Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Thomas B Banks

Stephen P Buckley

Kurt A Pfahl

Michael L Vandemark

Richard A Robinson

Arthur E Doerflinger

David Allen Mullin

Wallace Allan Yeskie

Michael Ray Schupp

Daniel B Laughlin

Lynn Vandemark

Disclosed is a system for use by an individual customer to obtain a personalized greeting card of high quality, the system comprising: card type selection means for permitting an individual customer to obtain a completed personalized card from one of a plurality of blank cards having a preprinted design on at least a portion thereof and arranged proximate to the customer, design selection means for selection by an individual customer and from a plurality of available designs of a design to be provided on the completed personalized card, the plurality of available designs corresponding, at least in part, to the plurality of preprinted designs on the blank cards, message selection means for use by the individual customer to select particular printing material to be provided on the completed card, and card completion means, and control means for controlling the card completion means from the card type, design and message selection means for supply by the card completion means of a completed greeting card having the weight and quality and having the selected design the selected printed material thereof. Also disclosed is a method for producing personalized greeting cards using the aforementioned system.

Personalized greeting card system

A vending machine for displaying and dispensing personalized products includes apparatus for sequentially displaying personalized products of a given type in accordance with prior viewing and sales of each personalized product. The machine includes an enclosure with selection means on the outside thereof and with storage and handling means on the inside thereof, all coupled to computer equipment which is on the inside of the enclosure. The computer equipment is programmed to facilitate a customer's creation from among designs of products of a given type by ranking each of the designs and thereafter sequentially displaying the designs in accordance with its ranking.

Method and apparatus for display sequencing personalized social occasion

A machine is disclosed which includes an enclosure with selection and payment means on the outside thereof and with storage and handling means on the inside thereof, all coupled to computer equipment which is on the inside of the enclosure. The computer equipment is programmed to facilitate a customer's creation from among types of products to be delivered and the desired mode of personalization thereof and to deliver a completed personalized product to a receptacle from which it may be removed by the customer. The machine of the invention improves customer service and availability by periodically reporting sales and other information. In addition, the machine self detects errors of operation and provides the capability of stocking new products or software programming revisions via data transmission from a remote location.

Computer controlled system for vending personalized products

A machine for vending greeting cards or other personalized or customized products includes audio and video presentations of available products and options available to a customer, provisions for payment and apparatus for automatic delivery of products. Base products such as preprinted forms are stored for selective transfer by a robot device to modifying apparatus such as a printer, modified products being delivered to a delivery receptacle, all operations being under computer control and being changeable as desired for adding or substituting new forms of products.

Computer controlled machine for vending personalized products or the like

Growing community of inventors

Prairie Village, KS, United States of America

Thomas B Banks