U.S. patent number 3,852,576 [Application Number 05/346,193] was granted by the patent office on 1974-12-03 for premium allocation device.
Invention is credited to Kenneth Norman Rudd.
United States Patent |
3,852,576 |
Rudd |
December 3, 1974 |
PREMIUM ALLOCATION DEVICE
Abstract
Apparatus for determining the allocation of a bonus to give for
example in a gasoline station or self service store, comprising
means for registering and totalling a plurality of sales
transactions, means responsive when the total reaches a
predetermined amount to condition the apparatus in readiness to
allocate a bonus, and means for delaying the allocation of the
bonus so that any customer making a sales transaction and the time
that the predetermined amount is reached is prevented from
receiving the bonus.
Inventors: |
Rudd; Kenneth Norman
(Ashington, EN) |
Family
ID: |
26240305 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/346,193 |
Filed: |
March 29, 1973 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
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|
|
|
|
Mar 29, 1972 [GB] |
|
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14764/72 |
Feb 7, 1973 [GB] |
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5986/73 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
377/5; 340/609;
377/52; 705/413; 273/460; 377/21 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q
50/06 (20130101); B67D 7/222 (20130101); G07C
15/006 (20130101); G06M 3/00 (20130101); G07G
1/145 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
B67D
5/22 (20060101); G07G 1/14 (20060101); G06M
3/00 (20060101); G07C 15/00 (20060101); G07c
003/10 () |
Field of
Search: |
;194/1R,3,5,13,96,DIG.11
;222/23,40,59,575 ;235/92CP,92FL,92GA,92MS,132R,132A,132E,151.34
;273/1R,1E,138A,139 ;340/168B,239R,421 ;417/63,572 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Morrison; Malcolm A.
Assistant Examiner: Dildine, Jr.; R. Stephen
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Witherspoon and Lane
Claims
I claim:
1. Apparatus for determining the allocation of a bonus comrising:
means for registering a plurality of individual sales transactions
and for providing a total indicative of the sum value of the
individual transactions added together, means responsive when the
total reaches a predetermined amount to condition the apparatus in
readiness to allocate said bonus, and means for delaying the
allocation of said bonus so that any customer making a sales
transaction at the time that said predetermined amount is reached
is prevented from receiving said bonus.
2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said sales
transactions are sales transactions involving the dispensing and
sale of a liquid such as gasoline and said apparatus includes an
electrically operable pump for dispensing said liquid, said pump
having a pump motor.
3. The apparatus as defined in claim 2 wherein said registering
means includes counting means for counting the total volume
dispensed by said pump during a plurality of individual liquid
dispensing operations, said volume dispensed and therefore a count
from said counter means being equivalent to a value according to
cost per unit volume and wherein said means for delaying the
allocation for a bonus includes a pump lockout module electrically
connected to said pump motor so as to receive an imput signal each
time said pump motor is actuated, said module having a logic
circuit operable in response to an input signal from said pump
motor when next actuated after said apparatus is in its conditioned
state to allocate said bonus.
4. The apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein a switching module
and switch means actuable by a customer are provided and wherein
means are provided to electrically connect said switching module
and said switch means to said means responsive when said total
reaches a predetermined amount, said switching module being
operable in response to the first actuation of said switch means
after said apparatus is conditioned to send an enabling signal to
said pump lockout module.
5. The apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein said switch means is
so positioned in the concourse area of a gasoline station that a
vehicle entering said gasoline station by any entrance to said
gasoline station and passing therethrough will actuate said switch
means.
6. The apparatus as defined in claim 5 wherein said switch means is
non-responsive to vehicles leaving said gasoline station.
7. The apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein a display panel for
displaying to a customer said bonus is provided, said display panel
being electrically connected to said switching module so that
display panel displays said bonus in response to the first
actuation of said switch means after a bonus signal is received by
said switching module.
8. The apparatus as defined in claim 7 wherein said display panel
is electrically connected to said pump lockout module to enable
said display panel to display to said customer the specific pump
that is actuated just after said bonus signal is produced.
9. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said sales
transactions are sales transactions involving the dispensing and
sale of a liquid such as gasoline and said apparatus includes a
plurality of electrically operable pumps for dispensing said
liquid, each said pump having a pump motor.
10. The apparatus as defined in claim 9 wherein said registering
means includes counter means for counting the total volume
dispensed by said plurality of pumps during a plurality of
individual liquid dispensing operations, said volume dispensed and
therefore a count from said counting means being equivalent to a
value according to cost per unit volume, and said delaying means
includes a pump lockout module electrically connected to each said
motor so as to receive an input signal each time a pump motor is
actuated, said module having a logic circuit operable in response
to an input signal from the first pump motor actuated after said
apparatus is in its conditioned state to allocate said bonus, said
logic circuit being non-responsive to input signals received after
said input signal from said first pump motor actuated after said
apparatus is in its conditioned state to allocate said bonus.
11. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein a display panel for
displaying said bonus has been allocated is provided.
12. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the amount of said
bonus is randomly selected.
13. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said apparatus is
operable to pay out said bonus and delay paying out the next said
bonus until the indebtedness represented by the previously paid
bonus is cancelled by said counter means reaching a total
corresponding to the value of said previously paid bonus.
Description
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to apparatus for determining the allocation
of a bonus and is particularly applicable for use with trading
systems employing a cash till and/or a pump for dispensing a liquid
such as gasoline.
According to the invention, there is provided apparatus for
determining the allocation of a bonus, comprising means for
registering a plurality of individual sales transaction and for
providing a total indicative of the sum value of the individual
transactions, means responsive when the total reaches a
predetermined amount to condition the apparatus in readiness to
allocate said bonus, and means for delaying the allocation of the
bonus so that any customer making a sales transaction at the time
that said predetermined amount is reached is prevented from
receiving the bonus.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
A complete understanding of the invention can be obtained from the
following detailed description of the invention when read in
conjunction with the annexed drawing in which:
FIg. 1 is a block diagram of a gasoline dispensing system according
to this invention;
FIG. 2 shows a display panel of the system of FIG. 1; and
FIG. 3 is a block showing the manner in which the invention can be
utilized in a self-service store.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present gasoline dispensing system includes a plurality of
gasoline dispensing pumps 12 each having for example an electronic
device which measures the number of rotations of a drive shaft
which interconnects a flowmeter to a visual display of gallons
delivered (as usual on normal computer gasoline pumps). This shaft
can be marked with a painted spot whereupon the total rotations can
be sensed by an electronic eye or can have, for instance, a
magnetic attachment which activates a magnetic switch which in turn
sends via a respective one of lines 13 a signal for each gallon
dispensed to an accumulator module 14. The magnetic switch can be
totally enclosed in a non-ferrous pipe which is safe to use in an
existing gasoline pump.
The rotation of the shaft concerned, being accurately geared to the
supply of fuel allows a metered amount of fuel to be detected in
direct relation to the number of turns and this is normally
accurate to 1/100th of a gallon in a standard computer pump. The
accumulator module visually indicates on digital counters the total
amount dispensed by each individual pump and also visually
indicates on a master counter, and records in a store of the
module, the total number of gallons dispensed. The system is also
able to allocate to a customer or caller a bonus when the
accumulative total of gasoline counted by the master counter
reaches a predetermined amount; for the purposes of the description
the apparatus is intended to give cash credits of 30p, 50p, 70p or
100p, selected by a random win selector module 15. A Jackpot prize
can also be won.
The predetermined total is precalculated to correspond to a given
cash discount per gallon for a given cash value of win; facilities
are provided to enable the master counter to be adjusted within a
variable band of discount i.e. 1p, 11/2p or 2p per gallon. Instead
of cash, the bonus may be in the form of a quantity of gasoline
credited to the customer, in which case the accumulator module
would include a separate digital counter and indicator showing the
total number of gallons or credit units credited to the customers,
this latter information being needed to maintain accurate control
from a management point of view.
When the predetermined total is reached, a win pulse is passed via
line 16 to a switching module 18, the accumulator module then being
ready to begin counting again.
Module 18 includes a plurality of sensor switches 20 arranged to be
operated by vehicles crossing the concourse area of the service
station. The concourse area of the service station being defined as
that area, generally paved, upon which the automobiles park while
being fueled and the area extending from the gasoline pump islands
upon which the automobiles stand while waiting to move up to the
pump island or islands for fueling. The switches are connected in
such a way that only vehicles entering the concourse area from
either direction and not those leaving, will send a signal via a
respective one of lines 22 to the module 18. Module 18 is arranged
so that the signal initiated by the first car to enter the
concourse area after a win pulse has been received by the module
will trigger an appropriate lamp i.e. bonus or jackpot lamp on a
digital display panel 24 shown in FIG. 2. Thus the customers or
callers on the concourse area are made aware that a bonus is to be
won.
In addition to triggering the display panel 24, the module 18 sends
via line 26 an "enabling" signal to a pump lockout module 28.
Feeding into the module 28 are a plurality of input lines 30, one
for each pump, electrically connected to relay contacts of current
operated relays wired in series with the supply lines of the pump
motors, each relay being operable to close its relay contacts when
its respective pump motor is switched on. Module 28 consists of a
logic circuit which will accept an input from the first pump turned
on after the enable signal is received from module 18 and will
ignore any subsequent input; the logic circuit will also ignore the
input of any pump the motor of which was already turned on when the
enable signal was received. Acceptance of the input causes the
module 28 to send a signal via line 32 to the display panel 24
which indicates by means of window 34 the number of the pump that
was turned on first after the module 28 received its enabling
signal, and to send a pulse via line 35 to a display control module
36.
The display module 36 of which the display panel 24 forms a part,
consists of three counters each driven from an independent pulse
generator which cycle 0 to 9 continuously. The pulse received from
line 35 initiates three timing cycles which stop indicators 38 of
the display panel in sequence to indicate to the customer at the
relevant pump the appropriate win as determined by signals received
from the win selector module 15 via line 40. When the last
indicator stops it initiates a further timing cycle which holds the
display static for a present number of seconds. At the end of this
cycle, a reset pulse is fed via line 42 to modules 18, 28 and to a
bonus and jackpot register module 44.
During the period of the static display, an enable pulse is present
on the module 44. This causes a predetermining counter, which is
controlled via line 46 by the win selector module 15, to count the
relvant prize value. This count is also registered on an
electromagnetic counter as a permanent record. The electromagnetic
counter serves also as a jackpot register in that for every 500
count pulses received it gives out 1 pulse which is used to
initiate the jackpot sequence.
The bonus counter registers the number of wins divided by ten i.e.
for a 50p win it will register 5 units. It can be seen from this
that the jackpot register therefore is actually dividing by 5000
and therefore for every 50 given in bonus prizes the jackpot will
give 5.
So whilst the bonus counter, which is electronic, is reset after
each prize, the electromagnetic jackpot counter is a cumulative
one. The win magnitude selector module 15 consists of a re-cycling
binary counter of 2.sup.5 (32) with all possible output states
connected so that wherever the counter is stopped its output will
enable one of the bonus wins values. Approximately 59% of possible
states will enable 30p win, 25% will enable 50p win, 13% will
enable 70p win, and 3% will enable 100p win.
Thus it is obvious that there will be more 30p wins than 50p wins
but that the win pattern will follow no predetermined sequence. The
counter is set in motion by the re-set pulse and runs at
approximately 1000 counts per second and is randomly stopped by the
next car actuating a switch of the forecourt module 18.
The jackpot payout commences in exactly the same manner as the
bonus payout except that a "jackport override" line 48 extending
between module 44 and each of modules 18 and 36 causes the display
module 36 and panel 24 to indicate `jackpot` and show the amount of
the payout. Line 48 also cause information connected with the bonus
to be over-ridden during a jackpot sequence so that after that
sequence, the system reverts to normal without any of the
information present prior to the jackpot being destroyed.
It will be apparent that at the instant that the primary lever on
the winning pump is operated, the customer at that pump need not
have ordered any petrol and therefore may receive the bonus and/or
jackpot free, without any obligation to purchase anything else.
Associated with display control module 36 there may be a coin,
stamp or credit ticket issuing machine that can either dispense to
the cusotmer the bonus and/or jackpot as coins, stamps or tickets
enabling the recipient to save them for future use or purchase of
any other goods at the station.
The system may be arranged so that it does not go into debt or
alternatively it can be arranged to go into debt by an amount
corresponding to a selected bonus win in which case the next bonus
payout is not selected and issued until the debt is cancelled by
the master counter of the accumulator module 14 reaching a
predetermined total corresponding to the bonus win value.
The system is able to record entries and exits, and station switch
"on" to "off". This coupled to a timer and protrayed as a graph on
paper or punch tape may provide:
1. Opening times.
2. Closing times.
3. Total vehicles in.
4. Total vehicles out.
5. Time each vehicle is on premises.
6. Which pump is used.
7. Maximum loadings (are all pumps ever operating at one time, and
if so, when).
8. Staffing requirements, i.e. busy days, busy hours, business
graph showing earlier or later shut down times requirements.
9. Average and individual amounts purchased per customer
served.
10. Details of quantity served per customer related to issue of
gift stamps.
11. Delay in serving an arrival by logging entry against pump
switch on time.
All this information can be stored on tape or graph awaiting
posting to a central office or collection and would be
tamper-proof, allowing a central chain organisation to exercise
precise control from a distance.
The invention is also applicable as shown in FIG. 3 for use with a
tradsing system such as that employed in self service stores. The
bonus allocating apparatus will be very similar to that just
described for a petrol dispensing system, and therefore will not be
described in detail.
Briefly the trading system would comprise at least one electrically
operated till 12 located on a counter 14 at the exit from the
self-service store, and could be manually operable to record the
individual cash sales of each customer passing through that exit.
Associated with the till would be a computer (not shown) which
stored sales information from the till to produce a total of cash
sales from which a potential discount or bonus is calculated. When
that total reaches a predetermined magnitude, the computer passes a
signal to the till that it is now ready to issue a bonus
corresponding to the accumulated discount; the bonus may be by way
of trading stamps issued from an automatic stamp dispensing unit 16
located adjacent the till, although other forms of bonus can be
given.
The counter may be slotted to receive a shopping basket A and may
be provided with a sensor 18 such as a switch contact to record the
arrival of a basket on the counter. The switch forms part of a
lockout circuit which is operable to prevent the unit from issuing
the bonus if a basket is already on the counter at the time that
the computer reaches the predetermined total, but to allow the unit
to dispense the bonus stamps immediately the next basket is located
on the counter to actuate sensor 18. In this way, the system
ensures that the bonus is not given to the customer who has already
contracted to pay money for goods received from the store.
* * * * *