Patent Application
20200195466
This application relates to customer-operated kiosks in quick service restaurant environments. In particular, this application relates to systems and methods for providing kiosk device management for kiosk devices connected to such kiosks.
Existing customer-operated kiosk systems typically integrate various peripheral devices in order to provide customer ordering services in a quick service restaurant environment. In many cases, these devices may be encapsulated within the interior of the kiosk device and hidden from external view resulting in difficulty in detecting and correcting problems. Because failure of certain internal device components may cause the kiosk system to fail or otherwise adversely impact customer experience, improved kiosk systems are needed.
The system, method, and devices of the invention each have several aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of this invention, several of its features will now be discussed briefly.
In one aspect, there is a kiosk device management system. The kiosk device management system includes a device discovery module configured to discover a kiosk device connected to a kiosk computer and report the discovered kiosk device. The system also include an event bus configured to receive a notification related to the discovered kiosk device from the device discovery module. A model registry is configured to receive information indicative of the discovered device from the event bus and generate a device model based on the received information. The system also includes a device management module configured to receive status codes from the discovered device and send a command to the discovered device based on the received status code.
In another aspect, there is a method of managing kiosk devices in a kiosk system. The method includes discovering a plurality of kiosk devices connected to a kiosk computer and reporting information related to each of the plurality discovered devices to an event bus. The event bus then transmits the information related to each of the plurality of discovered devices to a model registry. A plurality of device models is generated which corresponds to each of the plurality of discovered devices based at least in part on the information related to each of the plurality of discovered devices.
In yet another aspect, there is a method of providing device management services in a kiosk system. The kiosk system has a kiosk application that provides a customer-operated quick service restaurant ordering interface. The method includes receiving a first device status code in a model registry of the kiosk system, the device status code comprising data indicative of a kiosk device failure condition. The method further includes storing the first status code as current status data for a device model corresponding to the kiosk device in the failure condition and issuing a command for the kiosk application to enter a lower function mode based at least in part on the first status code. Lastly, the method includes generating a re-initialization command for the failing kiosk device; and transmitting the re-initialization command to the failing kiosk device.
In this description, reference is made to the drawings wherein like parts are designated with like numerals throughout.
Various embodiments disclosed herein relate to systems and methods for providing autonomic device management for customer-operated ordering kiosks which are operated in quick service restaurant environments.
Issues of reliability and performance have prevented wide-scale adoption of customer-operated ordering kiosks in quick service restaurant (QSR) environments. The QSR environment is fast-paced, and the large majority of customers and therefore revenues are serviced during a few peak mealtime hours each day. The customer-operating ordering kiosks installed in QSR environments typically include internal software running on a computer. The computer, in turn, may be connected to other kiosk devices such as computer peripheral devices, for example which provide services to the kiosk application. For example, the kiosk computer may be connected to a printer which is used to print customer receipts from the ordering kiosk.
Although peripheral devices in the kiosk are often important to the optimal operation of the kiosk, they are not in some cases absolutely necessary for the kiosk to operate. Nevertheless, failure of a kiosk device during a peak mealtime such as during the lunch hour, can have a significant effect on the profitability for a particular day. Existing kiosk devices have been problematic because they have commonly encountered problems which require system maintenance during the times that they are most heavily used. These problems have included untimely failure of kiosk devices such as receipt printers, credit card processing, cash handling, and the like. Additionally, because kiosk devices are typically located in a secured interior portion of the kiosk, and are often placed in environments which allow limited hours of serviceability, when a kiosk device fails it is difficult to remedy the failure for several hours due to these issues of security, location, error detection, or interruption of customer experience.
The inventors have also recognized that existing QSR kiosk solutions have also suffered from offering inflexible software support for the variety of kiosk devices that may be installed or operated within the kiosks. Kiosk devices used within the kiosks are often specialized in nature, and therefore, may be manufactured in relatively small batches. When kiosk devices fail, they may need to be replaced by new kiosk devices. Manufacturing kiosk devices in small batches can lead to small variances in physical hardware attributes as well as subtle differences in device firmware which may manifest during certain error scenarios. As a result, the behavior of a replacement device and its device specific error codes may not always be fully known before the replacement device is sent into the field.
Kiosk systems in the field, particularly when unmanned, may be subjected to abusive behavior such as jarring, blocking of printer output areas, and accidental static discharge which can temporality render the printer and other kiosk devices unavailable for a small number of transactions. These situations may resolve themselves naturally within minutes (or even seconds), but in ordinary circumstances, the kiosk application running on the kiosk computer may not be aware that the situation has been resolved and thus may not resume its normal interface and communication with the kiosk device. Thus, a re-initialization of the kiosk system may be required to restore full functionality. Because initialization of the kiosk system may involve starting and initialization many kiosk devices, a re-initialization can take several minutes to complete.
In order to address the operating challenges described above, the inventors have developed a kiosk system which is capable of maintaining kiosk devices online without physical manipulation, and is further capable of forcing a programmatic re-initialization of kiosk devices when necessary. Moreover, because complete initialization of a kiosk system is such a time consuming event, the inventors have developed a kiosk system in which individual devices can be initialized and re-initialized in parallel with normal operation of the kiosk system.
Turning now to
The kiosk door 102 may have cutout areas forming apertures through which limited access may be provided to internal kiosk device components. For example, one aperture in the kiosk door may provide access to a kiosk display 106. The kiosk display 106 may be a touch screen display that may be used by the customer to operate a kiosk software application. The kiosk software application may be stored in a memory on a kiosk computer (not shown) which is positioned in the kiosk cabinet and generally not accessible without first opening the kiosk door 102. Another aperture in the kiosk door 102 may provide access to a bill accepting device 108. The bill accepting device 108 may be used to receive payments in the form of cash or some other paper currency or note for services rendered. The bill accepting device 108 may form a part of a larger cash handling subsystem which also includes a cash dispenser 110 and a coin dispenser 112. As shown in
Because the kiosk 100 is configured to conduct business transactions, the kiosk 100 may be configured with a printing device 114. The printing device 114 may be a specialized receipt printer which is connected to the kiosk computer and which prints receipts to customers in accordance with kiosk application requirements. The receipt printing device may be positioned predominantly within the kiosk cabinet as shown, with only the paper output area protruding through an aperture formed in the exterior of the kiosk 100. Also part of the payment subsystem in the kiosk may be a credit card processing device 116. In the example shown in Figure, a portion of the credit card processing device 116 extends through an aperture to receive a credit card (or other type of card) swipe from the customer.
All of the devices described above merely illustrate some of the kiosk devices which may be located within the interior portion of the kiosk 100. As a skilled artisan will readily appreciate, the kiosk 100 may include many other different kiosk devices and may be configured in various other ways. For example, the kiosk door may be located on the back side of the kiosk 100 instead of the front side, and the apertures may be formed within the kiosk body 104 instead of within the kiosk door 102. Further, the relative locations of the various kiosk devices need not necessarily be provide as shown in
As discussed above, the kiosk 100 may be use a computing device or computer which is connected to various other kiosk devices to perform the ordering functions assigned to the kiosk 100. The computing device may be a specialized computer which is designed specifically for kiosk operations, or in some embodiments, the computer may be a standard personal computer device such as an Intel processor-based PC running an off the shelf operating system such as Windows, Linux, MacOS, or the like. As used herein, the term “computing device” or “kiosk computer” generally refers to one or more computers which are connected to kiosk devices to control the operation of kiosk. The term “kiosk system” refers to both the computing device and the kiosk devices that are connected to it.
The kiosk devices may be computer peripheral devices such as the kiosk printer 114, the kiosk display 106, the kiosk bill collector 108, the bill dispenser 110, the coin dispenser 112, or other types kiosk devices. A “kiosk application” refers to one or more software applications executing on the kiosk computer which provide the user interface for the kiosk and its other operations.
As noted above, the kiosk device management system 200 may include an event bus 204. The event bus 204, which may take the form of a software module or service, typically receives and delivers messages to other components in the kiosk device management system 200. As part of the kiosk device management system 200, the event bus is typically used to reliably transmit information about the existence or health of kiosk devices 202 to other subsystems in the kiosk device management system 200 or to the kiosk application 220. In one embodiment, the event bus operates according to a publish and subscribe model which provides asynchronous messaging services. Additional details about the event bus 204 are discussed below in connection with
The kiosk device management system 200 may also include a device discovery and management module 206. The device discovery and management module 206 typically takes the form of a software service and performs two general functions: device discovery and device management. Although the embodiment described in
With respect to device discovery, the software service may be configured to discover kiosk devices which are attached to the kiosk computer, or are otherwise part of the kiosk system. Typically, these kiosk devices are attached via a direct hardware interface such as a printer port on the kiosk computer, a USB port, an RS232 interface, and IP network interface (wired or wireless), or some other type of connection. In some embodiments, the discovery of the kiosk devices may be achieved using various device discovery techniques. For example, the device discovery module may be configured to read a configuration file stored in a memory of the kiosk computer which contains information about connected devices, including information related to prioritization of resources. The device discovery module may also be configured to scan known device locations in the operating system of the kiosk computer to determine which kiosk devices are connected to the kiosk computer and working properly. These known device locations may include certain ports (both physical and virtual), or these location may also include registry information which is indicative of the status of the ports. For kiosk devices which are available to the kiosk computer via a network connection, the discovery module may be configured to access simple network management protocol (SNMP) information to discover network-connected kiosk devices. In addition, the discovery module may access Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) information from the kiosk computer which provides additional details about connected devices. Other methods of kiosk device discovery may be used such as java messaging services (JMS) for example.
Once the discovery module 206 discovers kiosk devices, it is typically configured to report the discovered device to the event bus 204. The event bus 204, in turn, may pass the device discovery message to the model registry 208. The model registry 208 is a software component or module which is configured to create and manage device models 210. Device models 210 are abstractions of the physical devices 202 which are discovered by the discovery and management module 206 and will be discussed in greater detail below. The model registry 208 receives information from the event bus 204 and generates a “best-fit” device model 210 for the physical device 202 using existing property comparison algorithms. The property comparison algorithms typically allow the kiosk system to select non-optimal kiosk devices to carry out certain requests. For example, a kiosk application may request a printer which is capable of printing in color, and landscape layout. The model registry would then iterate through its discovered devices and find if any are capable of performing such print jobs. If none exists, it may loosen its requirements and query for a less capable, but still acceptable device. Other property comparison algorithms may be used in a situation whether the kiosk requests a printer capable of printing receipts (in the standard format). If one is unavailable, the algorithms may allow the kiosk to settle for a standard laser printer which is also attached to the kiosk. As shown in
As noted briefly above, the device models 210 are software modules or components which abstract certain details about the physical device 202 to which they correspond. These abstracted details may include the serial number of the device 202, the device manufacturer, the device model, capabilities of the device, or some other information. The abstracted information is made available to the kiosk application 220 so that the device may be accessed by the kiosk application 220 in a generic manner without needing low level device programming incorporated into the kiosk application logic.
The kiosk device management system 200 shown in
Also included in the device discovery and management module 206 is an initialization sub-module 304. The initialization sub-module 304 incorporated into the discovery and management module 206 typically includes initialization commands for the devices that have been discovered by the discovery sub-module 302. The initialization sub-module 306 is typically used in two circumstances. First, the initialization logic is called for the purpose of sending initialization commands to kiosk devices during the startup process of the kiosk system. Second, the initialization logic may also be used to attempt to re-initialization devices which have become inactive or have reported error conditions which require a restart of the device.
The device discovery and management module 206 also includes a management sub-module 308. The management sub-module 308 includes functions and methods which may query discovered devices 202 via their associated device driver 203 for the current status of the device 202. The management logic may also receive messages/command from the event bus 204 which are intended for a device and send those messages/commands to the device via the device driver. For example, in one embodiment, if the kiosk application makes a print request to a printer device model such as device model 210A, the model registry 208 passes that print request to the event bus 204 which in turn delivers to message to the device management module 206. Alternatively, the kiosks requests may be issued directly to the device model 210 and then sent directly to the device management module 206, or even the device subsystem the model represents. The device management module 206 then converts the command into the machine-understandable print code and sends the code to the appropriate driver 203A. The device driver 203A may then pass the code to the printing device 202A which then executes the print command in the printing hardware.
Turning now to
In certain embodiments, the model registry 208 may be configured to store a list of discovered models and organize them into general device types (such as bill acceptor, printer, for example). The device models 210 may also model external systems, such as point of sale systems, or external credit card processors, for example.
When the model registry receives a status message, it compares the message source to its existing device models 210, and if there is a new device reporting, the model generator 502 may generate a new model for device sending the message, based on the information the device has given. In some embodiments, the capabilities of a device may be listed in a separate repository instead of being directly reported by the device to the event bus 204. For example, a device may simply report that it is a SWECOIN 2030 device. From that reporting message, another repository of information may be accessed to determine that device is a printer with 300 dpi, black and white toner and a 3 cm paper roll.
The device model 210 may also include device status data 604. The device status data 604 may take the form of a status code which has been received from the event bus 204 via the device discovery and management module 206. Typically, the device status data include the code most recently received from the event bus 204. In some implementations, historical device code data may be stored with the device model 210. The device model 210 may further include device command data 606. The device command data 606 may include command codes which may be sent to the underlying physical device 202 associated with the device model 210 via the event bus 204, directly, or via the device management module 206 in order to allow the kiosk application 220 to control the physical hardware device.
The process begins at block 702, where the kiosk application 220 begins the boot up process. As noted above, the kiosk application is typically stored in a memory of the kiosk computer and is executed by a processor located in the kiosk computer. The kiosk application boot up process typically occurs when the kiosk is “turned on” so that it can be used in the field by customers. As part of the boot up process, the operating system on the kiosk computer loads into memory, and the kiosk application 220 begins execution.
Next, at block 704, the kiosk application 220 has been loaded into memory and the discovery sub-module 302 of the device discovery and management module 206 is called. At block 706, the discovery sub-module discovers (possibly using the loaded device drivers 203) the physical kiosk devices 202 which are operating within the kiosk system. As noted above, the device discovery sub-module may be configured to scan known device locations such as physical and virtual ports in the operating system of the kiosk computer to determine which kiosk devices are connected to the kiosk computer and working properly. The device discovery sub-module may also use a management protocol such as SNMP and UPnP, or some proprietary device discovery method to discover attached kiosk devices. The process then optionally moves to block 708 where the initialization sub-module 304 of the device discovery and management module 206 sends device initialization commands to the devices that it has discovered. This block is denoted as optional because, in some instances, the operating system of the computer may have also already initialized the devices making initialization commands unnecessary.
The process next moves to block 710 where the discovered device information is transmitted by the device discovery and management module 206 to the event bus 204 for processing. The event bus 204 receives the device information and then transmits it to the model registry 208 at block 712. The process then moves to block 714, where the model registry 208 creates a device model 210 based on the device information received from the event bus 204. As discussed above, the device model 210 generated by the model registry 208 is an abstracted representation of the physical device 202.
When the device models have been generated using the process of
The process then moves to block 806, where the generated request is passed to the model registry 208. The model registry 208 receives the message from the event bus 204 and searches for a device model which has the requested properties at block 808. For example, if the kiosk application has requested the printing service, the model registry searches each device model in the registry to identify those devices capable of carrying out the request.
The process then moves to decision block 810, where it is determined whether an appropriate model 210 has been found in the model registry 208. If a device model 210 suitable for carrying out the kiosk application request is identified, then the process moves to block 814 where the device model 210 is selected and the kiosk application request is sent to the selected device model 210. If, at decision block 810, an appropriate model is not found, the process instead moves to block 812, where the closest matching device model is selected to carry out the kiosk application request.
For example, if the local printer in the kiosk system is unable to carry out the request, for instance, due to it being out of paper, the model registry 208 may have a secondary network printer that may be capable of carrying out the request. However, the network printer may not have the paper size specified by the print request. Even though the paper size is not optimal, the print request may be sent to the secondary printer to determine whether the print job can be successful or not.
In some embodiments, it is also possible to find that there is not a closely matching device model. In this instance, the kiosk application may be notified that no such device exists, and may then modify its process to work around the deficiency. Alternatively, the kiosk application may also simply go offline if the request cannot be fulfilled by any device model.
As noted above, one of the challenges facing effective kiosk implementation in a QSR environment is the fact that kiosk devices are often manufactured in small batches by various vendors resulting in slightly different configurations of kiosk devices over time. These slightly different configurations may include different firmware versions, for example. The different firmware versions might have slightly different device codes. Thus, when a particular model of a kiosk device is replaced with a newer version of the same model, the codes received by the model registry 208 from the device management sub-module may not be the codes that are expected for that type of device. In existing systems, these types of inconsistencies cause the kiosk device to raise an exception, and may cause the device to be unusable until the codes are updated. In some embodiments, the kiosk device management system 200 may include a learning component that allows it to handle situations such as these by inferring meaning of unknown codes based on defined behavior associated with those codes.
If at decision block 906 the status code is not known or present in the device model 210, the model registry first updates the device model 210 with the new status code at block 908. The process next moves to block 910 where it tests the device. Once the device has been tested, the status code is then interpreted based on the result of the test at block 912. By way of example and not of limitation, if the device model 210 is for a printer, and the new status code is not recognized by the device registry, a test print may be sent to the printing device to determine whether it is operating properly. If the test print is successful, the status code may be then interpreted or inferred to mean that the printer device is functioning properly. In some embodiments, if the status code cannot be interpreted, the device may be set as being in an “UNKNOWN” status can be considered offline and unavailable to process requests.
In some embodiments, the kiosk device management system 200 may also be used to allow the kiosk to enter a lower function mode if certain kiosk devices are unavailable to prevent a negative impact on the customer ordering experience.
The process begins at block 1002 where a kiosk device 202 generates a device status code. The process then moves to block 1004, where the device status code for the kiosk device 202 is received by the model registry 208. As discussed above, the status code may be obtained from the kiosk device 202 by regularly polling the device 202 with the management sub-module 308 of the device discovery and management model 206. The result received by the management sub-module is then sent to the event bus 204 which it turns passes the data to the model registry 208.
Next, at block 1006, the status code obtained from the device 202 is stored in the status data 604 of the device model 210 that is associated with the device 202. The process then moves to decision block 1008, where the model registry 208 determines whether the device status 604 requires a change in the operating mode of the kiosk application. If no change in kiosk operating mode is required at block 1008, then the process moves to block 1014 and the kiosk remains in its current operating mode. The process then loops back to block 1002 and repeats.
If at decision block 1008 a change in the operating mode of the kiosk is required, the process moves instead to block 1010, where a new kiosk operating mode is determined based on the status data. Once the new mode has been determined, the process then moves to block 1012, where the kiosk enters the selected new operating mode. Once the new operating mode has been entered by the kiosk, the process loops back to block 1002 and begins again.
Thus, the process set forth in
In one specific implementation of the process described in
Thus, in accordance with the process described in
In still another embodiment, the kiosk application may change its cash handling mode based on status codes received from the various devices which are used to conduct payment transactions. For example, if the credit card swipe 116 is in an error condition detected by the model registry 208, the kiosk application 220 may be configured to operate in a “cash-only” mode until a device model 210 for the credit card processing device 116 indicates a normal operating condition.
In some additional embodiments, when an error condition is encountered in one or more kiosk devices 202, the kiosk device management system 200, in addition to modify the operating mode of the kiosk application 220, may also be configured to attempt to correct the error condition by re-initializing the device in such a way as to not adversely impact the customer ordering experience.
The process of
In some embodiments, the process shown in
Those of skill will recognize that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware computer software or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system.
Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention. The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.
A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.
The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CDROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor.
The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.
While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointed out novel features of the invention as applied to various embodiments, it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions, and changes in the form and details of the device or process illustrated may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. As will be recognized, the presently disclosed embodiment may be embodied within a form that does not provide all of the features and benefits set forth herein, as some features may be used or practiced separately from others. The scope of the invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes, which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
This patent application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 16/354,000 filed Mar. 14, 2019, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 12/391,140 filed Feb. 23, 2009, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16354000 | Mar 2019 | US |
| Child | 16802418 | US | |
| Parent | 12391140 | Feb 2009 | US |
| Child | 16354000 | US |
