COMPUTER OPERATION CONTROL AND ITEM SELECTION AND VENDING METHODS AND SYSTEMS

• US 20100230485A1
• Filed: 04/06/2010
• Published: 09/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gula Consulting Limited Liability Company (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Xoranno Group Limited Liability Company (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Kenney, John A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,162,221 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering

Abstract

A signal is transmitted into a computer in response to an image on a display screen of the computer such that the computer operates in response to the signal; this includes moving a scanner in optical communication with the display screen such that the scanner detects an image (for example, a bar code) displayed on the screen and generates the signal in response. One or more computers may be used, and this may be used for vending a product or other purposes. With or without such scanning, a portion of a store environment may be displayed on a screen of a computer, including showing images of actual products for sale at the store, in which images of actual products are accessed via the computer from a database containing in-store images recorded in the store during a period of non-existent or minimal customer presence in the store. A vending system is also disclosed.

Claims

1. An item selection communication method, comprising:

displaying an image on a computer screen, said displayed image including image indicia defining decodable information;

detecting said image indicia defining decodable information;

communicating a signal to a second computer in response to the selection of identifier indicia.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step of communicating a signal to a second computer further comprises the step of generating a list of at least one item in response to the communicated signal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the display of the image on the computer screen includes a portion of a store environment, including showing images of actual products for sale at the store and showing images respectively associated with the products;

and,

changing the portion of the store environment displayed on the screen until an image of an actual product to be selected is shown on the screen.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein displaying includes transmitting signals representing the images of actual products over the Internet to the computer.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein displaying includes obtaining signals representing the images of actual products from a memory of the computer.