Patent ID: 7490777

Claim:
A method for inputting a request to a hand-held device, securely transmitting a server request corresponding to the input request from the hand-held device to a server computer through a wireless communications link, receiving a server response to the server request by the hand-held device from the server computer, and outputting a response corresponding to the server response by the hand-held device, the hand-held device having: one or more input components for inputting request data from one or more different input media, including mechanical manipulation of an input component and at least one of additional input media including data displayed by a display component of the hand-held device, audio tones, and electronic, magnetic, and printed request data, a processing component that constructs a server request from request data received from one or more of the input components, a transceiver component that sends the server request to the server computer and receives the server response from the server computer, and two or more output components, the method comprising: coupling the hand-held device to the communications link; inputting the request from one or more input media to one or more input components of the hand-held device; processing the input request to produce the corresponding server request; transmitting the server request to the server computer; receiving the server response from the server computer through the communications link; and outputting the response corresponding to the server response, via one or more of the two or more output components.