Revenue sharing system with data capture from video buffer

• US 5,657,222 A
• Filed: 09/29/1992
• Issued: 08/12/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: comScore, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Supercom SA
• Inventors: Randolph, David George
• Primary Examiner(s): Weinhardt, Robert A.
• Application Number:
  US07/953,548
• Time in Patent Office: 1,778 Days
• Field of Search: 364/402, 364/404, 364/405, 364/408, 364/406, 364/401, 364/403, 380/3, 380/4
• US Class Current: 705/21
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• 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 method for extracting revenue information from a Point of Sale terminal for purposes of revenue sharing includes the step of examining data traffic in a conventional Point of Sale operating system. This operates in the background and allows extraction of select data relating to revenue traffic in a rental system. Data stored in a video buffer (54) is examined and, upon a predetermined transaction completion event then occurring, this data is extracted and stored in a separate capture file. This capture file is utilized to generate a revenue sharing data base, which is transferred to a remote revenue sharing transaction system. The transaction completion event is a keystroke that indicates completion of a transaction at the Point of Sale terminal.

Claims

1. A Point of Sale system for reporting selected, desirable portions of revenue transaction data relating to validated transactions that have occurred in the Point of Sale system, comprising:

a main storage device for storing data relating to received transactions;

an input device for receiving transaction input information regarding a revenue transaction;

a processor for receiving the transaction input information for processing thereof in accordance with a Point of Sale system operating program, said processor operable to generate the revenue transaction data and store the revenue transaction data in said storage device upon the occurrence of a predetermined transaction committal event;

a data traffic device for interfacing with said storage device, said processor and said input device to allow data flow therebetween;

a transaction detection device for detecting the occurrence of said predetermined transaction committal event, which committal event indicates the step of a user validating said transaction;

a data capture device for monitoring data traffic on said data traffic device and detecting the presence of the revenue transaction data generated by said processor and transferred thereto only when said transaction detection device detects the occurrence of said transaction committal event and capturing selected desirable portions of this detected revenue transaction data from said validated transactions; and

a secondary storage device for storing the selected, desirable portions of said detected revenue transaction data that was captured by said data capture device from said validated transactions.

2. The system of claim 1, and further comprising:

a display interconnected with said data traffic device for displaying the revenue transaction data generated by said processor;

said data traffic device including a video buffer for buffering the information displayed onto said display, the revenue transaction data displayed on said display organized in fields; and

said data capture device operable to select data corresponding to predetermined ones of said fields from said video buffer locating said fields according to predetermined memory addresses in said video buffer.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said input device includes a keyboard for inputting keystrokes and said predetermined transaction committal event comprises a predetermined keystroke, said transaction detection device operable to detect the occurrence of said predetermined keystroke.

4. The system of claim 1, and further comprising an upload system connected to said secondary storage device for transferring said selected, desirable portions of said revenue transaction data from said validated transactions stored in said secondary storage device to a remote location.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said transaction input information received from said input device includes a unique ID of an inventory item and said transaction data generated by said processor includes a corresponding unique ID and further comprising:

a translation device connected to said data capture device for storing a plurality of revenue sharing IDs in a lookup file, each corresponding with one of said unique IDs associated with an inventory item;

said translation device operable to translate said unique ID into a corresponding one of said revenue sharing IDs stored in said lookup table; and

said revenue sharing ID associated with said transaction data stored in said secondary storage device by said data capture device.

6. A method for reporting selected desirable portions of revenue transaction data relating to the validated transactions that have occurred and sharing information from an operating system associated with a Point of Sale system to the revenue sharing parties, comprising the steps of:

providing a main storage device for storing the information relating to revenue transactions;

providing an input device for receiving transaction input information regarding a revenue transaction;

providing a processor for receiving the transaction input information from the input device for processing thereof in accordance with a Point of Sale system operating program;

interconnecting the storage device, processor and input device through a data traffic device to allow data flow therebetween;

inputting transaction input information into the input device;

processing the transaction input information received from the input device over the data traffic device with the processor to generate revenue transaction data;

storing the revenue transaction data in the main storage device upon a predetermined transaction committal event occurring;

providing a secondary storage device; and

detecting the occurrence of the predetermined transaction committal event and thereby validating the transaction, then monitoring the data flow over the data traffic device and detecting predetermined transaction data flowing thereover and, only upon validation thereof, storing selected desirable portions of the detected predetermined transaction data from said validated transaction on the data traffic device in the secondary storage device.

7. The method of claim 6, and further comprising:

providing a keyboard for inputting keystrokes through the data traffic device to the processor;

wherein the predetermined transaction committal event comprises depression of a predetermined key to output a predetermined keystroke to the processor; and

wherein the step of detecting the occurrence of the transaction committal event comprises detecting the occurrence of the predetermined keystroke on the data traffic device.

8. The method of claim 6, and further comprising:

providing a display;

interfacing the display with the data traffic device;

displaying the generated revenue transaction data on the display in a predetermined format;

providing a video capture buffer as part of the data traffic device;

storing the predetermined formatted revenue transaction data in the video buffer; and

wherein the step of monitoring the data traffic to detect the desired transaction data comprises monitoring the contents of the video buffer to detect the presence of data at predetermined memory address locations therein, the predetermined format providing specific memory address transaction data at specific locations therein, this specific transaction data corresponding to the predetermined transaction data detected in the step of detecting.

9. The method of claim 6, and further comprising transferring the selected, desirable portions of the validated revenue transaction data stored in the secondary storage device to a remote billing location.

10. A Point of Sale system for reporting revenue transaction data relating to the transactions that have occurred in the Point of Sale system, comprising:

a main storage device for storing data relating to received transactions;

an input device for receiving transaction input information regarding a revenue transaction;

a processor for receiving the transaction input information for processing thereof in accordance with a Point of Sale system operating program, said processor operable to generate the revenue transaction data and store the revenue transaction data in said storage device upon the occurrence of a predetermined transaction completion event;

a display for displaying the revenue transaction data generated by said processor;

a data traffic device for interfacing with said storage device, said processor and said input device to allow data flow therebetween, said display interconnected with said data traffic device;

said data traffic device including a video buffer for buffering the information displayed onto said display, the revenue transaction data displayed on said display organized in fields;

a transaction detection device for detecting the occurrence of said predetermined transaction completion event;

a data capture device for monitoring data traffic on said data traffic device and detecting the presence of the revenue transaction data generated by said processor and transferred thereto when said transaction detection device detects the completion of said transaction completion event and capturing this detected revenue transaction data;

said data capture device operable to select data corresponding to predetermined ones of said fields from said video buffer locating said fields according to predetermined memory addresses in said video buffer; and

a secondary storage device for storing the captured transaction data that was captured by said data capture device.

11. A method for reporting revenue sharing information from an operating system associated with a Point of Sale system to the revenue sharing parties, comprising the steps of:

providing a main storage device for storing information relating to revenue transactions;

providing an input device for receiving transaction input information regarding a revenue transaction;

providing a processor for receiving the transaction input information from the input device for processing thereof in accordance with a Point of Sale system operating program;

interconnecting the storage device, processor and input device through a data traffic device to allow data flow therebetween;

providing a display;

interfacing the display with the data traffic device;

inputting transaction input information into the input device;

processing the transaction input information received from the input device over the data traffic device with the processor to generate revenue transaction data;

displaying the generated revenue transaction data on the display in a predetermined format;

providing a video capture buffer as part of the data traffic device;

storing the revenue transaction data in the main storage device upon a predetermined transaction completion event occurring;

storing the predetermined formatted revenue transaction data in the video buffer;

providing a secondary storage device; and

detecting the occurrence of the predetermined transaction completion event and, upon detection thereof, monitoring the data flow over the data traffic device and detecting predetermined transaction data flowing thereover, wherein the step of monitoring the data traffic to detect the desired transaction data comprises monitoring the contents of the video buffer to detect the presence of data at predetermined memory address locations therein, the predetermined format providing specific memory address transaction data at specific locations therein, this specific transaction data corresponding to the predetermined transaction data detected in the step of detecting and storing the detected predetermined transaction data on the data traffic device in the secondary storage device.