Low-power hand-held transaction device

• US 7,093,759 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2004
• Issued: 08/22/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Moce Solutions Limited Liability Company
• Original Assignee: E-Comm Inc.
• Inventors: Walsh, Joseph F.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, THIEN MINH
• Application Number:
  US10/796,896
• Publication Number:
  US 20040242267A1
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• Field of Search: 23547201-47203, 235/379, 235/380, 235/375, 23546201-46225
• US Class Current: 235/462.01
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/084 sensing magnetic material by relative movement detecting flux changes without altering its magnetised state
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10722 Photodetector array or CCD scanning
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2755 by optical scanning
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/14 including a card reading device

Abstract

An electronic hand-held device and method for inputting and sending requests and for receiving and outputting responses to the requests. The electronic hand-held device is a coupled to a telecommunications link over which requests are sent and responses are received. The electronic hand-held device can input request data in any number of different information media, including audio tones and voice signals, mechanical input to a keypad, printed bar codes, magnetic data stored in credit cards, and electronic data stored in electronic smart cards. The electronic hand-held device can output responses through an audio speaker, a visual LCD display device, and, optionally, through other output devices including printers. The electronic hand-held device is especially well suited for order entry and acquisition of product information.

Claims

1. A method for inputting a request to a hand-held device, transmitting a server request corresponding to the input request from the hand-held device to a server computer through a telecommunications link, receiving a response to the server request by the hand-held device from the server computer, and outputting the response by the hand-held device, the handheld device having:

a number of input components for inputting request data from a number of different input media, including mechanical manipulation of an input component and at least one of additional input media including electronic, auto tones, magnetic, and printed request data,

a processing component that constructs a request from the request data,

a transceiver component that sends the request to the server computer and receives the response from the server computer, and

a number of output components that output a portion of the response received from the server computer in a particular response output medium, the method comprising;

coupling the hand-held device to a telecommunications link to transmit the request and to receive the response through the telecommunications link;

inputting the request from an input medium to an input component of the hand-held device;

processing the input request to produce a corresponding server request;

transmitting the server request to the server computer;

receiving the response from the server computer through the telecommunications link; and

outputting the response via an output component.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the input media is one of:

audio tones,

keypad input, and

extracting data encoded in one of

a mechanical medium,

a magnetic medium,

an electronic medium, and

a printed medium.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the input media is a combination of two or more of input media selected from:

audio tones,

keypad input, and

extracting data encoded in one of

a mechanical medium,

a magnetic medium,

an electronic medium, and

a printed medium.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the telecommunications link is one of:

a standard telephone line;

a cellular telephone;

a PBX telephone line;

a wireless telephone;

a personal communication system telephone;

a radio frequency connection;

a cordless telephone; and

an RS232 or universal serial bus to a computer that is, in turn, coupled to a remote server computer via a telecommunications link.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the input request includes an access code.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the access code is one of:

an IP address;

a URL;

a web site address;

a product/service ID code; and

a phone number.

7. The method of claim 1 further including storing the input request in non-volatile memory for communication via telecommunication link at a later time or date.

8. The method of claim 7 further including:

transmitting a request, previously stored in non-volatile memory, via a telecommunication link to a server.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a smart card reader input component

for inputting information encoded electronically in a smart card.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a magnetic card reader input component

for inputting information encoded magnetically on a magnetic card.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a bar code reader input component for inputting information stored in a printed bar code.

12. The method of claim 11

wherein the bar code reader comprises

a bank of illumination elements for illuminating a printed bar code,

an optical element for gathering light reflected from the printed bar code,

a charge coupled device for sensing bar codes from the gathered light, and

a low-power proximity detector;

and

wherein, when activated, the bar code reader activates the low-power proximity detector to first detect a reflective surface within a threshold distance from the optical element prior to activating the illumination elements to read a bar code.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the bar code reader comprises a laser bar code reader.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the bar code reader comprises a LED bar code reader.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the bar code reader comprises a CCD bar code reader.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a telephone for person-to-person communication or person-to-computer computer server communication.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a speaker output component for outputting audio information.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a microphone input component for inputting an input request represented by audio tones.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a keypad input component for inputting an input request represented by mechanical manipulation of the keypad.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a visual display output component capable of displaying alphanumeric symbols.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a visual display output component capable of displaying both alphanumeric symbols and graphical images.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a printer output component.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes an input or output component comprising a serial interface element such as RS232.

24. A method for electronically processing an access code included in an input medium, the method comprising:

inputting the access code to a hand-held device from the input medium;

processing the access code to produce a corresponding server access request;

coupling the hand-held device to a telecommunications link to transmit the access request to a server computer and to receive a response from the server computer through the telecommunications link;

transmitting the access request to the server computer;

receiving a response that is one or more from among audio, alpha-numeric, and images, from the server computer through the telecommunications link; and

outputting the response via an output component of the hand-held device, the handheld device comprising;

a number of input components for inputting request data from a number of different input media, including mechanical manipulation of an input component and additional input media including electronic, auto tones, magnetic, and printed request data;

a processing component that constructs a request from the request data;

a transceiver component that sends the request to the server computer and receives the response from the server computer; and

a number of output components that output a portion of the response received from the server computer in a particular response output medium.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the input media is one of:

audio tones,

keypad input, and

data encoded in one of

a mechanical medium,

a magnetic medium,

an electronic medium, and

a printed medium.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the input media is a combination of two or more of input media selected from:

audio tones;

keypad input, and

data encoded in one of

a mechanical medium,

a magnetic medium,

an electronic medium,

a serial interface, and

a printed medium.

27. The method of claim 24 wherein the telecommunications link is one of:

a standard telephone line;

a cellular telephone;

a PBX telephone line;

a wireless telephone;

a personal communication system telephone;

a radio frequency connection;

a cordless telephone; and

an RS232 or universal serial bus to a computer that is, in turn, coupled to a remote server computer via a telecommunications link.

28. The method of claim 24 wherein the access code is one or more of:

an IP address;

a URL;

a web site address;

a product/service ID code; and

a telephone number.

29. The method of claim 24 further including storing the input request in non-volatile memory for communication via telecommunication link at a later time or date.

30. The method of claim 24 further including:

transmitting an access request, previously stored in non-volatile memory, via a telecommunication link to a server.

31. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a smart card reader input component for inputting access information encoded electronically in a smart card.

32. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a magnetic card reader input component for inputting access information encoded magnetically on a magnetic card.

33. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a bar code reader input component for inputting access information stored in a printed bar code.

34. The method of claim 24

wherein the input component comprises

a bank of illumination elements for illuminating a printed bar code,

an optical element for gathering light reflected from the printed bar code,

a charge coupled device for sensing bar codes from the gathered light, and

a low-power proximity detector;

and

wherein, when activated, the bar code reader activates the low-power proximity detector to first detect a reflective surface within a threshold distance from the optical element prior to activating the illumination elements to read a bar code.

35. The method of claim 24 wherein the bar code reader comprises a laser bar code reader.

36. The method of claim 24 wherein the bar code reader comprises a LED bar code reader.

37. The method of claim 24 wherein the input component comprises a CCD bar code reader.

38. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a microphone input component for inputting an input request represented by audio tones.

39. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a keypad input component for inputting an input request represented by mechanical manipulation of the keypad.

40. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a visual display output component capable of displaying alphanumeric symbols.

41. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a visual display output component capable of displaying both alphanumeric symbols and graphical images.

42. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a printer output component.

43. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes an output component comprising one or more illumination element.

44. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes an output component comprising a speaker element.

45. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a serial interface that is an output component.

46. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a serial interface that is an input component.