1. A method for a buyer to acquire a specific buyer-selected gift from a vendor and provide the gift to a recipient, said transaction being monitored by a central registry, comprising:
a. the buyer purchasing a specific buyer-selected gift from a vendor, wherein the vendor does not directly provide the gift to the buyer,
b. the buyer selecting a gift proxy design for a gift proxy from a plurality of gift proxy designs, said gift proxy designs being designed to convey the concept of the gift, and said proxy designs being designed so that when the gift proxy is displayed to gathering of people at a presentation environment, the gift proxy instigates, in the gathering, an exciting psychological reaction similar to that which would have occurred if the actual gift were being displayed, and the buyer selecting whether to be responsible for shipping costs of the gift if the recipient decides to have the gift shipped to the recipient,
c. the vendor using a proxy producing machine to produce a gift proxy of the design selected by the buyer by transforming the buyer selections into material that is the gift proxy comprising a piece of blank card stock comprising a plurality of panels hinged together imprinted with the gift proxy information, the transformation being done by printing proxy information onto the card stock, said proxy information and comprising:
i. a gift indicia that includes a graphical representation of the gift,
ii. a vendor indicia that provides an indication of the identity of the vendor, and
iii. an authorization indicia that provides the vendor with information authorizing the bearer of the gift proxy to receive the gift,
wherein the gift proxy is adapted to be easily interconverted from a flat form, in which the cardstock is oriented so that the panels can be positioned with respect to one another in which the smallest or thickness dimension is between \u215b inches and \xbe inches, and the other two or height and width dimensions are each between 3 inches and 8 inches, and the total volume is minimized, suitable for being transported efficiently, to a three-dimensional form, wherein the proxy forms a free-standing display of the gift image,
d. the vendor providing the buyer with the produced gift proxy,
e. the vendor notifying the central registry concerning the sale and delivery of the gift proxy to the buyer,
f. the buyer carrying the gift proxy, in the flat form, through standard airline security procedures, and travels by means of a commercial airliner at least some of the way, to a remote location,
g. at the remote location and presentation environment, at which there is a gathering of people, including the recipient, the buyer converting the gift proxy into a three-dimensional form, and displaying the gift proxy, so that when the gift proxy displayed to the gathering of people, the gift proxy instigates, in the gathering, an exciting psychological reaction similar to that which would have occurred if the actual gift were being displayed,
h. the buyer delivering the gift proxy to the recipient,
i. the recipient contacting the vendor, and providing the vendor with the gift indicia and the authorization indicia,
j. the vendor providing the gift indicia and authorization indicia to the central registry,
k. the central registry confirming the authenticity of the gift indicia and the authorization indicia,
l. the central registry informing the vendor that the vendor is authorized to provide the gift to the recipient,
m. the recipient arranging to receive the gift from the vendor and indicating whether the recipient wishes to have the gift shipped to the recipient or whether the recipient wishes to physically pick-up the gift from the vendor, and
n. the recipient receiving the gift from the vendor, and, if the recipient selected to have the gift shipped to the recipient, and if the buyer selected to be responsible for the cost of shipping, the buyer is charged for the cost of that shipping, but if the buyer selected not to be responsible for the cost of shipping, the buyer is not charged for the cost of that shipping, and if the recipient selects to physically pick-up the gift from the vendor, the buyer is not charged for the cost of that shipping.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A program guide data decoding method for a digital broadcast receiver, comprising:
detecting a request to decode structural data comprising a data unit; and
decoding the structural data using a template that matches the structure of the data unit when the matching template exists.
2. The program guide data decoding method of claim 1, further comprising:
decoding each bit of the data unit when the matching template does not exist.
3. The program guide data decoding method of claim 2, further comprising:
creating a new template while decoding each bit of the data unit when the matching template does not exist; and
storing the new template.
4. The program guide data decoding method of claim 3, wherein creating a new template comprises:
classifying bits of the data unit into structure bits and value bits; and
generating the new template with reference to the structure bits.
5. The program guide data decoding method of claim 3, wherein the structural data comprises a plurality of data units, and
wherein decoding the structural data further comprises referencing stored templates until all of the data units constituting the structural data are decoded.
6. The program guide data decoding method of claim 5, wherein the structural data is a program guide data comprising electronic service guide (ESG) data.
7. The program guide data decoding method of claim 5, wherein each data unit is a Binary format for Multimedia description stream (BiM) fragment.
8. A program guide data decoding method for a digital broadcast receiver, comprising:
recognizing a structure type of a Binary format for Multimedia description stream (BiM) fragments constituting an Electronic Service Guide (ESG) data;
determining whether a template having the structure type exists in a storage; and
decoding the BiM fragment using the template when the template having the structure type exists in the storage, and
decoding each bit of the BiM fragment when the template having the structure type does not exist in the storage.
9. The program guide data decoding method of claim 8, further comprising:
creating a new template while decoding each bit of the data unit when the template having the structure type does not exist in the storage; and
storing the new template.
10. The program guide data decoding method of claim 9, wherein decoding the BiM fragment is repeated with reference to stored templates until all BiM fragments constituting the ESG data are decoded.
11. A program guide data decoding apparatus of a digital broadcast receiver, comprising:
a broadcast reception module to demodulate a broadcast signal received through a tuned service channel;
a storage unit to store a plurality of templates used in decoding program guide data; and
a control unit to extract program guide data from the broadcast signal, store the program guide data in the storage unit, and decode the program guide data using the templates in response to a decoding request.
12. The digital broadcast receiver of claim 11, wherein the program guide data comprises Electronic Service Guide (ESG) data.
13. The digital broadcast receiver of claim 12, wherein the control unit decodes each Binary format for Multimedia description stream (BiM) fragment included in the ESG data required to be decoded.
14. The digital broadcast receiver of claim 13, wherein the control unit determines whether a template matching a structure of the BiM fragment exists and decodes the BiM fragment using the template matching the structure of the BiM fragment when the matching template exists.
15. The digital broadcast receiver of claim 14, wherein the control unit decodes each bit of the BiM fragment when the matching template does not exist.
16. The program guide data decoding method of claim 15, wherein the control unit creates a new template while decoding each bit of the data unit when the matching template does not exist, and stores the new template.
17. The digital broadcast receiver of claim 16, wherein the control unit classifies bits of the BiM fragment into structure bits and value bits and creates the new template with reference to the structure bits.