Cigarette dispensing device

Abstract

A cigarette dispensing device includes a case provided with a lid including a closure element controlled by an electric actuator, an electronic plate, and a rechargeable battery for powering the electronic plate and the electric actuator. The opening of the case is actuated using an application installed on a mobile terminal. The application is designed to: receive a request for the remote opening of the case from the user; establish a variable delay time between the case opening request from the user and the transmission of an opening command to the case via a wireless communication; and, during the variable delay time, transmit an information message to the screen of the mobile terminal.

Claims

1. A cigarette dispensing system for regulating a smoking habit of a smoker, the cigarette dispensing system comprising: a cigarette case having a body that defines an interior receptacle adapted to receive an arrangement of cigarettes therein; a lid having a closure cooperative with said cigarette case, said closure controlled by an electric actuator and an electronic plate; a rechargeable battery cooperative with said electronic plate and said electric actuator; and a mobile handset separate from said cigarette case and cooperative with said electric actuator and said electronic plate so as to control an opening of said lid of said cigarette case by said closure, said mobile handset having a microprocessor with a memory and screen and a battery, said screen adapted to present menus and a variety of information, said battery of said mobile handset supplying power to said microprocessor and to said screen, said mobile handset having a transmitter cooperative with said microprocessor so as to transmit a signal to said electronic plate so as to remotely activate said electric actuator for opening said lid of said cigarette case, said mobile handset having an application that receives a remote request from the smoker to open said lid of said cigarette case so as to allow the smoker to access the arrangement of cigarettes in said cigarette case, said microprocessor establishing a variable delay time between the remote request and the transmission of the signal and to present an information message on said screen during the variable delay time, said microprocessor having a memory with a database so as to record a variety of information, the variety of information selected from the group consisting of locations, times, activities, companies and a combination thereof.

2. The system of claim 1, said mobile handset having a geo-positioning sensor cooperative with said microprocessor so as to determine coordinates of a position of the smoker and to compare with coordinates previously recorded in the database so as to cancel or delay the remote request when the coordinates of the position coincides with the coordinates previously recorded.

3. The system of claim 1, the application enquiring the smoker as to a cigarette smoked, the microprocessor recording information as to the enquiry of the smoker as to cigarette smoked in the database.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) To complement the description being given and in order to facilitate understanding of the features of the invention, this description is accompanied with a set of drawings in which, for illustration purposes and in a non-restrictive manner, the following has been represented:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of an example embodiment of the cigarette dispensing device, with the cigarette case shown in the open position and the mobile handset containing the application used to activate the opening of said cigarette case.

(3) FIG. 2 shows a front elevation view of the cigarette case in the previous figure, with a cross-section through a vertical plane passing through the area in which the closure, the electronic plate and the rechargeable battery are located.

(4) FIG. 3 shows a profile view of the cigarette case in FIG. 1 with a vertical cross-section.

(5) FIG. 4 shows an electrical diagram of the different elements integrated in the cigarette case.

(6) FIG. 5 shows a basic flow diagram of how the application loaded in the mobile handset used to open the cigarette case operates.

(7) FIG. 6 shows a basic flow diagram of how the application loaded in the mobile handset used to open the cigarette case operates, including in this case a check of the user's location coordinates.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(8) In the example embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the elements forming the cigarette dispensing device can be seen, comprising a cigarette case (1) provided with a body which defines an interior receptacle in which the cigarettes (2) to be dispensed are arranged and a lid (11) with a closure (12) which is activated remotely using an application installed in a mobile handset (3).

(9) As can be seen in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, the closure (12) of the lid (11) is controlled by an electric actuator (13) connected to an electronic plate (14) in the cigarette case.

(10) The cigarette case (1) includes, additionally, a rechargeable battery (15) and a USB connector (16) for external power and picking up information on the battery charge level.

(11) The cigarette case (1) also includes means (17) of wireless communication, for example Bluetooth technology, for wireless receipt of an activation order for the electric actuator (13) and to open the lid (11) of the cigarette case.

(12) The lid (11) of the cigarette case is opened by means of an application installed in the mobile handset (3) which in this case is represented by a smartphone, which has at least a processor with memory, a screen for the presentation of menus and a variety of information, a battery for power and wireless means of communication, for example Bluetooth, to establish a communication with the wireless means (17) of communication in the cigarette case.

(13) It is worth mentioning that these mobile handset elements have not been represented in the attached figures because they are usual features of mobile phone handsets, like the one represented in FIG. 1.

(14) In the basic embodiment of the application, represented in FIG. 5, when the user sends a remote request to open the cigarette case (1) via the aforementioned application, the application establishes a variable delay time during which it emits an information message on the mobile handset screen (1), and subsequently transmits an order to open to the cigarette case (1) via a wireless communication.

(15) When sufficient time has elapsed for the user to smoke the cigarette, the application sends a request for information to the user on a variety of parameters through the mobile handset (3) screen, and then records the information entered by the customer in a database (31) associated with the application, thus completing the operation.

(16) In the embodiment variation shown in FIG. 6, when the user sends a request to open the cigarette case via the application, the application uses geo-positioning features in the mobile handset (3) to determine the coordinates of the user's position and compares them with coordinates recorded previously in the database associated with the application, which correspond to locations in which the user cannot smoke, at least at certain times.

(17) If the user's location coordinates coincide with those recorded in the database, the application records the information in the database and does not open the cigarette case.

(18) If said coordinates do not coincide in the application, once the established delay time has elapsed and an information message has been emitted on the screen of the mobile handset, it sends a wireless order to open the cigarette case. Subsequently, and after sufficient time has passed for the user to smoke the cigarette, said application asks the user for information on certain aspects such as the satisfaction produced by smoking the cigarette or any others which can be recorded in the database to create subsequent statistics or determine the user's degree of dependency on tobacco and his/her consumption patterns, relating them to activities, times, company, places and the modification of the application's operating parameters, such as, for example, an increase or a reduction in the delay time.

(19) Now that the nature of the invention has been described sufficiently, together with an example of preferred embodiment, it is stated for the relevant effects that the materials, form, size and arrangement of the elements described may be modified, provided this does not entail an alteration of the essential conditions of the invention which are claimed below.