Dynamic ingestion and processing of transactional data at the point of sale
View Patent ↗A point-of-sale terminal differentiates dynamically among different data streams by processing data encoded with “sentinels” that bracket the beginning and end of the data and identify the type of data.
1. A method of processing a transaction at a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving, by the POS terminal, a stream of data from a credential reader;
recognizing, by the POS terminal, a first data sequence in the received data stream;
in response to the recognized first data sequence, handling, by the POS terminal, transaction data coming in sequence after the first data sequence according to a data-processing protocol stored on the POS terminal;
recognizing, by the POS terminal, a second data sequence in the received data stream;
in response to the recognized second data sequence, terminating, by the POS terminal, data handling according to the data-processing protocol; and
completing, by the POS terminal, a transaction based on the transaction data,
wherein the data-processing protocol comprises, by the POS terminal:
interrupting execution of a current task; and
combining the transaction data with item-purchase data received at the POS terminal and transmitting the data to a transaction-processing server for approval.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first data sequence is identical to the second data sequence.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data-processing protocol comprises, by the POS terminal:
caching the transaction data; and
during an interval when the POS terminal is not executing other tasks, combining the cached transaction data with item-purchase data received at the POS terminal and transmitting the data to a transaction-processing server for approval.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of resuming execution of the current task following the data transmission.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein a data stream from the current task is buffered during the combining and transmitting steps.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data-processing protocol comprises, by the POS terminal, continuing execution of a current task while concurrently combining the transaction data with item-purchase data received at the POS terminal and transmitting the data to a transaction-processing server for approval.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein concurrent execution of the current task and the combining and transmitting steps occurs by multithreading.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the multithreading comprises interleaving data and instructions corresponding to the current task with the transaction data and instructions corresponding to the transmission.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data-processing protocol comprises:
caching the transaction data in the reader; and
upon a trigger signal, releasing the cached transaction data for transmission by the POS terminal to a transaction-processing server for approval.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the trigger signal is provided by manual selection of a switch on the reader.
11. A terminal for processing transactions at the point of sale, the terminal comprising:
a communications interface;
a computer memory;
an input port for receiving data from a credential reader; and
a processor configured to (i) recognize a first data sequence in a data stream received from the credential reader via the input port, (ii) retrieve from the computer memory a data-processing protocol in response to the recognized first data sequence, (iii) execute the data-processing protocol and handle, in accordance therewith, transaction data coming in sequence after the first data sequence, (iv) recognize a second data sequence in the received data stream and, in response thereto, terminating data handling according to the data-processing protocol, and (v) complete a transaction based on the transaction data,
wherein execution of the data-processing protocol by the processor causes interruption of a concurrently executing task and immediate transmission of the combined data, followed by resumed execution of the interrupted task.
12. The terminal of claim 11 , wherein the processor is configured to complete the transaction by combining the transaction data with purchase data including item-purchase data and causing transmission, via the communications interface, of the combined data to a transaction processor.
13. The terminal of claim 12 , wherein execution of the data-processing protocol by the processor causes the processor to cache the transaction data in the computer memory and cause the transmission to occur during an interval when the processor is not executing other tasks.
14. The terminal of claim 12 , wherein execution of the data-processing protocol by the processor causes the processor to continue execution of a current task while concurrently causing the transaction data to be combined with item-purchase data and transmitted to the transaction processor.
15. The terminal of claim 12 , wherein execution of the data-processing protocol by the processor causes the reader to store the transaction data therein and, upon a trigger signal, to release the cached transaction to the terminal for combination with item-purchase data and transmission to the transaction processor.