Patent ID: 6101483
Filing Date: 2000-08-08
Classification: G06Q,G07F

Abstract:
A personal shopping system for combined use in both a home of a user and at least one shopping establishment, said system comprising:(a) a host computer;(b) a host modem coupled to said host computer;(c) at least one shopping establishment kiosk cradle coupled to said host computer, said at least one shopping establishment kiosk cradle in turn comprising:a kiosk portable terminal-receiving station; anda kiosk data interface associated with said kiosk portable terminal-receiving station;(d) a home cradle associated with the home of the user, said home cradle in turn comprising:a home portable terminal-receiving station;a home data interface associated with said home portable terminal-receiving station; anda home data transfer circuit, said home data transfer circuit being coupled to said home data interface for data exchange therewith, said home data transfer circuit being configured for data exchange with said host modem; and(e) a portable terminal, said portable terminal in turn comprising:a memory for storing data associated with bar codes which are in turn associated with items related to shopping; anda two-way terminal data interface coupled to said memory, said terminal data interface being configured for data exchange with said kiosk data interface when said portable terminal is received in said kiosk portable terminal-receiving station, said terminal data interface being configured for data exchange with said home data interface when said portable terminal is received in said home portable terminal-receiving station, said terminal data interface being configured for reading the bar codes associated with the items related to shopping;wherein:said home data transfer circuit supplies said host computer with the data associated with the bar codes when said portable terminal is received in said home portable terminal-receiving station;said shopping establishment kiosk cradle accepts the data associated with the bar codes from said portable terminal through said kiosk data interface and said terminal data interface when said portable terminal is received in said kiosk portable terminal-receiving station, and then downloads the data associated with the bar codes to said host computer; andsaid host computer receives the data associated with the bar codes and stores the data in a shopping list database.