Patent ID: 6226412
Filing Date: 2001-05-01
Classification: G06Q,G07C,H04N

Abstract:
A method of buying and selling an item relating to unique subjects, comprising the steps of:a. providing at least one uniquely identifiable remote data terminal, for communicating with a central computer managing a relational database for a transaction between a buyer and a seller;b. entering the following at the at least one data terminals:textual information descriptive of a subject in a structured fashion, including modifiable and non-modifiable data fields, and image information representative of the subject;c. data-compressing the image data into a first image format;d. separately transferring the textual and image data in the first format to the central computer by batch upload, the following steps being performed at the location of the central computer;determining which remote data terminals are authorized to transmit subject oriented textual and image data, and storing information relating thereto;receiving textual and image data from an authorized remote data terminal;creating a first set of unique records identifying the textual information associated with teach subject received from each remote data terminal;creating a second set of unique records identifying the image data associated with each subject received from each remote data terminal;storing the image data separately from the textual information in a data-compressed second image format;storing the textual information separately from the image data in relational form, along with information identifying the location of the separately stored image data corresponding thereto;receiving subject-related requests relating to the transaction from at least one of the remote data terminals;locating textual information corresponding to the subject-related requests relating to the transaction when requested;transmitting the located textual information to the requesting remote data terminal; andlocating subject-related image data in response to the request when requested;transmitting the related image data in a second data-compressed format;e. de-compressing the images in the second data compressed format at the requesting remote data terminal; andf. displaying the de-compressed images along with textual information at the requesting remote data terminal.