Patents by Inventor Harley F. O'Neill

Harley F. O'Neill has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Efficient collection of information from vending machines
    Patent number: 6754558
    Abstract: The present invention provides an efficient system for providing vending information from vending machines to a central processing system. Difference indicia representing changes in vending information from a previous update is sent to the central processing system from a vending machine. The difference indicia provides sufficient information for the central processing system to update the data kept at the central processing system to reflect new vending information. Preferably, reference vending data is kept at the vending machine and at the central processing system. New vending data is compared with the reference vending data to identify differences between the new vending data and the reference vending data. These differences are used to generate the difference indicia sent to the central processing system. Upon receipt by the central processing system, the difference indicia is used to modify the reference vending data stored at the central processing system to reflect the new vending data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2004
    Assignee: Vending Management Services Ltd.
    Inventors: Kevin W. Preston, Gregory P. Bauer, Harley F. O'Neill
  • Efficient collection of information from vending machines
    Publication number: 20030050841
    Abstract: The present invention provides an efficient system for providing vending information from vending machines to a central processing system. Difference indicia representing changes in vending information from a previous update is sent to the central processing system from a vending machine. The difference indicia provides sufficient information for the central processing system to update the data kept at the central processing system to reflect new vending information. Preferably, reference vending data is kept at the vending machine and at the central processing system. New vending data is compared with the reference vending data to identify differences between the new vending data and the reference vending data. These differences are used to generate the difference indicia sent to the central processing system. Upon receipt by the central processing system, the difference indicia is used to modify the reference vending data stored at the central processing system to reflect the new vending data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2001
    Publication date: March 13, 2003
    Inventors: Kevin W. Preston, Gregory P. Bauer, Harley F. O'Neill