Typewriting machines – Including selection of type-face by...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-08
2001-11-27
Hilten, John S. (Department: 2854)
Typewriting machines
Including selection of type-face by...
C400S061000, C400S076000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06322262
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a system for the sale of printed information from an automatic vending machine.
The vending machine is to prepare directly printed information, such as newspapers, bulletins, brochures and so forth.
The information is transmitted on-line from a central editorial office to the vending machine and in updated continuously 24 hours a day, so that the vending machine always prints the latest news, the latest update of indexes, results and so forth.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
The basis for the invention is the need for a new type of distribution of printed information and news material. Today, the distribution and publication of news material can assume different forms. The actual raw material—the news—is produced according to conventional journalistic methods, but is then processed and distributed in different ways. There is a distinction between the broadcasting media and the printed media, with Internet as a category of its own.
In news distribution via the broadcasting media, the news or information is presented via radio or television. This presupposes that the recipient has the necessary equipment to receive the transmissions, and is able to hear or view them with the aid of a radio or television set. The advantage of this is a rapid distribution of the news material, but the disadvantage is that the recipient must be in the vicinity of an apparatus which makes it possible to hear or view what is being presented. Moreover, it is not possible for the recipient himself to choose the time he would like the news to be presented.
In the case of news distribution via the Internet a number of the same advantages and disadvantages assert themselves. There is the advantage of swift distribution, but the recipient must be in possession of a possible Internet connection and an expensive PC to be able to make use of the information. For the time being this puts clear limitations to the size of the recipient group.
News distribution via the printed media is rooted in hundreds of years of tradition, but has not changed substantially in form during this period. The information is still processed and transferred to a central printing press, printed, folded, stapled and then manually distributed via motor vehicle, railway, aeroplane etc. to points of sale or delivered to subscribers. A major disadvantage of this is that the distribution takes time, so that the information is old before it reaches the reader. In addition, it is not financially viable to print and distribute news continuously in order to keep the information up-to-date.
The printed media therefore experiences ever-growing competition from the broadcasting media, which has a more dynamic distribution. In the advertising market the broadcasting media also have advantages in that commercials can be presented at different times and in connection with programmes which are directed towards the target groups the advertiser wishes to reach. Because of this, the printed media has a shrinking market share of the total number of advertisements.
Owing to the distribution method, there are daily large amounts of returns and unneccessary consumption of paper because it is only possible to estimate roughly the number of copies which will be sold in the course of a sales day or period.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an objective of the invention to provide the possibility of an entirely new type of distribution of printed information and news material, and enable the publisher to compete with the broadcasting media. In some areas this form of distribution will in addition provide unique opportunities which cannot be obtained by using any other method.
In the following, some publications will be mentioned that encompasses the technology which the present invention is based upon.
P. E. Dyson et al: <<Electronic delivery without the Internet>>, Seybold Report on Publishing Systems, Vol. 25, No.1, Sep. 1, 1995, describes a system called PressPoint, which is based on electronic distribution of newspapers. The system consists of a network of central units, which via suitable communication channels gather data that represent daily issues of a number of newspapers. A satellite system transfers data from the central units to a large number of vending machines. Each vending machine contains, among other things, receiving equipment, means of payment, means of selecting the desired newspaper and a high speed printer.
However, no system for two-way communication between the central units and the vending machines is described. Thereby, an editorial office will not receive continuous reports about the sales figures from the different machines, and will not be able to adapt their publications accordingly. In addition, there is no description of presenting the different publications as a specially adapted on-screen image on the vending machine.
Finally, the above-mentioned publication describes only the purchase of an entire publication. It is not possible for a customer to choose only the parts of the publication that he finds most interesting.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,213 describes the production of books from a vending machine located in a building. The patent contains some features of resemblance with the present invention, but at the same time is very different in principle, structure and intention.
The U.S. patent further requires the machine to be located at a sales outlet, library or the like, and is based on one or more operators having to assist in ordering the individual book from the machine or in having it issued to the customer. Nor is the system based on the book being printed in the same vending machine as that from which the customer places his order, but in a central machine. The vending machines from which the customer orders books are spread out in the building and are connected to the central machine via a network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,213 is based on storing tens of thousands of books, i.e., the textual content and separate colour covers, together with written and graphic sales information about each one of the stored books.
The objective of the present invention, on the other hand, is to store only the most recently updated variant of the newspaper or magazine pages which are transmitted to the vending machine, with text and pictures in the same document.
When a book is to be printed, the pages of text are printed by a laser printer and the cover by a colour printer—in other words, text and pictures separately and not in one and the same document and on the same sheet as is the objective of the present invention.
In the vending machine of the US publication the customer must wait three to five minutes for the print-out of the desired information, whilst with the present invention it will only take seconds.
The connection to the telecommunications network via modem is intended to be used for registration or checking of payment by credit card, or for connection to other similar machines where other books are stored so that there is also the possibility of having these printed out. Here, there is no dynamic, on-line updating of the information as is presumed in the present invention. On the contrary, the system is based on static storage of books whose content will not be changed.
The U.S. patent is not devised for the transmission and input of data via the telecommunications network, but contains a description of the possibility thereof. In such cases, an operator must manually insert necessary disks and carry out necessary entering and checking of the data.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,103 describes the transmission of data via FM radio frequencies, for viewing on the recipient's own PC or for printing on the recipient's printer. The patent relates only to the actual data transmission, not the printing or updating of the information. The data transmission in the U.S. patent is also presumed to be carried out in a different way than is the objective of the present invention, which is based on a modem and a telecommunications network.
PCT Patent No. PCT/NL94/00136 describes a v
Hilten John S.
Nolan, Jr. Charles H.
Young & Thompson
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