Systems and methods for automatically providing a personalized product

• US 20010049669A1
• Filed: 03/21/2001
• Published: 12/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Shinji, Fujikawa, Toshihide, Asai, Naohito, Katsuno, Teruyo, Sugiyama, Koji, Ito, Eiichi, Takami, Hiroshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,337,130 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/401
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0621 Item configuration or customization
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/0012 in a mobile phone system

Abstract

A personalized product producing system enables customers to order a personalized product, such as a name card, a stamp, or a sticker/label, inexpensively and conveniently. Customers operate their own cellular phones to send personalized information to be engraved in a stamp or printed on a name card or sticker/label in the form of e-mail to a host computer. The host computer edits the information and sends personalized product producing data to a stamp personalized product producing device. The personalized product producing device produces a personalized product based on the received data.

Claims

1. A personalized product producing system for producing a personalized product in response to each customer request from customers, the system, comprising:

an electronic mail (e-mail) receiver that can receive pieces of e-mail from each customer, by wireless communication, each piece of e-mail containing data on a requested personalized product along with customer information;

an e-mail returning device that returns, upon receipt of each piece of e-mail by the e-mail receiver, a piece of e-mail for acknowledging receipt of each request to each of the customers, based on the customer information;

a data analyzer that analyzes contents of each piece of e-mail received by the e-mail receiver and converts the data on the requested personalized product to image data to be outputted to an output medium;

a personalized product producing device that receives the image data and outputs an image to the output medium; and

an e-mail transmitter that transmits a piece of e-mail for notifying each of the customers of completion of production of the requested personalized product by the personalized product producing device.

2. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 1

, wherein the customer information is a customer'"'"'s e-mail address.

3. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 1

, wherein the pieces of e-mail received from the customers are transmitted by cellular phones, and the customer information is a phone number assigned to each of the cellular phones.

4. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 1

, further comprising a storage device for storing a produced personalized product in association with the customer information, wherein the storage device authenticates each of the customers based on the customer information and, upon confirmation of authenticity of each of the customers, provides a stored personalized product associated with the customer information to each of the customers.

5. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 4

, wherein at least the personalized product producing device and the storage device are installed in a pair in each of a plurality of locations, each piece of e-mail received from each of the customers contains information about a personalized product producing device'"'"'s location, designated by each of the customers, and the data analyzer receives the information about the personalized product producing device'"'"'s location and transfers the image data to the personalized product producing device installed in a designated producing location, the personalized product producing device at the designated location producing the requested personalized product, and the storage device installed in the designated personalized product producing device, storing the produced personalized product.

6. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 1

, wherein the e-mail receiver receives the pieces of e-mail from the customers using a short-range wireless data communication technique.

7. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 6

, wherein the personalized product producing system is installed in an amusement facility having a plurality of pavilions, and the e-mail receiver is installed in each of the plurality of pavilions and is allowed to receive only pieces of e-mail transmitted from the customers within each of the plurality of pavilions.

8. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 5

, wherein the personalized product producing providing system is installed in an amusement facility having a plurality of pavilions, and at least the personalized product producing device and the storage device are installed as a pair in each of the plurality of pavilions.

9. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 5

, wherein the personalized product producing system is installed in an amusement facility having a plurality of gates, and at least the personalized product producing device and the storage are installed as a pair in each of the plurality of gates.

10. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 1

, further comprising, an estimated time calculator that detects, upon receipt of each piece of e-mail from each of the customers by the e-mail receiver, a number of pieces of e-mail already received and operation conditions of the personalized product producing device and, based on results of detection, calculates an estimated time of completion of the requested personalized product, wherein the e-mail returning device returns the piece of e-mail further including the estimated time of completion to each of the customers.

11. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 1

, wherein the personalized product producing device produces an engraved stamp.

14. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 1

, wherein the personalized product producing device produces a name card.

15. The personalized product producing system according to

claim 1

, wherein the personalized product producing device produces a sticker/label.

17. The personalized product producing system for producing a personalized product in response to each request from customers according to

claim 2

, wherein the personalized product producing data in a first format includes a plurality of types that are selectable by the customer.

12. A personalized product producing system for producing a personalized product in response to each request from customers, the system, comprising:

a data receiver that can receive, by wireless communication, personalized product producing data in a first format and customer identification information;

a memory that can store sets of the personalized product producing data and the customer identification information, each set including a piece of personalized product producing data and a piece of customer identification information;

a data analyzer that analyzes each piece of personalized product producing data in the first format and converts it to a piece of data in a second format;

a personalized product producing device that receives the piece of data in the second format converted by the data analyzer and records the piece of data in the second format on an output medium to produce a personalized product; and

a delivery device that delivers the personalized product produced to a location defined by each piece of customer identification information.

13. A method of providing a personalized product in response to each request from customers, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving, by wireless communication, personalized product producing data in a first format and customer identification information;

sequentially storing sets of the personalized product producing data and the customer identification

information, each set including a piece of personalized product producing data and a piece of customer identification information;

analyzing each piece of personalized product producing data in the first format and converting it to a piece of data in a second format;

receiving the piece of data in the second format and recording the piece of data in the second format on an output medium to produce a personalized product; and

notifying a customer of completion of the personalized product requested.

16. The method of providing a personalized product in response to each request from customers according to

claim 13

, further comprising the step of delivering the personalized product produced to a location designated by each piece of customer identification information.