|||||IIIHIIIHIIII US005256863A United States Patent (19) 11) Patent Number: 5,256,863 Ferguson et al. 45) Date of Patent: Oct. 26, 1993 (54) IN-STORE UNIVERSAL CONTROL SYSTEM a card... any card please, Feb. 1990, vol. 52: No. 10; p. (75) Inventors: William L. Ferguson, Walnut Creek; 63. Mark H. Wallis, Long Beach, both of The Los Angeles Business Journal, Scissors No More: Calif. Vons Plans Scanner for Coupon Process, Jan. 1990, vol. 12; No. 5; Sec. 1; p. 1. 73) Assignee: Comark Technologies, Inc., Elk Supermarket News Information Access Co., Win Grove Village, Ill. n-Dixie to offer electronic coupons, Jun. 1990, vol. 40; 21 Appl. No.: 788,288 No. 24; p. 10. Device Specification For "Dot Matrix LCD Unit", 22 Filed: Nov. 5, 1991 Oct. 1986, pp. 1-17. 51 int. Cl......................... G06K 15/00; G07G 1/12 Primary Examiner-William L. Sikes 52 U.S. C. ..................................... 235/383; 364/405 Assistant Examiner-Toan Tran 58) Field of Search ................ 235/383; 364/401, 402, Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Fitch, Even, Tabin & 364/404, 405; 395/200 Flannery (56) References Cited U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS (57) ABSTRACT 4,236,604 12/1980 Warner ................................. 186/61 The present invention relates to a system for automating 4,554,446 11/1985 Murphy et al...................... 235/385 data acquisition and processing at a checkstand point 4,679, 154 7/1987 Blanford ............................. 364/S25 of-sale in a retail outlet. Preferred embodiments include 4,723,212 2/1988 Mindrum et al. ................... 235/385 a first local area network of POS terminals for initiating 4,773,001 9/1988 Blair et al. ........................... 364/200 merchandise purchase transactions. All of the purchase 4,791,281 12/1988 Johnsen et al. ..................... 235/383 4,797,540 1/1989 Kimizu ................................ 235/383 transactions in the first local area network are passively 4,877,947 10/1989 Mori .................................... 364/405 monitored to acquire primary purchase data. A second 4,882,675 11/1989 Nichtberger ........................ 364/401 local area network of lane terminal devices inputs sec 4,908,761 3/1990 Tai ....................................... 364/401 ondary data, including discount coupon information, 4,910,672 3/1990 Offet al. ............................. 364/405 check information and bank card information to a uni 4,937,567 6/1990 Orr et al. ... 340/825.05 versal system controller. The universal system control 4,937,742 6/1990 Marshall .............................. 364/401 4,972,463 1/1990 Danielson et al. .................. 364/408 ler mirrors the primary information, processes the pri 5,008,519 4/1991 Cunningham et al. ............. 235/383 mary and the secondary information, and generates 5,023,782 6/1991 Lutz et al............................ 364/405 output information to the POS terminals of the first 5,053,607 10/1991 Carlson et al. ...................... 235/379 local area network via the lane terminal devices of the 5,054,092 10/1991 LaCaze ............................... 235/449 second local area network, the output information in 5,109,153 4/992 Johnsen ............................... 235/468 cluding coupon verification data, coupon amount data, 5,19,293 6/1992 Hammond ........................... 364/405 check verification data and bank card verification data. OTHER PUBLICATIONS Direct Market Magazine Information Access Co., Take 19 Claims, 9 Drawing Sheets U.S. Patent Oct. 26, 1993 Sheet 1 of 9 5,256,863 0:2 NOCHTTOO "ISEC] "AECI U.S. Patent Oct. 26, 1993 Sheet 3 of 9 5,256,863 U.S. Patent Oct. 26, 1993 Sheet 4 of 9 5,256,863 Fig. 4 U.S. Patent Oct. 26, 1993 Sheet 6 of 9 5,256,863 UPP TERMINAL APPLICATIONS TERMINAL APPLICATIONS SESSION LAYER U.S. Patent Oct. 26, 1993 Sheet 7 of 9 5,256,863 MICR MAGSTRIPE BAR READER READER CODE LANES 1...N RDF LANE MONTOR 206 MESSAGES MESSAGES MESSAGES ANE 2 LANEN 212 208 APPROVED COUPON FILE KEYBOARD COUPONVERIFICATION 1 214 WEDGE CHECKAPPROVA (65's EFT. LOTTERY FREQUENT SHOPPER NETWORKS GATEWAY SERVICES 216 FREQUENT SHOPPER 226 TEMP. FILE TEMP, FILE TEMP. FILE LANE1 ANE 2 LANEN PURCHASE DATA PURCHASE DATA PURCHASE DATA TOTALS TOTALS TOTALS 220 CASH REGISTER INFORMATION MESSAGES 218 STORE NETWORK iNTERFACE Fig. 8 U.S. Patent Oct. 26, 1993 Sheet 8 of 9 5,256,863 250 CHECKER SWIPES CHECK KEY GOODREAD TRANSiT NO. ACCOUNT NO. YES 254 ISSUE BEEP 25 6 MATCH ACCOUNT WITH TOTAL PERFORMLOOKUP 262 AUTHORIZATION (LIMITS) 270 266 264 TENDER R EQUEST CASHBACK YaYES AMOUNTMOU ADDITIONAL DATA (D/L CREDIT CARD) 272 ISSUE OUTPUT MESSAGES 274 UPDATE Fl8. 9 HISTORYFILE U.S. Patent Oct. 26, 1993 Sheet 9 of 9 5,256,863 300 CHECKER SWIPES COUPON 306 KEY GOODREAD BARCODE 4. DATA YES PARSE COUPON DATA 34 312 COMPARE FMLY OUTPUT PERFORM CODE TO MESSAGESTO VALUE CODE PRODUCT WEDGE AND PURCHASES CHECK DISPLAY 31 O YES PURCHASED 316 OUTPUT UPDATE CHECKER COUPON PRODUCT NOT PURCHASED OVERRIDE DATABASE Fig. 10 5,256,863 1. 2 lanes. Retail owners can thus not afford to introduce N-STORE UNIVERSAL CONTROL SYSTEM additional checkstand complexities which will enhance the probability of such downtime. BACKGROUND OF INVENTION Retail owners are also concerned that enhanced 1. Field of the Invention checkstand functionally can not be implemented with The present invention relates generally to data acqui out increasing the significant checkstand delays which sition and processing systems for retail merchandisers. already exist. At best, present lottery ticket vending is More particularly, the present invention relates to sys performed with large, stand alone devices that are in tems for fully automating a broad spectrum of front end conveniently located. The nature of the lottery ticket (i.e., cashier checkstand) point-of-sale (POS) functions 10 transaction is such that it is very time consuming for the in retail merchandise outlets, such as grocery stores. clerk to perform the double function of vending the 2. State of the Art ticket and key entering the sale of the ticket into the Retail merchandise outlets such as grocery stores cash register. In addition, on-line lottery games are not possess unique characteristics which are reflected in vended in the checkstands of major retailers because of their business trends. For example, these outlets consti 15 their space requirements. The combination of a mark tute high volume markets having relatively low profit sense reader, ticket printer, and data communications margins (e.g., net profits typically are in the range of equipment requires a large footprint which most high 1% of sales). Accordingly, retail merchandising is a highly competitive market wherein special advertising volume retail stores are unwilling to provide. and other promotional techniques are employed. One of 20 Other delays also already exist at checkstands. For the most popular promotional techniques used by these example, 15,000 customers typically pass through a outlets and their product suppliers (i.e., product manu single retail supermarket each week. The principal form facturers) is the distribution of product vouchers (e.g., of payment used by these customers is the personal discount or rebate coupons and food stamps). Presently, check and check cashing is, for the most, considered a voucher redemption and collection is handled very 25 necessary checkstand function. Check writing coupled inefficiently because current technological advance with a minimum check verification, results in significant ments have not been effectively used for voucher pro checkstand delays. cessing and handling. Voucher redemption represents another time con Due to their low profit margin, another characteristic suming and costly function typically considered a nec of retail outlets is their provision of enhanced customer 30 essary checkstand function. Due to the aforementioned service to attract additional business. The sentiment to limitations of retail outlets, food stamp fraud and misuse provide enhanced customer service in retail outlets is is a problem which has practically been left untreated shared by other industries who recognize the marketing by retail outlets. Further, coupon misredemption rates advantage which these high volume outlets afford. have resulted in significant financial loss to retail outlets For example, retail outlets (particularly retail grocery 35 and/or product manufacturers. outlets) are on the average visited bi-weekly by at least The limited functionally associated with present one member from every household. If a third party, checkstands imposes substantial costs on the retail out such as a lottery ticket distributer can conveniently lets, the product manufactures and thus, the consumers. market their product (e.g., lottery tickets) in a super For example, voucher redemption imposes significant market, the lottery ticket distributer is practically as handling costs on the retail outlet and the product man sured of increased sales and profits. Retail outlets can ufacturer (e.g., coupon issuer). Presently, voucher re directly benefit by charging an overhead fee to the demption begins at a checkstand where entry of coupon lottery ticket distributer. The retail outlet also benefits or food stamp information is typically performed manu indirectly. A larger customer base is more likely to be ally by a cashier. At best, vouchers are handled using a established at a retail outlet which can provide errand 45 bar code reader to enter a portion of the information saving features such as lottery ticket purchasing. encoded on the coupon face