ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,592,115, issued on March 31, was assigned to PepsiCo Inc. (Purchase, N.Y.).
"Hands-free vending machine and door opening assembly" was invented by Sandeep Jain (Gurgaon, India) and Gurmeet Singh Bhutani (Haryana State, India).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pedal-operated vending machine includes a housing defining a product storage area and a delivery portal. The vending machine further includes a dispensing mechanism configured to convey a product in the product storage area to the delivery portal. Vending machine may further include a pedal arranged on a lower end of the housing and configured to be operated by a foot of a consumer t...