Abstract:
Points of sale or service. According to various embodiment, a point of sale or service includes a register, a peripheral and a protocol converter. The protocol converter communicatively couples the register and the peripheral. The register may communicate with the protocol converter using a first protocol while the peripheral communicates with protocol converter using a second protocol. The register and the protocol converter may communicate using TCP/IP. A second peripheral may communicate with the register using the first protocol and without the aid of the protocol converter. The point of sale or service may further include a processor communicatively coupled to the protocol converter, for accessing the first peripheral.

Description:
This invention relates to protocol converters, distributed-service architectures and point-of-sale or point-of-service (POS) terminals. More specifically, this invention relates to accessing legacy and new POS services in a POS terminal. 
   BACKGROUND 
     FIG. 1  illustrates a prior-art legacy point-of-sale (or service) terminal  100 . The POS terminal  100  includes a PIN pad  110 , a printer  120 , a scanner  130 , a signature-capture platform  140 , a check reader  150 , a register  160  and communications links  170 ,  180 ,  190 ,  1 A 0  and  1 B 0 . 
   The links  170 ,  180 ,  190 ,  1 A 0  and  1 B 0  communicatively and respectively couple the PIN pad  110 , the printer  120 , the scanner  130 , the signature-capture platform  140  and the check reader  150  to the register  160 . Each link is a direct (point-to-point) connection between a peripheral and the register  160 . Communications over each link follow a legacy protocol: RS485, RS232 or Universal Serial Bus (USB), for example. 
   Each of the peripherals  110  through  150  represents a service available to the POS terminal  100 . The POS register  160  contains the intelligence to operate and coordinate the peripherals  110  through  150  in order to perform the functions of a POS terminal. The POS register  160  maintains the state of the these peripherals and also the state of any ongoing transaction. 
   An example of prior-art POS-register intelligence is the operating system of the model 4690 POS terminal (available from International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y.) and its application software. The IBM model 4690 operating system runs software such as General Sales Application (GSA), Supermarket Application, Drug Store Application and Chain Sales Application, all known in the art. 
   (Windows-based POS registers  160  and Windows POS applications are also available. Windows is a class of operating systems available from Microsoft Corp., Bellevue, Wash.) 
   IBM model 4690-based POS systems have known problems. The operating system is monolithic. All peripherals that the POS system  100  is to support must be determined at the time the operating system is constructed (compiled). Adding a new service involves configuring and compiling a new version of the operating system. Adding a new service also involves acquiring application software that can take advantage of the new service. 
   Adding a new service requires loading the new operating systems, the new application software or both. This loading often requires the system  100  to be taken offline, thus disrupting the business of the merchant. As such, adding new services can be time consuming—even prohibitively so. 
   Accordingly, a point of sale or service is desirable with greater availability on the addition of peripherals or services. 
   These and other goals of the invention will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art on reading the background above and the description below. 
   SUMMARY 
   Herein are described points of sale or service. According to various embodiment, a point of sale or service may include a register, a peripheral and a protocol converter. The protocol converter may communicatively couple the register and the peripheral. The register may communicate with the protocol converter using a first protocol while the peripheral may communicate with the protocol converter using a second protocol. The register and the protocol converter may communicate using TCP/IP. 
   A second peripheral may communicate with the register using the first protocol and without the aid of the protocol converter. The point of sale or service may further include a processor communicatively coupled to the protocol converter, for accessing the first peripheral. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a prior-art legacy point-of-sale (or service) terminal. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a POS system incorporating an embodiment of the invention. 
   

   DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 2  illustrates a point-of-sale (or service) system  200  incorporating an embodiment of the invention. The POS system  200  may include one or more peripherals—here, the PIN pad  110 , the printer  120 , the scanner  130 , the signature-capture platform  140 , the check reader  150 —as well as the communications links  170 ,  180 ,  190 ,  1 A 0 ,  1 B 0 , all of the art. The system  200  may also include a peripheral  250 , a POS register  260 , a data center  270 , a protocol converter  280  and communications links  290 ,  2 A 0 . 
   The links  170 ,  180 ,  190 ,  1 A 0 ,  1 B 0  and  1 C 0  may communicatively and respectively connect the PIN pad  110 , the printer  120 , the scanner  130 , the signature-capture platform  140 , the check reader  150  and another peripheral  250  according to respective legacy communications protocols to the protocol converter  280 . The links  170 ,  180 ,  190 ,  1 A 0 ,  1 B 0  and  1 C 0  are direct (point-to-point) connections. 
   The link  290  may communicatively interconnect the POS register  260 , the protocol converter  280  and the controller  2 B 0 . The link  290  may be an ethernet, running TCP/IP. Then the POS register  260 , the protocol converter  280  and the controller  2 B 0  may have TCP/IP as a native communications protocol. 
   Indeed, any peripheral  110  through  150 ,  250  whose native communications protocol is the same as that of the link  290  may interconnect using the link  290  well. The signature-capture platform  140  is an example of such a peripheral. 
   The link  2 A 0  may communicatively couple the controller  2 B 0  and the data center  270 . The link  2 A 0  may be an internet—even the Internet. 
   The protocol converter  280  may convert communications using the legacy protocols over the links  170 – 1 C 0  to communications using the protocol of the communications link  290 . Example legacy protocols include RS485, RS232 and USB. The link  290  protocol may be TCP/IP, for example. 
   Each peripheral  110  through  150  connects to the protocol converter  280  as it connected to the POS register  160  of the prior art. The cables enabling the communications links  170 ,  180 ,  190 ,  1 A 0 ,  1 B 0  may be the same in the two POS systems  100 ,  200 . 
   Any peripheral  110  through  150 ,  250  whose native communications protocol is the same as that of the link  290  may interconnect using the link  290  or the protocol converter  280 . In such an instance, the converter  280  may work more like a repeater. 
   Because all of the peripherals  110  through  150 ,  250 —and the services they provide—are accessible over the link  2 A 0 , any processor  2 C 0  with access to the link  2 A 0  may use the services of any of the peripherals. The transaction computer  2 B 0  may mediate a processor  2 C 0 &#39;s access to the peripherals  110  through  150 ,  250 . 
   The POS register  260 , the transaction controller  2 B 0 , the data center  270  or some other entity on the link  290  or the link  2 A 0  may maintain state regarding a service or transaction. The state information that one such entity maintains may be duplicative, overlapping or disjoint from that which another such entity maintains. 
   In the POS system  200 , the intelligence to conduct a transaction may reside in the POS register  260 . The POS register  260 , however, may not be intelligent enough to communicate with one or more of the peripherals. Such intelligence may now reside in any entity with access to the peripheral—the transaction computer  2 B 0 , for example. 
   When a new service peripheral is added to the system  200 , the operating system or application software of the POS register  260  need not be rebuilt to interact with the new peripheral. For example, the intelligence of the transaction computer  2 B 0  may be sufficient or may be increased to interact with the new peripheral. Accordingly, the POS register  260  need not be shut down to accommodate the new peripheral, and the transactions that the register  260  processes do not need to stop while the register is upgraded. (Of course, the POS register  260  may be upgraded in addition or in the alternative.) 
   In one embodiment of the system  200 , a processor  2 C 0  or transaction computer  2 B 0  is programmed to interact with a new peripheral. The upgraded processor  2 C 0 ,  2 B 0  mediates any interaction with the new peripheral. Where, for example, the new peripheral replaces an old one and the POS register  260  continues to communicate on the expectation that the old peripheral is present, the transaction computer may filter the communications on the link  190 , reading transmissions destined for the old peripheral, supplying transmissions for the new peripheral. Where the new peripheral is incapable of responding to the POS register  260  in the manner in which it expects, the transaction computer _ 2 B 0  may convert transmissions from the new peripheral for the benefit of the POS register  260 . 
   The transaction computer  2 B 0  may abstract a service provided by a class of peripherals to be independent of the peripheral hardware. Say there are multiple versions of the scanner  130 , each requiring different data formats. The intelligence of the transaction computer  2 B 0  may include a scanner interface with routines for initializing and resetting the scanner, retrieving data from the scanner, etc. Now, at the appropriate point in the transaction, the POS register  260  invokes the scanner-initialization routine on the transaction computer  2 B 0  and later invokes the retrieve-data routine. The transaction computer  2 B 0  has the entire responsibility of converting the data received as parameters to its scanner routines into data in the format required by whichever data format the scanner associated with the POS register  260  requires. (Of course, such an abstraction works as well with multiple peripherals, all communicating with the same data format.) 
   Using the Jini connection technology and its distributed-services paradigm, the services of a device may be further abstracted. Where, for example, the transaction computer  2 B 0  provides the Jini connection services, a peripheral may register with the Jini services. Later, when a processor  260 ,  2 B 0 ,  2 C 0  wants to access the peripheral&#39;s service, that processor  260 ,  2 B 0 ,  2 C 0  would query the Jini services. The Jini services return such information as necessary to allow the processor  260 ,  2 B 0 ,  2 C 0  to communicate with the peripheral. (The Jini connection technology is available from Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, Calif. Also, see www.sun.com/jini.) 
   The POS services that the peripherals make available may include capturing and processing signatures, reading and processing magnetic strips, displaying and processing line-item information, reading and processing personal identification numbers (PINs), processing payments, reading and processing smart-card information, recognizing and processing magnetic-ink characters (on checks, for example), printing, scanning and processing scanned information, serving advertisements and processing responses to them, serving and processing surveys, reading and processing scale information, displaying information, reading and processing biometric information, validating or verifying signatures, accessing storage (local or distributed), accessing CORBA services and providing wireless services. The preceding is by way of example and not limitation. 
   The invention now being fully described, many changes and modifications that can be made thereto without departing from the spirit or scope of the appended claims will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art. A processor  260 ,  2 B 0 ,  2 C 0  may poll a peripheral to determine whether it has any data for transmission. Alternatively, a peripheral may raise an interrupt when it is ready to transmit data. In the latter case, the system  200  becomes an event-driven transaction system.