US 5,346,297 · Granted 1994-09-13
The Vending Cabinet That Knows Exactly What You Need
Imagine a smart filing cabinet with multiple doors that unlock only the drawer you actually need—controlled by a computer. Each door has a transparent window so you can see what's inside, and the whole system is designed to organize and dispense supplies or medications safely and efficiently.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a cabinet system with multiple horizontally opening doors, each with transparent windows, where a computer controls which specific doors unlock based on user input. What's protected is the mechanical combination of the door-locking mechanism, the interconnected door frames, and the software integration that allows selective unlocking of individual sections of the interior storage cavity.
Why it matters
This patent protects an early example of computer-controlled physical access in storage systems. Locking down this design would have been valuable for medical dispensing stations and secure supply management, where you want to restrict access to specific compartments and create an auditable record of who accessed what and when. It bridges mechanical engineering with early computer control.
Real-world use
You'd see this technology in a pharmacy's medication dispensing station, where a nurse enters a patient ID and only the drawer containing that patient's medications unlocks.
Original USPTO abstract
An auxiliary storage and dispensing unit for use with a computer-controlled supply and medication dispenser station including a cabinet having integrally connected top, bottom, side and rear cabinet panels defining a tall storage and interior dispensing cavity accessible through a front opening, a plurality of horizontally openable and closeable doors including door frames and transparent windows hingedly mounted and locked over the front opening, a device for interconnecting one or more doors to allow access to a particular portion of the interior cavity, and a door unlocking device interconnected the computer-controlled station for selectively unlocking one or more of the doors at a particular location on the cabinet as a function of information inputted to the station.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,346,297
- Filing date
- 1993-01-04
- Grant date
- 1994-09-13
- Assignee
- Colson Jr Angus R / Linda Pinney / Gruzdowich Gregory J / Steusloff Patrick M
- Inventor(s)
- COLSON, JR.; ANGUS R., PINNEY; LINDA, GRUZDOWICH; GREGORY J., STEUSLOFF; PATRICK M.
- CPC class
- A47F3/02
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