Granted Patent B2

US 11,526,821 · App. 14/013,897 · Granted Dec 13, 2022

Inventor: Michael James Neilan (Scotland, GB)

Assignee: NCR Corporation

G06Q10/06315

Abstract

Claims (22)

1. A method of managing media replenishment for a media terminal, the method comprising:

providing executable instructions to a hardware processor of a remote server from a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium causing the hardware processor to perform operations comprising:

calculating an amount of media required for the media terminal by processing a cash management algorithm that utilizes historical media usage for the media terminal, event data for the media terminal, and cost data for the media terminal to provide the amount of media required for the terminal including media cassette amounts needed for each media denomination in each media cassette of the media terminal and the cash management algorithm provides a delivery schedule for expected replenishment of the media terminal with the amount of media required, wherein the remote server is remote from the media terminal over a network;

receiving from a distributed management agent of the media terminal that is an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) an indication of media items present, and deposited within the media terminal, that have a condition fulfilling a condition criterion;

adjusting the amount of media required based on the indication of media items that fulfill the condition criterion, wherein adjusting further includes:

instructing a media dispenser integrated into and part of the ATM to 1) add the media items that fulfill the condition for the condition criterion with undispensed media items, 2) produce a total amount of reusable media items within the media terminal, and 3) determine a total usable amount for the media items within the media dispenser and a total unusable amount comprising media items that are unfit for recirculation by sending a message to the distributed management agent to interact and cause the media dispenser to perform 1)-3);

sending a request to the distributed management agent of the media terminal for the total usable amount;

receiving the total unusable amount of media comprising an unusable total per denomination of the media from the distributed management agent of the media terminal; and

receiving a total deposited amount of media comprising a deposited total per denomination of the media from the distributed management agent of the media terminal;

predicting a top-up media amount for the ATM as the total amount of reusable media subtracted from the amount of media required, and determining when replenishment of additional media items should be delivered to the media terminal by modifying the delivery schedule, wherein modifying further includes modifying the delivery schedule based in part on remaining media at other ATMs and any other devices requiring media in a same geographic area of the ATM where replenishment is needed;

increasing the top-up media amount by adjusting for any dispensed media occurring at the ATM during a period of time from when the predicting completed and when the top-up media is to be delivered to the ATM; and

sending a replenishment indication to a Cash-In-Transit (CIT) person for delivering the additional media items in the top-up media amount based on the delivery schedule.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein receiving from the media terminal an indication of media items comprises receiving a total amount of media items of the same type.

3. A method according to claim 2 , wherein the media items comprise currency and the same type comprises a denomination of that currency.

4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the condition criterion comprises the media item having a satisfactory condition.

5. A method according to claim 4 , wherein the satisfactory condition comprises the media item having at least a defined minimum physical condition.

6. A method according to claim 4 , wherein the condition criterion comprises the media item having an unsatisfactory condition.

7. A method according to claim 6 , wherein the unsatisfactory condition comprises the media item not having at least a defined minimum physical condition.

8. A method according to claim 1 , wherein adjusting the calculated amount of media required based on the indication of media items that fulfill the condition criterion comprises subtracting the indication of media items from the calculated amount of media where the media items have a satisfactory condition.

9. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the providing the executable instruction to the hardware processor further causes the hardware processor to perform additional operations comprising:

receiving an indication of the undispensed media remaining in the media terminal; and

deducting the indication of undispensed media remaining in the media terminal from the calculated amount of media required.

Assignments (10)