Method of communication between remote terminals and a central station

A method of communication between an arbitrary number of remote terminals and a central station, said remote terminals and said central station being interconnected by means of a communication path having an outgoing communication channel between said central station and the remote terminals and an incoming communication channel in the reverse direction, wherein said remote terminals are consumer products, respective individual users being able to start the activation of the remote terminals corresponding principal function, and said method includes the follow steps:

• (A) a test step for the reception, actively requested by any one of the remote terminals, of a request for the activation of said remote terminal, which is addressed by the central station to-start the activation of an auxiliary function that is autonomous and novel with respect to said principal function of said remote terminal;
• (B) a test step for testing the availability of said any one of the remote terminals, and for inquiring whether authorization has been obtained for use, to transmit to said central station information relating to the availability of the remote terminals so requested;
• (C) a step of transmitting data to the available remote terminals, said data relating to operations requested from these remote terminals by said central station in the scope of said auxiliary functions, so that the auxiliary functions are distributed among the remote terminals available and authorized in step (B);
• and
• (D) a step of carrying out said operation among the remote terminals performing the auxiliary function, and returning the results of the operations carried out to said central station for further processing/analysis.