A food locker includes a housing, a food support member, a first door, a second door, and a lock. The housing includes a front wall a front wall, a rear wall, and a chamber. The front wall includes a first opening in communication with the chamber. The rear wall includes a second opening in communication with the chamber. The food support member is disposed within the chamber. The first door is supported by the housing and is movable between a closed position and an open position. The food support member is accessible through the first opening when the first door is in the open position. The second door is supported by the housing and is movable between a closed position and an open position. The food support member is accessible through the second opening when the second door is in the open position. The lock is operatively coupled to at least one of the housing and the first door and is actuatable between a locked configuration and an unlocked configuration. The lock is operable to (i) permit the first door to move from the closed position to the open position when the lock is in the unlocked configuration and (ii) prevent the first door from moving from the closed position to the open position when the lock is in the locked configuration.

An automated kiosk includes a front panel positioned in front of a conveyor with conveyor slots sized to receive clothing hangers. Dividers separate each conveyor slot from the adjacent conveyor slots, forming a compartment for each conveyor slot. Two doors are positioned in the front panel. An electronic controller moves a conveyor in order to reposition a desired compartment in front of the doors. The doors open inwardly, and are of sufficient length that the extended edge of the doors engages with and overlaps the outer edge of each of the dividers. With each door engaging the divider on each side of the compartment, a user is blocked from being able to access items that are in adjacent compartments.

Methods and apparatus are disclosed. The apparatus includes a housing, a lid assembly, a base, a dispenser assembly, and embedded signage. The housing includes a number of walls forming an internal volume, a top opening, and a bottom opening. At least one wall is composed of a translucent material. The lid assembly is operable to facilitate loading of an item into the housing, and the dispenser assembly is operable to dispense the item from the housing. The embedded signage is positioned at an internal surface of the at least one wall and/or integrated into the at least one wall, such that information displayed by the embedded signage is visible from a point external to the housing.

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.

A content delivery apparatus, when a content delivery request is outputted from a user terminal device, encrypts the requested content with an encryption key, adds a view period to it to deliver it to a request source and delivers a viewing key in response to a view request from the user terminal device within the view period. A user relief management unit monitors failure information notifying, grasps a delivery disabled period from the failure information, specifies a delivery destination user for a content of which the view period is overlapped with the delivery disabled period and issues a relief right with a relief period specified thereto to the specified user. A contract period processing unit manages the relief right and permits viewing within the relief period set by the relief right when a view right based on the relief right is output from the user terminal device.

A system and method for training a student employ a simulation station that displays output to the student and receives input. The computer system has a rules engine operating on it and computer accessible data storage storing (i) learning object data including learning objects configured to provide interaction with the student at the simulation system and (ii) rule data defining a plurality of rules accessed by the rules engine. The rules data includes, for each rule, respective (a) if-portion data defining a condition of data and (b) then-portion data defining an action to be performed at the simulation station. The rules engine causes the computer system to perform the action when the condition of data is present in the data storage. For at least some of the rules, the action comprises output of one of the learning objects so as to interact with the student. The system may be networked with middleware and adapters that map data received over the network to rules engine memory.

Various embodiments of kiosks for purchasing mobile phones and other mobile electronic devices from users are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the kiosks include an apparatus to turn a mobile phone over on an inspection surface. This apparatus can enable the kiosk to visually inspect both the front and back sides of the mobile device on the inspection surface with an inspection system (e.g., imaging devices, lighting devices, etc.) positioned above the inspection surface, and can eliminate the need to position a second inspection system below a transparent inspection surface to visually inspect, e.g., the back side of the mobile device through the transparent inspection surface. In some embodiments, the kiosk also includes a wireless mobile phone charging device that can be used for, e.g., phone charging and identification.

The present invention relates to a vending machine, more specifically a vending machine that includes: a money deposit opening, into which a particular currency may be deposited; a money return opening; an input part configured to receive a user input from a user for product selection; a product dispenser opening configured to dispense a product selected by the user; and a product competition module configured to determine a ranking of products in consideration of a sales record of products during a predetermined period, and configured to perform a control to offer a benefit in correspondence to a ranking of the product selected by the user.

A food locker includes a housing, a food support member, a first door, a second door, and a lock. The housing includes a front wall a front wall, a rear wall, and a chamber. The front wall includes a first opening in communication with the chamber. The rear wall includes a second opening in communication with the chamber. The food support member is disposed within the chamber. The first door is supported by the housing and is movable between a closed position and an open position. The food support member is accessible through the first opening when the first door is in the open position. The second door is supported by the housing and is movable between a closed position and an open position. The food support member is accessible through the second opening when the second door is in the open position. The lock is operatively coupled to at least one of the housing and the first door and is actuatable between a locked configuration and an unlocked configuration. The lock is operable to (i) permit the first door to move from the closed position to the open position when the lock is in the unlocked configuration and (ii) prevent the first door from moving from the closed position to the open position when the lock is in the locked configuration.

The vending machine control system S performs authentication processing for authenticating a user on the basis of information on the user who is about to open a door 13 of a vending machine 1, and when the user is authenticated, performs control to unlock the door 13 of the vending machine 1. Then, the vending machine control system S identifies a product picked up from a storing chamber 12 after the door 13 is unlocked, and when a reserved product is included in the identified product, outputs different information depending on whether or not the authenticated user is a reservation person of the reserved product.