Patent ID: 8531424

Claim:
An automated system for controlling a business transaction requiring at least the presentation of documents and information by a first user and the acknowledgement and execution of documents by a second user, the automated system comprising: a housing having a substantially flat upper surface, the housing being sized and configured for placement between the first user and the second user with the upper surface being oriented generally horizontally and being accessible by the first user and by the second user; a digitizing display within the housing and visible through the upper surface of the housing, the digitizing display including a video display on which documents can be imaged and a digitizer configured to detect motion of at least one associated stylus on the video display; a three dimensional collaborative volume defined above the flat upper surface of the housing and within which a first user and a second user interact with each other and with the digitizing display during a business transaction; a computer operatively coupled to the digitizing display; software in the computer that, when executed, images documents associated with the business transaction in a predetermined order on the video display and receives and interprets motion of the at least one associated stylus on the video display; the software, when executed, permitting selective rotation of documents associated with the business transaction for presentation of documents in one orientation to the first user for interaction by the first user and for presentation of documents in another orientation to the second user for interaction by the second user; an audio reproduction system in the housing and coupled to the computer, the audio reproduction system being configured to produce sounds during a transaction from at least one location displaced from the video display whereby the source of the sounds appears to the first and second users to be generally from within the collaborative volume during the transaction.