The present invention relates to registration form signed by, and key packets provided to, registrees during a registration process and, in particular, to a single-sheet registration-form-and-key-packet blank that can be automatically printed by a general-purpose commercial printer.
The present invention relates to registration forms generated by a commercial organization, such as a hotel or motel, during the registration process. FIGS. 1A-C illustrate various printed materials presented to a registering hotel guest during a typical registration process.
When a guest has completed the registration form, the guest is typically provided with a key packet containing a magnetic keycard.
Thus, the forms and key packets currently provided to hotel and motel guests during the registration process, and to other types of registrees during other types of registration processes, are relatively expensive, time-consuming to process, and characteristically inflexible media for presentation of information to the registree. For these reasons, hotels and motels, and other commercial organizations that typically carry out registration processes with customers, have recognized the need for a more simple, less expensive, and more flexible method for providing registration forms, key packets, and other types of printed information to registrees.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a single-sheet registration-form-and-key-packet blank that can be printed on a general-purpose commercial printer, such as a laser printer, by a hotel, motel or other commercial organization during a registration process. A portion of the information displayed on the single-sheet registration-form-and-key-packet blank may be pre-printed, may be printed by the general-purpose commercial printer according to various software templates loaded into the general-purpose commercial printer, or by a combination of pre-printing and software templates. Time-sensitive and frequently changing information, as well as information particular to a registree, may be provided to the general-purpose commercial printer via registration software running on a computer system connected to the general-purpose commercial printer. The registration form and key packet are printed together on a single sheet that includes a vertical line of perforations that divide the single sheet into a registration form and a key packet, a vertical line of perforations and a horizontal line of perforations that allow the key packet to be quickly constructed by folding along the horizontal line of perforations followed by folding along the vertical line of perforations, and two dye-cut slots for holding magnetic keycards and/or metal keys. Because general-purpose commercial printers usually have rectangular feed trays from which stacks of rectangular forms are input into the printer, one-at-a-time, for printing, the registration-form-and-key-packet blank is generally square or rectangular.
When the general-purpose commercial printer can accommodate stacks of forms with other than rectangular or square shapes, the registration-form-and-key-packet blank may have a shape compatible with the shapes of forms that, when stacked together, can be accommodated by the general-purpose commercial printer. However, the purpose of the registration-form-and-key-packet blank is for efficient, on-site preparation of registration forms and key packets, and thus shapes that require manual alignment of individual registration-form-and-key-packet blanks for printing are avoided, and outside of the scope of the current claims. Examples of shapes that are to be avoided include any shape without two, parallel edges that can be fed into a roller-feed mechanism, odd shapes that include small tabs and protuberances that interfere with feeding through parallel-edge feed guides and roller mechanisms, and other such shapes. While the two parallel edges may not need to completely span the blank, as in the case in which a cutout or taper of one or both parallel edges does not interfere with feeding of the blank into a printer, any protuberances or small or irregularly shaped tabs that extend outward from the two parallel edges would prevent feeding altogether, or require manual alignment and feeding, and would thus be unacceptable for a registration-form-and-key-packet blank according to the present invention. Moreover, registration-form-and-key-packet blanks must be free of adhesives or surface features that would cause the registration-form-and-key-packet blanks to cling together or adhere to one another and prevent feeding of single registration-form-and-key-packet blanks from stacks of registration-form-and-key-packet blanks loaded into feed trays of general-purpose commercial printers. Moreover, the registration-form-and-key-packet blanks must have characteristics that allow the registration-form-and-key-packet blanks to be reliably printed on general-purpose commercial printers. Such characteristics include having a thickness with a particular range of thicknesses, having an appropriate surface for grabbing and feeding by mechanical input mechanisms, having appropriate moisture content, having less than a threshold amount of dust and particulates that can clog printer mechanisms, having no wrinkles, nicks, tears, curled or bent edges, having too high or too low acid content, having thermal properties that result in melting, scorching, or shape change up to a specified temperature threshold, that is too rough or too smooth for mechanical manipulation, and other such characteristics. One manufacturer, for example, species that blanks have 100-250 Sheffield smoothness, between 4-6% moisture content, a pH of between 5.5 and 8.0, a thickness of between 0.94 and 0.18 mm, be flat within 5 mm when stacked in a ream, and be thermally stable to 392° F. In the current application, the shape constraints and other constraints that are imposed on registration-form-and-key-packet blanks by their need to be input and printed from stacks of registration-form-and-key-packet blanks loaded into feed trays of a general-purpose commercial printer are collectively referred to as “printability constraints.” All general-purpose commercial printers specify printability constraints for blanks that are fed into the general-purpose commercial printers, but the printability constraints may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and model to model. Some are quite specific, and others are commonly understood by users. For example, a blank having a equilateral-triangle shape cannot be reliably fed, from stacks of blanks having a equilateral-triangle shape, by any general-purpose commercial printer known to the applicant, and such obvious printability constraints are not generally explicitly specified by printer manufacturers, since most users of printers have sufficient intelligence to not attempt to load equilateral-triangle-shaped forms into a rectangular printer tray. However, acceptable moisture-content ranges are generally specified. However, the term “printability constraints” does not include any limitations on registration-form and key-packet separation-facilitating features, such as lines of perforations. Similarly, a blank that lacks two, parallel edges that span all or a large portion of one dimension of the blank cannot be fed through feed mechanisms that generally include parallel fences, or guides, that hold blanks at a particular orientation to input mechanisms, such as feed rollers. Suitable registration-form-and-key-packet blanks, according to the present invention, need to be unassembled, single sheets of paper or other printable material. It is too difficult to control the orientation, thickness, and other parameters of multi-sheet blanks. A single sheet may be a multi-layer laminate material, for example, such as paper coated with a plastic finish on one side, but may not be a multi-sheet item, such as a folded form or a form to which small objects or sheets have been glued or affixed.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a single-sheet perforated and slotted registration-form-and-key-packet blank that can be printed on a general-purpose commercial printer during a registration process, and that conforms to the printability constraints specified for, or implied for, the general-purpose commercial printer. Graphical and textual information printed on the registration and key packet may be pre-printed, generated according to software templates, or printed from information collected during the registration process by registration software running on a computer system connected to the general-purpose commercial printer.
Typically, during a registration process, a hotel clerk inquires for and obtains from a registering guest an identification number or name by which the hotel clerk can access any information concerning the registration already stored within a computer system that runs registration software. The hotel clerk then interacts with the registering guest to obtain any additional information needed for registration, typically keying the information into a keyboard connected to the registration computer system. The single-sheet registration-form-and-key-packet blanks are typically loaded into a dedicated tray within a general-purpose commercial printer. The hotel clerk may initiate printing of the single-sheet registration-form-and-key-packet blank by keying a command to the keyboard or inputting the command to a touch screen connected to the computer system. The registration software transmits the command to the general-purpose commercial printer, including particular guest information to be printed and software templates or references to already-loaded software templates that together comprise all the information needed by the general-purpose commercial printer to print a single-sheet registration-form-and-key-packet blank, as shown in
While the registering guest is reading and signing the registration form (206 in
When the general-purpose commercial printer can accommodate stacks of forms with other than rectangular or square shapes, the registration-form-and-key-packet blank may have a shape compatible with the shapes of forms that, when stacked together, can be accommodated by the general-purpose commercial printer. However, the purpose of the registration-form-and-key-packet blank is for efficient, on-site preparation of registration forms and key packets, and thus shapes that require manual alignment of individual registration-form-and-key-packet blanks for printing are avoided, and outside of the scope of the current claims. Examples of shapes that are to be avoided include any shape without two, parallel edges that can be fed into a roller-feed mechanism, odd shapes that include small tabs and protuberances that interfere with feeding through parallel-edge feed guides and roller mechanisms, and other such shapes. While the two parallel edges may not need to completely span the blank, as in the case in which a cutout or taper of one or both parallel edges does not interfere with feeding of the blank into a printer, any protuberances or small or irregularly shaped tabs that extend outward from the two parallel edges would prevent feeding altogether, or require manual alignment and feeding, and would thus be unacceptable for a registration-form-and-key-packet blank according to the present invention. Moreover, registration-form-and-key-packet blanks must be free of adhesives or surface features that would cause the registration-form-and-key-packet blanks to cling together or adhere to one another and prevent feeding of single registration-form-and-key-packet blanks from stacks of registration-form-and-key-packet blanks loaded into feed trays of general-purpose commercial printers. Moreover, the registration-form-and-key-packet blanks must have characteristics that allow the registration-form-and-key-packet blanks to be reliably printed on general-purpose commercial printers. Such characteristics include having a thickness with a particular range of thicknesses, having an appropriate surface for grabbing and feeding by mechanical input mechanisms, having appropriate moisture content, having less than a threshold amount of dust and particulates that can clog printer mechanisms, having no wrinkles, nicks, tears, curled or bent edges, having too high or too low acid content, having thermal properties that result in melting, scorching, or shape change up to a specified temperature threshold, that is too rough or too smooth for mechanical manipulation, and other such characteristics. One manufacturer, for example, species that blanks have 100-250 Sheffield smoothness, between 4-6% moisture content, a pH of between 5.5 and 8.0, a thickness of between 0.94 and 0.18 mm, be flat within 5 mm when stacked in a ream, and be thermally stable to 392° F. In the current application, the shape constraints and other constraints that are imposed on registration-form-and-key-packet blanks by their need to be input and printed from stacks of registration-form-and-key-packet blanks loaded into feed trays of a general-purpose commercial printer are collectively referred to as “printability constraints.” All general-purpose commercial printers specify printability constraints for blanks that are fed into the general-purpose commercial printers, but the printability constraints may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and model to model. Some are quite specific, and others are commonly understood by users. For example, a blank having a equilateral-triangle shape cannot be reliably fed, from stacks of blanks having a equilateral-triangle shape, by any general-purpose commercial printer known to the applicant, and such obvious printability constraints are not generally explicitly specified by printer manufacturers, since most users of printers have sufficient intelligence to not attempt to load equilateral-triangle-shaped forms into a rectangular printer tray. However, acceptable moisture-content ranges are generally specified. However, the term “printability constraints” does not include any limitations on registration-form and key-packet separation-facilitating features, such as lines of perforations. Similarly, a blank that lacks two, parallel edges that span all or a large portion of one dimension of the blank cannot be fed through feed mechanisms that generally include parallel fences, or guides, that hold blanks at a particular orientation to input mechanisms, such as feed rollers. Suitable registration-form-and-key-packet blanks, according to the present invention, need to be unassembled, single sheets of paper or other printable material. It is too difficult to control the orientation, thickness, and other parameters of multi-sheet blanks. A single sheet may be a multi-layer laminate material, for example, such as paper coated with a plastic finish on one side, but may not be a multi-sheet item, such as a folded form or a form to which small objects or sheets have been glued or affixed.
Although the present invention has been described in terms of a particular embodiment, it is not intended that the invention be limited to this embodiment. Modifications within the spirit of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, different sizes of single-sheet registration-form-and-key-packet blanks may be used, depending on the needs and desires of the registering organization and on the capabilities of general-purpose commercial printers and sizes of the feed trays of the general-purpose commercial printers. In alternative embodiments, different types of pre-printed information may be employed, and relatively static information may be either pre-printed, generated from stored software templates, or provided by a combination of both techniques. Different numbers and orientations of perforation lines may be used to construct registration forms and key packets of different shapes and dimensions. In the above example, the single-sheet registration-form-and-key-packet blank is rectangular, but, in alternative embodiments, the single-sheet registration-form-and-key-packet blank may be square, or may have another shape, provided that the shape is conducive for printing on a commercial printer, such as a laser printer, from stacks of forms loaded into feed trays or other blank-holding devices. A shape that were to require manual alignment or that were to impact the reliability of printing by a general-purpose commercial printer would be unacceptable. While the embodiment described above relates to registration of hotel and motel guests, the present invention may be applied to a wide variety of other registration processes used in a wide variety of commercial and non-profit organizations. While the disclosed registration-form-and-key-packet blank contains a single registration form and key packet, alternative registration-form-and-key-packet blank may include a registration form, an unfolded key packet, and additional items demarcated from the registration form and from the key packet by additional lines of perforations or other separation-facilitating features. Additional separation-facilitating features may be used instead of lines of perforations to demarcate the registration form and key packet, as well, as long as the features provide for accurate and efficient manual separation and conform to printability constraints of the general-purpose commercial printer through which the registration-form-and-key-packet blanks are fed. While the disclosed registration-form-and-key-packet blank contains two die-cut slots, more or less die cut slots may be included in alternative embodiments of the present invention.
The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used specific nomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the specific details are not required in order to practice the invention. Thus, the foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the present invention are presented for purposes of illustration and description; they are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed, obviously many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications and to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents.
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/499,069, filed Feb. 4, 2000, which claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 60/135,136, filed May 20, 1999.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60135136 | May 1999 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 09499069 | Feb 2000 | US |
Child | 11978384 | Oct 2007 | US |