Granted Patent B2

US 7,149,503 · App. 10/744,240 · Granted Dec 12, 2006

Abstract

Claims (88)

1. A method for creating postcards, comprising:

receiving information at a mobile device from at least one transponder, wherein the information includes at least a transponder identifier (ID);

creating a message including the transponder ID at the mobile device, and delivering the message to a network service;

locating postmark information at the network service based on the transponder ID; and

associating the postmark information with a content item to create a digital postcard;

wherein the information received from the at least one transponder further includes a network address of the network service, and wherein delivering the message to the network service comprises delivering the message to the network address of the network service.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising locating the content item at the network service based on the transponder ID.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising creating the content item at the mobile device, wherein:

creating a message comprises creating the message to further include the created content item; and

associating the postmark information with a content item comprises associating the postmark information with the created content item.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein creating a message comprises creating the message to further include one or more destination addresses of intended recipients of the digital postcard, and further comprising delivering the digital postcard from the network service to the one or more destination addresses of the intended recipients.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the destination addresses comprise network addresses, and wherein delivering the digital postcard from the network service to the one or more destination addresses comprises delivering the digital postcard to the network addresses over one or more networks.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising printing the digital postcard, wherein:

the destination addresses comprise physical addresses; and

delivering the digital postcard from the network service to the one or more destination addresses comprises delivering the printed digital postcard to the physical addresses of the one or more intended recipients.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information received from the at least one transponder further includes an application identifier (ID), and further comprising invoking a messaging application at the mobile device corresponding to the received application ID.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein associating the postmark information with the content comprises visually embedding the postmark information into the digital postcard.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein creating a message comprises creating the message to include a text message for inclusion into the digital postcard at the network service.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein creating the message to include a text message comprises:

maintaining a database of mobile device user input (UI) entries and corresponding handwriting entries;

converting UI entries to handwriting entries based on the database; and

incorporating the handwriting entries on the digital postcard that includes the content item and the postmark information.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the postmark information comprises any one or more of a location name, geographic coordinates, date, time, and postage.

12. A method for creating postcards, comprising:

providing a plurality of selectable content items at a kiosk located within a vicinity, each of the selectable content items relating to the vicinity and each having a respective content identifier associated therewith;

transmitting information to a mobile device from at least one transponder, wherein the information includes at least the content identifier of a user-selected content item;

creating a message including the content identifier at the mobile device, and delivering the message to a network service;

identifying the user-selected content item at the network service based on the content identifier; and

associating a postmark with the identified user-selected content item to create a postcard;

wherein the information received from the at least one transponder further comprises a message initiation indicator, and wherein creating the message comprises the mobile device invoking a message application identified by the message initiation indicator and creating the message via the message application.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the information received from the at least one transponder further includes a network address of the network service, and wherein delivering the message to the network service comprises delivering the message to the network address of the network service.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein creating a message comprises creating a message that further includes one or more destination addresses to identify targeted recipients of the postcard.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising delivering the postcard to the one or more destination addresses of the targeted recipients over one or more networks.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the one or more destination addresses comprise one or more physical addresses of the targeted recipients, and further comprising printing the postcard and mailing the printed postcard from the network service to the one or more physical addresses of the targeted recipients.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein creating a message comprises creating the message to include a text message for inclusion into the postcard at the network service.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein creating the message to include a text message comprises:

maintaining a database of mobile device user input (UI) entries and corresponding handwriting entries;

converting UI entries to handwriting entries based on the database; and

incorporating the handwriting entries on the digital postcard that includes the content item and the postmark information.

19. The method of claim 12 , wherein the postmark information comprises any one or more of a location name, geographic coordinates, date, time, and postage.

20. The method of claim 12 , wherein associating the postmark with the identified user-selected content item comprises visually embedding the postmark into the postcard.

21. The method of claim 12 , wherein the transponder is located at the kiosk.

22. A method for creating postcards, comprising:

providing at least connection information to a mobile device via an activated radio frequency (RF) transponder;

receiving a message from the mobile device via a connection established using the connection information, wherein the message includes at least one image and a text message;

identifying a postmark based on an identifier provided by the activated RF transponder; and

creating a postcard including the at least one image, the text message, and the postmark.

23. The method of claim 22 , further comprising creating the text message via a user interface (UI) at the mobile device.

24. The method of claim 23 , further comprising converting the text message to a handwriting message corresponding to handwriting of a user of the mobile device.

25. The method of claim 24 , wherein converting the text message comprises indexing a handwriting-text conversion library to identify handwriting counterparts of the created text message.

26. The method of claim 25 , further comprising creating the handwriting-text conversion library using a conversion engine that receives the user's handwriting as input, and associates relationships of handwriting and textual counterparts.

27. The method of claim 22 , further comprising printing the created postcard.

28. The method of claim 22 , wherein:

providing at least connection information to the mobile device via an RF transponder further comprises providing the identifier to the mobile device via the RF transponder;

the message further includes the identifier; and

identifying a postmark comprises identifying the postmark based on the identifier provided via the message.

29. The method of claim 22 , further comprising receiving the identifier at a postmark module from the activated RF transponder, and wherein identifying a postmark comprises identifying the postmark based on the identifier received from the activated RF transponder.

30. A system for creating postcards, comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag to provide at least a tag identifier (ID) in response to a reader activation signal;

a mobile device comprising a digital camera to create at least one digital image, an RFID reader to provide the reader activation signal and to receive the tag ID, and a message application to provide a message including at least the tag ID and the at least one digital image; and

a server coupled to receive the message from the mobile device via a network, the server comprising a database of tag IDs and respectively associated postmarks, and a processor configured to identify the postmark from the database that is associated with the tag ID provided in the message, and to create a digital postcard including the at least one digital image and the postmark.

31. A system for creating postcards, comprising:

a postmark kiosk comprising at least one RFID tag to provide at least a tag identifier (ID) in response to a reader activation signal;

a mobile device comprising a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader to provide the reader activation signal and to receive the tag ID, and a message application to provide a message including at least the tag ID;

a server coupled to receive the message from the mobile device via a network, the server comprising a database of tag IDs and respectively associated postmarks and images, and a processor configured to identify the image and postmark from the database that are associated with the tag ID provided in the message, and to create a digital postcard including the identified image and postmark.

32. The system of claim 31 , wherein the postmark kiosk further comprises a plurality of selectable postcard images each associated with a different tag ID, wherein the at least one RFID tag provides the tag ID corresponding to a postcard image selected by a user of the mobile device.

33. The system of claim 32 , wherein the at least one RFID tag comprises a plurality of RFID tags, each associated with a different one of the selectable postcard images and associated tag IDs, wherein the RFID tag associated with the selected postcard image provides its corresponding tag ID in response to the reader activation signal.

34. The system of claim 31 , wherein the RFID tag further provides an application ID, and wherein the message application is invoked in response to receipt of the application ID.

35. A system for creating postcards, comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag to provide connection information to a mobile device in response to an RFID activation signal;

a wireless communication interface to receive a message including at least one image and a text message from the mobile device over a connection established using the connection information;

a processing module configured to create a digital postcard including at least the image, the text message, a post stamp, and a postmark;

a printer to print the digital postcard;

a database of user profiles, each of the user profiles including user input entries and corresponding handwriting entries; and

a conversion engine to convert the text message of user input entries to the corresponding handwriting entries based on the user profile of the mobile device user.

36. The system of claim 35 , wherein the wireless communication interface comprises any of a Bluetooth interface, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) interface, and Ultra Wideband (UWB) interface.

37. The system of claim 36 , wherein the message received via the wireless communication interface comprises a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) message.

38. The system of claim 35 , wherein the postmark information comprises any one or more of a location name, geographic coordinates, date, time, and postage.

39. The system of claim 38 , wherein the wireless communication interface transmits at least the image as a calendar entry, based on at least one of the date and the time, to the mobile device.

40. The system of claim 39 , wherein the processing module is further configured to visually embed any one or more of the location name, geographic coordinates, date, time, and postage information onto the image.

41. The system of claim 35 , wherein the processing module is configured to create the digital postcard including the converted text message.

42. The system of claim 35 , wherein the RFID tag further provides an identifier of a user-selected image, and wherein the at least one image received with the message via the wireless communication interface comprises the identifier of the user-selected image versus the image itself.

43. A system for creating postcards, comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag to provide connection information to a mobile device in response to an RFID activation signal;

a wireless communication interface to receive a message including at least one image and a text message from the mobile device over a connection established using the connection information;

a processing module configured to create a digital postcard including at least the image, the text message, a post stamp, and a postmark; and

a printer to print the digital postcard;

wherein the wireless communication interface transmits at least the image as a calendar entry, based on at least one of the date and the time, to the mobile device, and the processing module is further configured to visually embed any one or more of the location name, geographic coordinates, date, time, and postage information onto the image.

Assignments (13)