Aggregated session management for terminal devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12243036-B2
Application number	US-202217691241-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2022
Priority date	Apr 10, 2020
Publication date	Mar 4, 2025
Grant date	Mar 4, 2025

Abstract

A media terminal includes two integrated currency devices, each device providing at least one feature/operation that is similar to or is the same as the other device. Two independent sessions to each device are made and presented to a transaction application of the terminal as a single aggregated session. When the transaction application issues a command through the single aggregated session, a decision is made that is transparent to the application as to which device should process the command on behalf of the application and the command is issued to the selected device over the corresponding independent session. Results or notifications provided by the selected device are aggregated and provided to the application over the single aggregated session. In an embodiment, the two integrated currency devices are different types of devices from one another.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
establishing, by a transaction terminal, a first session with a first media depository;
establishing, by the transaction terminal, a second session with a second media depository;
establishing, by the transaction terminal, a third session with a transaction application of the transaction terminal;
obtaining, by the transaction terminal, a dispense command for valuable media to be dispensed from the transaction application over the third session;
evaluating, by the transaction terminal, a first state of the first media depository over the first session and a second state of the second media depository over the second session; and
selecting, by the transaction terminal the first media depository based on the first state and the second state;
providing, by the transaction terminal, the dispense command to the first media depository to dispense the valuable media from the first media depository;
obtaining, by the transaction terminal, and an updated state for the first state over the first session after the valuable media is dispensed from the first media depository; and
providing, by the transaction terminal, a consolidated state for a single logical media depository to the transaction application over the third session, wherein the single logical media depository comprises the first media depository and the second media depository and wherein the consolidated state comprises the updated state and the second state.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating further includes prioritizing the first media depository over the second media depository when evaluating the first state and the second state based on a first type of media depository associated with the first media depository and a second type of media depository associated with the second media depository.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein prioritizing further includes identifying the first type of media depository as a recycler depository and the second type of media depository as a dispenser depository.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising, providing, by the transaction terminal, the single logical media depository for use to the transaction application over the third session for subsequent transactions even when one of the first media depository or the second media depository fails and is unavailable for the subsequent transactions.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, processing the method, by the transaction terminal, without code modifications to the transaction application, wherein the transaction application is an existing transaction application of the transaction terminal that is capable of interacting with a single media depository and the method presents to and interacts with the transaction application as the single logical media depository.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, managing, by the transaction terminal, each individual first state and second state separately and independently while presenting the consolidated state to the transaction application.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising, managing, by the transaction terminal, the first media depository as a recycler and the second media depository as a depositing device.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising,
managing, by the transaction terminal, a fourth session for an added third media depository using a third state for the third media depository;
determining, by the transaction terminal, when to select the third media depository for subsequent transactions using the first state, the second state, and the third state; and
presenting, by the transaction terminal, the first media depository, the second media depository, and the third media depository as the single logical media depository to the transaction session along with the consolidated state comprising the first state, the second state, and the third state to the transaction application over the third session.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising, managing, by the transaction terminal, the first state of the first media depository and the second state of the second media depository to lengthen a valuable media replenishment cycle for the transaction terminal or to decrease a frequency of replenishing valuable media for the transaction terminal as a whole.

Assignees

• Ncr Atleos Corp

Inventors

• Miller Alexander Pearson
• Davis Andrew
• Dunlop Christopher James
• Mckenzie Kevin Macdonald

Classifications

• G06Q20/18

  involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals · CPC title

• G06Q20/123

  Shopping for digital content · CPC title

• G06Q20/1085

  involving automatic teller machines [ATMs] · CPC title

• G06Q20/027

  involving a payment switch or gateway · CPC title

• G07F19/211

  Software architecture within ATMs or in relation to the ATM network · CPC title