ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,333,880, issued on June 17, was assigned to Amazon Technologies Inc. (Seattle).
"Secure item dropoff and retrieval" was invented by Adam Dumey (Falls Church, Va.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "This disclosure describes, in part, systems and techniques for secure storage and retrieval of items by users without requiring manual check-in and check-out procedures. The systems and techniques involve tracking locations (anonymously) of users within a facility and associating locations where the user placed items with a unique identifier. The item is secured except for access by the user as gates or panels prevent accessing items or exiting wit...