Method of maximizing statistical data throughput at remotely located electronic donation processing devices, and electronic device for managing statistical information

• US 6,092,052 A
• Filed: 09/25/1995
• Issued: 07/18/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pierun Corporation
• Original Assignee: Witold A. Ziarno
• Inventors: Ziarno, Witold A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Swann, Tod R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smithers, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US08/533,338
• Time in Patent Office: 1,758 Days
• Field of Search: 395/216, 235/379, 235/380, 235/381, 235/472, 902/4, 902/22, 705/1, 705/16, 705/17, 705/21
• US Class Current: 705/21
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR

Abstract

The invention provides a method of capturing monetary donations or monetary gifts made by donors or gift givers at points in time and space in which said donors or gift givers are optimally motivated to make said donations or gifts, said donations or gifts being the donation or gift perferences of respective donors or gift givers. The method comprises the steps of inputting a multiplicity of sequences of data comprised of monetary donations or monetary gifts. The monetary donations or monetary gifts are made by a plurality of said respective donors or gift givers consecutively free of input of information unrelated to said respective monetary donations or monetary gifts at a multiplicity of distinct sites where said donations and gifts are being received in one variant. The sequences or strings of data are temporarily captured at the multiplicity of distinct sites on a plurality of respective electronic devices physically located at said sites to obtain temporarily captured sequences. The temporarily captured sequences are then transmitted from the electronic devices to a processing device remote from a plurality of said distinct sites for processing. The method further comprises the optional the step of statistically manipulating at least a respective sequence of said data. In one variant, the present invention provides a donation kettle for accepting information from an information bearing card. The electronic terminal includes means for tallying the amount of card donations accepted, and collecting, analyzing, and displaying information regarding the donation.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of capturing monetary donations or monetary gifts made by donors or gift givers, comprising:

inputting sequences of data comprised of monetary donations or monetary gifts, said monetary donations or monetary gifts made by a plurality of said respective donors or gift givers at a multiplicity of geographically distinct sites where said donations and gifts are being received;

temporarily capturing said sequences at said multiplicity of geographically distinct sites on a plurality of respective electronic devices physically located at said sites to obtain temporarily captured sequences;

transmitting said temporarily captured sequences from said electronic devices to a processing device remote from a plurality of said distinct sites for processing;

said processing comprising entering a debit representative of a respective monetary donation or monetary gift to an account of a respective donor or gift giver; and

, entering a credit representative of a respective monetary donation or monetary gift to an account of a recipient of said respective monetary donation or monetary gift.

2. The method of claim 1 in which said monetary donations or monetary gifts are input unimpeded by input of additional information.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the step of inputting comprises the step of reading electronically.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of tallying said monetary donations or monetary gifts at a remote processing device.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of statistically manipulating at least a respective sequence of said data.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of statistically manipulating a plurality of said sequences of data to obtain statistically manipulated data.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of statistically manipulating a plurality of said sequences of data to obtain statistically manipulated data and generating a record comprising said statistically manipulated data.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of statistically manipulating a plurality of said sequences of data to obtain statistically manipulated data, and generating a record comprising said statistically manipulated data, and in which said statistically manipulated data is selected from the group consisting of total donations or gifts received;

a histogram;

a donation or gift average per donor or gift giver;

an arithemetic mean, said arithmetic mean selected from the group consisting of a mean of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, and size of gifts;

a mode, said mode selected from the group consisting of a mode of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, and size of gifts;

a median, said median selected from the group consisting of a median of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, and size of gifts;

a weighted mean, said weighted mean selected from the group consisting of a weighted mean of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, and size of gifts;

a harmonic mean, said harmonic mean selected from the group consisting of a harmonic mean of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, and size of gifts;

a geometric mean, said geometric mean selected from the group consisting of a geometric mean of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, and size of gifts;

a logarithmic mean, said logarithmic mean selected from the group consisting of a logarithmic mean of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, and size of gifts;

a root mean square, said root mean square selected from the group consisting of a root mean square of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, size of gifts, and combination thereof;

a root sum square, said root sum square selected from the group consisting of a root sum square of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, size of gifts, and combination thereof;

a normal distribution curve, said normal distribution curve selected from the group consisting of a normal distribution curve of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, size of gifts, and combination thereof;

a spread, said spread selected from the group consisting of a spread of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, size of gifts, and combination thereof;

a variance, said variance selected from the group consisting of a variance of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, size of gifts, and combination thereof;

a standard deviation, said standard deviation selected from the group consisting of a standard deviation of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, size of gifts, and combination thereof;

a skewed distribution, said skewed distribution selected from the group consisting of a skewed distribution of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, size of gifts, and combination thereof;

a sampling, said sampling selected from the group consisting of a sampling of number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, size of gifts, and combination thereof;

a condifence level, said confidence level selected from the group consisting of a confidence level associated with a number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, size of gifts, and combination thereof;

a regression analysis, said regression analysis selected from the group consisting of a regression analysis associated with a number of donors, number of gift givers, quantity of donations, quantity of gifts, size of donations, size of gifts, and combination thereof; and

, a donation or gift average of a sub-group of donors or gift givers.

9. The method according to claim 7 further comprising the step of ascertaining the donation or gift giving habits of an entity from said statistically manipulated data.

10. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of retrieving petition data or intention data from said electronic devices.

11. The method according to claim 1 further comprising retrieving petition data or intention data from said electronic devices, and correlating said petition data or intention data with data comprised of monetary donations or monetary gifts.

12. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of presenting display options on a respective electronic device of increasing absolute value and of an order inducing the making of greater monetary donation or monetary gift amounts.

13. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of retreiving status data of said electronic devices,

whereby the functioning of a respective electronic device is readily ascertained.

14. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of manually manipulating a touch sensitive screen to input said monetary donations, monetary gifts, or portions thereof.

15. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of energizing said electronic devices with a rechargeable source of energy.

16. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of presenting multiple display options to said donors or gift givers to induce entry of portions of said sequences.

17. The method of claim 1 in which the step of inputting comprises the step of reading electronically data from respective record bearing media of said respective donors or gift givers, said record bearing media selected from the group consisting of smart cards, magnetically striped cards, and contactless cards.

18. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of electronically preauthorizing portions of said sequences.

19. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of electronically conveying to said donors or gift givers audible messages after donations or gifts are received on said electronic devices.

20. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of electronically conveying to said donors or gift givers audible messages attracting said donors or gift givers to make donations or gifts on said electronic devices.

21. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of selecting a respective recipient from a group of prospective recipients to which respective donations or gifts are designated.

22. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of selecting a respective fund associated with a particular charity to which a plurality of said donations or gifts are designated.

23. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of generating a receipt for a donor or gift giver for a plurality of donations or gifts made by a respective donor or gift giver from a site remote from said distinct sites.

24. The method according to claim 1 in which there are a plurality of docking stations for said electronic devices, and said method further comprises the step of communicatively and removably attaching said electronic devices to said docking stations for transmission of said sequences to said processing device.

25. The method according to claim 1 in which there are a plurality of docking stations for said electronic devices, said method further comprising the step of networking said docking stations for transmission of said sequences to said processing device.

26. The method according to claim 1 in which there are a plurality of docking stations for said electronic devices, said method further comprising the step of energizing said electronic devices with a source of energy eminating from docking stations.

27. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of permanently mounting a plurality of said respective electronic devices in a plurality of docking stations, each respective docking station fastened to an interior or exterior portion of a building.

28. The method of claim 1 further comprising linking said electronic devices to each other so that said electronic devices can communicate electronically with each other.