Abstract: Means are disclosed for facilitating a transaction whereby a series of one or more questions are encoded and preferably encrypted, for example as a graphical pattern such as a 2-dimensional barcode, and wherein the questions are utilised for the purposes of confirming details pertinent to a transaction, such as a purchase from a shop or over the internet or a transfer of monies between personal bank accounts or a granting of permission of access or use or transfer of responsibility and so on, by displaying said questions on a personal portable device such as a mobile telephone for example. Answers given to said questions may then be used to form the basis for the transaction by defining for example articles or services being purchased or amounts of monies being transferred as well as details such as the accounts involved in the transaction and the desired timing details and so on.

Abstract: Means are disclosed for facilitating transactions by confirming the timing of a transaction via the expedient of optically scanning a display that displays pattern encoded timing information in such a way that it can be scanned optically by for example a personal portable device such as a mobile phone equipped with a camera input device and wherein said information can be utilized for the purposes of confirming the timing of a transaction by dint of the fact that the displayed time was “captured” at the instant of the transaction being made and at the location of the display but wherein the actual process of affecting the transaction may be delayed to a later point in time and possibly at another location.

Abstract: A means for presenting variable information contained within a variable pattern displayed on a device with a graphical display capability, such as a liquid crystal display for example, is disclosed wherein the device presents the information by generating graphical patterns that contain information, such as a two-dimensional barcode for example. The information presented by the display can then be transferred to another device such as a mobile phone for example, by optical scanning of the pattern presented by the graphical display device.

Abstract: A transducer which enables the force experienced by a simple force sensor to be converted into an electrical signal which is then capable of being used as a measure of the degree of force experienced by an object to which the sensor is attached. Preferably force sensitive resistors fabricated as thick film resistors which are printed and then fired onto an electrically insulated substrate material which by its construction are used to form a force sensing device and the force is applied to the force sensitive resistors via a force transmitting member which is shaped to only apply force to the force sensitive resistors and not to fixed value resistors which are co-located on the force sensing device. In this way the force sensitive resistors and the fixed value resistors can be interconnected to give an optimum configuration of electrical measurement circuit such as a Wheatstone's bridge circuit.