Abstract: A personal communication and electronic commerce system for use by participating users and participating merchants in connection with incentive programs in the Network Economy. The system includes a cellular communication network that includes geographically spaced base stations that are linked to a fixed communication network. Users may have personal communication devices that can be used to allow a digital message generated on the personal communication devices by placing a call through one of the base stations and memory for storing a digital value corresponding to a monetary value. The personal communication device may also be used as a cellular position locator to determine one's geographic location and, if desired, to access information from a merchant information database containing information pertaining to a plurality of participating merchants located within the geographic territory covered by the cellular communication network.

Abstract: An alternating electromagnetic field in the radiofrequency range is applied in a gaseous environment (4). Free electrons produced in the gas (4), by an ionising source of radiation (5) or by interaction of a charged particle beam with a specimen, are acted upon by the alternating electromagnetic field and undergo an oscillatory motion resulting in multiple collisions with the gas molecules or atoms. Amplified electron and photon signals are generated in a controlled discharge, proportional to the initial number of free electrons, and are collected by suitable means (6, 7, 8). The alternating field is generated either by electrodes (1, 2) biased with an alternating voltage, or by a coil driven by an AC current, and may be superposed with a static electric field. The detection device may be used with instruments such as electron microscopes, in ion beam technologies, and with instruments used for detection of ionising radiations such as proportional counters.