Low-power hand-held transaction device
An electronic hand-held device and method for inputting and sending requests and for receiving and outputting responses to the requests. The electronic hand-held device is a coupled to a telecommunications link over which requests are sent and responses are received. The electronic hand-held device can input request data in any number of different information media, including audio tones and voice signals, mechanical input to a keypad, printed bar codes, magnetic data stored in credit cards, and electronic data stored in electronic smart cards. The electronic hand-held device can output responses through an audio speaker, a visual LCD display device, and, optionally, through other output devices including printers. The electronic hand-held device is especially well suited for order entry and acquisition of product information.
1. A method for inputting a request to a hand-held device, transmitting a server request corresponding to the input request from the hand-held device to a server computer through a telecommunications link, receiving a response to the server request by the hand-held device from the server computer, and outputting the response by the hand-held device, the handheld device having:
a number of input components for inputting request data from a number of different input media, including mechanical manipulation of an input component and at least one of additional input media including electronic, auto tones, magnetic, and printed request data,
a processing component that constructs a request from the request data,
a transceiver component that sends the request to the server computer and receives the response from the server computer, and
a number of output components that output a portion of the response received from the server computer in a particular response output medium, the method comprising:
coupling the hand-held device to a telecommunications link to transmit the request and to receive the response through the telecommunications link;
inputting the request from an input medium to an input component of the hand-held device;
processing the input request to produce a corresponding server request;
transmitting the server request to the server computer;
receiving the response from the server computer through the telecommunications link; and
outputting the response via an output component.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the input media is one of:
audio tones,
keypad input, and
extracting data encoded in one of
a mechanical medium,
a magnetic medium,
an electronic medium, and
a printed medium.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the input media is a combination of two or more of input media selected from:
audio tones,
keypad input, and
extracting data encoded in one of
a mechanical medium,
a magnetic medium,
an electronic medium, and
a printed medium.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the telecommunications link is one of:
a standard telephone line;
a cellular telephone;
a PBX telephone line;
a wireless telephone;
a personal communication system telephone;
a radio frequency connection;
a cordless telephone; and
an RS232 or universal serial bus to a computer that is, in turn, coupled to a remote server computer via a telecommunications link.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the input request includes an access code.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the access code is one of:
an IP address;
a URL;
a web site address;
a product/service ID code; and
a phone number.
7. The method of claim 1 further including storing the input request in non-volatile memory for communication via telecommunication link at a later time or date.
8. The method of claim 7 further including:
transmitting a request, previously stored in non-volatile memory, via a telecommunication link to a server.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a smart card reader input component
for inputting information encoded electronically in a smart card.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a magnetic card reader input component
for inputting information encoded magnetically on a magnetic card.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a bar code reader input component for inputting information stored in a printed bar code.
12. The method of claim 11
wherein the bar code reader comprises
a bank of illumination elements for illuminating a printed bar code,
an optical element for gathering light reflected from the printed bar code,
a charge coupled device for sensing bar codes from the gathered light, and
a low-power proximity detector; and
wherein, when activated, the bar code reader activates the low-power proximity detector to first detect a reflective surface within a threshold distance from the optical element prior to activating the illumination elements to read a bar code.
13. The method of claim 11 wherein the bar code reader comprises a laser bar code reader.
14. The method of claim 11 wherein the bar code reader comprises a LED bar code reader.
15. The method of claim 11 wherein the bar code reader comprises a CCD bar code reader.
16. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a telephone for person-to-person communication or person-to-computer computer server communication.
17. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a speaker output component for outputting audio information.
18. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a microphone input component for inputting an input request represented by audio tones.
19. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a keypad input component for inputting an input request represented by mechanical manipulation of the keypad.
20. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a visual display output component capable of displaying alphanumeric symbols.
21. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a visual display output component capable of displaying both alphanumeric symbols and graphical images.
22. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes a printer output component.
23. The method of claim 1 wherein the hand-held device includes an input or output component comprising a serial interface element such as RS232.
24. A method for electronically processing an access code included in an input medium, the method comprising:
inputting the access code to a hand-held device from the input medium;
processing the access code to produce a corresponding server access request;
coupling the hand-held device to a telecommunications link to transmit the access request to a server computer and to receive a response from the server computer through the telecommunications link;
transmitting the access request to the server computer;
receiving a response that is one or more from among audio, alpha-numeric, and images, from the server computer through the telecommunications link; and
outputting the response via an output component of the hand-held device, the handheld device comprising: a number of input components for inputting request data from a number of different input media, including mechanical manipulation of an input component and additional input media including electronic, auto tones, magnetic, and printed request data;
a processing component that constructs a request from the request data;
a transceiver component that sends the request to the server computer and receives the response from the server computer; and
a number of output components that output a portion of the response received from the server computer in a particular response output medium.
25. The method of claim 24 wherein the input media is one of:
audio tones,
keypad input, and
data encoded in one of
a mechanical medium,
a magnetic medium,
an electronic medium, and
a printed medium.
26. The method of claim 24 wherein the input media is a combination of two or more of input media selected from:
audio tones;
keypad input, and
data encoded in one of
a mechanical medium,
a magnetic medium,
an electronic medium,
a serial interface, and
a printed medium.
27. The method of claim 24 wherein the telecommunications link is one of:
a standard telephone line;
a cellular telephone;
a PBX telephone line;
a wireless telephone;
a personal communication system telephone;
a radio frequency connection;
a cordless telephone; and
an RS232 or universal serial bus to a computer that is, in turn, coupled to a remote server computer via a telecommunications link.
28. The method of claim 24 wherein the access code is one or more of:
an IP address;
a URL;
a web site address;
a product/service ID code; and
a telephone number.
29. The method of claim 24 further including storing the input request in non-volatile memory for communication via telecommunication link at a later time or date.
30. The method of claim 24 further including:
transmitting an access request, previously stored in non-volatile memory, via a telecommunication link to a server.
31. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a smart card reader input component for inputting access information encoded electronically in a smart card.
32. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a magnetic card reader input component for inputting access information encoded magnetically on a magnetic card.
33. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a bar code reader input component for inputting access information stored in a printed bar code.
34. The method of claim 24
wherein the input component comprises
a bank of illumination elements for illuminating a printed bar code,
an optical element for gathering light reflected from the printed bar code,
a charge coupled device for sensing bar codes from the gathered light, and
a low-power proximity detector; and
wherein, when activated, the bar code reader activates the low-power proximity detector to first detect a reflective surface within a threshold distance from the optical element prior to activating the illumination elements to read a bar code.
35. The method of claim 24 wherein the bar code reader comprises a laser bar code reader.
36. The method of claim 24 wherein the bar code reader comprises a LED bar code reader.
37. The method of claim 24 wherein the input component comprises a CCD bar code reader.
38. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a microphone input component for inputting an input request represented by audio tones.
39. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a keypad input component for inputting an input request represented by mechanical manipulation of the keypad.
40. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a visual display output component capable of displaying alphanumeric symbols.
41. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a visual display output component capable of displaying both alphanumeric symbols and graphical images.
42. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a printer output component.
43. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes an output component comprising one or more illumination element.
44. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes an output component comprising a speaker element.
45. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a serial interface that is an output component.
46. The method of claim 24 wherein the hand-held device includes a serial interface that is an input component.