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Products and processes for vending a plurality of products via defined groupsRelated Patent Categories: Data Processing: Financial, Business Practice, Management, Or Cost/price Determination, Automated Electrical Financial Or Business Practice Or Management Arrangement, Electronic Shopping (e.g., Remote Ordering)Products and processes for vending a plurality of products via defined groups description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060229953, Products and processes for vending a plurality of products via defined groups. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND [0001] Traditional vending machines respond to changes in supply, demand, and customer behavior ineffectively, especially when compared to the abilities of, e.g., human salespeople. [0002] Applicants have previously recognized that significant benefits ensue from vending machines configured to dynamically respond to market forces by, for example, identifying a combination of products and offering the combination of products for a promotional price. For example, a parent application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/095,372, enables the creation of promotional product combinations based on supply and/or demand data. [0003] The advantages of Applicants' previous inventions are significant. Nevertheless, given the complexity of the relevant market forces, it would be advantageous for vending machine systems and methods that dynamically respond to market forces by offering a combination of products. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0004] FIG. 1 depicts an embodiment of control software comprising abstract components. [0005] FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a proactive inventory grouping embodiment. [0006] FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a reactive inventory grouping embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0007] Numerous embodiments are described in this patent application, and are presented for illustrative purposes only. The described embodiments are not intended to be limiting in any sense. The invention is widely applicable to numerous embodiments, as is readily apparent from the disclosure herein. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention may be practiced with various modifications and alterations. Although particular features of the present invention may be described with reference to one or more particular embodiments or figures, it should be understood that such features are not limited to usage in the one or more particular embodiments or figures with reference to which they are described. [0008] The terms "an embodiment", "embodiment", "embodiments", "the embodiment", "the embodiments", "one or more embodiments", "some embodiments", and "one embodiment" mean "one or more (but not all) embodiments of the present invention(s)" unless expressly specified otherwise. [0009] The terms "including", "comprising" and variations thereof mean "including but not limited to", unless expressly specified otherwise. [0010] The enumerated listing of items does not imply that any or all of the items are mutually exclusive, unless expressly specified otherwise. [0011] The terms "a", "an" and "the" mean "one or more", unless expressly specified otherwise. [0012] Devices that are in communication with each other need not be in continuous communication with each other, unless expressly specified otherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with each other may communicate directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries. [0013] A description of an embodiment with several components in communication with each other does not imply that all such components are required. On the contrary a variety of optional components are described to illustrate the wide variety of possible embodiments of the present invention. [0014] Further, although process steps, method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, such processes, methods and algorithms may be configured to work in alternate orders. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may be described does not necessarily indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. The steps of processes described herein may be performed in any order practical. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously. [0015] It will be readily apparent that the various methods and algorithms described herein may be implemented by, e.g., appropriately programmed general purpose computers and computing devices. Typically a processor (e.g., a microprocessor) will receive instructions from a memory or like device, and execute those instructions, thereby performing a process defined by those instructions. Further, programs that implement such methods and algorithms may be stored and transmitted using a variety of known media. [0016] When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that more than one device/article (whether or not they cooperate) may be used in place of a single device/article. Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein (whether or not they cooperate), it will be readily apparent that a single device/article may be used in place of the more than one device or article. [0017] The functionality and/or the features of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices which are not explicitly described as having such functionality/features. Thus, other embodiments of the present invention need not include the device itself. [0018] The term "computer-readable medium" as used herein refers to any medium that participates in providing data (e.g., instructions) which may be read by a computer, a processor or a like device. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media include, for example, optical or magnetic disks and other persistent memory. Volatile media include dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which typically constitutes the main memory. Transmission media include coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise a system bus coupled to the processor. Transmission media may include or convey acoustic waves, light waves and electromagnetic emissions, such as those generated during radio frequency (RF) and infrared (1R) data communications. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any other medium from which a computer can read. [0019] Various forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying sequences of instructions to a processor. For example, sequences of instruction (i) may be delivered from RAM to a processor, (ii) may be carried over a wireless transmission medium, and/or (iii) may be formatted according to numerous formats, standards or protocols, such as Bluetooth, TDMA, CDMA, and 3G. [0020] Where databases are described, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that (i) alternative database structures to those described may be readily employed, (ii) other memory structures besides databases may be readily employed. Definitions and Exemplary Usage of Certain Terms Continue reading about Products and processes for vending a plurality of products via defined groups... 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