Influencing communications among a social support network
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving a digital representation of an annotated routing form, the annotated routing form having a particular form type of a plurality of predetermined form types, one or more portions of the digital representation of the annotated routing form intended for email delivery to one or more addressees, the annotated routing form including thereon a set of item identification marks;
reading the set of item identification marks from the digital representation of the annotated routing form;
determining the particular form type of the annotated routing form and one or more characteristics of the annotated routing form based on the set of item identification marks, the one or more characteristics of the annotated routing form including information regarding a location of an address sector within the annotated routing form;
attempting to determine the one or more addressees by processing a portion of the digital representation corresponding to the location of the address sector;
composing a digital representation of a resulting message based at least in part upon the particular form type; and
distributing the digital representation of the resulting message by associating the digital representation of the resulting message with an email message addressed to email accounts associated with each of the one or more addressees.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for promoting and managing communications among a social support network. According to one embodiment, a communication system includes a closed communication service platform and a hardcopy-based communication appliance. The communication service platform provides a caregroup virtual private network (VPN) through which only registered members of the caregroup, authorized personnel of the communication service platform, processes associated with the communication service platform, and a target of the caregroup are permitted to exchange communications. The hardcopy-based communication appliance is associated with the caregroup VPN and used by the target and is operable to be communicatively coupled to the communication service platform to print inbound communications received from registered members of the caregroup, and to upload to the communication service platform outbound digital representations of annotated pages defining communications to be delivered to one or more members of the caregroup.
203 Citations
43 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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receiving a digital representation of an annotated routing form, the annotated routing form having a particular form type of a plurality of predetermined form types, one or more portions of the digital representation of the annotated routing form intended for email delivery to one or more addressees, the annotated routing form including thereon a set of item identification marks;
reading the set of item identification marks from the digital representation of the annotated routing form;
determining the particular form type of the annotated routing form and one or more characteristics of the annotated routing form based on the set of item identification marks, the one or more characteristics of the annotated routing form including information regarding a location of an address sector within the annotated routing form;
attempting to determine the one or more addressees by processing a portion of the digital representation corresponding to the location of the address sector;
composing a digital representation of a resulting message based at least in part upon the particular form type; and
distributing the digital representation of the resulting message by associating the digital representation of the resulting message with an email message addressed to email accounts associated with each of the one or more addressees. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method comprising:
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as part of a communication to an end user of a hardcopy-based communication appliance, delivering a digital representation of a form to the end user, the form including thereon a set of item identification marks that uniquely associate the form with a record in a database;
receiving from the hardcopy-based communication appliance a digital representation of an annotated version of the form, one or more portions of the digital representation of the annotated version of the form intended for email delivery to one or more addressees;
reading the set of item identification marks from the digital representation of the annotated version of the form;
determining the one or more addressees by retrieving the record from the database based upon a value represented by the set of item identification marks;
composing a digital representation of a resulting message by extracting the one or more portions from the digital representation of the annotated version of the form and including digital representations of the one or more extracted portions within the digital representation of the resulting message; and
distributing the digital representation of the resulting message to the one or more addressees by associating the digital representation of the resulting message with an email message addressed to email accounts associated with each of the one or more addressee. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method comprising:
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receiving from a member of a caregroup an indication of a digital gift desired to be generated and delivered to a target of the caregroup;
for each content-containing component of the digital gift, selecting default content items based upon one or more of biographical information previously supplied by one or more members of the caregroup, information regarding communications history between one or more members of the caregroup and the target of the caregroup, ascertained preferences of the target of the caregroup, and a type of the digital gift;
allowing the caregroup member to immediately initiate delivery of the digital gift with the selected default content items or personalize the digital gift prior to delivery by presenting the digital gift within a corresponding digital gift editor. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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28. A method comprising:
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a communication service provider maintaining information regarding events of significance to members of a family support network and a target of the family support network and dates associated with the events of significance;
responsive to determining a particular event among the events of significance is within a predetermined amount of time, the communication service provider encouraging communications among the members of the family support network and the target of the family support network at least in part by delivering a coaching message regarding the particular event to a hardcopy-based communication appliance associated with the family support network and used by the target of the family support network, the coaching message including a suggestion regarding an appropriate digital gift that may be sent via the communication service provider by the target of the family support network to one or more members of the family support network, the coaching message including a form depicting representations of one or more images from which the target of the family support network may select to personalize the suggested digital gift. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31)
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32. A method comprising:
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providing a communication service configured to facilitate and encourage communications among a plurality of members of a caregroup and a target of the caregroup, the target of the caregroup using a hardcopy-based communication appliance associated with the caregroup to transmit and receive electronic communications via the communication service to or from the plurality of members of the caregroup;
capturing information regarding digital gifts exchanged among the plurality of members of the caregroup and the target of the caregroup via the communication service;
calculating one or more metrics based on the captured information; and
based on the one or more metrics, the communication service automatically generating and delivering a coaching message to one or more members of the plurality of members of the caregroup, the coaching message including a suggestion regarding an appropriate digital gift to be sent to the target of the caregroup via the communication service. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A hardcopy-based email appliance comprising:
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a scanner operable to create outbound digital representations of annotated pages one or more portions of which are intended for email delivery to one or more addressees of a caregroup associated with the hardcopy-based email appliance;
a scan queue communicatively coupled to the scanner and operable to buffer accumulated outbound digital representations of annotated pages received from the scanner until the digital representations of annotated pages are directly or indirectly uploaded to a closed communication service configured to facilitate and encourage communications among a plurality of members of a caregroup and a target of the caregroup, the closed communication service operable to process the uploaded digital representations of annotated pages and distribute corresponding resulting email messages to the one or more addressees;
a print queue operable to be communicatively coupled to the closed communication service and to receive inbound digital representations of pages of correspondence received via the closed communication service from members of the caregroup intended for delivery to a user associated with the hardcopy-based email appliance and representing the target of the caregroup; and
a printer communicatively coupled to the print queue and operable to create hard copy output of the inbound digital representations of pages. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41)
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42. A communication system comprising:
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a communication service platform providing various tools and services to members of a plurality of caregroups to facilitate and encourage generation and delivery of digital gifts among members of the plurality of caregroups and corresponding targets of the plurality of caregroups through the communication service platform; and
a plurality of hardcopy-based communication appliances each associated with a particular caregroup of the plurality of caregroups and used by the corresponding targets of the plurality of caregroups, each of the hardcopy-based communication appliances operable to be communicatively coupled to the communication service platform, to receive and print inbound digital gifts received from members of the particular caregroup, and to upload outbound digital representations of annotated pages defining digital gifts to be delivered to one or more members of the particular caregroup by email via the communication service platform.
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43. A communication system comprising:
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a closed communication service platform providing a caregroup virtual private network (VPN) through which only registered members of the caregroup, authorized personnel associated with the closed communication service platform, automated processes associated with the closed communication service platform, and a target of the caregroup are permitted to exchange communications to the registered members of the caregroup and the target of the caregroup; and
a hardcopy-based communication appliance associated with the caregroup VPN and used by the target, the hardcopy-based communication appliance operable to be communicatively coupled to the closed communication service platform, to receive and print inbound communications received from registered members of the caregroup, and to upload to the closed communication service platform outbound digital representations of annotated pages defining communications to be delivered to one or more members of the caregroup via the closed communication service platform.
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Specification