HEALTH AGAINST CONTAGIOUS INFECTIOUS DISEASES WHEN USING

PRODUCT VENDING MACHINES

Cross-Reference to Related Applications

This patent application claims priority to European patent application no. 20206010.9 filed on 5.11.2020 and Italian patent application no. 102021000027371 filed on 25.10.2021, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates in general to product vending machines, and in particular to monitoring health policy compliance for protecting consumers' health against contagious infectious diseases when using product vending machines.

The present invention finds application in product vending machines dispensing products of any kind and in any state of matter, in particular solid or liquid food products, packaged or prepared at the moment on demand.

The present invention finds advantageous application in beverage vending machines dispensing hot or cold, packaged or so-called instant beverages, i.e., prepared on demand from liquid and/or powdered ingredients, to which the following disclosure will explicitly refer without losing generality.

The present invention may, however, find advantageous application in product vending machines dispensing products of a different kind, such as electronic products, gadgets, personal protective equipment, etc.

State of the Art

As known, in the field of vending machines, design is increasingly focusing on the development and adoption of technologies that increase interactivity between consumers and vending machines. For this reason, the Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI) of vending machines, e.g. dispensing instant beverages, are continuously evolving to allow consumers to interact with vending machines in an increasingly sophisticated way from different perspectives.

Ob ject and Summary of the Invention

The Applicant has observed that, in the current historical period, in which it is of vital importance to counter the spread of viruses such as Sars-CoV-2, also commonly known as Covid- 19, it is important to avoid gathering of people in front of product vending machines, in particular beverage vending machines, where a multitude of consumers can go during breaks from work or study and can therefore more easily become infected through contact or through the airways.

The aim of the present invention is to provide a technology that allows consumers' health to be protected against contagious infectious diseases when using product vending machines.

According to the present invention, a product vending machine is provided, as claimed in the appended claims.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The attached Figure shows a block diagram of a product vending machine according to the present invention.

Description of Preferred Embodiments of the Invention

The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the attached figure to enable a skilled person to realize and use it. Various modifications to the embodiments presented shall be immediately clear to persons skilled in the art and the general principles disclosed herein could be applied to other embodiments and applications but without thereby departing from the scope of protection of the present invention as defined in the appended claims. Therefore, the present invention should not be considered limited to the embodiments described and shown but should be granted the widest protective scope in accordance with the features described and claimed.

Where not otherwise defined, all the technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning commonly used by persons of ordinary skill in the field pertaining to the present invention. In the event of a conflict, this description, including the definitions provided, shall be binding. Furthermore, the examples are provided for illustrative purposes only and as such should not be considered limiting.

In particular, the block diagrams in the attached figure and hereinafter described must not be considered as a representation of the structural features, i.e. construction limitations, but must be construed as a representation of functional features, namely intrinsic properties of the devices and defined by the obtained effects i.e. functional limitations which can be implemented in different ways, so as to protect the functionality thereof (chance of functioning). In order to facilitate understanding of the embodiments described herein, reference will be made to some specific embodiments and a specific language will be used to describe them. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing only particular embodiments, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

The attached Figure schematically shows a product vending machine 1, in particular a beverage vending machine designed to deliver instant beverages, such as coffee, tea, hot chocolate or similar, which are prepared on demand starting from solid liquid and/or powder ingredients.

The product vending machine 1 comprises a monitoring system 2 designed to monitor whether consumers in a consumer area of the product vending machine 1 comply with one or more stored health policies prescribed to protect consumers' health against contagious infectious diseases and containing recommendations on one or more of interpersonal distance, body temperature and use of respiratory personal protective equipment and that must be complied with in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1.

If one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 fail to comply with one or more of the stored health policies, the monitoring system 2 is designed to implement one or both of:

- informing the consumers of the product vending machine 1 that one or more of the stored health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1, and

- modifying operation of the product vending machine 1 to cause the consumers to become aware that one or more of the stored health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1.

To this end, the monitoring system 2 comprises:

- a sensory system 3 designed to output an output such as to allow to determine whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 comply with the stored health policies; and

- electronic storage and processing resources 4 designed to store data representative of one or more health policies that consumers have to comply with in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1, and in communication with, in particular electrically connected to, the sensory system 3 to receive and process the output thereof based on the stored health policies to determine whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 comply with one or more stored health policies and, if they don’t, act accordingly as previously described. In one embodiment, the sensory system 3 comprises an electronic digital image/video capture device 5, e.g., comprising one or more digital image sensors in the form of commercially available traditional digital cameras arranged to capture digital images/videos of the consumer area where the consumers of the product vending machine 1 usually stand when they request dispensing of the products.

In this embodiment, the electronic storage and processing resources 4 are consequently designed to receive the digital images/videos captured by the electronic digital image/video capture device 5 and process the received digital images/videos based on the stored health policies to determine whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 comply with one or more of the stored health policies.

In particular, in this embodiment, the electronic storage and processing resources 4 are designed to process the received digital images/videos based on the stored health policies to determine whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 comply with the stored health policies relating to one or both of the interpersonal distance and the use of respiratory personal protective equipment.

To do so, the electronic storage and processing resources 4 are programmed to:

- identify in the received digital images/videos the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1;

- determine one or both of the interpersonal distance of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 and whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 are wearing respiratory personal protective equipment; and

- determine whether consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 comply with the stored health policies relating to one or both of the interpersonal distance and the use of respiratory personal protective equipment.

In a different embodiment, the sensory system 3 is designed to output an output such as to allow to determine, in addition or as an alternative to whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 comply with the stored health policies relating to one or both of the interpersonal distance and the use of respiratory personal protective equipment, whether consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 comply with the stored health policy relating to the body temperature.

To do so, the sensory system 3 comprises, in addition or as an alternative to the electronic digital image/video capture device 5, a contactless body temperature measuring device 6, e.g., in the form of a thermal camera, to measure, and output an output indicative of, the body temperatures of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1. In this embodiment, in order to determine whether consumers of the product vending machine 1 comply with the health policies, the electronic storage and processing resources 4 are further programmed to:

- receive and process the output of the contactless body temperature measuring device 6 to determine body temperatures of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1; and

- determine whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 comply with the stored health policy relating to the body temperature, based on the determined body temperatures.

If one or more consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 are determined to fail to comply with one or more of the stored health policies, the electronic storage and processing resources 4 are further programmed to implement one or both of the following operations:

- causing the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 to be informed that one or more of the health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1, and

- modifying operation of the product vending machine 1 to cause the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 to become aware that one or more of the health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1.

In particular, in order to inform consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 that one or more of the health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1, the electronic storage and processing resources 4 are further programmed to display on an electronic display, typically a touchscreen display, of a Human-Machine Interface (HMI) 7 of the product vending machine 1 either a video feed from the electronic digital image/video capture device 5 or a graphical representation of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 constructed based on the captured digital images/videos, in both cases with highlighting or graphical indications identifying those consumers who fail to comply with the stored health policies, or even a simplified graphical representation, for example through a set of simplified icons, containing one or more of the following information:

- number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1,

- presence of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 who fail to comply with one or more of the stored health policies, - number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 who fail to comply with the stored health policies,

- number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 who fail to maintain the recommended the interpersonal distance,

- number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 who fail to wear a respiratory personal protective equipment, and

- number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 the body temperature of which is not in compliance with the stored health policies.

In order to make the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 aware that one or more of the health policies fail to be complied with by one or more one of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 through modification of the operation thereof, the electronic storage and processing resources 4 are further programmed to limit or inhibit operation of the product vending machine 1 as long as one or more of the stored health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1.

In one embodiment, the electronic storage and processing resources 4 are further programmed to:

- determine a degree of severity of failure of one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine (1) to comply with the stored health policies based on a stored assessment criterion; and

- determine whether to inform the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 that one or more of the health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 either through the electronic display of the user interface 7 of the product vending machine 1 or by modifying operation of the product vending machine 1 based on the degree of severity of failure by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 to comply with the stored health policies.

In one embodiment, the electronic storage and processing resources 4 may be further be programmed to display on the electronic display of the user interface 7 of the product vending machine 1 different warnings, in particular a soft warning and a strong warning, depending on the degree of severity of failure by the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine 1 to comply with the stored health policies, and to modify operation of the product vending machine 1 if the degree of severity of failure to comply with the stored health policies is even higher. Based on the what has been previously described, the advantages that the present invention allows to obtain may be appreciated.

In particular, the present invention allows to prevent situations of gathering in front of the product vending machine 1 by alerting consumers in front of the product vending machine 1 of a risky situation, as well as limiting or inhibiting the delivery of products if there is an evident violation of one or more of the health policies prescribed to protect consumers' health against contagious infectious diseases.