System for providing transaction services to a plurality of user devices

• US 8,433,769 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2010
• Issued: 04/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ganart Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ganart Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Cacheria, Anthony M. III, Hooker, David, McHugh, Wayne Thomas, Glover, Kristopher, Edwards, Webb, Holbrook, Arthur Martin, Jenkins, Barrett
• Primary Examiner(s): Moise, Emmanuel L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ashraf, Waseem
• Application Number:
  US12/684,930
• Publication Number:
  US 20100180000A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,207 Days
• Field of Search: 709/207, 709223-224
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1053 Employment or hiring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1057 Benefits or employee welfare, e.g. insurance, holiday or retirement packages
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1091 Recording time for administrative or management purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/065 using e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/08 Payment architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1085 involving automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/125 Finance or payroll

Abstract

A system for providing access to a plurality of services from third party service providers to users at remote locations includes a plurality of resource managers having associated physical system resources for enabling a user to access a user selected service each resource manager including a processing platform with an operating system running thereon, a data store, including configuration information for each of the services available to a user through the resource manager, wherein there are multiple configurations associated with different ones of the predetermined services and one or more of the available physical system resources, and central processing center that communicates with each of the plurality of resource managers to enable or disable selected ones of the services on given ones of the resource managers based upon predetermined criteria and operates in conjunction with the resource managers to execute predetermined sequences of actions for accessing user selected ones of the services from the service providers providing such services.

Claims

1. A system for providing access to a plurality of services from service providers to users at remote locations, comprising:

a plurality of resource managers, each disposed at a given one of the remote locations, each of the resource managers including a processing platform running an operating system for interfacing with a user through one or more physical resources to provide access to a user selected one of the services;

each of the resource managers further comprising a data store including configuration information, the configuration information identifying external services available to a user from the resource manager, wherein there are multiple configurations stored in the data store, each associated with one of a plurality of predetermined external services, the configuration information for each external service identifying one or more of the available physical system resources required to access the predetermined external service, the data store further comprising a series of instructions to initiate a user identity session whereby the user interfaces with the resource manager with one or more of the physical system resources to open the user identity session wherein the user can access multiple ones of the external services within a single identity session;

a central processing center for communicating with each of the plurality of resource managers and with each of the plurality of services providers and operating in conjunction with the resource managers to execute a predetermined sequence of actions for accessing a desired one of the services from the service providers providing such service;

wherein

some of the plurality of resource managers requesting a desired one of the services, the resource managers requesting a desired one of the services and managing the one or more physical resources required for execution of a portion of the predetermined sequence of actions required for the requested service to interface with a user; and

the central processing center executing the remaining portion of the predetermined sequence of actions required for the requested service to interface with a user.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of physical system resource interfaces for interfacing the operating system with available physical system resources, the physical system resources enabling a user to access a plurality of predetermined external services provided by third party service providers.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein multiple ones of configuration information are configured to access one or more available physical resources to enable a user to access a service associated with the configuration information.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein each of the resource managers utilizes configuration information for a user selected one of the services to operate required ones of the physical system resources according to a predetermined sequence of actions defined by the configuration information to acquire information necessary to conduct a transaction utilizing the user selected one of the services.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the resource manager includes a communication resource for communicating with the central processing center and wherein the acquired information is transmitted to the central processing center whereby the central processing center executes a predetermined sequence of actions upon receipt of the information.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the central processing center includes one or more communication resources enabling the central processing center to transmit the acquired information to a third party service provider enabling the user of the resource manager to access a service provided by the third party service provider.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein each resource manager includes a communications resource for communicating with the central processing center and wherein each resource manager transmits a message at predetermined intervals to the central processing center including the status of physical system resources available to the resource manager, whereupon the central processing center may enable or disable selected services on the resource manager.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein each resource manager includes a communications resource for communicating with the central processing center and wherein each resource manager transmits a message to the central processing center at predetermined intervals including the services enabled on the resource manager whereupon the central processing center may enable or disable selected services on the resource manager.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein each resource manager includes a communications resource for communicating with the central processing center and wherein each resource manager transmits a message to the central processing center including the services enabled on the resource manager.