Method and system for monitoring point of sale exceptions

• US 6,847,393 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2002
• Issued: 01/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wren Associates Ltd.
• Original Assignee: WREN Technology Group
• Inventors: Fairbairn, Scott, Ashe, Christopher, Wren, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): DIEP, NHON THANH
• Application Number:
  US10/125,587
• Publication Number:
  US 20030197782A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,012 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.718, 348/61, 348/143, 348/151, 348/152, 348/156, 348/150, 348/161, 360/14.1, 360/14.2, 360/14.3, 386/4, 386/52, 386/46, 105/06, 10/31, 105/11, 700/17, 700/83, 700/318
• US Class Current: 348/61
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 3/00 Alarm indicators, e.g. bells
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A method and system for monitoring point of sale exceptions includes the ability to proactively and automatically analyze POS transactional data for certain patterns or occurrences that typically indicate specific behavior at or near a POS terminal in connection with a sales related operation, retrieve time-correlated video segments of a specified length of time from a camera source associated with the POS terminal used to execute aforementioned transaction, and present the video and transaction data together without obstruction on the same user display for contemporaneous review.

Claims

1. A method for detecting fraud in a transactional environment, comprising:

capturing video data of behavioral events corresponding to a predetermined transaction;

storing the captured video data in a first predetermined storage medium;

generating data corresponding to the predetermined transaction;

storing the generated data in a second predetermined storage medium;

determining event occurrences within the generated data; and

proactively generating a user-defined exception when a number of events within the generated data exceeds a predetermined threshold number of events, the user-defined exception comprising;

selected time-synchronized data within the generated data with respect to the determined event occurrences; and

a portion of the stored video signals corresponding to a predetermined amount of time corresponding to the determined event occurrences.

2. A method of managing events in a transactional environment, said method comprising the following steps:

interfacing a plurality of electronic systems to a central computerized platform, said plurality of electronic systems including at least one point-of-sale (POS) system for providing transaction data indicative of sales in the transactional environment, and at least one video recording system for providing video signals generated within one or more retail locations associated with the transactional environment;

receiving and interfacing at least one datastream from each of the plurality of electronic systems to yield a collection of assembled data, said assembled data including transaction data from said at least one POS system and video data from said at least one video recording system;

synchronizing time signatures associated with each of the plurality of electronic systems, whereby all datastreams received from the plurality of electronic systems are formulated relative to a single time reference;

sorting and organizing the transaction data from the plurality of electronic systems to formulate a collection of discrete events;

comparing the events formulated in said step of sorting and organizing to one or more predetermined event definitions;

pro-actively identifying as transaction exceptions when the events formulated in said step of sorting and organizing meet or exceed the one or more predetermined event definitions provided in said comparing step;

correlating video data having the same time signatures as selected of the transaction exceptions with the transaction data corresponding to the selected of the transaction exceptions; and

providing notification to a user of the identified transaction exceptions.

3. The method of managing events in a transactional environment as in claim 2, wherein said notification to a user comprises both transaction data and video data associated with said selected of the transaction exceptions.

4. The method of managing events in a transactional environment as in claim 2, wherein said step of sorting and organizing the transaction data comprises parsing commonly formatted data collected from the plurality of electronic systems, posting events identified within the commonly formatted data to an associated storage medium, and chronologically organizing the occurrence of events according to values of a predetermined temporal structure.

5. The method of managing events in a transactional environment as in claim 2, wherein the one or more predetermined event definitions of said comparing step are created and maintained by a user via an accessible user interface.

6. The method of managing events in a transactional environment as in claim 2, wherein said method is performed via web-based software provided on one or more remote computer systems.

7. The method of managing events in a transactional environment as in claim 2, wherein said step of providing notification to a user comprises providing notification information to a user via a visual user display.

8. The method of managing events in a transactional environment as in claim 2, wherein said step of providing notification to a user comprises providing an electronic message via an external message delivery system.

9. The method of managing events in a transactional environment as in claim 2, wherein said step of providing notification to a user comprises relaying notification information to a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

10. The method of managing events in a transactional environment as in claim 2, further comprising a step of storing the transaction data and correlated video date corresponding to selected of the identified transaction exceptions in an associated storage medium.

11. A method of detecting and managing data events from a plurality of electronic systems, said method comprising the following steps:

coupling each of a plurality of electronic systems to a central control system;

receiving and interfacing at least one datastream from each of the plurality of electronic systems to yield a collection of assembled data;

sorting and organizing the assembled data from the plurality of electronic systems to formulate a collection of discrete events, wherein the discrete events are independent from the assembled data and are relayed to a dedicated storage medium;

comparing the events formulated in said step of sorting and organizing to one or more predetermined event definitions;

pro-actively identifying as exceptions when the events formulated in said step of sorting and organizing meet or exceed the one or more predetermined event definitions provided in said comparing step;

correlating supplemental time-synchronized data to selected of the identified exceptions; and

providing notification to a user of the identified exceptions.

12. The method of detecting and managing data events as in claim 11, further comprising a step of synchronizing time signatures associated with each of the plurality of electronic systems, whereby any different respective time sources on which each of the plurality of electronic systems operates is integrated as a single time reference.

13. The method of detecting and managing data events as in claim 11, wherein said step of sorting and organizing the assembled data comprises parsing commonly formatted data collected from the plurality of electronic systems, posting events identified within the commonly formatted data to an associated storage medium, and chronologically organizing the occurrence of events according to values of a predetermined temporal structure.

14. The method of detecting and managing events as in claim 11, wherein the one or more predetermined event definitions of said comparing step are created and maintained by a user via an accessible user interface.

15. The method of detecting and managing events as in claim 11, wherein each of said plurality of electronic devices includes one of a point of sale (POS) system, a video recording system, a burglar/alarm system, an electronic article surveillance system, an access control system, or a telemetry system.

16. The method of detecting and managing events as in claim 11, wherein said method is performed via web-based software provided on one or more remote computer systems.

17. The method of detecting and managing events as in claim 11, wherein said step of providing notification to a user comprises providing notification information to a user via a visual user display.

18. The method of detecting and managing events as in claim 11, wherein said step of providing notification to a user comprises providing an electronic message via an external message delivery system.

19. The method of detecting and managing events as in claim 11, wherein said step of providing notification to a user comprises relaying notification information to a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

20. A computer-based platform for integrating a plurality of electronic systems and correlating information outputs therefrom, said computer-based platform comprising:

at least one interface module for establishing a connection between the computer-based platform and selected of the plurality of electronic systems and for obtaining data from said selected of the plurality of electronic systems;

a user interface for creating and maintaining user-defined criteria for characterizing the data from said plurality of electronic systems and for defining one or more event type associated with the data received from said plurality of electronic systems;

a data-processing procedure for transforming the data from said plurality of electronic systems into a common format, parsing the commonly formatted data collected from said plurality of electronic systems, and posting independent data events identified within the commonly formatted data to an associated storage medium;

an exception manager for determining when events identified via the data-processing procedure meet or exceed a trigger definition, thus corresponding to an exception; and

a notification engine for proactively relaying notification information regarding selected events and exceptions to a user.

21. The computer-based platform of claim 20, wherein each of said plurality of electronic devices includes one of a point of sale (POS) system, a video recording system, a burglar/alarm system, an electronic article surveillance system, an access control system, or a telemetry system.

22. The computer-based platform of claim 20, wherein said computer-based platform runs on one or more user displays.

23. The computer-based platform of claim 22, wherein the computer-based platform runs on multiple user displays connected via a local network connection.

24. The computer-based platform of claim 22, wherein the computer-based platform runs on multiple user displays connected via a remote network connection.

25. The computer-based platform of claim 24, wherein the remote network connection is a TCP/IP Internet connection.

26. The computer-based platform of claim 20, wherein said data processing procedure is further configured to chronologically organize the occurrence of events according to values of a predetermined temporal structure.

27. The computer-based platform of claim 20, further comprising a setup and administration interface for providing secure access to and configuration ability of operational parameters associated with the computer-based platform.

28. The computer-based platform of claim 20, wherein the notification information relayed via said notification engine is provided via a visual user interface.

29. The computer-based platform of claim 20, wherein the notification information relayed via said notification engine is provided electronically via an external message delivery system.

30. The computer-based platform of claim 20, wherein the notification information relayed via said notification engine is provided to a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

31. The computer-based platform of claim 20, wherein said computer-based platform is implemented in a transactional environment, wherein said at least one interface module comprises a point-of-sale (POS) interface for coupling transaction data indicative of sales in the transactional environment, and wherein said computer-based platform further comprises a video recording interface for digitally coupling video signals generated within a retail location associated with the transactional environment.