Importance

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Abstract

A method for independently electronically collecting related market survey data from a plurality of diverse locations (6,6') for temporary storage at each of the independent diverse locations (6,6') where the data is collected for subsequent transmission thereof from these locations (6,6') over a telephone type link (30,36,42) for accumulative processing thereof at a remote central electronic data processor. An interactive interchangeable prompt message display is displayed on a visual display device (32) indicating one of a plurality of market survey categories in a predefined sequence. An actual data input signal may be provided via a keyboard (70) or barboard (29) and/or wand (18,28) in response to the prompt message display with this input being stored in a memory (16) for subsequent transmission. Prior to storage in the memory (16), the data is stored in a buffer and is displayed on the display device (32) to enable confirmation prior to transfer to the bulk memory (16). When a confirmation command signal is provided to the microcomputer (10,12,14) the data is transferred to the bulk memory (16) and the display (32) is changed to display the next prompt message in the sequence. The sequence recycles for each market transaction for enabling independent integral storage (16) of each product transaction at the location of the unit (6,6'). This stored data is then transmitted to the remote data processor via acoustic coupling (30,36,42) to the telephone line.

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First Claim