Electronic delivery of admission tickets direct to a purchaser
View Patent ↗Electronic delivery of counterfeit-resistant documents exchangeable for value such as admission tickets, gift certificates, coupons, vouchers, etc. directly to the person who ordered the documents over an open communications network such as the Internet. A first party orders a document from a second party, and the second party electronically delivers the ordered, counterfeit-resistant document to a device designated by the first party. For example, the document may be electronically ordered using a PC, and a printer coupled to the PC may print the document. Alternatively, the electronic information may be provided to a fax, or the document ordered by telephone and electronically delivered to a PC or fax. The document may be made counterfeit resistant by assigning unique information to each document of a given type, e.g., admission tickets, and checking the uniqueness of a document prior to allowing it to be exchanged for value.
1. A method, performed by a computer system comprising at least one computer, for providing and verifying counterfeit resistant documents that can be presented for use, the method comprising, the computer system:
receiving a request from a user computer for a document that can be presented for use;
subsequent to receiving the request, electronically transmitting the document to a user device, wherein the electronically transmitted document comprises unique information configured to be rendered by the user device in a machine readable form;
receiving a first communication of the unique information from a first input device in association with a machine read of the unique information by the first input device during a first presentation of the document for use;
verifying the first communicated unique information by determining that the unique information is valid;
checking a database to determine that the first communicated unique information has not been previously read in association with a previous presentation for use;
in response to determining that the first communicated unique information has not been previously read, providing a first signal at the location of the first input device at the time the document is first presented; and
updating the database to indicate that the unique information has been received in association with a presentation for use.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first signal is an audible signal.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a second communication of the unique information from a second input device in association with a machine read of the unique information by the second input device during a second presentation of the document for use;
verifying the second communicated unique information by determining that the unique information is valid;
checking the database to determine that the second communicated unique information has been previously read in association with a previous presentation for use; and
in response to determining that the second communicated unique information has been previously read, providing a second signal at the location of the second input device at the time the document is second presented.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first signal is an audible signal and the second signal is a visual signal.
5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first and second signals are audible signals.
6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
storing the unique information in the database, and
checking the database to verify the unique information.
7. The method of claim 4 , wherein verifying the unique information comprises testing the unique information for conformance using an algorithm.
8. The method of claim 4 , wherein the user device is the user computer.
9. The method of claim 4 , wherein the user device and the user computer are not co-located.
10. The method of claim 4 , wherein the machine readable form is a bar code, and the input device is a bar code scanner.
11. The method of claim 4 , wherein the machine readable form is interrogation and response using rf.
12. The method of claim 4 , wherein the machine readable form is electronic.
13. The method of claim 4 , wherein the at least one computer is further configured for associating the unique information with the document in the database.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the determining that the unique information is valid is performed by determining whether the unique information has been associated with a document in the database.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the document is an admission ticket.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the document is a coupon.
17. The method of claim 3 , wherein the second input device is the first input device.
18. The method of claim 3 , wherein the second input device is not the first input device.