Interactive image activation and distribution system and associate methods

1. A method for distributing a digital image of a customer comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a customer to a human representative for an image to be taken of the customer at a site;

capturing an image of the customer at the site in response to the received request;

transmitting the image to a remote processor;

receiving an electronic request from the customer to view the transmitted image;

transmitting the image from the remote processor to a customer communication device;

if the customer decides to purchase the image, finalizing a transaction by receiving payment data from the customer and compensating the human representative for the transaction; and

providing the final image to the customer.

2. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 1 , further comprising the step, following the image-request-receiving step, of providing the customer with an identifier code, and wherein:

the step of transmitting the image to the remote processor comprises transmitting the image and the identifier code to the remote processor; and

the electronic-request-receiving step includes receiving the identifier code from the customer and matching the image with the identifier code.

3. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 2 , wherein the identifier-code-providing step comprises providing the customer with an indicia-bearing element including the identifier code and information on how to request to view the image from the remote processor.

4. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 3 , wherein the indicia-bearing element comprises a card having imprinted thereon a barcode identifier, and wherein the identifier-code-transmitting step comprises reading the bar code electronically and transmitting the electronically read barcode to the remote processor.

5. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 4 , wherein the electronic-request-receiving step comprises receiving bar code data transmitted by a customer communication device.

6. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 2 , wherein the identifier code is associated with the human representative, and further comprising the step, prior to the compensating step, of matching the identifier code with the human representative.

7. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 2 , wherein the identifier-code-providing step comprises printing, subsequent to the request-receiving step, an indicia-bearing element including the identifier code and electronically associating the identifier code with the customer for transmission along with the captured image to the remote processor.

8. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 1 , wherein the image-capturing step comprises capturing a plurality of images, and wherein the step of transmitting the image to a remote processor comprises transmitting the plurality of images to the remote processor in a batch.

9. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 1 , wherein the step of transmitting the image to a remote processor comprises transmitting a first image comprising a reduced-data-size image to the remote processor first, and then queuing a second image comprising a full-data image for subsequent transmittal to the remote processor.

10. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 9 , further comprising the steps, prior to the second-image-queuing step, of determining a size of the second image and, if the second image size is greater than a predetermined size, automatically reducing the second image size to a size no greater than the predetermined size.

11. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 1 , wherein the step of transmitting the image to the customer communication device comprises transmitting a proof image to a mobile personal communication device.

12. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 11 , wherein the image-providing step comprises at least one of transmitting the image to a customer communication device and transmitting the image for printing to a commercial site for retrieval by the customer.

13. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 1 , prior to the electronic-request-receiving step, of automatically transmitting an electronic message to at least one of the customer communication device and a second customer communication device that the image is available for viewing and data indicative of a location of the image.

14. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 1 , wherein:

the image-capturing step comprises capturing a high-definition video image of the customer;

the step of transmitting the image to the customer communication device comprises transmitting at least a portion of the video image; and further comprising the steps of:

permitting the customer to step through the video image portion frame by frame; and

permitting the customer to select at least one frame and/or the video image portion for purchase.

15. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 14 , further comprising the step of editing a pre-created video clip into the captured image, and wherein the image-providing step comprises providing the customer with a composite video image of the captured image and the pre-created video clip.

16. The digital image distribution method recited in claim 1 , further comprising the steps of remotely monitoring the human representative for at least one of a set of predetermined criteria and, if the at least one of the predetermined criteria is violated, disconnecting the human representative from interaction with the remote processor.