An assembly having an access control device for a gas cylinder, a centralized management system, a gas cylinder and a mobile terminal the access control device having: an electrically controlled lock which is configured to allow the use of the cylinder when in the open position and to restrict the use of the cylinder when in the closed position, an identifier of the access control device comprising a printout or a radio tag, and a control unit configured to control the lock so as to open or close, a first, short-range, radio communication interface. Wherein the centralized management system has a computer configured to determine, on the basis of the identifier of the access control device, an access parameter for the first communication interface.

A reverse vending machine includes a transport device for lifting an object in the reverse vending machine. The transport device includes a conveyor device for lifting the object from a lower level position to a higher level position in the reverse vending machine, and an object supporting device. The object supporting device is arranged substantially parallel to the conveyor device and arranged in such a way as to allow the object to be held between the conveyor device and the object supporting device during the lifting of the object.

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.

A system for container processing for setting up in a shop or at a station. The system may have a receiving region, a cleaning device, a filling device, a removal region and a handling device. The system can advantageously be set up or installed directly in a shop, at a station or in the public space in a town square (e.g. marketplace). The system makes it possible for beverages and other products to be able to be decanted locally. The containers here can be cleaned beforehand in order to ensure hygienic filling.

A beverage container recycling system has a housing with an advertising display, a user feedback display and a deposit opening. An imaging region is connected to the deposit opening. The imaging region has a camera to take an image of a deposited beverage container. A processor, network interface circuit and memory are associated with the housing. The memory stores instructions executed by the processor to analyze the image of the deposited beverage container to characterize the deposited beverage container as one of glass, aluminum or plastic. A carriage directly deposits a glass beverage container in a glass bin. The carriage directs aluminum and plastic beverage containers to a crusher with a blade to pierce aluminum and plastic beverage containers prior to compaction. The crusher selectively directs compacted beverage containers to a plastic bin and an aluminum bin. The memory stores instructions executed by the processor to maintain a count of deposited beverage containers and communicates the count of deposited beverage containers to the network interface circuit for routing to a networked machine.

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.

Provided is a computer-implemented method for predicting payment transactions using a machine learning technique that includes receiving transaction data, generating a categorical transaction model based on the transaction data, determining a plurality of prediction scores including determining, for one or more users, a prediction score in each merchant category of a plurality of merchant categories for each predetermined time segment of a plurality of predetermined time segments, where a respective prediction score includes a prediction of whether a user will conduct a payment transaction in a merchant category at a time associated with a predetermined time segment associated with the respective prediction score, determining a recommended merchant category and a recommended predetermined time segment of at least one offer, generating the at least one offer, and communicating the at least one offer to the one or more users. A system and computer program product are also disclosed.

A method for an RVM system and an RVM system configured to implement the method. The method includes the steps of: receiving a set of used containers from a user through an infeed; initiating a new collection session and establishing a Session ID; initiating a transfer of the Session ID to a user via physical or digital means after the new collection session has been initiated; establishing a resulting return value for the set of used containers; linking the resulting return value to the Session ID, where the initiating of a transfer of the Session ID to a user is performed before the step of linking the resulting return value to the Session ID.

Provided is a method for performing accurate object recognition in a stable manner in consideration of changes in a shooting environment. In such a method, a camera captures an image of a shooting location where an object is to be placed and an object included in an image of the shooting location is recognized utilizing a machine learning model for object recognition. The method further involves: determining necessity of an update operation on the machine learning model for object recognition at a predetermined time; when the update operation is necessary, causing the camera to capture an image of the shooting location where no object is placed to thereby re-acquire a background image for training; and causing the machine learning model to be trained using a composite image of a backgroundless object image and the re-acquired background image for training as training data.

A device configured to receive and safely store a plurality of used needle-containing medical apparatus such as syringes, IV catheter introducers, bodily fluid collection devices and blood collection tube holders and to dispense a sterile medical apparatus having the same or a similar shape, size and configuration as that deposited into the device.