Methods for automatically providing a personalized product

• US 7,337,130 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2001
• Issued: 02/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Shinji, Asai, Naohito, Katsuno, Teruyo, Sugiyama, Koji, Ito, Eiichi, Fujikawa, Toshihide, Takami, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith; Jeffrey A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Airapetian; Mila
• Application Number:
  US09/812,556
• Publication Number:
  US 20010049669A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,533 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.35
• 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. An automated method of providing a personalized product in response to each request from customers, the automated method comprising the steps of:

preparing electronic personalized product producing data on a portable hand-held device based on instructions provided to a customer prior to preparing the electronic personalized product producing data, the electronic personalized product producing data including text data and type of the personalized product, the text data includes data to be recorded on the personalized product;

sending the personalized product producing data in a first format from the portable hand-held device by wireless communication to a producing facility;

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

electronically 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;

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

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

producing the personalized product based on the piece of electronic data in the second format at a location to be specified by the electronic personalized product producing data; and

automatically notifying the customer of at least one of receipt of the electronic personalized product producing data and completion of the personalized product requested, wherein the automated method incorporates the request and producing of the personalized product taking place within a facility where the customer is located, and delivery of the personalized product to the customer at the location where the personalized product is produced.

2. The method of providing a personalized product in response to each request from customers according to claim 1, further comprising the step of delivering the personalized product produced to a location within the limited, defined geographic area or facility designated by each piece of customer identification information.

3. The automated method according to claim 1, further comprising:

storing the produced personalized product in association with the customer information; and

authenticating each of the customers based on the customer information; and

, upon confirmation of authenticity of each of the customers,

providing the stored personalized product associated with the customer information to each of the customers.

4. The automated method according to claim 3, wherein at least the producing and the storing are paired in each of a plurality of locations within the limited, defined geographic area or facility, 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 furthering including:

analyzing the data about the personalized product producing device'"'"'s location, and

transferring 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 a storage device installed in the designated personalized product producing device, stodng the produced personalized product.

5. The automated method according to claim 1, wherein a personalized product producing system is installed In a plurality of locations within the limited, defined geographic area or facility, and a receiver for receiving the wireless communication is installed in each of the plurality of locations and is allowed to receive only wireless communications transmitted from the customers within an area associated with each location of the plurality of locations.

6. The automated method according to claim 1, further comprising:

calculating upon receipt of each wireless communication, a number of wireless communications already received and operation conditions of a personalized product producing device, an estimated time of completion of the requested personalized product; and

automatically retuming a wireless communication including the estimated time of completion to each of the customers.

7. The automated method according to claim 1 further comprising:

receiving the personalized product by the customer at the location where production of the personalized product occurs.

8. The method of providing a personalized product in response to each request from customers according to claim 1, wherein the personalized product is one of a stamp, name card, and sticker/label.

10. The method of providing a personalized product in response to each request from customers according to claim 1, wherein within the facility, there are a plurality of producing facilities.

11. The method of providing a personalized product in response to each request from customers according to claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of producing facilities produces a different personalized product.

9. An automated method of providing a personalized product in response to each request from customers, the automated method comprising the steps of:

preparing electronic personalized product producing data on a portable hand-held device based on instructions provided to a customer, the electronic personalized product producing data including text data and type of the personalized product, the text data includes data to be recorded on the personalized product;

sending the personalized product producing data in a first format from the portable hand-held device by wireless communication to a producing facility;

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

electronically sequentially storing sets of the electronic 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;

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

receiving the piece of electronic data in the second format and recording the piece of electronic data in the second format on an output medium used to produce a personalized product selected from the group consisting of a stamp, name card, and sticker/label;

producing the personalized product based on the piece of electronic data in the second format at a location specified by the electronic personalized product producing data; and

automatically notifying the customer of at least one of receipt of the electronic personalized product producing data and completion of the personalized product requested, wherein the automated method incorporates the request and producing of the personalized product taking place within a facility where the customer is located, and delivery of the personalized product to the customer at the location where the personalized product is produced.

12. The method of providing a personalized product in response to each request from customers according to claim 9, wherein within the facility, there are a plurality of producing facilities.

13. The method of providing a personalized product in response to each request from customers according to claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of producing facilities produces a different personalized product.