Leasing a configured camera system
View Patent ↗A method for a customer leasing a configured camera system including a camera and services for using such configured camera system and paying for the lease of such configured camera system, includes the steps of providing an electronic database of information describing a plurality of differently configured camera systems which have different features and services that can be selected by the customer via a digital communications network; displaying at the customer's location remote from the electronic database various components of the camera system that can be combined into the configured camera system; the customer selecting desired components and services to provide the configured camera system and completing a lease agreement and providing a payment identifier specifying an account to be debited to pay for the configured camera system; and sending the camera to a designee of the customer and establishing a service user account that specify the selected services that the designee can use.
1. A method for configuring an electronic camera over a network to make a selected sound, comprising:
(a) providing an electronic database including a plurality of sound files that can be selected by a purchaser via a digital communications network;
(b) displaying at the purchaser's location, remote from the electronic database, information describing the plurality of sound files that can be selected by the purchaser and operational features of the electronic camera that can be associated with a selected sound file;
(c) responsive to the purchaser selecting a particular sound file from the plurality of sound files and choosing an operational feature of the electronic camera that is to be associated wit a selected sound file, configuring the camera by storing the selected sound file in a firmware memory of the electronic camera; and
(d) billing the purchaser for configuring said camera with said selected sound files.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic camera includes a digital to analog converter to provide an analog audio signal from the sound file.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic camera includes a miniature speaker for producing sounds from the sound file.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic camera captures and stores images on a removable memory card.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic camera is a motion video camera that captures a series of image frames and an audio signal.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the operational feature is a user control and the sound is played when the user control of the electronic camera is depressed.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein the firmware memory stores a plurality of sound files, and different ones of the plurality of sound files are played when different user controls of the digital camera are depressed.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic camera provides the ability to e-mail images.
9. The method of claim 1 further including providing a plurality of border templates that can be selected by the purchaser, and responsive to the purchaser selecting a particular border template, configuring the camera by storing the selected border template in a firmware memory of the electronic camera.
10. The method of claim 1 where the purchaser provides a credit card account to be debited to pay for configuring the electronic camera.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital communications network is the Internet.