Pet Toy Dispenser and Method

Abstract

A pet toy dispenser and method are provided. The dispenser has a housing, a dispenser mechanism, a drive mechanism, an electronic tag reader, and a controller. The drive mechanism is operable to move one or more of the plurality of compartments of the dispenser mechanism from a load location to an exit location. The electronic tag reader is capable of reading an electronic tag embedded in an animal toy within at least one compartment. The controller having an authentication function configured to determine whether a code of an electronic tag within the at least one compartment received from the tag reader corresponds to an authorized code and to allow the load completion of the compartment if the code is authorized code.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method of dispensing an animal toy from an animal toy dispenser, comprising the steps of:
 detecting with an electronic tag reader whether an authorized animal toy is located within a first compartment of the animal toy dispenser adjacent the tag reader by detecting a code from an electronic tag of an animal toy within the first compartment;   advancing the dispensing wheel so that a next compartment of the dispensing wheel is positioned at a load location if the electronic tag reader detects an authorized code from an electronic tag of an animal toy within the first compartment;   repeating the steps of detecting and advancing for each successive compartment of the dispensing wheel until each compartment of the dispensing wheel contain an electronic tag of an animal toy having an authorized code;   moving the first compartment to an exit opening in a housing of the dispenser to allow the authorized animal toy to exit the dispenser if the electronic tag reader detected an authorized code from an electronic tag of an animal toy within the first compartment.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of moving comprises moving the first compartment at a predefined time to the exit opening. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising the step of moving each subsequent compartment to the exit opening in the housing of the dispenser, at corresponding predefined times, to allow an authorized animal toy in the corresponding subsequent compartments to exit the dispenser. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of detecting is further defined in that the animal toy comprises food. 
     
     
         5 . An animal toy dispenser, comprising:
 a housing comprising an exit opening;   a rotatable wheel at least partially within the housing, the wheel comprising a plurality of compartments, wherein at least one compartment is comprised of an exit door and a load door;   a motor operatively connected to drive the rotatable wheel at least between a load location and the exit opening;   a contact-less electronic tag reader, adjacent to a portion of the wheel, capable of reading an electronic tag embedded in an animal toy within at least one compartment of the wheel;   a controller comprising an authentication function configured to determine whether a code of an electronic tag within the at least one compartment, of the plurality of compartments, received from the tag reader corresponds to an authorized code and to allow the advancing of the at least one compartment if the code is an authorized code.   
     
     
         6 . The dispenser of  claim 5 , wherein the wheel is user-removable from the housing. 
     
     
         7 . The dispenser of  claim 5 , wherein the wireless tag reader is a radio frequency identification reader configured to read a tag embedded in an animal toy, wherein the tag embedded is a radio frequency identification tag. 
     
     
         8 . The dispenser of  claim 5 , wherein the controller comprises a dispensation programming function for receiving a plurality of user designated dispensation times corresponding to the plurality of compartments. 
     
     
         9 . The dispenser of  claim 5 , wherein the controller comprises a dispensation function configured to move at least one compartment of the plurality of compartments to the exit opening to allow a toy in the at least one compartment to be dispended at a predetermined time. 
     
     
         10 . The dispenser of  claim 5 , wherein the controller comprises a dispensation function configured to move the plurality of compartments to an exit location to allow a corresponding plurality of toys in the corresponding plurality of compartments to be dispensed at a corresponding plurality of predefined dispensation times. 
     
     
         11 . An animal toy dispenser, comprising:
 a housing having an exit opening;   a dispenser mechanism, at least partially within the housing, comprising a plurality of compartments;   a drive mechanism operable to move one or more of the plurality of compartments from a load location to the exit opening;   a wireless electronic tag reader, adjacent to a portion of the dispenser mechanism, capable of reading an electronic tag embedded in an animal to within at least one compartment;   the controller comprising a loading function configured to determine whether a code of an electronic tag within the at least one compartment received from the tag reader corresponds to an authorized code and to allow the load completion of the compartment if the code is an authorized code;   wherein at least one compartment of the dispenser mechanism comprises an exit door for preventing contact between an item within the at least one compartment and at least a portion of the dispenser mechanism adjacent the exit door;   wherein at least one compartment of the dispenser mechanism comprises a load door for preventing contact between an item within the at least one compartment and at least a portion of the dispenser mechanism adjacent the load door.