Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Discount or incentive
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-19
2001-01-23
Stamber, Eric W. (Department: 2765)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Discount or incentive
C705S001100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06178407
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Today, computer technology has advanced to a great extent and continues to develop in giant steps. Powerful computer systems are available to consumers at reasonable prices. Computer networks, examples of which are the Internet and America Online™, are accessible at reasonable cost to all. Digital graphics, images, audio, video, and multimedia are widely available on discs and over networks. Software tools and languages, C++ and Java, for example, are now powerful enough to enable software developers to build sophisticated applications, including those running on networks.
The processing, storage, multimedia, and networking capabilities of modern computers, such as personal computers, are perfectly suited for presenting educational and cultural content in an interactive, creative, and interesting fashion. However, educational and cultural applications of computers have not reached their full capacity and there is a need to develop computer technology that facilitates more extensive use of computers for educational and cultural purposes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to computer technology, including computer networks, and the preferred embodiment is directed to the implementation of computer technology for educational and cultural enrichment.
The computer system and method of the preferred embodiment uses computer technology in a unique way to motivate children to devote more time to educational and cultural enrichment. It should be noted that although the preferred embodiment relates to a system aimed at the education of children, as understood by persons skilled in the art, other applications of the disclosed system are also envisioned here.
In general, in the preferred embodiment, educational material is provided at a child's local computer (also referred to as a “user's computer”) under control of a central computer system. Children's local computer and a central computer are connected over a computer network. On completing a particular educational task, a child is rewarded with a certain number of points. Children's accumulated points are stored centrally. Points are based on criteria consistent with the educational material and, for example, are awarded based on the level of difficulty of a given task, the child's level of performance, and other considerations, such as progress demonstrated in a certain discipline over time.
Points that a child accumulates by completing educational exercises can be redeemed towards the purchase of goods and services offered through the system of the preferred embodiment by its commercial participants. Purchasing transactions are also administered by the central computer and can proceed in a variety of ways. For example, the child may order goods and services by selecting from menus presented by the central computer, which, in turn, orders the selected items by telephone, e-mail, mail, or otherwise from a vendor or distributor for delivery. The central computer may also send a message to the local computer to print out certificates redeemable at participating vendors of goods and services. Also, points may be redeemed by downloading requested goods available in digital electronic form, such as software, games, music, and video. It is preferred that the offered goods and services be items desirable by the children so that the prospect of obtaining these items is a motivation for the children to diligently pursue the educational materials available in the system.
Parents have their own way of accessing the system of the preferred embodiment, and it is preferred that the parents' password not be given to a child, who has his own, usually different password. Parents preferably use the system for several purposes. First, parents support their children's purchasing activity financially. Preferably, the parent authorizes the system to periodically (e.g. monthly) allow purchases to be made through the redemption of the child's points, up to a certain limit, using the parents' credit card account, or makes other payment arrangements (e.g., though the use of electronic cash or direct account withdrawal). Preferably, part of the parents' payment is used as a periodic service fee for the service provided by the preferred embodiment of this invention, while the rest is used for financing the redemption of points by the child for goods and services. Moreover, the parent can authorize a system-initiated increase in the purchasing power of the child—a “bonus”—by, for example, permitting certain advertising messages to be displayed to the child as the child uses the system.
In the preferred embodiment, the parent controls the content of the material available for presentation to the child. For example, the parent may limit the difficulty of educational presentations to be made to the child by specifying the age of the child, or by indicating an explicit desired level of difficulty. Also, other considerations, such as whether to emphasize mathematics, science, literature, music, art, etc., can be under the control of the patent. Furthermore, the parent may exclude certain categories of goods from being made available to the child for exchange of earned points by the child.
In this consumer-oriented society there are desirable commercial items—deemed “cool”—that children of various ages want, such as popular games, toys, movies, clothing, admission tickets to arcade games and sporting events, etc. Parents typically spend money to purchase these items for their children. These items, though usually innocent, frequently do not bring intellectual, cultural, or developmental benefits to the children. Often, such items are advertised and promoted through mass media that are not designed to educate, enlighten or develop, such as television, which at best serve as passive entertainment. Parents, on the other hand, usually prefer spending money on educational, cultural, and developmental products that facilitate the intellectual and emotional growth of their children.
The present invention uniquely fulfills the desires of parents to facilitate their children's intellectual development, and, at the same time, provides children with access to the goods and services they most desire. Although this goal is accomplished by the system of the preferred embodiment, other useful applications with perhaps different goals than the ones of the disclosed system can be built by persons skilled in the art on the basis of this disclosure.
It is understood that “parent” is not necessarily a biological parent, custodian, or adult authority, and can be anyone who performs the tasks identified herein with “parent.” Similarly, the “child” is not required to have a biological, subservient, or dependent relationship to the parent and can be anyone who performs the tasks identified herein with “child.” The “central computer system” (also referred to as the “central computer,” or “central facility”) may include one or more physical computers as determined by specific implementation trade-offs, given the constraints of a particular implementation, as known in the art. In some embodiments, the central computer may comprise computers loosely interconnected by a computer network.
Educational materials, presentations, and exercises refer to content used in the preferred embodiment. Preferably, this content includes a variety of educational and cultural presentations and exercises, which include standard textbook-like exercises, spelling, mathematics, history, and geography lessons, reading comprehension, reading an article on a subject and answering questions, standardized tests, scientific material and problems, and all other content used for educational purposes. Other forms of educational and cultural materials can be provided as well, such as learning about music, art, and theater—through multimedia presentations, for example—and playing chess. Competitions, in which winning participants earn points, are also included in the definition. In fact, educational materials include any a
Lotvin Mikhail
Nemes Richard Michael
Irshadullah M.
Stamber Eric W.
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