Data processing system and method for retail stores

• US 5,510,979 A
• Filed: 03/13/1995
• Issued: 04/23/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Restaurant Technologies Incorporated (Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Restaurant Technologies Incorporated (Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Carlson, Roger W., Nelson, John W., Castor, Patrick F., Tsau, Yung-Chun, Moderi, Martin J., Kristiansen, Inge B., Bouzide, Paul M., Matsumoto, Shigeharu
• Primary Examiner(s): EVANS, FANNIE L
• Application Number:
  US08/402,809
• Time in Patent Office: 407 Days
• Field of Search: 364/405, 364/406, 235/376, 235/377, 235/382, 341/23, 395/153, 395/161
• US Class Current: 705/18
• 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 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/206 comprising security or operator identification provisions, e.g. password entry
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/00 Cash registers alarm indicators G07G3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/01 Details for indicating displaying information in general G09F, G09G
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/12 electronically operated digital data processing aspects G06Q20/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/14 Systems including one or more distant stations co-operating with a central processing unit data transmission in general H04L; telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station H04Q9/00

Abstract

A computer system for entering, processing and recording sales of items is provided, which is especially suitable for use in retail sales, particularly quick service restaurants. The system includes a plurality of programmable POS registers for entering and tabulating customer orders, an off-line processor for programming the programmable POS registers, shared memory for recording data entered and tabulated by the programmable POS registers, and a communication structure for networking a plurality of programmable POS registers, the off-line processor and the shared memory. In one embodiment, the system includes an access control system for enabling access to the POS registers, the off-line processor or the shared memory if operation of those are authorized. In another embodiment, each POS register includes a programmable display for displaying a hierarchial menu of a plurality of keys, each of the keys being visually associated with a label of salable items or categories of salable items, and a touch sensitive apparatus for detecting when one of the keys has been touched by a human operator. The programmable display is responsive to the touch-sensitive apparatus so that a human operator can enter a particular salable item into the programmable display by touching the key which is visually associated with the label corresponding to the particular salable item or category in which the particular salable item is included.

Claims

1. A computer system for entering, processing and recording sales of items comprising:

(a) a plurality of physically separated programmable POS register means for entering and tabulating customer orders, said POS register means including programmable display means responsive to a display program for displaying a plurality of keys, each of which is visually associated by the display program with an assigned label which corresponds to at least one salable item, and touch sensitive means for detecting when one of said keys has been touched by a human operator;

(b) off-line processing means, at a location remote from said plurality of programmable POS register means, for programming said programmable POS register means, said off-line processing means including display means for displaying a plurality of keys and a plurality of labels corresponding to at least one salable item, selection means for allowing a human operator to select one of said displayed keys and one of said displayed labels and means responsive to the human operator'"'"'s selection of one of said displayed keys and one of said displayed labels for revising said plurality of keys and assigned labels displayed on said POS register means without recompiling said display program;

(c) shared memory means, at a location remote from said plurality of programmable POS register means, for recording data entered and tabulated by said programmable POS register means; and

(d) communication means for networking said plurality of programmable POS register means, said off-line processing means and said shared memory means.

2. The computer system of claim 1 further comprising access control means for selectively enabling the operation of one of a plurality of functions performed by one of said POS register means, off-line processing means and shared memory means, each of said functions being associated with a predetermined privilege level, if operation of said function on that one of said POS register means, off-line processing means and shared memory means is authorized, comprising:

(a) a plurality of badges each affixed with a magnetic strip electronically encoded with a unique number and each assigned to a particular human operator;

(b) a plurality of badge reader means electronically connected to said communications means for reading said unique numbers on said badges;

(c) means for one of said human operators to designate that one of the plurality of POS register means, shared memory means and off-line processing means that said human operator desires to operate;

(d) password entry means for accepting a password from an operator who has placed one of said badges in said badge reader means;

(e) a table of said unique numbers and relating a predetermined password and privilege level to each of said unique numbers, said table being contained on said shared memory means;

(f) access enabling means for enabling said human operator to use said designated machine if the number encoded on that one of said badges which has been passed through said badge reader is contained in said table, and if said password entered by said human operator matches said predetermined password related by said table to said operator'"'"'s unique number; and

(g) function enabling means for enabling access to a desired function performed by the designated one of said plurality of POS register means, said off-line processing means and said shared memory means if said privilege level related by said table to said operator'"'"'s unique number is equal to or greater than said predetermined privilege level associated with desired function.

3. The computer system of claim 2 wherein said access control means includes payroll memory means for recording the said unique number and the time at which said badge upon which said unique number is electronically encoded was read by said badge reader, whereby said payroll memory means can record the time which operators arrive at and leave work as a function of the time when said badge is read by said badge reader means.

4. A computer system for entering, processing and recording sales of items comprising:

(a) a plurality of physically separated programmable POS register means comprising programmable display means for displaying a plurality of keys, each of which is visually associated with a label that corresponds to a category of at least one salable item, touch-sensitive means for detecting when one of said keys has been touched by a human operator, and means responsive to said touch-sensitive means for causing said programmable display means to display a plurality of keys, each of which is visually associated with a sub-category of at least one salable item, said sub-category being a member of the category visually associated with that one of said keys most recently touched by the human operator;

(b) off-line processing means, at a location remote from said plurality of programmable POS register means, for creating and modifying programs for said programmable POS register means to display said keys and labels, said off-line processing means including display means for displaying a plurality of keys and a plurality of labels corresponding to at least one salable item, selection means for allowing a human operator to select one of said displayed keys and one of said displayed labels and means responsive to the human operator'"'"'s selection of one of said displayed keys and one of said displayed labels for revising said plurality of keys and assigned labels displayed on said POS register means without recompiling said display program;

(c) shared memory means, at a location remote from said plurality of programmable POS register means, for recording customer orders entered and tabulated by said programmable POS register means and for storing programs for said programmable POS register means; and

(d) communication means for networking said plurality of programmable POS register means, said off-line processing means and said shared memory means, said communications means comprising a plurality of electronically connected network interface units, one of each resident at each said programmable display means, said off-line processing means and said shared memory means.

5. The computer system of claim 4 wherein said programmable display means includes:

(a) a processing means for tabulating entered data and executing programs created or modified by said off-line processing means;

(b) display means responsive to said processing means for displaying a hierarchial menu of a plurality of keys, each of which may be visually associated with a label which corresponds to at least one salable item or category having a plurality of salable items therein;

(c) random access memory means for storing application and operating system programs while being executed by said processing means;

(d) static random access memory means for storing operating system programs and entered data;

(e) software means for interfacing said processor with said communication means; and

(f) interface means for interfacing said processor with said touch-sensitive means.

6. The computer system of claim 5 wherein said static random access memory means is physically inaccessible to the operator of said programmable display means, so that said operator is unable to load or remove programs and data to or from said programmable display means and thereby unable to change the contents of said static random access memory means except in accordance with said programs stored on shared memory means.

7. The computer system of claim 6 wherein said static random access memory means include a non-removable reserve power unit, whereby said static random access memory means will continue to hold their contents even if external power to said programmable POS register is disrupted.

8. The computer system of claim 7 including order memory means for continuously recording the N most recent transactions entered into each of said programmable POS register means, where N is an integer greater than one, and order recall means for displaying and printing any of said transactions stored in said order memory means, whereby an operator of said programmable POS register means can review past customer transactions.

9. The computer system of claim 4 wherein said programmable POS register means each comprises:

(a) a microcomputer programmed to display a hierarchial menu of a plurality of keys and labels on a video display, each of said keys being visually associated with one of said labels corresponding to at least one salable item or category having a plurality of salable items therein;

(b) a video monitor on which said microcomputer displays said keys and said labels;

(c) a touch-sensitive screen cooperating with said video monitor and microcomputer to detect which one of said keys has been touched by a human operator so that a human operator may enter a particular salable item or category of salable items into said POS register by touching that one of said keys on said touch-sensitive screen which is visually associated with the label corresponding to that particular salable item or category having a plurality of salable items therein;

(d) a drawer for holding coin and currency electronically connected to said microcomputer whereby said microcomputer can detect when said drawer is opened or closed;

(e) display means for displaying tax and total information computed by said microcomputer, electronically connected to said microcomputer;

(f) a printer electronically connected to said microcomputer;

(g) a total display means for displaying the total and tax for each order entered into said POS register;

(h) a network interface electronically connected to said microcomputer whereby said microcomputer can communicate with said shared memory means and said off-line processing means via said communication means;

(i) software means for enabling said microprocessor to read and write data to or from said shared memory means;

(j) a non-removable, static random access memory means for storing information computed by said microcomputer.

10. The computer system of claim 4 wherein said shared memory means is comprised of:

(a) a microcomputer programmed to display a hierarchial menu of a plurality of keys and labels on a video display, each of said keys being visually associated with one of said labels corresponding to a command which may be performed by said microcomputer;

(b) a video monitor on which said microcomputer displays said keys and said labels;

(c) a touch-sensitive screen cooperating with said video monitor and said microcomputer to detect which one of said keys has been touched by a human operator so that a human operator may enter a particular command into said shared memory means by touching that one of said keys on said touch sensitive-screen which is visually associated with the label corresponding to said particular command;

(d) a printer electronically connected to said microcomputer;

(e) a network interface electronically connected to said microcomputer; and

(f) a mass storage device electronically connected to said microcomputer;

whereby said shared memory means can store programs and data for use by or generated by said programmable POS register means.

11. The computer system of claim 4 wherein said off-line processing means is comprised of:

(a) a microcomputer programmed to display a hierarchial menu of a plurality of keys and labels on a video display, each of said keys being visually associated with one of said labels corresponding to a command which may be performed by said microcomputer;

(b) a video monitor on which said microcomputer displays said keys and said labels;

(c) a touch-sensitive screen cooperating with said video monitor and microcomputer to detect which one of said keys has been touched by a human operator so that a human operator may enter a particular command into said shared memory means by touching that one of said keys on said touch sensitive screen which is visually associated with the label corresponding to that particular command;

(d) a printer electronically connected to said microcomputer;

(e) a network interface electronically connected to said microcomputer;

(f) a mass storage device electronically connected to said microcomputer;

(g) programming means for modifying programs and data used by said programmable POS register means and contained on said shared memory means, whereby said off-line processor can control the operation of said POS register means; and

(h) external communication means for communicating with computer systems physically remote from said off-line computer system.

12. The computer of claim 11 wherein a plurality of badge reader means for reading a magnetic strip affixed to a card or badge are electronically attached to said communications means.

13. A method for networking a microcomputer to a physically separated shared memory device to enable said microcomputer to operate as a point-of-sale register and to ensure the integrity of sales data generated by said microcomputer, comprised of the following steps:

(a) connecting said microcomputer and said shared memory device with a computer network;

(b) storing an original copy of transaction data generated by said microcomputer on a memory device connected to said microcomputer;

(c) storing a duplicate copy of said transaction data on a memory device connected to said shared memory device;

(d) associating a sequentially generated transaction number with each successive set of said original and said duplicate copies of said transaction data, whereby the most recently generated copies have the highest transaction number;

(e) comparing said transaction numbers associated with the most recently generated of said original and said duplicate copies of said transaction data to determine if said transaction numbers are identical, whereby the presence of identical transaction numbers on said original and said duplicate copies of said transaction data ensures that said microcomputer and said shared memory device have correct and current copy of said transaction data.

14. The method of claim 13 comprised of the following additional steps:

(a) replacing said original copy of transaction data with said duplicate copy if said duplicate copy is associated with a higher transaction number;

(b) replacing said duplicate copy of transaction data with said original copy of transaction data if said duplicate copy is associated with a higher transaction number.

15. A method for networking a microcomputer to a physically separated shared memory device to enable said microcomputer to operate as a point-of-sale register and to ensure the integrity of sales data generated by said microcomputer, comprised of the following steps:

(a) storing programs and data necessary to enable said microcomputer to function as a POS register on a shared memory device, physically separated from said microcomputer;

(b) electronically connecting said microcomputer with said shared memory device;

(c) creating a plurality of data structures in said microcomputer'"'"'s memory for storing cumulatively tabulated sales data in said microcomputer'"'"'s memory, said data structures each comprising data records containing the tabulated data and a header containing a transaction number;

(d) creating a plurality of backup data structures in said shared memory means which are duplicative of said data structures in said microcomputer'"'"'s memory, so that for each data structure in said microcomputer'"'"'s memory, there is a corresponding backup data structure in said shared memory means;

(e) entering sales from a specific customer transaction into said microcomputer;

(f) tabulating sales data for each customer transaction entered into said microcomputer;

(g) generating said transaction number, said transaction number greater than the previous transaction number;

(h) placing said transaction number in said header of each said data structure;

(i) updating said data structures by placing said tabulated data in said data records;

(j) determining if steps (g) through (i) have been successfully completed, and aborting the operation of said microprocessor where steps (g) through (i) have not been successfully completed;

(k) updating each of said backup data structures by placing into said data records of particular one of said backup data structures said tabulated data contained in that one of said plurality of data structures which corresponds to said particular backup data structure, and placing said transaction number generated in step (g) in said header of said particular backup data structure;

(l) determining if step (k) was successfully completed, and if step (k) was successfully completed, then skipping to step (p);

(m) determining if the failure of step (k) was due to a failure of said networking means, and aborting the operation of said shared memory means if failure of step (k) was due to a reason other than a failure of said networking means;

(n) waiting until said networking means have been made operational;

(o) examining each said data structure and said backup data structure to determine whether any of said data structure has a higher transaction number than any said corresponding backup data structure; and

(p) updating the contents of said backup data with the contents of said corresponding data structure if said data structure contains a higher transaction number than said corresponding backup data structure.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the following steps are included after step (d):

(a) updating the contents of said data records and said header of each particular one of said data structures with the contents of said data records and said header, respectively, of said corresponding backup data structure if said corresponding backup data structure contains a higher transaction number than said particular data structure;

(b) updating the contents of said data records and said header of each particular one of said backup data structures with the contents of said data records and said header, respectively, of said corresponding data structure if said corresponding data structure contains a higher transaction number than said particular backup data structure;

17. The method of claim 15 wherein steps (e) through (p) are repeated for each successive customer transaction.

18. A computer system for entering, processing and recording sales of items comprising:

(a) a plurality of physically separated programmable POS register means comprised of programmable display means for displaying a plurality of keys, each of which is visually associated with a label that corresponds to a category of at least one salable item, touch-sensitive means for detecting when one of said keys has been touched by a human operator, and means responsive to said touch-sensitive means for causing said programmable display means to display a plurality of keys, each of which is visually associated with a sub-category of at least one salable item, said sub-category being a member of the category visually associated with that one of said keys most recently touched by said human operator;

(b) off-line processing means, at a location remote from said plurality of programmable POS register means, for creating and modifying programs for said programmable POS register means to display said keys and labels, whereby the operator of said off-line processing means may assign one or more of said keys to a label corresponding to at least one salable item or a category having a plurality of salable items therein;

(c) shared memory means, at a location remote from said plurality of programmable POS register means, for recording customer orders entered and tabulated by said programmable POS register means and for storing programs for said programmable POS register means; and

(d) communications means for networking said plurality of programmable POS register means, said off-line processing means and said shared memory means, said communications means comprised of a plurality of electronically connected network interface units, one of each resident at each said programmable display means, said off-line processing means and said shared memory means; and

(e) access control means for selectively enabling the operation of one of a plurality of functions performed by one of said POS register means, off-line processing means and shared memory means, each of said functions being associated with a predetermined privilege level, if operation of said function on that one of said POS register means, off-line processing means and shared memory means is authorized comprising of;

a plurality of badges each affixed with a magnetic strip electronically encoded with a unique number and each assigned to a particular human operator;

a plurality of badge reader means electronically connected to said communications means for reading said unique numbers on said badges;

means for one of said human operators to designate that one of the plurality of POS register means, shared memory means and off-line processing means which said human operator desires to operate;

password entry means for accepting a password from an operator who has placed one of said badges in said badge reader means;

a table of said unique numbers and relating a predetermined password and privilege level to each of said unique numbers, said table being on said shared memory means;

access enabling means for enabling said human operator to use said designated machine if the number encoded on that one of said badges which has been passed through said badge reader is contained in said table, and if said password entered by said human operator matches said predetermined password related by said table to said operator'"'"'s unique number;

function enabling means for enabling access to a desired function performed by the designated one of said plurality of POS register means, said off-line processing means and said shared memory means if said privilege level related by said table to said operator'"'"'s unique number is equal to or greater than said predetermined privilege level associated with desired function.

19. The computer system of claim 18 wherein said access control means includes payroll memory means for recording the said unique number and the time at which said badge upon which said unique number is electronically encoded was passed through said badge reader, whereby said payroll memory means can record the time which operators arrive at and depart work as a function of the times when said badge is read by said badge reader means corresponding to the arrival and departure times of each operator.