Electronic storage system

Abstract

An electronic storage system is provided. The system includes a housing, securable units within the housing, a kiosk to assign securable units to users and to provide the users with access credentials for accessing assigned securable units, and user portals within the housing and separate from the kiosk. Each user portal permits access to one or more of the securable units in accordance with access credentials entered into the portal. Each user portal is also operable to allow users to transfer rentals of assigned securable devices to other electronic storage systems. The system also permits access to assigned securable devices in accordance with access credentials received via text or SMS messages or via applications executing on a computer, NFC device, or smart device, such as a smart phone or tablet.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An electronic storage system, comprising:
 a housing;   a plurality of securable units within the housing;   a kiosk configured to assign at least one of the securable units to a user and to provide the user with access credentials for accessing an assigned securable unit; and   a plurality of user portals within the housing and separate from the plurality of securable units and the kiosk, each user portal being configured to permit access to at least two of the plurality of securable units, at least one of the user portals being configured to permit access to the assigned securable unit in response to receiving the access credentials from the user,   wherein at least one of the user portals is further configured to assign at least one of the securable units to the user and to provide the user with the access credentials for accessing the assigned securable unit.   
     
     
         2 . The electronic storage system of  claim 1 , wherein the access credentials include at least one of a personal identification code and a compartment identifier. 
     
     
         3 . The electronic storage system of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of securable units is divided into subsets of securable units, each subset of securable units being assigned to at least one user portal, each user portal permitting access only to subsets of securable units assigned to the user portal. 
     
     
         4 . The electronic storage system of  claim 3 , wherein each subset of securable units includes a column of securable units and the housing includes a plurality of rails, the plurality of user portals being respectively positioned on the rails, each user portal permitting access only to a column of securable units adjacent to the user portal. 
     
     
         5 . The electronic storage system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one user portal configured to assign at least one of the securable units to the user is further configured to process payments for renting the assigned securable unit. 
     
     
         6 . The electronic storage system of  claim 5 , wherein the payments processed by the user portal include payments processed from at least one of a credit card, a debit card, an RFID device, an NFC device, and a barcode. 
     
     
         7 . The electronic storage system of  claim 5 , wherein at least one of the user portals is further configured to permit a rental of the assigned securable device to be transferred to a new securable device. 
     
     
         8 . The electronic storage system of  claim 1 , wherein the kiosk is further configured to receive a text or SMS message containing the access credentials and to unlock the assigned securable unit in accordance with the access credentials received from the text or SMS message. 
     
     
         9 . The electronic storage system of  claim 8 , wherein the access credentials include at least one of a personal identification code and a compartment identifier. 
     
     
         10 . The electronic storage system of  claim 9 , wherein the kiosk is further configured to obtain a telephone number from a caller-ID signal and to retrieve the compartment identifier from a database in accordance with the telephone number. 
     
     
         11 . The electronic storage system of  claim 10 , wherein the kiosk is configured to unlock the assigned securable unit only if the telephone number obtained from the caller-ID signal matches a registration telephone number stored in a database during a rental process. 
     
     
         12 . An electronic storage system, comprising:
 a housing;   a plurality of securable units within the housing;   a kiosk configured to assign at least one of the securable units to a user and to provide the user with access credentials for accessing an assigned securable unit; and   a plurality of user portals within the housing and separate from the kiosk, at least one of the user portals being configured to assign at least one of the securable units to a user, to process payments for renting an assigned securable unit, and to provide the user with access credentials for accessing the assigned securable unit,   wherein each user portal is further configured to permit access to at least one of the plurality of securable units, at least one of the user portals being configured to permit access to the assigned securable unit in response to receiving the access credentials from the user.   
     
     
         13 . The electronic storage system of  claim 12 , wherein the plurality of securable units is divided into subsets of securable units, each subset of securable units being assigned to at least one user portal, each user portal permitting access only to subsets of securable units assigned to the user portal. 
     
     
         14 . The electronic storage system of  claim 13 , wherein each subset of securable units includes a column of securable units and the housing includes a plurality of rails, the plurality of user portals being respectively positioned on the rails, each user portal permitting access only to a column of securable units adjacent to the user portal. 
     
     
         15 . The electronic storage system of  claim 12 , wherein at least one of the user portals is further configured to permit a rental of the assigned securable device to be transferred to a new securable device. 
     
     
         16 . The electronic storage system of  claim 12 , wherein each user portal is positioned on a respective one of the securable devices. 
     
     
         17 . An electronic storage system, comprising:
 a housing;   a plurality of securable units within the housing;   a kiosk configured to assign at least one of the securable units to a user and to provide the user with access credentials for accessing an assigned securable unit; and   a unit configured to receive a text or SMS message containing the access credentials and to unlock the assigned securable unit in accordance with the access credentials received from the text or SMS message.