| 摘要 |
An automated water dispensing apparatus is disclosed which consists of a wat er purification unit for purifying municipal water, a storage tank for storing the water which ha s been purified by the water purification unit and a sterilizer for sterilizing the purified water from the tank. The purification unit, sterilizer and water tank are all contained within a housing which has a filling station for filling a water receptacle with the sterilized water. The fillin g station has a filling spout for delivering the sterilized water into the water receptacle and a fill control valve for controlling the flow of water to the filling spout. The filling station also has a flow meter coupled to the filling spout for generating a signal proportional to the amount of water supplied through the filling spout. The system also includes a pump for delivering the purified water from the storage tank to the sterilizer and the filling station. The apparatus also consists of a card reader device for reading identification information from a card which is presented to the car d reader. The card reader, flow meter and fill control valve are operatively coupled to a computer control unit. The computer control unit is also operatively coupled to a computer memory unit and a telecommunications interface. The computer control unit is configured to receive purchasing data for a plurality of purchasers from a remote computer via a telecommunication s network which is operatively coupled to the telecommunications interface. The computer contro l unit is configured to store the purchasing data in the computer memory unit and is further configured to operate the fill control valve depending on the purchasing data stored in the computer memory unit and the identification data read from the card reader. The computer control unit is configured to read the flow meter signal to calculate the amount of water passing through the fill spout and to close the fill control valve depending on the purchasing data stored in the computer memory. Finally, the computer control unit is configured to amend the purchasing data stored in t he computer memory to reflect the amount of water which is passed through the fill spout for ea ch purchaser.
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