Entertainment kiosk

• US 20040218047A1
• Filed: 04/28/2004
• Published: 11/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Falcon Management Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Falcon Management Incorporated
• Inventors: Falcon, Gary, Goodman, Jonathan P.
• Application Number:
  US10/834,139
• Publication Number:
  US 20040218047A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/207.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/16 for devices exhibiting advertisements, announcements, pictures or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules

Abstract

An entertainment kiosk automatically records a movie of a particular scene and e-mails the movie to selected recipients indicated by a user of the entertainment kiosk. According to another embodiment, the kiosk permits a user to view music tracks stored in memory and select one or more of the music tracks to be downloaded from memory to a portable storage medium for access by the user.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a kiosk configured to automatically record a movie of a particular scene and e-mail the movie to selected recipients indicated by a user of the kiosk.

2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the kiosk is located in a user accessible venue including at least one of a tourist location, a retail location, a restaurant, a bar, a saloon, an amusement park, a zoo, a transportation center, a cruise ship, a hotel, an historic site, an entertainment venue, a sporting venue, a stadium, and a park.

3. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the kiosk comprises a camera, configured to record the movie of the particular scene in proximity to the camera.

4. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the movie is a digital video clip of a short duration that is directed to at least one of a user and a scene in proximity to the kiosk.

5. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the movie is a digital video clip of a short duration that is directed to at least one of a user and a scene in proximity to the kiosk, the movie including at least one of video, audio, and written text.

6. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the movie is a digital video clip of a short duration that is directed to at least one of a user and a scene in proximity to the kiosk, the scene being at least one of a real and virtual scene.

7. A kiosk, comprising:

a camera, configured to record a movie of a scene in proximity to the camera,

a user interface, configured to permit a user to enter one or more e-mail addresses of recipients to receive the movie via e-mail; and

a control unit, configured to cause the camera to automatically record the movie and then e-mail the movie to the recipients.

8. The kiosk as recited in claim 7, wherein the kiosk is located in a user accessible venue including at least one of a tourist location, a retail location, a restaurant, a bar, a saloon, an amusement park, a zoo, a transportation center, a cruise ship, a hotel, an historic site, an entertainment venue, a sporting venue, a stadium, and a park.

9. The kiosk as recited in claim 7, wherein the movie is a digital video clip of a short duration that is directed to at least one of a user and a scene in proximity to the kiosk.

10. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a kiosk, causes the kiosk to:

automatically record a movie of a particular scene; and

e-mail the movie to selected recipients indicated by a user of the kiosk.

11. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 10, having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the kiosk, further causes the kiosk to:

prompt the user to enter e-mail addresses of recipients to receive the movie recorded by the kiosk.

12. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 10, having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the kiosk, further causes the kiosk to:

prompt the user to enter e-mail addresses of recipients to receive the movie recorded by the kiosk.

13. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 10, having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the kiosk, further causes the kiosk to:

prompt the user to select at least one of an actual background or virtual background for the movie, wherein the actual background includes an actual scene recorded by a camera in proximity to the kiosk and the virtual background includes a scene that was prerecorded from a different location, or was computer generated.

14. A method, comprising:

requesting that a user enter an e-mail address of a recipient to receive a movie to be recorded by the kiosk;

recording the movie; and

transmitting the movie to the recipient.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, querying the user to select an actual background or virtual background for the movie.

16. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the movie is a digital video clip of a short duration that is directed to at least one of a user and a scene in proximity to the kiosk.

17. The method as recited in claim 14, displaying a screen on a display device of a kiosk instructions indicating how a user may record and e-mail movies to one or more recipients.

18. A kiosk, comprising:

a user interface, configured to permit a user to view music tracks and select one or more of the music tracks; and

a control unit, configured to cause the one or more selected music tracks to be copied to a portable storage medium for access by the user.

19. The kiosk as recited in claim 18, further comprising a memory device configured to store the music tracks.

20. The kiosk as a recited in claim 18, wherein the one or more music tracks are viewed and selected by the user based on titles of the one or more music tracks.

21. The kiosk as recited in claim 18, wherein the kiosk is located in a user accessible venue including at least one of a tourist location, a retail location, a restaurant, a bar, a saloon, an amusement park, a zoo, a transportation center, a cruise ship, a hotel, an historic site, an entertainment venue, a sporting venue, a stadium, and a park.

22. The kiosk as recited in claim 18, wherein the portable storage medium comprises at least one of a compact disc, a portable digital music player, and flash memory.

24. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the kiosk is located in a user accessible venue including at least one of a tourist location, a retail location, a restaurant, a bar, a saloon, an amusement park, a zoo, a transportation center, a cruise ship, a hotel, an historic site, an entertainment venue, a sporting venue, a stadium, and a park.

25. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the portable storage medium comprises at least one of a compact disc, a portable digital music player, and flash memory.

23. A method, comprising:

enabling a user to view music tracks from a display screen of a kiosk;

enabling the user to select one or more of the music tracks from the display screen of the kiosk;

enabling the one or more selected music tracks to be copied from the kiosk to a portable storage medium for use by the user.

26. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a kiosk, causes the kiosk to:

enable a user to view music tracks from a display screen of a kiosk;

enable the user to select one or more of the music tracks from the display screen of the kiosk;

enable the one or more selected music tracks to be copied from the kiosk to a portable storage medium for use by the user.

27. A kiosk, comprising:

means for enabling a user to browse a music selection offering;

means for enabling the user to select music tracks from the music selection offering; and

means for transferring the selected music tracks to a portable storage medium for use by the user.

28. A kiosk, comprising:

a user interface, configured to permit a user to view movie titles stored in memory and select one or more of the movies associated with the movie titles to be downloaded from memory to a portable storage medium for access by the user; and

a control unit, configured to cause the one or more selected movies to be copied from memory to the portable storage medium.

29. The kiosk as recited in claim 28, wherein memory is accessible to the kiosk via a communication medium.

30. The kiosk as a recited in claim 28, wherein memory resides in the kiosk.

31. The kiosk as recited in claim 28, wherein the kiosk is located in a user accessible venue including at least one of a tourist location, a retail location, a restaurant, a bar, a saloon, an amusement park, a zoo, a transportation center, a cruise ship, a hotel, an historic site, an entertainment venue, a sporting venue, a statium, and a park.

32. The kiosk as recited in claim 28, wherein the portable storage medium comprises at least one of a compact disc, a portable digital music player, and flash memory.