System and method for monitoring and diagnosis of point of sale devices having intelligent hardware

• US 7,232,063 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2004
• Issued: 06/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Frontech North America Incorporated (Fujitsu Limited)
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Transaction Solutions Inc. (Fujitsu Limited)
• Inventors: Gunny, George, Fandel, Larry, Factor, Florentino
• Primary Examiner(s): CAPUTO, LISA M
• Application Number:
  US10/842,146
• Publication Number:
  US 20050006468A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,135 Days
• Field of Search: 235/376, 235/383, 705/11
• US Class Current: 235/383
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty
• 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 point-of-sale (“POS”) system includes POS devices and associated monitoring and diagnostic applications. POS peripherals in a POS device include data memory for storing device configuration and status information. A diagnostic application installed in the POS device monitors and diagnoses the POS device. The diagnostic application monitors the interactions between hardware in the POS device and applications that interface with the hardware. The diagnostic applications analyze these interactions, the configuration and status information and any logs it creates to provide diagnostic information. The POS device also includes several interfaces to access the diagnostic application.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring a point of sale peripheral comprising:

monitoring interactions between at least one application executing on a point of sale terminal and at least one point of sale peripheral;

processing, by the point of sale terminal, the monitored interactions to obtain status or error information associated with the at least one point of sale peripheral, the processing including determining a number of occurrences of a type of error and comparing the number to a predetermined error threshold; and

generating, by the point of sale terminal, an indication that the at least one point of sale peripheral is about to fail in response to the comparing.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one application comprises at least one point of sale application.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying the at least one point of sale peripheral according to configuration information stored on the at least one point of sale peripheral.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising performing failure analysis for the at least one point of sale peripheral according to the status or error information.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying a component of the at least one point of sale peripheral that has failed, is about to fail or is in need of maintenance.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating maintenance recommendations for the at least one point of sale peripheral according to the status or error information.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing usage of the at least one point of sale peripheral according to the status or error information with at least one duty cycle of the at least one point of sale peripheral.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication is provided to a remote management tool.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring comprises using a driver filter to process communications to and from the at least one point of sale peripheral.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the data to a management tool using CIM.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising manipulating the status or error information for storage in a repository to enable a management tool to access the status or error information.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the interactions comprise status or error information received from the at least one point of sale peripheral.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the interactions comprise messages sent between the at least one application executing on a point of sale terminal and the at least one point of sale peripheral.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein monitoring comprises passively monitoring the messages.

15. A method of monitoring a point of sale peripheral comprising:

monitoring interactions between at least one application executing on a point of sale terminal and at least one point of sale peripheral;

processing, by the point of sale terminal, the monitored interactions to identify an unhealthy state of the at least one point of sale peripheral, the processing comprising determining usage of the at least one point of sale peripheral and comparing the usage to a usage threshold; and

generating, by the point of sale terminal, an indication of the unhealthy state in response to the comparing.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the processing comprises identifying a component of the at least one point of sale peripheral that has failed, is about to fail or is in need of maintenance.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the processing comprises generating maintenance recommendations for the at least one point of sale peripheral according to the unhealthy state.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the at least one application comprises at least one point of sale application.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the interactions comprise status or error information received from the at least one point of sale peripheral.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein monitoring comprises receiving status or error messages from the at least one point of sale peripheral.

21. The method of claim 15 wherein generating the indication comprises sending a message to at least one of a help desk and a display terminal associated with the point of sale terminal.

22. The method of claim 15 wherein the unhealthy state indicates that the at least one point of sale peripheral has failed, is about to fail or requires maintenance.

23. The method of claim 15 comprising sending the indication to a remote management tool.

24. The method of claim 15 wherein the interactions comprise messages sent between the at least one application executing on a point of sale terminal and the at least one point of sale peripheral.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein monitoring comprises passively monitoring the messages.

26. A method of monitoring the health of at least one point of sale peripheral comprising:

monitoring, by a point of sale terminal, messages associated with at least one point of sale peripheral;

extracting, by the point of sale terminal, usage information from the messages;

comparing, by the point of sale terminal, the usage information with at least one usage threshold to determine whether the at least one point of sale peripheral has failed, is about to fail or requires maintenance, wherein the at least one usage threshold comprises an operating life expectancy of a component of the at least one point of sale peripheral; and

generating, by the point of sale terminal, an indication that the at least one point of sale peripheral has failed, is about to fail or requires maintenance.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein monitoring comprises receiving status or error messages from the at least one point of sale peripheral.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein monitoring comprises:

passively monitoring messages between the point of sale terminal and the at least one point of sale peripheral; and

processing the messages to identify at least one status or error associated with the at least one point of sale peripheral.

29. The method of claim 26 wherein monitoring comprises monitoring messages sent from the at least one point of sale peripheral to the point of sale terminal.

30. The method of claim 26 wherein monitoring comprises using a driver filter to process communications from the at least one point of sale peripheral.

31. The method of claim 26 comprising processing usage data associated with the component of the at least one point of sale peripheral, the usage data comprising at least one of the group consisting of at least one period of time the component has been operated and the number of times the component has been operated.

32. The method of claim 26 comprising performing failure analysis for the at least one point of sale peripheral in accordance with the usage information.

33. The method of claim 26 comprising identifying a component of the at least one point of sale peripheral that has failed or is in need of maintenance.

34. The method of claim 26 comprising generating maintenance recommendations for the at least one point of sale peripheral in accordance with the usage information.

35. The method of claim 26 wherein generating the indication comprises sending a message to at least one of a help desk and a display terminal associated with the point of sale terminal.

36. The method of claim 26 wherein generating the indication comprises storing information in a database.

37. The method of claim 26 comprising sending the indication to a remote management tool.

38. A method of reporting the health of a point of sale peripheral comprising:

monitoring, by a point of sale peripheral, operating conditions on the point of sale peripheral;

generating status or error information on the point of sale peripheral in accordance with the monitoring;

sending the status or error information from the point of sale peripheral to a point of sale terminal;

extracting, by the point of sale terminal, usage information from the received status or error information;

processing, by the point of sale terminal, the usage information to determine whether the point of sale peripheral has failed, is about to fail or requires maintenance, the processing comprising comparing the usage information with at least one usage threshold; and

generating, by the point of sale terminal, an indication that the point of sale peripheral has failed, is about to fail or requires maintenance.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein monitoring comprises collecting usage data associated with the point of sale peripheral, the usage data comprising at least one of the group consisting of at least one period of time the point of sale peripheral has been operated and the number of times the point of sale peripheral has been operated.

40. The method of claim 38 wherein monitoring comprises collecting usage data associated with at least one component of the point of sale peripheral, the usage data comprising at least one of the group consisting of at least one period of time the at least one component has been operated and the number of times the at least one component has been operated.

41. The method of claim 38 wherein the status or error information comprises at least one of the group consisting of serial number, type of point of sale peripheral, date of manufacture of the point of sale peripheral, firmware level for the point of sale peripheral, and operating life expectancy of at least one component of the point of sale peripheral.

42. The method of claim 38 wherein processing comprises processing usage data associated with a component of the point of sale peripheral, the usage data comprising at least one of the group consisting of at least one period of time the component has been operated and the number of times the component has been operated.

43. The method of claim 38 wherein processing comprises performing failure analysis for the point of sale peripheral in accordance with the status or error information.

44. The method of claim 38 wherein processing comprises identifying a component of the point of sale peripheral that has failed, is about to fail or is in need of maintenance.

45. The method of claim 38 wherein processing comprises generating maintenance recommendations for the point of sale peripheral in accordance with the status or error information.

46. The method of claim 38 wherein generating the indication comprises sending a message to at least one of a help desk and a display terminal associated with the point of sale terminal.

47. The method of claim 38 wherein generating the indication comprises storing information in a database.

48. The method of claim 38 comprising sending the indication to a remote management tool.

49. The method of claim 38 wherein the usage information comprises at least one of the group consisting of at least one period of time a component of the point of sale peripheral has been operated, the number of times the component has been operated and an operating life expectancy of the component.

50. A method of monitoring a point of sale peripheral comprising:

monitoring interactions between at least one application executing on a point of sale terminal and at least one point of sale peripheral;

processing, by the point of sale terminal, the monitored interactions to obtain status or error information associated with the at least one point of sale peripheral, the processing including determining a number of occurrences of a type of error and comparing the number to a predetermined error threshold; and

generating, by the point of sale terminal, an indication that the at least one point of sale peripheral requires maintenance in response to the comparing.

51. The method of claim 50 wherein the at least one application comprises at least one point of sale application.

52. The method of claim 50 further comprising identifying the at least one point of sale peripheral according to configuration information stored on the at least one point of sale peripheral.

53. The method of claim 50 further comprising performing failure analysis for the at least one point of sale peripheral according to the status or error information.

54. The method of claim 50 further comprising identifying a component of the at least one point of sale peripheral that has failed, is about to fail or is in need of maintenance.

55. The method of claim 50 further comprising generating maintenance recommendations for the at least one point of sale peripheral according to the status or error information.

56. The method of claim 50 further comprising comparing usage of the at least one point of sale peripheral according to the status or error information with at least one duty cycle of the at least one point of sale peripheral.

57. The method of claim 50 wherein the indication is provided to a remote management tool.

58. The method of claim 50 wherein monitoring comprises using a driver filter to process communications to and from the at least one point of sale peripheral.

59. The method of claim 50 further comprising providing the data to a management tool using CIM.

60. The method of claim 50 further comprising manipulating the status or error information for storage in a repository to enable a management tool to access the status or error information.

61. The method of claim 50 wherein the interactions comprise status or error information received from the at least one point of sale peripheral.

62. The method of claim 50 wherein the interactions comprise messages sent between the at least one application executing on a point of sale terminal and the at least one point of sale peripheral.

63. The method of claim 62 wherein monitoring comprises passively monitoring the messages.