Patent ID: 6869016

Claim:
A method of delivering a message from a mobile sender to a mobile recipient, comprising the steps of: a) providing the mobile sender with a portable data collection terminal having a display, an actuatable electro-optical reader for reading machine-readable indicia, a memory for storing a unique identifier, and a wireless transceiver; b) enabling the mobile sender to specify a graphical user interface having a sequence of prompting fields and an associated sequence of data entry fields on the display for prompting the mobile sender pursuant to the prompting fields to sequentially collect data for viewing on the display, including prompting the mobile sender to operate the terminal and manually enter data in some of the data entry fields of the specified interface, and actuating the reader to capture information from the indicia to automatically enter data in other data entry fields of the specified interface, to compile a message in a predetermined sequence dictated by the specified interface from the manually and automatically entered data containing the identifier, the information captured by the reader, and a destination specified by the mobile sender; c) transmitting the message to a server over a wireless link by operating the transceiver; and d) delivering the message at the destination of the mobile recipient by processing the message at the server.