket value and a ticket identifier (ID), create a system ticket creation blockchain transaction including at least the ticket value and the ticket ID, and broadcast the system ticket creation blockchain transaction to the system blockchain.

A method for vehicle rental, an electronic device, and a computer storage medium are provided. The method includes the following. A vehicle rental request is received, wherein the vehicle rental request is at least indicative of a pickup location and a rental time of a user. Whether there exists a vehicle to-be-rented matched with the vehicle rental request at a rental outlet is determined in response to determining that there is no vehicle to-be-rented matched with the vehicle rental request at the pickup location, wherein the rental outlet is pre-selected by a user or determined based on a predetermined range from the pickup location. The vehicle to-be-rented at the rental outlet is determined as a rented vehicle in response to determining that there is the vehicle to-be-rented at the rental outlet. A task of vehicle delivery is sent to an electronic device associated with the rental outlet.

An improved gaming system comprising at least one gaming machine and a central controller. The gaming machine may conduct wagering on an event or set of events for a player, conducting a wager including receiving a wager value and a predicted ranking from the player and transmitting the wager to the central controller. The central controller accessing a database to automatically retrieve data about one or more events that occurred in the past and included multiple participants for creating a plurality of binary scorecards. The central controller matching the predicted ranking to a scorecard and determining a reward value based on an award level of the scorecard and tier levels of a pari-mutuel pool.