Patent ID: 7599854
Filing Date: 2009-10-06
Classification: G03D,G06Q,G07F,H04N

Abstract:
1. A method of collecting images from a plurality of customers into a kiosk, and transferring images from the kiosk to an image-processing provider, wherein the kiosk includes a computer, a data storage device and an interface for capturing digital images, wherein the data storage device includes computer readable media for storing information representative of the digital images, the method comprising: accepting image information from a customer into the interface of the kiosk; accepting user-identifier information into the computer, the user-identifier information corresponding to the customer; accepting order information into the computer, the order information specifying a service to be provided relative to the image information; storing into a local storage connected to the computer, a digital representation of the image information and associated user identifier information and order information for each of a plurality of different customers into a data structure; in response to receipt of a first poll request at the kiosk and upon detecting the availability of the data structure, sending data structure address information corresponding to the available data structure from the kiosk to the image-processing provider via the communications medium; in response to receipt of the sent data structure address information at the image-processing provider, sending a data-structure-fetch request across the communications medium from the image-processing provider to the kiosk; sending the data structure to the image-processing provider via a communication medium, and storing the data structure in the image-processing provider.