A container deposit return system having a housing, a crushing assembly and a control system. The crushing assembly is positioned within the housing and has a first crushing wall and a second crushing wall spaced apart from the first crushing wall defining a crush cavity, and, a crushing wall movement assembly structurally configured to move the first crushing wall relative to the second crushing wall to direct the first crushing wall toward and away from the second crushing wall. The two crushing walls are configured crush a container that is positioned within the crush cavity. The control system having at least one imaging sensor, the imaging sensor configured to record an image the container before crushing and after crushing.

The present invention relates to a novel trash can configured to provide money to users in exchange for trash/litter and recyclable items. The trash can has separate bins for collecting trash and recyclables; a weight sensor for determining a weight of the collected trash and recyclables; a processor for determining cash value corresponding to the weight of the collected trash and recyclables; a coin tray for storing coins; a bill tray for storing bills; a coin slot configured to dispense coins from the coin tray; and a bill slot for dispensing bills from the bill tray for providing a monetary amount to a user in exchange for depositing trash and recyclables. The bins can be removed, and the trays can be refilled by municipal authorities. In some embodiments, the trash can assembly has a screen display for displaying the weight of items and corresponding monetary amount.

A vending machine system for exchanging CO.sub.2 gas cylinders, the system including a controller in communication with a user interface, a payment system and an array of bin assemblies, wherein each one of the bin assemblies is shaped to at least partially receive an end of a CO.sub.2 gas cylinder and includes a locking system for releasably securing therein a CO.sub.2 gas cylinder, said system for performing the steps of: (a) receiving user input through the user interface; and (b) if the user input represents a desire to conduct maintenance, then the system performs the steps of: (i) confirming that the user is authorized to conduct maintenance; (ii) unlocking an empty CO.sub.2 gas cylinder from a respective bin assembly for removal by the user; (iii) receiving a full CO.sub.2 gas cylinder in an emptied bin assembly; and (iv) securing the full CO.sub.2 gas cylinder received in the emptied bin assembly.

A flow rack unit for providing stock material units includes at least two rack bays and one control system. Each rack bay has a removal side and a storage side opposite the removal side and is configured to provide the stock material units in a respective bay level arranged next to one another starting in the direction of the storage side. A respective sensor arrangement of the control system is associated with each rack bay. Each sensor arrangement is arranged at the storage side of the associated rack bay and connected to a control unit of the control system via a common data line. The sensor arrangements each include an occupancy sensor configured as a distance sensor. Each occupancy sensor has a measurement zone that is aligned to measure a distance from a rearmost stock material unit stored in the associated rack bay and disposed closest to the occupancy sensor.

An automated vending system includes a physical item storage unit, and a plurality of land-based transportation mechanisms, or vehicles, arranged to store a predicted number and assortment of items to vend. A processing resource can communicate with the plurality of transportation vehicles, and is arranged to support a machine learning module. A plurality of data sources is arranged to provide data to the machine learning module to determine a plurality of respective actions for the plurality of transportation vehicles. The processing resource can communicate respective control instructions to the plurality of transportation vehicles. A selected transportation mechanism which receives the control instruction can operate in response to the control instruction in order to convey the item to a determined vending location.

Various examples of the invention conduct a purchase transaction with a first sensor that senses removal or return of a first item from a first region; a computer vision sensor that senses removal or return of a second item from the first region; a transaction detector that determines an accuracy that the sensed removal or return of the first item by the first sensor and the sensed removal or return of the second item by the computer vision sensor correspond to a single event of removal or return of an item by a consumer and that forwards, to a machine learning tool, information associated with the sensed removal or return of the first item by the first sensor and information associated with the sensed removal or return of the second item by the computer vision sensor when the accuracy is less than an accuracy threshold; the machine learning tool that verifies or corrects the information associated with the sensed removal or return of the first item or the information associated with the sensed removal or return of the second item and provides verified or corrected information to the transaction detector; and an automated billing processor, coupled to the transaction detector, that applies a purchase price of the item against an account of the consumer for the item based on the verified or corrected information, thereby completing the purchase transaction.

Various examples of the invention conduct a purchase transaction with a first sensor that senses removal or return of a first item from a first region; a computer vision sensor that senses removal or return of a second item from the first region; a transaction detector that determines an accuracy that the sensed removal or return of the first item by the first sensor and the sensed removal or return of the second item by the computer vision sensor correspond to a single event of removal or return of an item by a consumer and that forwards, to a machine learning tool, information associated with the sensed removal or return of the first item by the first sensor and information associated with the sensed removal or return of the second item by the computer vision sensor when the accuracy is less than an accuracy threshold; the machine learning tool that verifies or corrects the information associated with the sensed removal or return of the first item or the information associated with the sensed removal or return of the second item and provides verified or corrected information to the transaction detector; and an automated billing processor, coupled to the transaction detector, that applies a purchase price of the item against an account of the consumer for the item based on the verified or corrected information, thereby completing the purchase transaction.

The magnetic checking of value documents with highly coercive and/or lowly coercive magnetic regions, involves after the magnetization of all magnetic regions in a first direction, a second magnetization is effected, in which only the lowly coercive magnetic material is re-magnetized, but the highly coercive magnetic material remains aligned in the first magnetization direction. Magnetic signals are detected with an inductive magnetic detector, having several measuring tracks transverse to the transport direction of the value document. To evaluate the magnetic signals of the measuring tracks, the strongest two local minima and/or maxima of the respective magnetic signal are ascertained by a measuring track as a function of time. A minima comparison value and/or maxima comparison value of the respective measuring track is determined. The magnetic coding of the security element is checked on the basis of the minima comparison values and/or maxima comparison values of the measuring tracks.

A vending machine for selling or dispensing products or items to a user may include a container for storing and displaying the products. The container may have a transparent portion making the products visible from outside the container, and an aperture for removing one or more products by hand, wherein the aperture gives direct access to the products. An aperture access enabling device may selectively enable or prevent access through the aperture into the container. Finally, a recognition module for recognizing each of the products in the container, may include at least one module selected from the group consisting of: a camera based object recognition module, a weight recognition module, and an RFID recognition module. Also described are methods of operating the vending machine.

The present invention uses an order processing server to transmit an electronic menu to a customer. When a vehicle comes within range of the server's transceiver, the menu is received by the particular customer device, and the order is formulated and transmitted back to the server.