Automatic vending system

Claim 1

A vending system for automatic sale of a plurality of articles which are selected by a customer, comprising: memory means for storing sets of display data representative of corresponding groups of vending information which are displayed respectively in predetermined plural steps of a vending procedure that are executed to select at least one of said articles; display means for displaying said groups of vending information, based on said sets of display data; selector means which is operated by the customer for selecting one of items of the group of vending information displayed on said display means; advancing means which is operated by the customer, for advancing said vending procedure from currently established one of said plural steps to the next step; returning means which is operated by the customer, for reversing said vending procedure to revert to preceding one of said plural steps which precedes the currently established step; display-control means, responsive to said advancing means, for reading out from said memory means one of said sets of display data which corresponds to said next step, and for commanding said display means to display the corresponding group of vending information, said display-control means being responsive to said returning means, for reading out from said memory means one of said sets of display data which corresponds to said preceding step, and for commanding said display means to display the corresponding group of vending information; payment-control means for commanding said display means to display a price of said at least one article which has been selected by activation of said selector means, said advancing means and said returning means, said payment-control means detecting an amount of a payment medium deposited for the at least one selected article; and vending means, responsive to said payment-control means, for delivering said at least one selected article when the amount of said payment medium detected by said payment-control means is equal to or larger than said price of the at least one selected article displayed on said display means.