Point of sale system having a customer terminal and a merchant terminal

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10607200-B2
Application number	US-201715496529-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 25, 2017
Priority date	Dec 28, 2015
Publication date	Mar 31, 2020
Grant date	Mar 31, 2020

Abstract

A point of sale system includes a merchant terminal and a customer terminal. The merchant terminal is configured to display a user interface (UI) window on the merchant terminal. The UI window on the merchant terminal displays a merchant-specific version of a screen displayed on the customer terminal. The merchant terminal receives updates from the customer terminal regarding the status of the payment portion for a transaction. The merchant terminal can provide an input to the UI window which is sent as a message to the customer terminal. Control of state for the point of sale system is shared such that when the system is in a first state, the merchant terminal is the state control terminal, and when the point of sale system is in a second state, the customer terminal is the state control terminal and has control of state for the system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A point of sale system used in performing point of sale transactions between a customer and a merchant, the point of sale system comprising:
a customer terminal configured to display a customer point of sale interface, the customer point of sale interface configured to display a first series of screens for guiding the customer through a point of sale transaction;
a merchant terminal configured to display a merchant point of sale interface, the merchant point of sale interface configured to display a second series of screens for guiding the merchant through the point of sale transaction, and the merchant point of sale interface configured to display a user interface (UI) window comprising a third series of screens including at least a portion of the first series of screens displayed on the customer terminal so that the merchant is able to view the merchant point of sale interface as well as the at least the portion of the first series of screens displayed on the customer terminal in the UI window on the merchant terminal; and
one or more non-transitory computer readable media storing computer readable instructions, the instructions configured to:
specify a state for the point of sale system, wherein each state corresponds to a screen to display and a plurality of UI features to display for each of the merchant terminal and the customer terminal, each of the merchant terminal and the customer terminal being responsible for rendering an appropriate image in the merchant point of sale interface and the customer point of sale interface on the respective merchant terminal and customer terminal, thereby presentation of both the UI window on the merchant terminal and the UI window on the customer terminal are coordinated on their respective displays,
render the UI window on the merchant terminal for a specified state, the UI window comprising the third series of screens including the at least the portion of the first series of screens displayed on the customer terminal, the third series of screens including a merchant specific UI having at least some of a plurality of UI features displayed on the customer terminal, wherein the at least some of the plurality of UI features correspond to a message indicating a current customer progress through the point of sale transaction, and
cause the customer terminal to send update messages to the merchant terminal that are relevant to the specified state, each update message being descriptive of a customer interaction received in the customer point of sale interface rendered on the customer terminal, and to cause the merchant terminal to render an indication of the customer interaction on the UI window of the merchant terminal.

2. The point of sale system of claim 1 , wherein the merchant terminal is further configured to determine which one of the merchant terminal and the customer terminal has control of the state of the point of sale system, and wherein the customer terminal is further configured to determine which one of the merchant terminal and the customer terminal has control of the state of the point of sale system.

3. The point of sale system of claim 1 , wherein in a first state for the point of sale system, the merchant terminal is in control of the point of sale transaction while the merchant is performing an item input portion of the point of sale transaction, and in a second state, the customer terminal is in control of the point of sale transaction while the customer is performing an item payment portion of the point of sale transaction.

4. The point of sale system of claim 1 wherein the update message is sent from the customer terminal to the merchant terminal each time the customer interaction is received in the customer point of sale interface rendered on the customer terminal.

5. The point of sale system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further configured to:
receive a merchant input, from the merchant interacting with one of the UI features in the UI window on the merchant terminal, and
cause the merchant terminal to send an indication to the customer terminal that includes the merchant input.

6. A computer-implemented method for communicating between a merchant terminal and a customer terminal in a point of sale system, the method comprising:
specifying a state for the point of sale system, wherein each state corresponds to a screen to display and a plurality of user interface (UI) features to display for each of the merchant terminal and the customer terminal of the point of sale system, each of the merchant terminal and the customer terminal being responsible for rendering an appropriate image in a merchant point of sale interface and a customer point of sale interface on the respective merchant terminal and customer terminal, thereby presentation of both the merchant terminal and the customer terminal are coordinated interfaces on their respective displays;
rendering a UI window on the merchant terminal for a specified state, the UI window including at least a portion of a customer UI displayed on the customer terminal, the at least the portion of the customer UI comprising a merchant specific UI having at least some of a plurality of UI features displayed on the customer terminal, wherein the at least some of the plurality of UI features correspond to a message indicating a current customer progress through the point of sale transaction;
receiving update messages by the merchant terminal, from the customer terminal, that are relevant to the specified state, each update message being descriptive of a customer interaction received in the customer point of sale interface rendered on the customer terminal; and
causing the merchant terminal to render an indication of the customer interaction on the UI window of the merchant terminal based at least in part on the update messages.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising:
determining, by the merchant terminal or the customer terminal, which one of the merchant terminal and the customer terminal has control of the state of the point of sale system.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein causing the merchant terminal and the customer terminal to determine which one of the merchant terminal and the customer terminal has control of the state of the point of sale system comprises:
causing the customer terminal and the merchant terminal to determine a status of the point of sale transaction, so that the status of the point of sale transaction determines the state of the point of sale system.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein causing the merchant terminal and the customer terminal to determine which one of the merchant terminal and the customer terminal has control of the state of the point of sale system comprises:
causing the customer terminal and the merchant terminal to determine a status of the point of sale transaction, where:
when the status of the point of sale transaction is an item input portion, the state of the point of sale system is the merchant terminal is in control, and
when the status of the point of sale transaction is a payment input portion, the state of the point of sale system is the customer terminal is in control.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein, when the state is a first state, the merchant terminal is in control of the point of sale transaction, and further comprising:
receiving an item input portion of the point of sale transaction into the merchant terminal.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein, when the state is a second state, the customer terminal is in control of the point of sale transaction, and further comprising:
rece

Assignees

• Square Inc

Inventors

• Han Koun
• Dower Nicholas
• Ryan Raymond
• Bell Bruce
• Marr Jared Travis
• Kalinichenko Alexey
• Nguyen Tien

Classifications

• G06F3/0481

  based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance · CPC title

• G07F7/088

  the card reader being part of the point of sale [POS] terminal or electronic cash register [ECR] itself · CPC title

• G07G1/01

  Details for indicating · CPC title

• G06Q20/202 Primary

  Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR · CPC title

• G06F9/451

  Execution arrangements for user interfaces · CPC title