System and method for data management
DC CAFCFirst Claim
1. A method for managing data including the steps of:
- (a) creating a questionnaire comprising a series of questions customized for a location;
(b) said questionnaire including at least one question requesting GPS coordinates;
(c) tokenizing said questionnaire, thereby producing a plurality of device indifferent tokens representing said questionnaire;
(d) transmitting said plurality of tokens to a remote computing device;
(e) when said remote computing device is at said location, executing at least a portion of said plurality of tokens representing said questionnaire at within said remote computing device to collect a response from a user;
(f) automatically entering the GPS coordinates into said questionnaire;
(g) transmitting at least a portion of said response from the user to a server in real time via a network; and
(h) storing said response at said server.
3 Assignments
Litigations
3 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method for the management of data collected from a remote computing device including the steps of: creating a questionnaire; transmitting the questionnaire to a remote computer; executing the questionnaire in the remote computer to prompt a user for responses to questions of the questionnaire; transmitting the responses to a sever via a network; making the responses available on the Web. Preferably, computers used in connection with the inventive method are loosely networked in that network connections between computers are not always available and, when a connection is not available, data is stored at a node of the network and transmitted at the earliest time when a connection is available. In one preferred embodiment, the inventive method is used to collect survey data and to make the responses to the survey available to a client in virtually real time over the Internet.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method for managing data including the steps of:
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(a) creating a questionnaire comprising a series of questions customized for a location; (b) said questionnaire including at least one question requesting GPS coordinates; (c) tokenizing said questionnaire, thereby producing a plurality of device indifferent tokens representing said questionnaire; (d) transmitting said plurality of tokens to a remote computing device; (e) when said remote computing device is at said location, executing at least a portion of said plurality of tokens representing said questionnaire at within said remote computing device to collect a response from a user; (f) automatically entering the GPS coordinates into said questionnaire; (g) transmitting at least a portion of said response from the user to a server in real time via a network; and (h) storing said response at said server. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for collecting survey data from a user and making responses available via the Internet, comprising:
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(a) designing a questionnaire including at least one question said questionnaire customized for a particular location having branching logic on a first computer platform wherein at least one of said at least one questions requests location identifying information; (b) automatically transferring said designed questionnaire to at least one loosely networked computer having a GPS integral thereto; (c) when said loosely networked computer is at said particular location, executing said transferred questionnaire on said loosely networked computer, thereby collecting responses from the user; (d) while said transferred questionnaire is executing, using said GPS to automatically provide said location identifying information as a response to said executing questionnaire; (e) automatically transferring via the loose network any responses so collected in real time to a central computer; and
,(f) making available via the Internet any responses transferred to said central computer in step (e). - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. A method for managing data comprising the steps of:
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(a) establishing communications between a handheld computing device and an originating computer wherein said handheld computing device has a GPS integral thereto; (b) using said GPS to automatically obtain location identifying information for said handheld computing device; (c) transmitting said location identifying information from said handheld computing device to said originating computer; (d) receiving within said handheld computing device a transmission of a tokenized questionnaire customized for a particular location from said originating computer, said tokenized questionnaire comprising a plurality of device indifferent tokens; (e) ending said communications between said handheld computing device and said originating computer; (f) after said communications has been ended, when said handheld computing device at said particular location; (f1) executing at least a portion of said plurality of tokens comprising said questionnaire on said handheld computing device to collect at least one response from a user, and, (f2) storing within said computing device said at least one response from the user; (g) establishing communications between said handheld computing device and a recipient computer; and
,(h) transmitting a value representative of each of said at least one response stored within said handheld computing device to said recipient computer. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for manacling data comprising the steps of:
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(a) establishing communications between a handheld computing device and an originating computer, said handheld device having at least a capability to determine a current location thereof; (b) receiving within said handheld computing device a transmission of a tokenized questionnaire including at least one question requesting GPS coordinates, said tokenized questionnaire comprising a plurality of device independent tokens; (c) ending said communications between said handheld computing device and said originating computer; (d) after said communications has been terminated, when said handheld computing device is at said particular location (d1) executing at least a portion of said plurality of tokens comprising said questionnaire on said handheld computing device to collect at least said current location of said handheld computing device; and
;(d2) storing within said handheld computing device said current location; (d3) automatically entering the GPS coordinates into said questionnaire; (e) establishing communications between said handheld computing device and a recipient computer; and
,(f) transmitting at least one value representative of said stored current location to said recipient computer. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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19. A method for managing data comprising the steps of:
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(a) establishing communications between a handheld computing device and an originating computer wherein said handheld computing device has a GPS integral thereto; (b) receiving within said handheld computing device a transmission of a tokenized questionnaire from said originating computer, said tokenized questionnaire including at least one question requesting location identifying information, said tokenized questionnaire comprising a plurality of device independent tokens; (c) ending said communications between said handheld computing device and said originating computer; (d) after said communications has been ended, (d1) executing at least a portion of said plurality of tokens comprising said questionnaire on said handheld computing device to collect at least one response from a first user, and, (d2) storing within said computing device said at least one response from the first user; (d3) using said GPS to automatically obtain said location identifying information in response to said at least one question that requests location identifying information; (e) establishing communications between said handheld computing device and a recipient computer; (f) transmitting a value representative of each of said at least one response stored within said handheld computing device to said recipient computer; and
,(g) after receipt of said transmission of step (f), transmitting a notice of said received value representative of each of said at least one response to a second user. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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21. A method for managing data comprising the steps of:
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(a) within a central computer, accessing at least one user data item stored in a recipient computer, wherein said at least one data item is obtained via the steps of; (1) establishing communications between a handheld computing device and an originating computer wherein said handheld computing device has a GPS integral thereto; (2) receiving within said handheld computing device a transmission of a tokenized questionnaire, including at least one question requesting GPS coordinates and at least one additional question, said tokenized questionnaire comprising a plurality of device independent tokens; (3) ending said communications between said handheld computing device and said originating computer; (4) after said communications has been ended, (i) executing at least a portion of said plurality of tokens comprising said questionnaire on said handheld computing device, (ii) automatically entering the GPS coordinates into said questionnaire; (iii) presenting said at least one additional question to a user; (iv) receiving at least one response from the user to each of said presented at least one additional question, (v) storing at least one value representative of said GPS coordinates and said at least one response within said handheld computing device; (5) establishing a communications link between said handheld computing device and a recipient computer; (6) transmitting said stored at least one value representative of said GPS coordinates and said at least one response stored within said handheld computing device to said recipient computer; and
,(7) storing within said recipient computer any of said transmitted GPS coordinates and said at least one value representative of said at least one response, thereby creating said at least one user data item stored in said recipient computer; and
,(b) forming a visually perceptible report from any of said at least one stored user data item. - View Dependent Claims (22)
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Specification