Did You Know...
...that after Parker Brothers executives turned down the game of Monopoly because it had "52 fundamental errors" (including taking too long to play), a copy of the game wound up in the home of the company president who stayed up until 1 a.m. to finish playing it? He was so impressed by the game that the next day he wrote to inventor Charles Darrow and offered to buy it!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7182256 | Systems and methods for tracking pharmaceuticals within a facility A medication-dispensing unit is provided for tracking medical products having a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag uniquely associated therewith. The dispensing unit includes compartments for receiving medical products therein, and readers for reading the RFI... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7178718 | Methods and systems for object identification and interaction A method of facilitating an interaction between a user and a product item, the product item having an identity and the method including a number of steps. The first step involves providing the user with an interface surface associated with the product item and conta... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7181501 | Remote data acquisition, transmission and analysis system including handheld wireless equipment A remote data acquisition, transmission and analysis system including handheld wireless equipment to obtain operational data and the status of remote machines is disclosed. A plurality of application controllers are interfaced with the remote machines from which ope... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7181427 | Automated credit application system A computer based credit application processing system provides a graphical user interface, automatic software update downloading, lender to lender routing of credit applications, and integration with in-house finance and insurance systems and third party data entry ... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7181430 | Method and system for processing financial instrument deposits physically remote from a financial institution A system that includes computer hardware, computer software, apparatus, and methodology that enables individuals, businesses, and all types of organizations (both for profit and non-profit) to capture and securely transmit check images (including, but not limited to... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7175081 | Pharmaceutical tracking A medication dispensing unit is provided for tracking medical products having a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag uniquely associated therewith. The dispensing unit includes compartments for receiving medical products therein, and readers for reading the RFI... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7177824 | Efficiency metric system for a quick-service restaurant A system for automatically gathering efficiency metrics in a quick-service establishment that makes use of certain data signals already generated in a great number of such establishments. A repeating communication device, which is used to receive and re-broadcast co... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7174031 | Methods for using wireless phones having optical capabilities A wireless phone is equipped with a 2D optical sensor, enabling a variety of applications. For example, such a phone may also be provided with a digital watermark decoder, permitting decoding of steganographic data on imaged objects. Movement of a phone may be infer... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7172114 | Tamperproof point of sale transaction terminal A point of sale transaction terminal that has a signature capture pad mounted within a platen that is recessed within the top surface of the terminal housing. A screen protector is mounted over the signature pad and is registered thereon so that the protector covers... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7172116 | Automatic dispensing machine of cards and card like goods Dispensing more than one card or card like good is prevented to prevent issuing a duplicate with an automatic dispensing machine of card or card like good having a table which supports the piled up card or card like good. A sucking device is located over the table a... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7171451 | Remote data acquisition and transmission system and method A remote data acquisition and transmission system and method are disclosed. A plurality of application controllers are interfaced with remote equipment from which operation data is acquired by the application controllers. The application controllers communicate with... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7167892 | System, method and apparatus for vending machine wireless audit and cashless transaction transport The present invention provides a system, method and apparatus for collecting, storing and communicating vending machine transaction data. The system preferably includes an embedded data collection and storage device that, when placed inside a vending machine, will c... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7165714 | Networked business system A method of procuring goods and/or services using a merchant server coupled to a computer network is disclosed. The network (100) comprises at least one smart card (120) having a memory device (122) programmed with access information correspondi... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7165720 | Radio frequency identification method and system of distributing products A method and system for vending products from a defined area, such as a micro-warehouse with a door. The method includes fitting each product with a radio frequency identification tag, positioning the plurality of products in a micro-warehouse, sensing opening and c... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7163146 | Methods and systems for retail club membership authorization The present invention provides systems and methods for remote authorization of fuel dispensing and authorization or confirmation of participation in frequent shopper programs, club memberships, and the like. In one embodiment, identification documents may be used as... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7164884 | Method and system for interfacing a machine controller and a wireless network A wireless interface module interfaces a machine control system, such as a vending machine controller, with one of plural wireless networks through one of plural removably coupled wireless transceivers. Communication between geographically distributed vending machin... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7163144 | Automated banking machine diagnostic system and method A diagnostic server software component for an automated banking machine is provided. The diagnostic server is operative to periodically retrieve diagnostic messages from a nonvolatile memory of the machine and store the diagnostic messages on the hard drive of the m... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7165052 | Payment service method and system A payment service method and system involve a payment service provider, a customer/payor and a client/payee. The customer/payor enrolls in the service and is provided the unique identifier which enables him or her to conduct all transactions with the payment service... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7162220 | Prepay telecommunications system The prepay telecommunications system (60) includes a prepay call, management, platform (50) which is directly coupled to a telecommunications carrier switch (24). A customer database (116) is coupled to the prepay call management platform... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7161470 | User interface for portable RFID reader A user interface for a radio frequency identification interrogation system is disclosed, which interface may include graphics, sounds, lights, or combinations of the foregoing that provide information to a user in regard to the materials being interrogated. ... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7162434 | Method and apparatus for facilitating the sale of subscriptions to periodicals A POS terminal receives a signal that indicates an item, for example, via a bar code scanner. The POS terminal ascertains whether the item is associated with an offer for a rebate. If so, a code is generated and output to the customer, such as on a printed receipt. ... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7162453 | Protecting content from unauthorized reproduction A system for watermarking data associated with one or more products includes one or more software components that collectively generate an algorithm for creating a particular pattern in data associated with one or more products available from one or more sellers. Th... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7161494 | Vending machine A vending machine has an input/output switching device between an image display device for displaying a still image and/or a moving image and a first image output device capable of outputting image data of a small data size in a predetermined signal form. This input... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7158955 | Electronic identifier payment systems and methods A payment service method and system involve a payment service provider, a customer/payor and a consumer provider/payee. The customer/payor enrolls in the service and is provided a unique identifier that enables the customer to conduct transactions with the payment s... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7159037 | Method and apparatus for utilizing an existing product code to issue a match to a predetermined location on a global network A method for providing an interconnection relationship between a product and a desired location on a global communications network. A machine readable product code is disposed on the product machine readable product code, the machine readable product code having enc... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7156289 | Methods and systems for object identification and interaction A method of facilitating an interaction between a user and a product item, the product item having an identity and the method including a number of steps. The first step involves providing the user with an interface surface associated with the product item and conta... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7158035 | Server apparatus and information providing method When an information providing server 20 according to the present invention acquires attribute information items of RFID tags 51 to 59 detected in a shopping cart and in the vicinity thereof, it transmits these attribute information items to a ru... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7158662 | Currency bill and coin processing system A compact system for processing currency bills and coins comprises a compact currency bill processing device, a coin scale, and a processor communicatively linked to the currency bill processing device and the coin scale. The compact currency bill processing device ... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7156294 | System for marketing leisure activity services through prepaid tickets One-time-use tickets containing a unique identification code that allow for prepayment of entertainment or personal services are distributed and sold. When a ticket is sold, it is activated by the seller notifying a ticket information manager of its sale, at which t... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7156295 | Cash dispensing automated banking machine deposit accepting system and method An automated banking machine includes a mechanism for accepting deposited items. Deposited items may be provided to the machine in envelopes which are first passed to a user from an envelope storage area (132) in the machine through a transport (124) a... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7158941 | Residential and business logistics system and method A method for delivering and shipping parcels using a secure receptacle. The secure receptacle has an access device that controls a lock which is used to secure the contents of the receptacle from unauthorized access. One or more carriers are provided with authorized... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7156300 | System and method for dispensing of a receipt reflecting prepaid phone services A system and method for electronic purchase of prepaid telephone services is provided. An initiating terminal receives input of a customer's request to purchase a specified amount of prepaid telephone services and receives input of the customer's designation of a fi... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7158947 | Method for selectively blocking remote purchase requests A method for partially verifying the legitimacy of a remote purchase request based on a card number from a card issuing financial institution. The method includes receiving and storing a first purchase request information set including an origin and a card number. F... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7156305 | Apparatus and method for authenticating products A computer readable medium including executable instructions to analyze radio frequency (RF) tag information includes executable instruction to access cross-enterprise RF tag information, identify a product transition based upon the cross-enterprise RF tag informati... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7157048 | Detection of contaminants The present invention relates to a contamination detector associated with a double bar code that includes coded indicia used to identify the presence of conditions indicative of microbial contamination, including toxic contaminants, bacterial metabolites, and other ... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7152787 | Handheld system and method for age verification A handheld computer enables an operator to authenticate an ID, determine if an ID holder is above a minimum age, and enables the collection of data about the ID holder if the ID holder is determined to be above the minimum age. The computer also displays an optional... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7152783 | Combined card reader and bill acceptor A combined bill acceptor and smart card reader (or other data unit reader) comprises a bill acceptor, a host interface, and a smart card reader interposed between the bill acceptor and the host interface. The smart card reader preferably permits unimpeded pass-throu... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7152794 | Automated bar code label canceller, and method of cancelling bar codes A method and apparatus for heat-treating a thermal-direct-printed bar code label, upon which a bar code has been pre-printed by previously exposing predetermined portions of the thermal-direct-printed bar code label to a predetermined temperature level, to a similar... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7155401 | Automatic sales promotion selection system and method An automated sales promotion selection system uses neural networks to identify promising sales promotions based on recent customer purchases. The system includes a customer information device that receives customer data relating to customer purchases of items from a... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7155405 | System for communicating product and service related information to a user based on direction of movement Architecture for presenting m-commerce transaction data to a user. An m-commerce device includes a device reading apparatus adapted to read a dataform. At least one item for purchase has associated therewith an item dataform readable by the m-commerce device, the it... | 12/26/2006 |
