Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F17/00—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services
  • G07F17/26—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services for printing, stamping, franking, typing or teleprinting apparatus
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06T—IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL
  • G06T11/00—2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
  • G06T11/60—Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text

Definitions

• This invention relates to card products and, more particularly, to method and apparatus for vending printed card products such as greeting cards, posters, invitations, announcements, certificates and the like.
• Greeting cards and similar type products are usually sold in stores or shops that devote considerable floor space to the display of the cards.
• the printed cards are normally displayed in racks divided according to type, i.e., birthday cards, anniversary cards, Christmas cards, etc.
• the shop must stock several copies of most cards so that all cards are available for selection at all times.
• the shopkeeper must carry a large inventory often resulting in losses from cards that do not sell well or become out-of-date, out-of-stock or damaged.
• Customers must devote considerable time to selection of a greeting card from among the large inventory on display.
• the customer uses the computer keyboard to selected from among the available pre- printed card formats and to insert personal messages or information to customize the partially pre-printed cards.
• An internal robot-like machine delivers the selected pre-printed card to a letter printer which adds the customized messages and then delivers the completed card to a delivery slot.
• Hallmark eliminates the robot-like machine and has the customer deliver the selected pre ⁇ printed card to the salesclerk for insertion into a printer for customization.
• U.S. Patent No. 4,712,174 which generates pseudorandom text in the form of a greeting card.
• the system uses a conventional home computer configuration including a dot-matrix printer, monitor and conventional keyboard.
• Poetic text is pseudorandomly generated upon entry of a name, residence, gender, message or occasion, and primary and secondary traits.
• the message or occasion for the card is selected from among a number of possibilities displayed with a 3-letter identifier. Similar prompts are used for selecting primary and secondary traits.
• a poem is displayed with a title.
• Alternative text can be displayed at the option of the customer. When approved, the selected poem is produced by the printer. «
• Broderbund Software Inc. markets a software package for use with home computers called “The New Print Shop".
• the user can use the keyboard and main display menu to select from among a number of pre- stored objects such as a birthday cake or Christmas tree, and locate these objects to compose a card.
• "ready made” cards are available.
• the front of a chosen card is displayed first along with five menu choices respecting border, graphic, message, card inside, and customization.
• the inside of the card with message inserted is then displayed.
• the card can then be printed using a conventional printer.
• An object of the present invention is to provide a vending system which (1) provides the ability to stock and display a virtually unlimited number of cards while using only a limited floor space, (2) avoids purchasing losses arising from cards that do not sell well, become outdated or shop-worn, (3) avoids lost sales from being out-of-stock on "hot selling" items and (4) provides entertainment that attracts customers for cards and other products.
• Another object of the invention is to provide a vending system capable of filling current market voids by economically providing capability of limited run current event cards as well as regional and special event cards or cards for lesser holidays.
• Yet another object of the invention is to provide a vending system which permits complete customization of a selected card format. Another object is to provide a vending system capable of providing a virtually unlimited number of printed quality greeting cards from plain paper stock.
• Another object is to provide a vending system with video display and audio for attracting customers and providing selection prompts.
• the vending system according to the invention is built in the form of a vending terminal or kiosk which can be located within a shop, shopping mall or other suitable location. Visible to the customers, the kiosk includes a monitor with a keyboard or touch screen display, a delivery slot and a coin or credit card slot when desired.
• a computer is located inside the kiosk preferably including at least 4 megabytes addressable RAM (random access memory) and 100 megabytes hard disk capacity.
• the available card formats are stored in memory either as complete cards or as card fragments that can be assembled into a complete card. Since the system is intended to make a large number of high resolution card selections available using a modest sized computer, the graphic data is preferably stored in a compressed format which can be decompressed with little graphic loss. Also included in memory for each card format are the associated selection criteria including the general application categories such as birthdays, get well, Christmas, etc. and specific uses such as the relationships between the recipient and sender, interests of the recipient and the card type. When not in use, the kiosk provides video displays and audio messages to attract customers or provide advertising. A block-by-block downloading scheme is used to permit extended audio messages.
• the potential customer is advised that there is no charge in using the machine to compose greeting cards and that the customer must pay only if satisfied with the card composition and desires a printed card.
• the customer is first presented with a selection menu for a general application category such as birthday, anniversary, get well or other special categories.
• the customer selects a general application using the touch screen.
• the customer is next presented with one or more use selections appropriate for the general category to narrow down the card selection.
• the use selection can determine (1) relationship of the card recipient and sender, e.g., mother, sister, friend etc., (2) interests, e.g., football, sports, cars, sewing, boys and (3) card type, e.g., serious, funny, weird etc.
• the use selections are made using the touch screen, the computer runs a sort program to determine which card formats correspond to the selected criteria. The card formats that satisfy the selected criteria are then displayed on the screen.
• the selected card format is displayed on the screen with an overlay indicating the type and location of possible customized inserts.
• the screen display next prompts the customer for insertion of customizing messages as appropriate for the selected card.
• the selected card format with the customized message inserts is then displayed. If the customer is satisfied with the card composition displayed on the screen, the customer can have the card printed and pay for the printed card.
• the printed product from the vending machine is a folded card printed on both the front and back outside surfaces as well as at least one of the inside surfaces.
• this is achieved by printing on one side of a plain sheet stock pre-scored and trimmed for a quarter fold (also referred to as a "French fold") .
• the horizontal and vertical pre-score lines are offset from the centerline to compensate for the paper thickness and one of the quarter panels is trimmed on the diagonal to facilitate edge alignment in the folded card.
• Figure 1 is an external view of the vending machine according to the present invention.
• Figure 2 is a block diagram of a central processing unit of the present invention interfacing with peripheral equipment through input-output interface;
• Figures 3-8 show screen displays of the characteristic selection level according to the present invention
• Figure 9 shows a display of a card format on the monitor prior to customization
• Figure 10 shows a screen display of the customization level according to the present invention
• Figure 11 shows a display of a card format after customization
• Figures 12 - 23 is a flow diagram of the card selection, customization and printing process.
• Figures 24a, b, and c show a plain card stock with prescored fold lines and a trimmed edge, as well as, the folding sequence.
• FIG. 1 there is shown an embodiment of the present invention including a terminal area 50 in the form of a kiosk having a monitor 52 with a touch screen 54, a computer 56, printer 58, audio component 60, and a payment receiving device such as coin or credit card slot device 62.
• a terminal area 50 in the form of a kiosk having a monitor 52 with a touch screen 54, a computer 56, printer 58, audio component 60, and a payment receiving device such as coin or credit card slot device 62.
• the touch screen 54 displaying a series of screens with card selection and customization criteria, a customer selectively limits the large number of cards stored in memory to only a small group of cards conforming to the selection criteria. The cards of the selected group are displayed on monitor 52 and a specific card format is selected using a touch screen. The customer may then use touch screen 54 to add messages to customize the selected card format.
• a customer may choose the card for purchase, which is then printed upon a blank card stock by printer 58.
• Audio component 60 aids the customer by offering help and informing the customer when incorrect selection or customization criteria have been entered. Control of the above elements is accomplished by the computer 56 located within the enclosure.
• computer 56 includes a CPU (central processing unit) 68 and preferably 4 megabytes of RAM (random access memory) .
• the peripheral units include monitor 52, touch screen 54, a printer 58 (including a paper loading device 72 not shown) , audio 60 (including an audio controller 74 not shown) , a payment receiving device 62, a hard disk 76 and a modem 78, these peripheral units each being coupled to the computer via a suitable I/O interface.
• the hard disk should have at least 100 megabyte capacity and preferably 200 megabyte capacity.
• the computer 56 includes RAM 66 for temporary storage of card characteristics and customization data, and CPU 68 for program execution and peripheral device control. It may further include an internal clock, and preferably operates in the range of 10 to 44 MHz.
• the computer 56 interacts and controls through suitable input-output interfaces the terminal 50 and touch screen 54, the printer 58, the audio component 60 and audio controller 74, and the payment receiving device 62.
• the computer may also interact through an input-output device a modem 76.
• the modem 76 the computer 56 may be telephonically accessed from a central location to enable immediate greeting card addition and update to the stored greeting card formats to include new topics such as current events. It may also allow for inventory (card stock) reordering, periodic maintenance checks, and data gathering operations for statistical data accumulation and accounting purposes.
• Monitor 52 is preferably of a "VGA" type that will interface with a conventional touch screen.
• the touch screen 54 is a transparent pressure sensitive plate capable of signaling to the computer 56 the relative location on the monitor screen contacted by a user.
• a "button" display on the touch screen is contacted by a customer, the background of that button may momentarily change color, thereby confirming with the customer that the selection or action indicated by that button has registered with the system.
• One touch screen which may be utilized with the present invention is available as model E-274 from Electrographics Company of Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
• a VGA monitor with a 600 x 480 pixel resolution and 16 colors can store a complete greeting card format in about 70-80 kilobytes using only minimal compression techniques such as eliminating blank spaces and unused borders.
• JPEG Joint Photographies Expert Group
• a screen image for an 800 x 600 pixel display with 32,000 colors requires 8-900 kilobytes of memory without compression.
• the JPEG algorithm first reduces data redundancy in the image's pixel values using the discrete cosign transform (DCT) .
• DCT discrete cosign transform
• Arrays of 8 x 8 pixel are approximated as regions of color intensity represented by light frequency values.
• the DCT is applied to the array to concentrate the energy represented in that region into a few coefficients representing the frequencies so the higher frequency coefficients above the visible spectrum can be discarded and the lower frequency coefficients preserved.
• the DCT coefficients are then quantized to reduce magnitude and to increase zero value coefficients. Thereafter, run-length and Huffman encoding are applied to represent runs of consecutive zero values.
• the degree of compression achieved by the JPEG algorithm can be varied by reducing the number of DCT coefficients preserved. For greeting card formats of the type involved with the invention, it has been concluded that compression ratios up to 25 to 1 can be utilized for the screen display data without resulting in unacceptable image losses.
• the memory required for an 800 x 600 pixel screen display can be reduced to less than 40 kilobytes and the memory for a 1224 x 1024 pixel screen display can be reduced to less than 120 kilobytes.
• high resolution displays can be used with a modest sized computer according to this invention if the image data is stored in * a compressed format.
• Suitable JPEG compression/decompression systems are available from Optibase Corp, 7800 Deering Ave. , Canoga Park, California 91304 or from LEAD
• the printer 58 is preferably a high quality color printer such as an eight pen ink plotter, laser printer or ink jet printer capable of generating text in a predetermined font and a colorized graphic image.
• the printer 58 may be controlled by a controller which receives instructions and print data from the computer 56.
• Printer 58 is preferably. located behind a transparent plate in terminal area 50 so as to allow viewing of the card while being printed.
• An eight pen ink plotter capable of providing high quality print image according to the invention is available from the Hewlett-Packard Co.
• the data for the print image of the plotter is stored in a compressed vector format which give the starting coordinates for a particular color pen followed by the pen movement instructions.
• This data format a complete card format including text and graphics can be stored in 60 kilobytes of memory for a typical greeting card.
• High resolution color ink jet printers have been developed by Hewlett-Packard at 300 dpi (dots per inch) and from Cannon in Japan at 360 dpi. A complete bit map storage for these printers would require as much as 1 megabyte of memory storage.
• the print images are therefore preferably stored in a lossless compressed format. In the range below 10:1 the JPEG algorithm described above is essentially lossless and can be used.
• inherently lossless compression techniques of the kind developed by PKWARE, Inc. of Glendale, Wisconsin, under the trademark PKZIP ® , Version 2.0 are preferred. With the PKZIP ® compression technique data compression ratios of up to 10 to 1 may be achieved without any losses.
• a greeting card print image can be reduced from 1 megabyte of memory to about 100 kilobytes using these compression algorithms.
• One advantage of using a laser printer or ink jet printer is that it may be possible to create the screen display and the print image using the same stored image data, thereby eliminating the need for separate screen image and print storage in memory.
• the JPEG algorithm is symmetrical meaning that the decompression operation is essentially the reverse of the compression operation and both take the same amount of time if performed on similar equipment.
• the algorithm can be performed in hardware or software; hardware implementation usually being faster but more costly.
• compression is usually done on hardware at the plant whereas decompression is done using software in the vending machine at the customer location.
• a plotter does not have fonts developed for its use that can be downloaded to a printer storage. Therefore, all font data associated with the text must be stored in the stored card parameters associated with that card format.
• the stored data for a card may include the particular stored card format as well as certain font data, including screen and plotter font size data, and screen and plotter font color data.
• the stored card parameters may also include a font number, which indicates that an output image is to be inverted if the font number is negative. With this stored information, text associated with a stored card format may be printed by a plotter used as printer 58.
• a separate file is provided with character font data, which font data is handled by a separate instruction routine.
• the font data file includes data relating to each character that may be printed as well as a predetermined kern value (i.e. , the spacing between letters) .
• the CPU 68 accesses the font data file.
• a character string from the customized message, a specific font, a font size factor, pen color and a positioning x,y coordinate where the customized text is to appear on the card are sent from RAM 66 to the printer 58. Then, using this information and the font data from the font data file, printer 58 prints the customized text on the card stock.
• the first character from the string is moved into a storage array. Its printed height is determined by multiplying the height data for that character (from the font data file) times the size factor (from RAM 66) .
• the size factor ensures that the customized text is the correct size in relation to the printed stored text.
• the first character's printed width is determined by multiplying the width data for that character (from the font data file) times the size factor (from RAM 66) .
• the starting point is determined by first calculating the length of the entire character string. The starting point will then be either 1) the positioning x,y coordinate (for left side justification) ; 2) the coordinate obtained from subtracting the length of the entire string from the x coordinate of the positioning x,y coordinate (for right side justification) ; or 3) the coordinate obtained from subtracting one-half the length of the entire string from the x coordinate of the positioning x,y coordinate (for centering the string about the positioning x,y coordinate) .
• the text is to be inverted on the card stock, e. ⁇ . , all text appearing in the upper left and right quadrants will be printed up ⁇ side-down, so that the appear normally when the card is folded. In this situation, the starting point is determined in the opposite manner than starting point determination for the non-inverted print.
• the character is printed on the card stock using a determined pen color (from RAM 66) .
• the starting point of the next character is determined by adding to the previous starting point, the width of the previous character and then a spacing equal to the kern value (from the font data file) multiplied by the size factor
• Card stock is fed into printer 58 by means of a paper loading device 72, which includes a plunger in positional relation to the paper feed activation button on the control panel of the printer.
• a paper loading device 72 which includes a plunger in positional relation to the paper feed activation button on the control panel of the printer.
• the terminal unit 50 may also include at least one audio component 60 coupled to an audio controller 74 to control volume level and tone from the audio component. Voice recordings are digitized and stored on hard disk 76. At select intervals, a
• the voice messages may be for the purpose of marketing and advertising, to provide help to a customer during use of the vending machine, or to inform a customer when an error in the input of card characteristics' or customization information has occurred.
• the CPU 68 periodically checks for a touch of one of the "buttons" on the touch screen 54. If a contact is detected, an interrupt signal is generated and the loading or playback of a voice message is terminated.
• the terminal unit 50 may also preferably include a payment receiving device 62 for accepting revenue to a bill and/or coin receiving mechanism or a credit card reader.
• a payment receiving device 62 for accepting revenue to a bill and/or coin receiving mechanism or a credit card reader.
• Stored on the hard disk 76 is the data for the graphical representation of the menu or query screens displayed on the monitor, as well as parameters associated with each screen.
• Such parameters may including the following: a screen number, which uniquely identifies each screen a prior screen number, which identifies which screen to backup to when requested a "more screen” number, which identifies the screen number containing additional responses to the same question posed on the present screen, but which were too numerous to fit on the present screen button variables, which are properties or characteristics that may be assigned to a particular "button" or location on the screen (there may be up to 60 on a single screen) button number, which is the number of each button for touch screen location action code, which defines the next action for a particular button - next screen number, which identifies the next screen number for activation of a particular button upper left x,y screen coordinates lower right x,y screen coordinates.
• the next screen presentation depends upon a given response; that is, only those next screens which are appropriate to a given response will be presented to a customer, thereby avoiding presentation of unnecessary and irrelevant questions.
• a customer may use the touch screen 54 to select criteria for the desired card.
• the selection criteria may be elicited from the customer's response to a series of questions, which can be categorized as first level selections, second level selections, etc.
• First level selections are used to select a "general application" related to the occasion for which the card is being sent. For example, as seen in Fig. 3, the statement, "The greeting card I want is. . .” may be displayed on the monitor followed by a list of possible choices, such as, birthday, anniversary, etc.
• the responses are set forth in visible touch zones or "buttons". A response is designated by touching the button on the touch screen containing the desired response.
• the next screen may present a second level selection, broadly referred to as "specific use criteria", followed by a list of possible responses.
• the second level selections may be particularized to the responses to the first level selections, thus ensuring that only necessary and appropriate questions are presented to the customer for response. For example, if a birthday card is indicated in the first level selection, the relationship to the recipient is useful for the card selection whereas, if a Mother's Day card is indicated in the first level selection, the relationship of the recipient is known and need not be determined on the second level.
• Examples of statements eliciting responses to second level selections may include the following: - The person receiving the card is my. . .
• the style of card I want is. . .
• the card is being sent by a. . .
• the card is being sent to a. . .
• Fig. 4 - 8 illustrate these statements displayed on the monitor, together with a list of possible responses.
• a response is designated by touching the "button" on the screen containing the desired response.
• the possible responses to some questions are too numerous to fit on one screen without making it unreasonably confusing or difficult to choose a desired response.
• a customer is given the option to display additional screens containing further possible responses.
• a question on a given selection level may lead to a presentation of additional screens (not shown) with further sublevel questions.
• These sublevel selections are use to further describe or clarify a response. For example, if, in response to the statement, "The person receiving this card is my. . .”, as shown in Fig. 5, and the customer chooses "roommate", an appropriate sublevel inquiry may be presented asking whether the person is male or female.
• each screen display may also present a "button" allowing a customer to seek help, or return to a previously asked question to modify a previous response.
• the criteria are stored and used by the computer to select from among the card formats stored in memory those cards conforming to the set of criteria selected by the customer.
• the card formats are stored on the hard disk together with associated card criteria, including a general application category code as well as codes for the specified card criteria.
• a sort routine is executed by the computer to sort through the stored card data by comparing the stored criteria codes with the code representative of the customer-selected card criteria to find all matching card formats. If a match is found, the card format is selected for display on monitor 52. This group of cards is presented one at a time as can be seen in Fig. 9 for selection by the customer using the touch screen. Upon selection of a specific card format the monitor 52 displays questions requesting customization information for the card. These questions may be considered the next level of selection w «here the customer may be asked:
• the questions presented may vary depending on the responses to the first and second level selections (i.e.. if a birthday card is selected as a first level selection, a customer may be asked to provide a recipient's age when customizing the card). Additionally, as in the first and second level selections, there may be sublevel selections presented for a given response while customizing the card. Many of the responses to customizing selections require a customer to type in a message. To accomplish this, monitor 52 may display letters as they appear on a typical typewriter key board, as seen in Fig. 10. For example, in entering the name of a person to receive the card, a customer touches the letters on touch screen 54 that spell out the recipients name.
• the display may indicate a limitation on the number of letters as shown in Fig. 10.
• a recipient's name may be no more than 25 characters
• a sender's name may be no more than 15 characters
• the message on the card may be no more than 80 characters.
• help screens may be available, as « well as an option to change a response to the present or previous questions.
• the same stored display card format is used for the Fig. 9 display (before customizing) and the Fig. 11 display (after customizing) .
• the stored card formats include the graphics and the fixed text.
• the insert legends "age”, “receivers name”, “Birth Date”, “Your Message Here”, “Closing” and "Sender's Name” appearing in Fig. 9 are added to the basic card format as overlays, preferably in a distinctive color.
• Fig. 11 is formed using the same card format fr ⁇ m memory with the customized insert created as an overlay. The same process is used in printing the card where the card format is first created from memory aad the customized inserts are then added as an overlay. System Operation As shown in Figs.
• syst «em operation may begin by presenting a recurring display of graphic images for the purpose of advertising (steps 101 through 106) , to attract the attention of customers passing by the unit.
• the program at step 103, checks for the existence of a sound file that may correspond to the current graphic image. This process of matching graphic displays with associated sound file may occur every time that an image is displayed. If an appropriate sound file exists, it is then read from the hard disk into memory and "played" through the audio component 60, attached with a special adapter to a parallel port of computer 56 (step 112) .
• a touch on the monitor screen can interrupt the process at any point.
• the characteristic selection process begins at step 115 (Fig. 13) .
• the first level selection may present as a display on monitor 52 one or more graphic images that offer a choice of defined applications or occasions (see Fig. 3) .
• the program automatically returns to the cycling marketing screens (steps 101 to 106) . From the occasion selection screen, as well as all other selection screens, several actions are possible.
• Program step 119 defines processing of a help display in response to contacting the help "button" as seen on Figs. 3-8.
• a particular help graphic display is defined in the screen number element of the help button definition.
• step 120 a customer can restart the process from any screen. This action will return to re-entry point 113 in Fig. 12. If the screen presents a choice of applications or categories, as shown starting in step 121 of Fig. 13, a category choice selected by the customer is saved in memory and a category counter is incremented. The specific category choice is contained in the action code element of the button definition and the next screen for display is identified from the next screen number.
• a screen may present the option to see additional responses to a given question which are not displayed on the present screen (e.g., the "See More Relationships" button on Fig. 4) .
• Program step 122 defines a new selection screen at the same level, for example, Fig. 5 presenting additional responses. That is, the screens of Figs. 4 and 5 each relate to selection of the relationship of the recipient of a greeting card to the sender.
• the prior action may be taken from step 136 in Fig. 14.
• the screen defined in the prior screen number element of the current menu definition is then displayed. Any selections made on screen appearing after the presently displayed screen are blanked and the counter decremented. Once all relevant selections at a given level have been made, the next level is presented at program step 137 (Fig. 14) .
• Figs. 6-8 illustrate questions which may be asked in response to questions on this previously level (Figs. 4-5) .
• the process of making selections at specific levels may be repeated until all level screens defined for the selected card applications have been exhausted.
• the first viewable card is then displayed on the monitor 52 as, for example, in Fig. 9.
• the help option is also available at this point, in step 142.
• the customer may request the next ' card to be displayed, or select the card that is being viewed for customization.
• certain customization information may be entered at this point in the card design format, such as the receiver's name, birth date, a short message, a closing, and the sender's name.
• the system elicits and stores the chosen card's defined customization options.
• the customer may enter a string of text of maximum 10 to 80 characters in length. Expansion beyond 80 characters may be provided as an option based on fonts and space allocation on the card product to be printed. Additionally, numbers may be entered at this level for dates, age, years married, etc., depending on the application chosen. These entries may be processed in a manner similar to the above screen level selections.
• the button touched defines an action code that is cross-referenced to a description in a database file. When the button is selected, the program accesses the file, retrieves the description associated with the action code and holds in it memory along with the text that has been entered.
• the text/number entry screens have a button defined for informing the system that the customer has completed the specific entry and to go on to the next option ("OK to Proceed" button on Fig. 10) .
• the customer may back up to any prior option to change or modify any entry made at that point.
• the card in then re- displayed on the monitor with all the customer entries and selections overlayed onto the card in the proper locations for final customer approval as shown in Fig. 11.
• a customer may choose to print the selected card.
• the system may be operated for any length of time up to this point without incurring a charge, a confirmation of printing is asked for in step 174.
• the system loads from the hard disk 76 the plotter instructions for the card. These instructions are then output to the plotter 24 from a serial or parallel port installed in the computer 56.
• the customization steps optionally may be overlayed. For each customer text or number entry, an appropriate plotter font file is opened and a character string is output to the plotter.
• the card sheet is then ejected from the printer 58. If desired, the program for plotting the selected card can require receipt of the proper payment via payment receiving device 62
• the customer is then given the option to print another card. If they wish to, the system then returns to the occasion selection screen at entry point 113 in Fig. 12, and if not, it returns to the marketing cycle display at entry point 114.
• Figs. 18 - 20 show a detail flow of the sound processing routine depicted by blocks 109 - 112 in Fig. 12.
• the routine begins at step 200 by opening the sound file and reading in the first 128 positions to retrieve the record length of the digital sound data, the recording sample rate, and channel to play it through. The sample rate is then set in step 202.
• Program memory is allocated to use a buffer as each sound file block is read from the file. By using the record length, a number of 4K blocks may be calculated for use during the sound file playback.
• the present system stores the file in Expanded Memory (EMS) . This is additional memory that is outside the system's normally accessible memory area.
• EMS Expanded Memory
• mapping 64K segments of the stored data into RAM 66 (step 206) . Each of these 64K segments of data are further subdivided into sixteen 4K blocks.
• the computer 56 downloads the data one block at a time into RAM 66.
• the program checks for a valid touch after each 4K block of sound data is read (steps 211, 215, 219 and 224) . When all sixteen blocks of a segment have been downloaded that segment is moved into EMS and another 64K segment is mapped into program useable memory. This process is continued until the entire file is read or a touch is detected. If a touch is detected, the routine closes the file and releases the EMS memory before returning to the routine's origin (Fig. 19) .
• the file is then closed and the system prepares to playback the stored speech data.
• the system starting at the beginning of the sound file stored in EMS, begins mapping the data into the RAM 66.
• Each 4K block is moved into the data buffer and played back through audio component 60 attached to the parallel port of the computer 56.
• a valid touch is checked for. If at any point a touch is detected or the number of blocks played is equal to the calculated block count, the routine ends by releasing the EMS memory and returning to its starting point.
• the printed card may be a flat sheet of card stock having quadrants 78, 80, 82 and 84 clockwise from the upper left quadrant as shown in Fig. 24a. All the printing is done on one side of the flat card stock. Therefore, the card is folded twice in a predetermined manner so as to produce a card having print on both the inside and outside of the card.
• the card is intended to be folded such that quadrants 82, 80, 78 and 84 form the front, first page, second page and back, respectively. This may be accomplished by first folding' the top half (i.e. , quadrants 78 and 80) about a horizontal axis down behind the bottom half (i.e.
• the left half i.e. , with quadrant 84
• the left half is folded about a vertical axis to be behind the right side, as shown in Fig. 2 «4c.
• the card may be placed in an envelope available from a compartment on or adjacent to terminal 50.
• the printer 58 prints the cards such that print appearing on quadrant 78 and 80 is inverse, or up-side-down from the print appearing on quadrant 82 and 84.
• all the print appears uniformly oriented to be right-side-up.
• the card may have prescored lines along the vertical and horizontal axes to indicate and facilitate folding along these lines.
• the prescored lines may be located slightly off from and parallel to the exact central vertical and horizontal axes.
• the right vertical edge of quadrant 80 may be slightly tapered as seen on Fig. 24a. The amount of the taper depends on the thickness and size of the paper and the amount of offset of the prescored lines from the center axes.
• a card of sheet stock 80 # text having a vertical length of 17 inches and a horizontal width of 11 inches (as in conventional greeting cards) , when folded according to the method described above, has edges which align with each other when the card contains a prescored vertical line l/16th inch to the left of the central vertical axis, a prescored horizontal line 1/16th inch above the central horizontal axis, and the right vertical edge of quadrant 80 tapered l/16th of an inch.

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• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Record Information Processing For Printing (AREA)
• Control Of Vending Devices And Auxiliary Devices For Vending Devices (AREA)
• User Interface Of Digital Computer (AREA)
• Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)
• Multi-Process Working Machines And Systems (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

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Publications (1)

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ID=27102194

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Cited By (9)

Families Citing this family (4)

Citations (7)

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• 1992
  • 1992-03-24 NZ NZ242110A patent/NZ242110A/en unknown
  • 1992-04-01 EP EP92910281A patent/EP0578753A1/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 1992-04-01 AU AU17534/92A patent/AU1753492A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1992-04-01 PT PT100328A patent/PT100328A/pt not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1992-04-01 IL IL10144392A patent/IL101443A/en not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1992-04-01 AR AR92322053A patent/AR247451A1/es active
  • 1992-04-01 CN CN92102331.6A patent/CN1071019A/zh active Pending
  • 1992-04-01 CA CA002106878A patent/CA2106878A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1992-04-01 BR BR9205833A patent/BR9205833A/pt active Search and Examination
  • 1992-04-01 JP JP50944892A patent/JP2002517980A/ja active Pending
  • 1992-04-01 WO PCT/US1992/002603 patent/WO1992017851A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
• 1993
  • 1993-09-30 NO NO933489A patent/NO933489L/no unknown
  • 1993-10-01 FI FI934321A patent/FI934321A/fi not_active Application Discontinuation

Patent Citations (9)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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