Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Accounting
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-14
2001-07-17
Cosimano, Edward (Department: 2161)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Accounting
C700S236000, C705S016000, C705S017000, C705S400000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263319
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to fuel dispensers and, more particularly, to fuel dispensers and systems capable of communicating with various types of transponders and detecting their movement within and throughout a fueling environment.
In recent years, traditional gasoline pumps and service stations have evolved into elaborate point-of-sale (POS) devices having sophisticated control electronics and user interfaces with large displays and touch-pads or screens. The dispensers include various types of payment means, such as card readers and cash acceptors, to expedite and further enhance fueling transactions. A customer is not limited to the purchase of fuel at the dispenser. More recent dispensers allow the customer to purchase services, such as car washes, and goods, such as fast food or convenience store products at the dispenser. Once purchased, the customer need only pick up the goods and services at the station store or the outlet of a vending machine.
Remote transaction systems have evolved wherein the fuel dispenser is adapted to communicate with various types of remote communication devices, such as transponders, to provide various types of identification and information to the fuel dispenser automatically. Given the sophistication of these transaction systems and the numerous choices provided to the customer at the dispenser, conducting transactions with transponders will be useful to allow the dispenser and fuel station store to monitor the movement of a person carrying a transponder and a vehicle having a transponder, enhance transaction and marketing efficiencies, and improve safety in the fueling environment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Given the significant advances in remote communications technology, remote communication units, or transponders as referred to herein, have ever increasing computational capabilities. The transponders may have one or more controllers and a significant amount of associated memory. The transponders may be passive or active, and may provide significant data processing and memory storage. In these “smart” transponder embodiments, it is preferable to keep a running tally of financial and other transactional type information. This is especially usefull in smartcard type embodiments wherein prepaid functions may be provided directly on the transponder. In order to provide additional transaction security and tracking, the present invention creates a shadow ledger at an associated control system, such as the central control system at the fuel station store or a remote network accessible from the fueling environment. The shadow ledger is substantially a duplicate copy of the desired transaction information stored on the transponder. The shadow ledger is updated during communications with the transponder. In this manner, the transponder account information may be checked and the shadow ledger may be updated regarding transactions occurring outside of the fueling environment or associated transaction network from which the shadow ledger could not be updated. The shadow ledger provides a backup for the transponder ledger, provides access to historical transaction information of a transponder, even when the transponder is not in communication with the fueling environment, allows tracking of transactions occurring outside of a network by updating the shadow ledger during subsequent transponder communications.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a communication system for creating a shadow ledger for a remote communications unit. The system includes communications electronics adapted to provide radio communication with remote communications units, which are capable of maintaining an independent ledger of transaction history. A control system and associated memory are provided to operate in conjunction with the communications electronics. The memory contains a shadow ledger of transaction history related to the independent ledger of transaction history stored on a remote communications unit. The memory may be integrated with the control system or located apart from the control system in any variety of locations, including a remote network accessible by the control system. The control system is adapted to receive remote ledger information from the remote communications unit relating to the independent ledger, compare corresponding information on the shadow ledger with the remote ledger information, and update the shadow ledger if the information is different from the information of the independent ledger. Notably, the control system may be provided in a fuel dispenser, a central control system, the fuel station store, at a remote network, or any combination thereof. The ledger may be kept at a central control system, at a local network for localized transaction tracking, or at a remote network for more regional or national transaction tracking.
Preferably, the system includes a transaction interface associated with the control system for carrying out a current transaction. The control system will monitor the current transaction and transmit current transaction information to the associated communications unit through the communications electronics in order to update the remote ledger of the remote communications unit. Preferably, the current transaction information is used to update both the remote ledger and the shadow ledger. The control system may update the shadow ledger directly or interrogate the remote communications unit for an update after the remote ledger is updated. Depending upon the type of information desired, the shadow ledger and the remote ledger may or may not include the same types of information. The system operator will most likely determine the type of information to be kept on the shadow ledger.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for maintaining a shadow ledger for remote communications units. The method includes the steps of receiving signals including identification indicia and transaction history information from the independent ledger of a remote communications unit, selecting a corresponding shadow ledger based on the identification indicia, and comparing corresponding information from the shadow ledger. Based on the comparison, the method may include updating the shadow ledger with certain of the information from the independent ledger if the corresponding information from the shadow ledger is different from the information from the independent ledger. The method may include transmitting current transaction information relating to a current transaction to the remote communications unit wherein the independent ledger is updated accordingly.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the following description of the preferred embodiments when considered with the drawings.
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pate
Cosimano Edward
Masconi Commerce Systems Inc.
Winthrow & Terranova PLLC
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