Methods and apparatus for managing sequencing of data received from devices in a retail point of sale system

• US 20030083944A1
• Filed: 09/04/2001
• Published: 05/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NCR Voyix Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Hrabosky, Vincent J., Duvall, Roger Warren, Burton, David John, Reece, Michael Jordan
• Granted Patent: US 8,239,271 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/21
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Techniques for managing data received from devices in a point of sale system are described. A point of sale system is operated utilizing independent software objects including a device sequence manager. The device sequence manager communicates with each device producing data for which proper sequencing must be maintained. Upon receiving a data event from a device, the device sequence manager creates a data object and stores the data object in an output queue. Upon receiving a request for data from an executive application, the device sequence manager retrieves the data object from the output queue and transfers it to the executive application, maintaining the sequence in which the data objects were received from the devices.

Claims

1. A device sequence manager for use in a point of sale system, comprising:

an input sequencing thread for receiving data events from each of one or more devices providing data to the device sequence manager, the device sequence manager creating a data object for each data event;

an output queue for receiving the data objects from the input sequencing thread and maintaining the data objects in a sequence in which the data events were received from the devices; and

an external interface for receiving data requests from a requesting application and providing the data objects to the requesting application in the sequence in which the data events occurred.

2. The device sequence manager of claim 1 and also comprising a scale thread for polling a scale to retrieve a weight from the scale and upon receiving a valid weight from the scale, creating a scale data object containing the weight information and storing the scale data object in the output queue.

3. The device sequence manager of claim 2 wherein the scale thread stores a current poll and a previous poll and reports a valid weight when the poll result includes a nonzero stable weight different from a previous stable weight.

4. The device sequence manager of claim 3 wherein the scale thread examines the output queue to determine if a previously stored scale data object is present and removes the previously stored scale data object before storing a new scale data object.

5. The device sequence manager of claim 4 wherein a request from the requesting application contains identifying information identifying the device which originally generated the data object being requested and wherein the device sequence manager provides the data object to the requesting application only if the identifying information received from the requesting application matches the data object next in sequence in the output queue.

6. The device sequence manager of claim 5 wherein the external interface returns a notice that no data is available if the identifying information received from the requesting application does not match the data object next in sequence in the output queue.

7. The device sequence manager of claim 6 wherein the device sequence manager is operative to receive and store data objects produced by a keyboard, scanner and scale used by the point of sale system.

8. The device sequence manager of claim 7 wherein the device sequence manager is implemented as an Object Linking and Embedding for Point of Sale systems (OPOS) object.

9. The device sequence manager of claim 8 further comprising an OPOS control object for each class of device from which data is to be received.

10. The device sequence manager of claim 9 wherein scanners, keyboards and scales each comprise a class of objects and the device sequence manager comprises an OPOS control object for scanners, and OPOS control object for keyboards and an OPOS control object for scales.

11. A point of sale system, comprising:

a plurality of devices for collecting data;

a controller for controlling the devices and receiving data collected from the devices, the controller communicating with the devices through a software object dedicated to each of the devices, the controller implementing an executive application for receiving data from each of the devices and processing the data to create transaction entries, the controller also implementing a device sequence manager to receive data collected from the devices and store the data in an output queue, the device sequence manager being operative to retrieve data from the output queue upon request by the executive application and to and present the data to the executive application in a sequence in which the data was produced by the devices.

12. The point of sale system of claim 11 wherein the devices include a keyboard, a scanner and a scale and wherein the device sequence manager receives data from the keyboard upon generation of a data event by the keyboard and receives data from the scanner upon generation of a data event by the scanner, and wherein the device sequence manager periodically polls the scale and stores data from the scale upon receiving a stable poll result different from an immediately previous poll result.

13. The point of sale system of claim 12 wherein the executive application is operative to include device identifying information identifying a device associated with the data request and wherein the device sequence manager is operative, upon receiving the data request, to examine the topmost object in the output queue and to remove the object from the output queue and return the object to the executive application if the identifying information in the data request matches the device generating the data object.

14. The point of sale system of claim 13 wherein the device sequence manager is operative to return a notification that no matching data exists if the identifying information in the data request does not match the device generating the topmost object in the output queue and to return an error notification if the topmost object in the output queue indicates an error.

15. The point of sale system of claim 14 wherein the executive application is operative, upon receiving from the device sequence manager a notification that no data exists, to create a new data request including device information for a different device.

16. The point of sale system of claim 15 wherein the executive application is operative to disable the scale when no data object has been received indicating an item for which weighing is required, to enable the scale upon receiving a data object indicating an item for which weighing is required and to disable the scale after weighing is completed and the weight object generated by the scale is received.

17. A method of transaction processing, comprising:

initializing a point of sale system;

collecting each of a plurality of data objects as they are produced by each of a plurality of devices belonging to the point of sale system;

placing each of the data objects into a queue as it is produced, the data items being placed into the queue in an order in which they are produced by the devices; and

retrieving each of the data objects from the queue as needed for processing, the data objects being retrieved from the queue in the order in which they were placed in the queue.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the data objects are retrieved from the queue as requested by an executive application and presented to the executive application for processing.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein each data object includes identifying information identifying the device producing the data, wherein each request from the executive application includes identifying information identifying the device producing the requested data object and wherein the data object is retrieved and presented to the executive application only if the identifying information in the request matches the identifying information of the data item next in sequence for retrieval.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein a notification that no data exists is presented to the executive application if the identifying information in a request does not match the identifying information of the data object next in sequence for retrieval.

21. The method of claim 20 and also including presentation of a new request from the executive application, the request including identifying information specifying a different device, upon returning to the executive application a notification that no data exists.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the data objects are produced by one or more scanners, keyboards and scales and wherein the data items comprise scanner data objects, keyboard data objects and scale data objects.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of collecting data objects includes polling a scale at intervals and the step of placing data objects into the queue includes storing as a weight object each stable nonzero weight produced by the scale which is different from a previous stable nonzero weight produced by the scale.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising a step of removing a previous weight object from the queue when a new weight object is placed in the queue.