Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Summary of the Invention
The present application is an improvement on the referenced
patents and all other known prior art including United States
Patents 4,251,867 and 3,222,057. The present invention is an
improvement because it both recycles money and maintains a
record or records of every transaction which takes place at
a point of sale terminal or a cash handling machine. The record
or records maintained are free from non-destructive interference
in all embodiments of the present invention and free from some
versions of destructive interference. In other words, if an
operator or other person is not willing to destroy the record
thus maintained it will show without doubt the exact course of
a transaction. Further the present invention is operative to
prevent many forms of destructive interference by the mainten-
ance of a dual record. Still further, even a destructiveinterference will have to be quite clever to rebut the inference
that the operator should not be held responsible for the failure
to see that a proper record is not maintained.
The prior art has many examples of cash handling machines
which divide primarily into two categories: the first is those
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machines intended to reduce or eliminate cash handling by
employees in retail establishments. The second is the automatic
teller machines which have become so prominent recently in the
banking world.
The cash handling machines uYlLversally fail to have a
sufficiently complete transaction record. The automatic teller
machines neither recycle cash nor carry a transaction record
adaptable to the retail sales transaction. In the automatic
teller machines all records are related to an account number.
The automatic teller machines all retaln cash received in a way
which either requires later employee verification or makes such
verification impossible.
In its most elemental form the present invention employs a
cash handling device which can receive or dispense cash only
through the actuation of a control element. The cash received is
intended to be recyclable. Cash means money or money's worth in
any form such as credit slips, stamps, coupons and the like. The
cash handling device must be one in which money is sealed in a
secure container which is accessible only through the actuation
of a control element. The cash handling machine must store the
money received in an ordered manner so that cash received and
dispensed can be related to a particular transactiorl f`rom its
position either in the device or when removed from the device.
The control elements which are actuated must cause a record
of their actuation to be made and the actuation record thus made
must be sufficiently precise to identify every transaction fully
as to time, type and content including the number and
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denomination of every bill and coin received or dispensed. With
these elements no operator can remove or add cash to the# automat
money handler which can not be discovered by a later
investigation.
Another em.bodiment of the present invention employs an
operator identification system in which the operator wears a
transponder which interacts with a device radiating energy
resulting in an automatic operator identification.
Without the transponder system, operator identification can
be achieved by using any kind of operator "key". A "key" can be
mechanical, electrical, electro-mechanical, keyboard entered code
magnetic or any combination of them.
When an operator identification system is used the recording
device records the operator identification entered for each
transaction. As a practical matter, many retail operations only
have one operator for either each shift or for each terminal.
The devices can be made in two basic embodiments: one in
which the operator enters cashed received from the customer and
one in which the customer directly enters the cash. For United
States currency, the experts believe that a normally skilled
person is the best counterfeit detector available. Therefore
when the operator handles cash there should be no practical need
to have a device to detect invalid currency. When the operator
does not handle cash and when the customer may have reason to be
suspicious of either the machine or the operator, it is desirable
to have a viewing window to exhibit to the customer the cash
entered into the device by the operator. In is useful to have a
viewing window for the purpose of showing a customer
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that the bill received can be directly viewed. For example, the
viewing window enables an operator to have a complete and
accurate answer to the customer who claims that a ten dollar bill
was given to the operator who only gave credit for a five dollar
bill. The operator to complete the proof may have to actuate the
"Cancel Current Sale" key which causes the device to return to
its state before the commencement of its sale, thereby dispensing
the bill paid in so far.
One embodiment of the present invention uses a computer,
normally a micro-computer, to control the actuation of the
various elements of` the machine and to perform all accounting and
audit functions which are desired or necessary. The programming
of a micro-computer to properly direct and control the automatic
money handler is a task within the present skill of those skilled
in the art and therefore details of the programs controlling the
device are not discussed in this application.
It is very important that the audit trail recorded is not
available to the operator for either destruction or alteration.
One solution to this problem is the generation of a second audit
trail not accessible# by the operator such as the creation of
magnetic recording of the audit trail which can be converted to a
humanly readable form if necessary.
Description of the Drawings
Figure 1 shows a perspec~ive view of one embodiment of a
cash handling machine.
Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the operator's actions
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in receiving and dispensing cash from the machine in Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of
the present invention showing an automatic money handling machine
for cash insertion by a customer~
Figure 4 shows a block diagram showing the operator's
actions in accepting or rejecting money in actuating the embodi-
ment shown in Figure 3.
Figure 5 shows a portion of an audit tape generated by the
device shown in Figures 1 and 3 which forms a part of the
present invention.
Figure 6 is a block diagram showing the interconnection of
the various functional elements which form a part of the device
shown in Figures 1 and 3.
Figures 7 and 8 show embodiments of keyboards which are used
with the embodiments of the invention shown in Figures 1 and 3.
Figure 9 shows a side view of a coupon storage web.
Figure 10 shows a side view of bill cache dump receiving
box.
Description of the Invention
Figure 1 shows a perspective view of one embodiment of the
present invention having a steel cabinet 16 which can be
actually formed as a vault to have either or both burglary and
fire protection capability. The cabinet 16 has a door 12 which
can be locked either by a combination or a key. The entire
assembly can be able to be locked within the vault into which
it descends.
The cover 34 has a keyboard section 28, a bill receiving
section 30 with bill input guides 40 and a bill viewing section
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32 with windows 44. The cover 34 has mated with it a coin
receiving bucket 46 which fits into cover well 36 and a coin
delivery bucket 42. A coupon receiving slot 48 is shown
adjacent the keypad portion of the keyboard.
The embodiment of the invention# shown in Figure 1 may be
used in conjunction with a cash register or point-of-sale device
or it may itself perform that function. This specification is
written on the basis that the point of sale function is performed
by a separate device.
Figure 2 shows the sequence of operation of the device shown
in Figure 1. The Figure 1 embodiment of the device is intended
for use in an environment# in which the operator receives money of
some form from the customer.
A sale sequence would be as follows: The customer orders
and the# sale is "rung-up" on the cash register which electron-
ically transfers the total of sale to the automatic money
handler as shown in block 1. The operator receives payment in
bills, coins, coupons or any combination of them. The operator's
identification code is entered# into the machine by some means
which will be described in more detail later. The operator then
deposits coins into the coin receiving bucket. The coins are
processed automatically. Bills received by the operator are
placed one-at-a-time into the proper bill slot 40 which may be
designated for $1's, $5's, $10's and $20's/others. In the case
of $1's, $5's and $10's it is merely necessary for the operator to
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actuate the accept key to feed each bill. In an alternative
arrangement, the money handler can be directed to accept all
$1's, $5's and $10's fed to the bill input slot. In such a case,
the operator needs only to actuate the proper keys if bill a $20
or larger is ~nserted into the machine or if some
other form of non-cash payment such as check,credit card, stamp,
coupon, etc is used. The keyboard shown in Figure 7 would have
the appropriate key actuated to indicate the type of payment
received and the the appropriate key or keys to indicate amount
of such payment. This embodiment of the invention permits the
rejection of any bill entered.
The automatic money handler calculates the total amount of
money received and determines the amount of change due if any.
If change is due, the money handler delivers the appropriate
change to the operator who in turn delivers it to the customer as
shown in block 7 of Figure 2.
A second embodiment of the invention is shown in perspective
in Figure 3. This automatic money handler 10 is intended to
receive money directly from the customer who places coins one-at-
a-time in slot 26 and bill is bill receiving trays 16 to input
slots 18. The bills thus inserted into the machine are viewed
through windows 20. The operator side 14 of the device 10 has a
keyboard as shown in Figure 8. The detai:led operation of` this
device has been described in United States patents 4,310,885 and
4,249,552 which are incorporated by reference herein.
The keyboard shown in Figure 8 of` this application is a
simplified version of that shown in the two referenced patents.
In particular, the keyboard shown in this application has all of
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the keys in the referenced patents except those relating to the
"Prompting Device". The operation of the device is similar to
that previously described as shown in Figure 4 of the drawings.
One important difference is that the device will not operate
without the entry of an appropriate operator identification
number. This is shown by the arrow marked 3.1 in Figure 2.
Entry of the operator identification can be achieved by any
number of ways well known in the art. These include mechanical
key, electro-mechanical# key, magnetic key, entry of a proper co
into the machine by magnetic stripe, keypad code entry or radio
signal entry of code. In that connection, the patents listed
below show such units which can be combined with the present
invention: 4,047,156; 3,299,424; 3,752,960; 4,223,830; 4,236,068.
It is well within the knowledge present in the art today to
both require~ that an operator be identified and to record the
identification thus required. What is considered inventive is to
require such identification in combination with the maintenance
of an accurate and thorough transaction record. The assignee of
the present invention has begun to develop an inventive device to
achieve the operator identification; that invention will be the
subject of a later filed application.
Figure 6 shows in block diagram form the various
interconnections of the data processing e:Lements which operate
the electro-mechanical elements of the present invention. This
basic operation has been thoroughly described in earlier ~nited
States patents and patent applications previously mentioned. The
present configuration is different in several respects. The
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present device can accept various forms of non-cash payments
as cash and these are stored in the coupon cache 902. Cache
902 is controlled by the data processor 350 through the multi-
plexer 368 in the same basic manner that the other bill
receiving channels are controlled. In the embodiment of the
present invention which has been shown in the cache 902 is a
serpentine web which holds relatively few coupons. Coupons
stored in greater number than the capacity of the serpentine
web are permitted to drop in a removal storage container. A
structure to achieve this simple function is shown in Figure 9.
See United States patent 3,447,655 which shows one embodiment
of a device of this general type which generally satisfy the
function sought to be performed. The device shown in this
patent is not reversible but the depicted# structure in the
present invention is reversible and is easily programmed to
control the reverse motion of the drive.
An important aspect of the present invention is the
ability of the money handler to quickly take bills from cache
storage to storage in another container. Further in the
transfer from one container to another the order of the bills
is not changed.
Another difference is shown by the addition of block 910
which is labeled "cache dump". The structure which may be
used for this function is shown in Figure lO. It is shown
as a separate mechanical element on the block diagram, Figure
6. In some embodiments it could be as simple as a box to
be filled requiring no control elements. The device shown
in Figure lO is sufficient to permit the bill stored . . . .
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in the webs to be dumped at high speed and maintained in the
order in which they were originally inserted into the machine.
The audit tape 701 shown in detail in Figure 5. The tape
shows the date, time. The tape further shows the amount due, the
amount paid and the change. The coLumn 714 marked "deposit"
shows what bills are deposited by denomlnation. Column 716 shows
what bills are withdrawn from the machine also by denomination.
This requirement implies that no bill cache which is able to
receive more than one denomination of bill can dispense bills.
Column 718 shows the designation "OID" which stands for "operator
identification". The device will take the 14 to 16 bit binary
operator code number typically used and convert it to a three
digit number for printing on the tape.
Looking at tape 701 shows how the system works. The due,
paid and change columns operation is obvious. In the deposit
column various entries are shown such as "I", "3I" "X", "T" which
stand respectively for: one dollar, three-one dollars, ten
dollars and twenty dollars.
Column 716 shows the bills dispensed as change using a code
based on position of the column multiplied by a numeral which
numeral is printed in the proper column. For example: "x" means
no bill of that denomination; 1 means one such bill and so on.
the three digit column is read from left to right as ten dollar
bills, five dollar bills and one dollar bills. Looking down
column 716. transaction segment 754 means that one ten, one five
and two ones were dispensed as change. Transaction segment# 756
showns that three ones were dispensed as change.
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Because in most circumstances, coin change is relatively
unimportant only the actual amount of change is indicated.
However, the denomination of change dispensed can easily be
shown since the information is available to the computer and can
easily be printed out.
Paper tapes of the type shown can easily be destroyed or cut
and pasted by dishonest employees. To prevent some such
tampering, the tape will show the time for every transaction and
will repeatedly show the day and date at a frequency of every ten
transactions. A still further precaution is to create a second
source of audit control. There are many ways to create such a
trail. One such way is shown in Figure 6. the printer-recorder
375 shown in that drawing is a device which can keep a three day
record on magnetic tape of all transactions. One such tape
recorder available is manufactured by Exatron of Sunnyvale,
California and LS called a "Stringy Floppy".
The present invention has been described with respect to
speclfic structures. Those skilled in the art readily appreciate
that there are very many ways to implement the present invention.
Those various implementations which are within the scope and
spirit of the present specification are intended to be within the
scope of the appended claims. For example, the device in its
present embodiment as prograrnmed has a structured routine for
"Cancel Previous Sale" which requires the entry into the machine
of all bills, coupons and coins which were given as change before
the device will return the bills, coins and coupons originally
received. This exact transaction is# of course recorded in
detail on the audit tape.
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