초록 ▼

An RFID-based induction heating/vending system for quickly and efficiently heating, vending, and recollecting stadium seats (10) or other objects. The system includes a plurality of objects each including an induction-heatable body (22), a charging/vending station (12) for heating and vending the ob

An RFID-based induction heating/vending system for quickly and efficiently heating, vending, and recollecting stadium seats (10) or other objects. The system includes a plurality of objects each including an induction-heatable body (22), a charging/vending station (12) for heating and vending the objects; a self-serve warming station (14) that may be used by consumers to reheat their objects; and a check-out station (16) that automatically collects objects from consumers after use.

대표청구항 ▼

An RFID-based induction heating/vending system for quickly and efficiently heating, vending, and recollecting stadium seats (10) or other objects. The system includes a plurality of objects each including an induction-heatable body (22), a charging/vending station (12) for heating and vending the ob

An RFID-based induction heating/vending system for quickly and efficiently heating, vending, and recollecting stadium seats (10) or other objects. The system includes a plurality of objects each including an induction-heatable body (22), a charging/vending station (12) for heating and vending the objects; a self-serve warming station (14) that may be used by consumers to reheat their objects; and a check-out station (16) that automatically collects objects from consumers after use. eighting for all pixels. 24. A method as in claim 22, wherein said specified weighting comprises weighting of the form 25. A method as in claim 22, wherein said blending is carried out based on pixel colors which exist at a beginning time of a blending process. 26. A method as in claim 22, wherein said blending is carried out based on pixel colors as they have been updated at any given point in the blending process. 27. A method as in claim 22, further comprising setting a blanking value which specifies a number of neighboring pixels that must be nonblank before a blank pixel is allowed to be nonblank. 28. A method as in claim 21, wherein said image is formed of pixels, and further comprising finding non blank pixels which have a neighborhood comprised of a specified number of blank pixels, and adjusting the value of said non blank pixels based on said finding said specified number. 29. A method as in claim 28, further comprising allowing setting of said specified number. 30. A method as in claim 29, wherein said adjusting the value comprises changing said non-blank pixels into blank pixels. 31. A method as in claim 21, further comprising modifying said image using an iterative process in which portions of the image are processed based on effects of other iterations in the image. 32. A method as in claim 31, wherein said modifying comprises modifying a color of pixels of the image based on a number of times that the color has been modified during said other iterations. 33. A method as in claim 32, further comprising assigning a weight to each pixel, and increasing said weight based on the number of times that the color of the pixels stays the same. 34. A method as in claim 32, further comprising defining allowable colors for the image. 35. A method as in claim 34, wherein said allowable colors include only those colors which already exist in the image. 36. A method as in claim 34, wherein said modifying comprises modifying the color, finding an interim color, finding an allowable color which is closest to said interim color, and defining each pixel as being said allowable color which is closest to said interim color. 37. A method as in claim 21, wherein said mathematical effect is an effect based on cellular automata. 38. A method as in claim 37, wherein said mathematical effect defines each of the plurality of image areas based on both the image areas and neighbors of the image area. 39. A method as in claim 38, wherein said mathematical effect gives each pixel a highest intensity value based on both said pixel and said neighbors. 40. A method as in claim 39, wherein said mathematical effect comprises, for a given color level, summing weights of pixels in a neighborhood, determining if on actual pixel color has a specified relation to said weights, and continuing said summing until said actual pixel color has said specified relation. 41. A method as in claim 40, wherein said specified relation includes greater than. 42. A method as in claim 40 wherein said specified relation includes less than. 43. A method as in claim 21, further comprising storing effect codes indicative of an effect of the laser on microstructure of a specified fabric, and wherein said image simulates the effect of the laser on the specified fabric. 44. A method as in claim 43, wherein said effect codes represent effects based on a direction of a weave of the fabric. 45. A method as in claim 43, wherein said fabric is denim, and said effect codes are based on the direction of a weave of the denim. 46. A method as in claim 21, further comprising associating each of a plurality of laser power levels with the color of the image. 47. A method as in claim 46 wherein each color is a gray scale value. 48. A method as in claim 46, wherein said laser power level that is associated with a color is an output energy per unit time. 49. A method, comprising: allowing a user to enter and/or change each of a plurality of different parameters; carrying out a mathemati