CA2325444A1 - Apparatus and method for providing transaction services - Google Patents

Abstract

Apparatus and method for providing transaction services, in particular a computer-based transaction machine, such as an ATM, and a method for providing transaction services using said transaction machine. One or more software applications interact with middleware software through functional interfaces that are hardware independent but provide functionality which is implemented in a manner adapted to the capabilities of the particular hardware implementation. Objects provided for standard transaction functions are independent of the interface between the user and the transaction machine, said interface being customisable. The resulting transaction machines are typically combined into networks and these networks may readily be combined to form an Extranet.

Description

WO 99/49431 ~ PCT/GB99/00927 3 The present invention relates to apparatus and a method 4 for providing transaction services. In particular it relates to networked computer-based transaction machines 6 and a method for providing transaction services using 7 said transaction machines.
a 9 Transaction machines are herein defined as any computer-1o based machine able to interact with a user.

12 The term ATM is used herein to refer to any transaction 13 machine able to dispense cash. Typically, such machines 14 can also undertake physical transactions such as inputting information through a keypad or touch screen, 16 making sounds, producing video and printing. They might also be able to read bank cards and such like. Kiosks 18 are transaction machines unable to dispense cash, but 19 otherwise able to provide a range of interactive 2o features, often relating to financial services. For test 21 purposes, a conventional PC may be used as a transaction 22 machine.

2 Electronic cash machines are a large and rapidly growing 3 market. Many different hardware providers produce 4 equipment for this market such as the machines themselves, the servers to which they connect and the 6 networking means through which they typically 7 communicate. Furthermore, many different operating 8 systems and applications are used both for operating and 9 developing these systems.
11 As a result of the complexity and diversity of hardware 12 and software currently being used in this field, it is 13 difficult and expensive to alter these systems to extend 14 their functionality, upgrade to newer and better hardware, software or networking means or to interface 16 with other systems. As it is difficult to make even 1~ small changes to complex systems without running the risk 18 of their malfunctioning, the evolution of such systems is 19 slow.
2o 21 It would therefore be advantageous to find a way of 22 making it easier to alter the hardware, software and 23 network components of ATMs/kiosks, their servers and 24 their networking means.
26 Furthermore, it would be advantageous to provide a means 27 for enabling such changes to be implemented in small 28 stages .

3o Yet further, it would be advantageous to find a way to 31 reduce the risk of such systems malfunctioning.

1 In current practice, it is difficult and therefore 2 expensive to operate ATM/kiosk networks containing 3 diverse hardware, software and networking means. Often 4 large amounts of hardware and software must be upgraded concomitantly to reduce interface problems. Furthermore, 6 it is difficult to interface networks of dissimilar devices, perhaps belonging to different organisations.
s If dissimilar ATM/kiosk systems could be readily interfaced, forming a so-called Extranet, new and useful co-operative applications could be developed which, 11 although currently possible, are prohibitively complex 12 and expensive at the present time.

14 It would therefore be advantageous to provide a better means of networking ATMs/kiosks which use diverse 16 hardware, software and networking implementations. In particular, it would be advantageous to provide a means 18 of allowing co-operation between dissimilar networks.
19 Furthermore, it would be advantageous to reduce the 2o amount of work required to enable ATM/kiosk applications 21 to run on dissimilar hardware implementations.

23 At the present time, there is a rapid growth in 24 electronic commerce (e-commerce), usually conducted over the Internet. E-commerce is being limited by 26 difficulties gaining access to the Internet for many 2~ consumers and due to the limitations of the machines 28 currently used by consumers for Internet transactions. A
29 typical e-commerce consumer will access a web site using 3o a home PC. However, home PCs lack facilities such as the 31 ability to dispense cash or read a smartcard which are 32 important in many types of common financial transaction.

2 It would therefore be desirable to provide a means of 3 allowing Internet-based e-commerce to be accessed from 4 ATMs and kiosks which already have hardware facilities suitable for financial transactions. This would allow e-6 commerce services to be provided which required expensive 7 or high-security hardware facilities which cannot be 8 securely provided at a reasonable cost on privately owned 9 web browsers. Furthermore, it would be possible for e-commerce to be made readily available to a much larger 11 base of consumers than is currently available.

13 The design of ATM networks typically involves input from 14 numerous professionals such as software and hardware engineers specialising in the various systems, 16 applications and communications means, graphics and GUI
1~ specialists, language specialists and so forth. In 18 current working practice these specialists are highly 19 dependent on each other and much time and money is spent communicating different requirements amongst people 21 working on diverse areas of a project.

23 It would therefore be advantageous to provide a means by 24 which the different specialists working on a project may work more independently. In particular, it would be 26 highly advantageous to provide a means by which the 27 different specialists may customise elements of the 28 application pertaining to their own specialisation 29 without affecting other elements of the application. It 3o would be particularly advantageous if the different 31 specialists were able to use well known prior art 32 authoring tools to prepare aspects of the application.

1 According to the present invention there is provided a 2 method for providing transaction services wherein (a) the user of the transaction services interacts with a computer-based transaction machine which is 6 controlled by one or more software applications;

8 (b) the software applications interact with the 9 functional interfaces of middleware software, which 1o extends the functionality of an underlying operating 11 system; and 13 (c) said functional interfaces provide functionality 14 which is implemented in a manner adapted to the particular hardware capabilities of the transaction 16 machine.

18 The computer-based transaction machine may be selected 19 from a group which comprises automatic teller machines, kiosks, electronic point of sale machines and the like.

22 Preferably, the middleware software comprises a series of 23 transaction objects and controls for standard device 24 functions.
26 More preferably, transaction objects are independent of 27 the interface between the user and the transaction 28 machine; the interface between the user and the 29 transaction machine being customisable.
31 Preferably, the controls implement a capabilities 32 interface.

2 More preferably, the capabilities interface is able to 3 communicate the capabilities of the control software.

The applications, objects and controls may be fully 6 concurrent and asynchronous.

8 The controls may have a mode in which events are queued 9 up and delivered to the application on demand.
11 Preferably, controls can run on the transaction machine 12 even when supported hardware devices are not present.

14 More preferably, the middleware software uses one or more open standards for interacting with different hardware 16 systems.

18 Preferably, the middleware software only provides 19 cancellation commands for functions which can be 2o successfully cancelled.

22 The middleware software may only requires a timeout 23 command to be supplied when it is meaningful to do so.

Preferably, all controls are persistent.

27 More preferably, there is provided a control containing a 28 persistent object.

Preferably, all errors and transgressions are asserted by 31 the middleware software.

WO 99/49431 ~ PCT/GB99/00927 1 Preferably, the middleware software provides a trace 2 facility that is always enabled and which logs trace 3 events.

The middleware software may use a ring buffer to store a 6 log of trace events.

8 Preferably, the middleware software writes trace data to 9 memory and then copies it to disk only when the 1o transaction machine is idle.

12 Preferably, one or more software applications are hosted 13 in a web browser.

More preferably, the use of a web browser provides 16 support for software distribution and network 17 connections.

19 An additional browser frame may be provided which 2o contains the device controls required to detect events 21 which must be dealt with immediately they occur.

23 The middleware software may comprise a series of COM
24 components with a scriptable ActiveX' interface.
26 The middleware software may comprise a series of 27 Javabeans'''"' components with a scriptable interface.

29 The use of a web browser may allow conventional web sites to be displayed by the computer-based transaction 31 machine.

1 Preferably, the middleware software allows or disallows 2 access to particular web sites according to a rule 3 database.

The middleware software may be adapted to customise time-6 out of the display of individual Internet web sites.

8 Preferably, said computer-based transaction machine is 9 adapted to allow the software applications and middleware 1o to be altered across a network by an authority.

12 More preferably, the transaction machine communicates 13 information about its status to a remote monitoring 14 station across a network.
16 According to a second aspect of the present invention, 17 there is provided a computer-based transaction machine;
18 wherein said computer-based transaction machine is 19 provided with hardware devices for interaction with users 2o and the exchange of transaction-related information with 21 other machines; wherein said computer-based transaction 22 machine is controlled by one or more software 23 applications; wherein said software applications control 24 hardware devices through functional interfaces with middleware software; wherein said middleware software 26 extends the functionality of an underlying operating 27 system and wherein said functional interfaces are 2s hardware independent but provide functionality which is 29 implemented in a manner adapted to the capabilities of the particular hardware devices which are provided.

1 The computer-based transaction machine may be selected 2 from a group which comprises automatic teller machines, 3 kiosks, electronic point of sale machines and the like.

Preferably, the middleware software comprises a series of 6 transaction objects and controls for standard device 7 functions.

9 More preferably, transaction objects are independent of 1o the interface between the user and the transaction 11 machine; the interface between the user and the 12 transaction machine being customisable.

14 Preferably, the controls implement a capabilities interface.

17 More preferably, the capabilities interface is able to 18 communicate the capabilities of the control software.

The applications, objects and controls may be fully 21 concurrent and asynchronous.

23 The controls may have a mode in which events are queued 24 up and delivered to the application on demand.
26 Preferably, controls can run on a transaction machine 27 even when supported hardware devices are not present.

29 More preferably, the middleware software uses one or more 3o open standards for interacting with different hardware 31 systems.

WO 99/49431 ~ 0 PCT/GB99/00927 1 Preferably, the middleware software only provides 2 cancellation commands for functions which can be 3 successfully cancelled.

The middleware software may only requires a timeout 6 command to be supplied when it is meaningful to do so.

8 Preferably, all controls are persistent.

1o More preferably, there is provided a control containing a 11 persistent object.

13 Preferably, all errors and transgressions are asserted by 14 the middleware software.
16 Preferably, the middleware software provides a trace 17 facility that is always enabled and which logs trace 1 8 events .

2o The middleware software may use a ring buffer to store a 21 log of trace events.

23 Preferably, the middleware software writes trace data to 24 memory and then copies it to disk only when the transaction machine is idle.

27 Preferably, one or more software applications are hosted 28 in a web browser.

3o More preferably, the use of a web browser provides 31 support for software distribution and network 32 connections.

WO 99/49431 ~ ~ PCT/GB99/00927 2 An additional browser frame may be provided which 3 contains the device controls required. to detect events which must be dealt with immediately they occur.
6 The middleware software may comprise a series of COM
7 components with a scriptable ActiveX~ interface.

9 The middleware software may comprise a series of Javabeans'''t' components with a scriptable interface.

12 The use of a web browser may allow conventional web sites 13 to be displayed by the computer-based transaction 14 machine.
16 Preferably, the middleware software allows or disallows 17 access to particular web sites according to a rule 18 database.

The middleware software may be adapted to customise time-21 out of the display of individual Internet web sites.

23 Preferably, the computer-based transaction machine is 24 adapted to allow the software applications and middleware to be altered across~a network by an authority.

27 More preferably, the transaction machine can communicate 28 information about their status to a remote monitoring 29 station across a network.
31 According to a third aspect of the present invention 32 there is provided a network comprising a plurality of WO 99/49431 ~ 2 PCT/GB99/00927 i computer-based transaction machines, one or more 2 networking means and one or more application servers.

4 According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an Extranet formed by combining a 5 plurality of networks of computer-based transaction machines.

9 Preferably, the Extranet is provided with a security 0 mechanism which limits the hardware functionality ~ available to individual software applications.

WO 99!49431 1 3 PCT/GB99/00927 1 An example embodiment of the present invention, referred 2 to as the system, will now be described with reference to 3 the following Figures wherein:

Figure 1 shows a simple ATM network;
6 Figure 2 shows an ATM network with diverse hardware;
7 Figure 3 shows two distinct networks being combined 8 to form an Extranet; and 9 Figure 4 shows the software architecture of the 1o preferred implementation of the system.

12 Figure 1 shows a simple ATM network comprising a server 13 1, a networking means 2 and an ATM 3. The system is 14 designed to operate such networks and also more complex networks such as shown in Figure 2 wherein there may be 16 ATMs of different functionality, here labelled 4.

18 A particular benefit of the system is its ability to 19 allow distinct networks to operate together as shown in 2o Figure 3. Here, two distinct networks 5 and 6 operated 21 by distinct servers 7 and 8 are connected 9. The 22 resulting joined network is referred to as an Extranet.

24 By joining multiple networks together, it becomes possible for different organisations to co-operate in the 26 provision of ATM/kiosk network services. For example, 27 suppose that a bank which owned a series of conventional 28 ATMs and an airline which owned a series of ticketing 29 kiosks chose to co-operate. There exists the potential 3o for the bank's ATMs to both allow customers to pay for an 31 airline ticket and to print out that ticket. Similarly, 32 the airline might offer a limited selection of banking 1 services, such as balance display, which are compatible 2 with the functionality of their kiosks.

4 Using prior art, the development of such, a system would be complex, particularly due to the different hardware 6 and capabilities of the bank's ATMs and the airline's 7 kiosks. Such co-operation between organisations is by no 8 means impossible at the present time, but is currently 9 rare due to the complexity and expense required for 1o implementation.

12 In general, the system provides a means for a plurality 13 of servers to operate a plurality of ATMs and kiosks 14 using a plurality of networking means. An example application would be to allow consumers to purchase eg 16 cinema, theatre and airline tickets from different 17 organisations through ATMs positioned at convenient 18 locations.

Typically, the networking means will be the Internet, a 21 corporate intranet or LAN but may be any networking means 22 or a mixture of networking means.

24 The system comprises a middleware software layer which extends the function of an underlying operating system 26 and which in turn provides a single programming interface 27 for an ATM/kiosk control application to be written to.

29 Figure 4 shows the software architecture of the preferred 3o implementation of the system. An ATM/kiosk control 31 application 10 is hosted in a web browser 11 such as 32 Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The application runs on a 1 computer with a particular operating system, 12, such~as 2 Windows NT°, the functionality of which has been extended 3 by middleware software 13.

The middleware comprises a series of components and 6 objects, for use by the application, which extend the 7 functionality of the operating system and provide tools 8 to simplify development of the ATM application.

1o In the preferred implementation all of the system's sub-11 systems are implemented as a series of COM components 12 with an ActiveX° interface or as JavabeansT°' with a 13 scriptable interface. This architecture enables 14 applications running within Internet Explorer to access functionality provided by the operating system and the 16 middleware, including access to hardware.

18 A useful benefit of this implementation is that 19 applications may be prepared using common authoring tools 2o and such as Microsoft°'s FrontPage°, VisualStudio°, Visual 21 Interdev°~ and common development environments such as 22 Visual Basic°, Visual C++', Powerbuilder°, Delphi° etc .
23 This means that applications can be prepared with tools 24 with which developers will be familiar and which, due to their popularity, provide facilities and support that 26 would be prohibitively expensive to prepare for a custom 27 development environment.

29 A further benefit of using browser technology is that they provide an environment in which software download 31 can be readily controlled. The application may be held 32 entirely locally to an ATM/kiosk, entirely on a server or WO 99/49431 .~ 6 PCT/GB99/00927 1 any compromise between these two extremes. The 2 application can be downloaded daily if required.

4 The system uses the Windows' Open System Architecture Extensions for Financial Services (WOSA XFS) to support 6 ATM hardware in a vendor independent manner.
8 The system also uses the Object Linking and Embedding for 9 Point Of Sale (OPOS) standard for interacting with different hardware systems. This means that applications 11 can access hardware independent of whether the underlying 12 hardware supports WOSA XFS or OPOS.

14 The system also supports the PC/SC standard for smartcards, thereby providing a uniform way of accessing 16 smartcards.

18 Furthermore, the system also provides support for a 19 variety of other open standards such as OFX and SNMP and transaction monitors such as NCR's TOPEND'.

22 Clearly, support for additional standards may readily be 23 added.

The primary subsystems of the middleware software 26 comprise a series of wizards, device controls, self-27 service controls, communications controls and status 28 monitoring components.

3o The top level components are the wizards, which are a 31 series of transaction objects that implement common 32 ATM/kiosk transactions such as dispensing cash, printing WO 99/49431 ~ ~ PCT/GB99/00927 a statement etc. In the preferred embodiment, each is 2 implemented as an ActiveX° object or a JavabeanT". Whilst 3 wizards are running, they take control of the function of 4 the ATM/kiosk. Wizards interface with other controls and encode all of the top-level control logic.

Applications can be built with the system by customising and combining wizards. Wizards encapsulate all of the 9 features and functionality required by a particular transaction or chunk of application. When using ActiveX°' Wizards receive input via ActiveX° properties and methods 12 and output their state as a set of ActiveX° events.
~3 Alternatively the wizard can be implemented in the same ~Q way as a Javabean'r"'. As a result of this design feature, ~5 the wizard is completely independent of the ATM/kiosk-user interface.
~7 ~s For example, an ATM might have a single button which dispenses $10 on demand. A second ATM might implement 2o more complex controls and display a detailed animation 2~ whilst money is issued. However, the same wizard may be 22 used to implement both these ATMs. The wizard 23 encapsulates the essential software logic of the 24 transaction while allowing the user interface to be 25 freely defined by script on the browser page.

2~ This has several important benefits which will lead to 28 time and cost savings: firstly, the encapsulated features 29' within the wizard can be reused between different 3o applications whilst allowing the different applications 3~ to have totally different look and feel. Secondly, this 32 allows the user interface to be designed with common web WO 99/49431 ~ 8 PCT/GB99/00927 1 tools. Thirdly, the user interface may be designed 2 without any risk of compromising the function of the 3 wizard. Finally, the user interface may be designed by a 4 specialist who may not be an expert in the other aspects of ATM/kiosk software and hardware.

7 An additional important feature of the wizards is that 8 they are able to interpret the capabilities of the 9 hardware on which they are run. For example, they may be 1o able to establish whether a cash dispensing means is 11 available. One application may then run on a plurality 12 of different hardware implementations, adapting its 13 functionality to the capabilities of that hardware.

This not only allows different hardware implementations 16 to be incorporated into the same network but allows 17 distinct networks to be joined into an Extranet.

19 The device controls provide hardware independent access 2o to the special devices on an ATM or kiosk. Each device 21 control acts as a persistent server that can be 22 controlled and interrogated by one or more applications 23 or wizards. A device control abstracts the details of 24 the hardware underneath it and acts as a complete server for that device. Applications and wizards interact with 26 controls through a scriptable ActiveX~ interface or a 27 Javabeans~' interface.

29 Some example device controls supported by the system are:
~ Camera 31 ~ Card Reader (motorized, swipe, DIP, smart cards etc.) WO 99/49431 ~ 9 PCT/GB99/00927 Cash Acceptor 2 Cash Dispenser 3 Coin Dispenser 4 Depository Doors 5 Encryptor 7 Guide Lights 8 Indicators 9 Journal Printer Keyboards ii Laser Printers ~ Modems ~3 Operator Panel i4 Passbook (including page turn) Pin Pad 16 Receipt Printer Scanner 18 Sensors i9 Signature Capture Statement Printer 21 Touchscreen 23 VendorMode 24 Weighing Scales 26 Multiple applications may be run simultaneously and 27 device controls are fully concurrent.
This is important 28 as the cycle time of ATMs and kiosk transactions can be 29 critical.
Their design is such that they can be used in 3o an event-driven manner, with controls reporting their WO 99/49431 2 ~ PCT/GB99/00927 1 result (success or failure) via ActiveX~ or Javabeans''''' 2 events, or in a procedural manner from within a language 3 such as C++. In the event-driven mode, applications can 4 be readily created using browser technology; for example, readily available web tools which provide appropriate 6 easy-to-use graphical interfaces can be used to create 7 event-driven applications.

9 In order to be able to operate asynchronously, all 1o controls create their own thread, called the event 11 thread, when first constructed. When an asynchronous 12 method is called, a command message is sent to the event 13 thread. The event thread carries out the command and 14 sends a message back to the main thread on completion:
the completion method causes the appropriate event to be 16 fired. By implementing commands using the event thread, 17 the main application thread is free to process other 18 tasks in parallel. The event thread also ensures that 19 the device states persist from one application page to 2o another: although controls on browser pages are being 21 continually created and destroyed, the event thread 22 remains running and ensures that the connection to the 23 device is never lost.

When controls are run in a procedural manner, from a 26 language such as C++, the controls may be set to a mode 27 in which events are queued up and delivered to the 28 application on demand,~allowing the application to carry 29 out other tasks, and return to the event queue at an 3o appropriate time.

WO 99/49431 2 ~ PCT/GB99/00927 The self-service controls provide the functionality 2 necessary for creating self-service applications.
3 Important self-service controls are described further 4 below. The communications controls provide access to the remote host computers. Both the self-service and 6 communications controls have the same server architecture 7 as the device controls and all may be executed 8 asynchronously.

The status monitoring system monitors the health of the .ATM or Kiosk and sends status and alert signals to an ~2 external monitoring station using SNMP alerts.

14 All controls implement a capabilities interface, allowing ~5 an application or wizard to interrogate the capabilities of the control as well as the device which the control 17 represents.

i9 Therefore, not only can different hardware 2o implementations be integrated into the same network or z~ Extranet, the applications can dynamically configure the 22 services they provide depending on the capabilities of 23 the hardware available on the kiosk.

25 As a result of this design, individual software 26 components can be upgraded without having to change other 2~ aspects of the application. New features can be added 28 without making the application dependent on those 29 features.
3~ Furthermore, hardware and networking components may be 32 upgraded or altered step by step. Due to the modular 1 nature of the system and its customisability, a plurality 2 of communications and hardware implementations may be 3 used at once. This means that an organisation which runs 4 an ATM/kiosk network might use its legacy communications and hardware implementations, perhaps concurrently with 6 Internet/Intranet support. This means that ATM networks 7 may be implemented and altered step-wise.
a 9 Such upgrades are particularly easy when using the Open Financial Exchange (OFX) architecture. The middleware 11 software implements a single OFX Control which may 12 interface with an OFX server by any networking means.
13 The OFX server may also interface with a host by any 14 networking means. Once this architecture is implemented, the resulting network topology may be readily altered, 16 making this an easy migration path for existing networks 1~ to use this system.

19 A further implication of the design of the controls is 2o that they can run on an ATM/kiosk even when actual 21 hardware devices are not present. This allows the 22 applications to be started up and run, for example for 23 development and test purposes, without requiring 24 particular hardware. When the application requests the capabilities of a particular control, the control will 26 reply that the device is not present and that the 27 capabilities are null. Therefore it is possible to 28 create and test application on, for example, a PC. In 29 this situation, the PC will behave like an ATM/kiosk in its interactions with the application.

An ignore mode is also provided wherein particular 2 controls will return "success" for every command. This 3 allows the application to use generic code which does not 4 need to test whether the device is present at each step, simplifying the code that needs to be written when 6 creating an application to cope with various hardware 7 capabilities.
s 9 An HTML-based application is also provided with the 1o system for testing device controls. This application allows the operator to select a subset of the devices for ~2 testing. For each device, two test sequences are ~3 defined: one requires operator interaction (e. g.
~4 entering/removing a card) and one requires no operator ~5 interaction. When the latter is selected, the interaction-free test sequences will be repetitively run 17 for the selected devices, allowing applications provided ~8 using this system to be easily stress tested. Complete i9 tests including operator interaction may also be 2o selected. Testing is automated and therefore as 2i reproducible as possible.

23 All controls include a security mechanism. This 24 mechanism allows the methods of the various controls to 25 be enabled and disabled. This is particularly important 26 in an Extranet environment when applications of differing 27 abilities run on a given kiosk or ATM. For example, if a 28 bank operating a network of ATMs allowed an airline to 29 dispense tickets through its ATMs by way of an Extranet, 3o it would wish to disallow the airline's application from 3i dispensing cash.

WO 99/49431 24 PC'f/GB99/00927 This security mechanism is implemented by a key passing 2 technique as follows:

4 The middleware software contains a security control which allows the current security configuration of an ATM or 6 kiosk to be set. Using the security control, the owner 7 of the ATM or kiosk can specify details of the security 8 configuration (i.e. which methods of a control are 9 allowed and disallowed). Applications identify themselves to the security control via a digital certificate which sets the security configuration as ~2 specified by the ATM/kiosk owner. If the application ~3 attempts to call a disallowed method of control, a trap ~4 is generated, transferring control to the ATM/kiosk ~5 owner's application.

17 An important benefit of the system is that it may readily ~8 be used to provide Internet based e-commerce facilities through ATMs and kiosks, not only allowing e-commerce facilities to be used by a larger consumer base but also 2~ enabling e-commerce which requires expensive or high-22 security hardware facilities such as cash dispensers or 23 identity verification means that cannot readily be 24 provided on privately owned PCs and web-browsers.
26 To help enable this, the system provides a Site-Minder 2'7 control which allows existing web sites to be safely 28 delivered via ATMs and kiosks. This control provides 29 several important features. For example, it monitors the URL of each page of the web-site being delivered and 3~ allows or disallows the page according to a rules 32 database. This stops the user from straying into other 1 web-sites or web-pages that are not normally part of the 2 purpose of the ATM/kiosk. The control allows each page 3 to be given a customised time-out which is important as 4 web sites are normally designed for use at home and have different (longer) time-outs than would be appropriate 6 for public ATMs/kiosks. Web pages may be navigated using 7 a touch sensitive screen, making them intuitive and easy 8 to use. The control can also magnify small features on a 9 web page (such as hypertext links and images with links) 1o This magnification can be toggled on and off by the user, 11 thereby animating the hypertext link. This is beneficial 12 firstly because it makes it easier for the user to see 13 where the link is and secondly because it becomes easier 14 for the user to select the link when it is in its magnified state.

17 An additional feature provided by the system for use with 18 ATMs/kiosks with touchscreens is a "softkeyboard" wherein 19 a keyboard is displayed on the touch screen and contact with the displayed keyboard is interpreted by the system 21 like keystrokes on a real keyboard, thereby removing the 22 need for a physical keyboard to be provided.

24 One problem commonly faced by web designers is that z5 objects placed on a web page are destroyed when the page 26 is changed. A useful benefit of the middleware is that 27 the ActiveX~ hook idea solves this problem - underlying 28 objects remain persistent while lightweight hooks on each 29 page access the object.
31 Lack of persistence also leads to problems for the 32 application developer in storing application-wide data.

A solution to this problem is provided by a scratchpad 2 control which has a persistent object at its core and 3 allows the application to store and retrieve data at any 4 time. This control supports the Vbscript variant type, allowing all types of data to be stored and retrieved.
6 Furthermore, this control allows data to be shared 7 between multiple applications, marking it as shared.

9 A related problem when implementing web-based ATM
applications relates to events which must be dealt with immediately, no matter when the event occurs. For ~2 instance, if a safe door is opened, an application may i3 need to shut down immediately. This would not be easy to ~4 implement in a web-based environment as every page would ~5 have to contain some code to handle the event. This problem can be solved in the system by operating a second, invisible frame alongside the main application ~8 frame. The invisible frame contains all the device controls needed to detect the events that must be reacted 20 to. This frame may then take control, perhaps closing 2~ down the main frame.

23 Error handling in traditional ATM applications is 24 difficult. Components may return a large number of error 25 cases, resulting in complex code.
26 ' 2~ The middleware software separates the responses it sends 28 to the application into "good responses" and error 29 responses. Most commands have a single good response and 30 all errors are mapped to a single error response, 3~ although some may have a plurality of good responses.
32 Good responses allow the application to continue. When WO 99/49431 2 ~ PCT/GB99/00927 an error response is returned, the current transaction 2 flow is normally abarted and control flow jumps out of 3 the normal flow process to handle the error situation.
The application can then interrogate the control to determine the exact cause of the error.

7 A benefit of this approach is that normal flow is not 8 cluttered by handlers for each of the error cases which 9 can occur. Control may be transferred to generic error handlers which can either recover from the error or abort the transaction completely, perhaps even rebooting the ~2 ATM/kiosk. Application code can therefore remain as ~3 clear and concise as possible whilst encouraging the ~4 application developer to handle all error cases by ~5 calling an error handler. In the development environment, fatal errors result in a message box being i7 displayed. A single type of event, DeviceError, is i8 generated when there is some kind of hardware failure, 19 allowing error handling for hardware failure to be 2o encapsulated rather than scattered over many error 2~ handlers.

23 The system requires applications to interact with it in a 24 well defined way. Even small transgressions are detected 25 and error responses generated; when this happens, the 26 current environment is abandoned and the application is 27 terminated.

29 This is based on the well known software engineering 30 approach of assertion; however, the system's assertion 31 differs from common practice by asserting absolutely all 32 disallowed cases, whether serious or not. As a result of this strategy of escalating errors to maximum 2 seriousness, errors are found earlier at development time 3 or at system test time and never allowed to reach a live 4 environment. Although there is a risk of the application reporting a fatal error in the field for a relatively 6 minor problem, this strategy achieves a particularly high level of robustness in comparison to prior art software 8 applications.

An additional error-handling feature is provided by the way in which the system deals with tracing. In software ~2 engineering, tracing is typically enabled only when a ~3 problem is suspected; however, this can affect the ~4 dynamics of a program, making it harder to find bugs.
This is a particularly substantial problem when dealing t6 with time-critical ATM/kiosk applications. However, if conventional tracing was simply always enabled throughout ~8 both development and operation of the ATM/kiosk, there t9 would be both performance problems due to, for example, 2o the time spent writing to a hard drive and large quantity 2~ of disk space required to store the large number of trace 22 events that will typically be produced.

24 The middleware software provides a trace control which records all trace events of the application and 26 underlying middleware and is always enabled. Performance 2~ problems are dealt with by writing trace data to memory 28 and writing to disk only when the ATM/kiosk is idle.
29 Cash-dispensing machines and kiosks go through an idle cycle between two users which provides sufficient time to 3~ write to disk, even when people are queuing at the 32 machine. Disk space problems are eliminated by using a 1 ring buffer of fixed file size, allocated at boot-up and 2 constant in size throughout operation. When the buffer 3 is full, the oldest data is overwritten, thereby leaving 4 a continual record of the most recent events.
6 As a result of this tracing strategy it is much easier to 7 understand one-off or rare problems, which is not easily 8 done when tracing is enabled only once a problem has been 9 reported.
1a 11 Furthermore, some ATM/kiosk vendors provide a limited 12 amount of non-volatile RAM. When this is provided, the 13 trace control writes the most recent trace information to 14 this RAM in a ring buffer fashion. As this is very quick, it does not produce any performance problems.
16 However, if the ATM/kiosk freezes up or crashes, the RAM
17 contains the trace of what happened immediately before.

19 In addition to the traditional way that ActiveX' fires 2o events to the container, the device and self-service 21 controls are able to queue up events and return them one 22 by one when requested. This allows C++ applications to 23 be written in a procedural fashion rather than simply in 24 an event driven fashion. By queuing up these events and delivering them to the application only on demand, the 26 system allows procedural code to be written and makes it 27 easier to develop and maintain the complex logic required 28 in self-service applications.

Important self-service controls are described below:

WO 99149431 3 ~ PCT/GB99/00927 ~ Watchdog control: runs in a separate Windows NT~
2 process and reboots the ATM/kiosk if the application 3 crashes. This is achieved by regularly polling the application to check that it is functioning correctly.
This control can also be used to daily reboot the 6 ATM/kiosk. The watchdog can monitor multiple 7 applications on a single ATM.
8 ~ System Escape control: used to reboot the ATM/kiosk.
9 Exits in a customisable manner. This control ensures 1o that cached data (eg in the DataCollect control and the 11 Trace control) is flushed to disk before rebooting.
~2 ~ DataCollect control: allows application to collect raw 13 data for statistical purposes. It logs and timestamps 14 the various events. As with the Trace control, it logs to memory and then stores on hard disk only when the 16 ATM/kiosk is idle due to the time required to write to the hard disk. Storage by this control is of a fixed 18 size allocated at start-up and remaining constant throughout operation. Storage is in the form of a ring buffer. Typically, the collected data would be 2~ exported to a remote location for analysis.
22 ~ Trace control: described above.
23 ~ Scratchpad control: described above.
24 ~ Supervisor application: run simultaneously as a separate application. This means that on an ATM/kiosk 26 with a rear screen, the operator can interact with the 2~ ATM/kiosk without taking the machine offline. It 28 allows the operator to access statistics etc. while the 29 machine is still being used. Alternatively, the machine may be taken off-line for intrusive 3~ maintenance. In this case, the supervisor application WO 99/49431 3 ~ PCT/GB99/00927 provides an off-line mode with a limited subset of the 2 on-line features.
3 ~ Security control: described above.
4 ~ Registry control: allows Windows NT~registry to be manipulated by the application.
6 ~ DirectoryTree control.
7 ~ Application Launcher control.
8 ~ INI file control: allows Windows~ INI files to be read 9 from the browser.
~ Timed FTP. This allows statistics files and trace files to be sent via the FTP mechanism on a timed basis to an ~2 offsite location. (eg daily or weekly).
~3 ~ Key capture control: allows special Windows~ key ~4 combinations such as ctrl-alt-del and alt-tab to be captured where a full PC keyboard is provided.
i6 ~ Popup suppression control. Monitors and captures popup windows originating from the operating system. This ~8 makes it easier to allow software components from other 19 vendors to be used in self-service applications. Most third-party software is not intended for self-service 2i applications and expects to be able to interact with 22 the user through popup windows. This is unacceptable 23 in a self-service environment where the main 24 application must have a complete monopoly over the user dialog. This control alleviates this problem by 26 monitoring popups and rapidly executing a pre-2'7 determined sequence of tasks, for example hiding the 28 popup and pressing the OK button.
29 ~ Global config file control. Allows configuration data 3o for ATM networks to be centrally held in a single 3~ distributable file. Each ATM/kiosk can query this control to retrieve the configuration data which is 2 specific for that ATM/kiosk. This allows variation 3 between individual ATMs/kiosks to be handled in a 4 global way.
~ Telephony control. Allows modems and telephone handsets 6 to be integrated.
7 ~ SSMS control. Allows software to be downloaded and 8 installed in a controlled manner. This control checks 9 for installation failures and allows the system to to recover to a well defined state.
~ Screensaver control. This control allows the ~2 application to jump to a defined web page if the user ~3 has been inactive for more than a pre-determined time.
14 ~ Multiple language control. This control allows the ~5 language on a web page to be dynamically modified. It does this by retrieving text strings and graphics from a database on the kiosk. This means that the user may 18 change languages from any browser page - and therefore at any stage of the application.
20 ~ Clock synch control. This allows the application to 2~ synchronize its clock with a server clock, taking into 22 account possible differences in timezone between kiosk 23 and server and taking into account the possibility of 24 large timelags for communication between the kiosk and 25 the server.
26 Use of the self-service controls plus additional features 27 of the system and underlying operating system allow 28 ATMs/kiosks to be managed from a remote location. For 29 example, the system supports:
30 ~ Daily software downloads from a remote web server.
3~ ~ Daily reboot and system check.

i ~ Daily FTP of statistics data to a remote monitoring 2 station.
3 ~ Daily FTP of trace data to a remote monitoring system.
4 ~ Regular health checks of the kiosk (typically every 5 minutes).
6 ~ Sending a regular "heartbeat" message to a remote 7 monitoring station. Monitoring of this message allows 8 the fact that the device is continually functioning to 9 be monitored.
t0 ~ Allowing direct secure access to the kiosk over a network, for example the Internet, from a remote 12 location.
~3 ~ Allowing software maintenance over a network, for example the Internet, from a remote location.
~ Allowing manual reboot of the kiosk over a network, for example the Internet, from a remote location.
Although hardware is accessed via the WOSA XFS standard, which assigns a different number to each command, the 2o controls have differently named methods and events 2~ associated with each operation, making application 22 development easier. WOSA commands may typically generate 23 30-50 events. This wastes time for the application 24 developer and increases the possibilities of error. The middleware reduces the set of possible outcomes to a 26 small number of clearly named completion events, making 27 it easier for the application developer to write reliable 28 code quickly. Outcomes which can only happen if there is 29 a bug in the application cause fatal errors to be triggered.

The system automatically opens a WOSA XFS session when a 2 device control is first used; there is therefore no need 3 to manually call an Open method. WOSA sessions are 4 maintained between pages through the use of event threads, described above.

All WOSA XFS methods require a timeout to be provided;
8 however, this is not appropriate or meaningful for the 9 majority of commands in this application. The middleware requires a timeout to be supplied only where it is meaningful to do so. WOSA also allows cancel commands to ~2 be sent after any other command. Not all ATM functions ~3 can really be cancelled and the middleware only provides ~4 cancel commands where cancellation can actually be achieved. The request IDs returned by WOSA for each asynchronous operation are abstracted out by the middleware. WOSA is accessed only by the middleware and is not directly by the application.

2o Clearly the preferred embodiment described above may 2~ readily be adapted to operate with any operating system 22 or component system.

24 Further modifications and improvements may be 25 incorporated without departing from the scope of the 26 invention herein intended.

Claims (59)

CLAIMS:

1. A method for providing transaction services wherein the user of the transaction services interacts with a computer-based transaction machine which has transaction devices, said computer-based transaction machine being controlled by one or more software applications, said computer-based transaction machine having an operating system which controls and receives information from said transaction devices;
characterized in that the one or more software applications interact with said transaction devices through a programming interface of middleware software, said middleware software interacting with the operating system, wherein the services provided by the middleware software depend on the capabilities of the transaction devices but the programming interface does not depend on the capabilities of the transaction devices.

2. A method for providing transaction services according to Claim 1 wherein the transaction machine is selected from a group which comprises automatic teller machines, kiosks and electronic point of sale machines.

3. A method for providing transaction services according to any preceding Claim wherein middleware software comprises a series of transaction objects and controls for standard device functions.

4. A method for providing transaction services according to Claim 3 wherein transaction objects are independent of the interface between the user and the transaction machine; the interface between the user and the transaction machine being customisable.

5. A method for providing transaction services according to Claim 3 or Claim 4 wherein controls implement a capabilities interface.

6. A method for providing transaction services according to Claim 5 wherein the capabilities interface can communicate the capabilities of the control software.

7. A method for providing transaction services according to any of Claims 3 to 6 wherein applications, objects and controls are concurrent and asynchronous.

8. A method for providing transaction services according to any of Claims 3 to 7 wherein controls have a mode in which events are queued up and delivered to the application on demand.

9. A method for providing transaction services according to any of Claims 3 to 8 wherein controls are adapted to run on the transaction machine even when supported hardware devices are not present.

10. A method for providing transaction services according to any preceding Claim wherein the middleware software uses one or more open standards for interacting with different hardware systems.

11. A method for providing transaction services according to any preceding Claims wherein middleware software only provides cancellation commands for functions which can be successfully cancelled.

12. A method for providing transaction services according to any preceding Claim wherein middleware software only requires a timeout command to be supplied when it is meaningful to do so.

13. A method for providing transaction services according to any of Claims 3 to 12 wherein all controls are persistent.

14. A method for providing transaction services according to any of Claims 3 to 13 wherein there is provided a control containing a persistent object.

15. A method for providing transaction services according to any preceding Claim wherein all errors and transgressions are asserted by the middleware software.

16. A method for providing transaction services according to any preceding Claim in which the middleware software provides a trace facility that is always enabled and which logs trace events.

17. A method for providing transaction services according to Claim 16 wherein the middleware software uses a ring buffer to store a log of trace events.

18. A method for providing transaction services according to Claim 17 wherein the middleware software writes trace data to memory and then copies it to disk only when the transaction machine is idle.

19. A method for providing transaction services according to any preceding Claim wherein one or more software applications are hosted in a web browser.

20. A method for providing transaction services according to Claim 19 wherein the use of a web browser provides support for software distribution and network connections.

21. A method for providing transaction services according to Claim 19 or Claim 20 wherein an additional browser frame is provided which contains the device controls required to detect events which must be dealt with immediately they occur.

22. A method for providing transaction services according to any preceding Claim wherein middleware software comprises a series of COM components with a scriptable ActiveX~ interface.

23. A method for providing transaction services according to any preceding Claim wherein middleware software comprises a series of Javabeans TM components with a scriptable interface.

24. A method for providing transaction services according to any of Claims 19 to 23 wherein use of a web browser allows conventional web sites to be displayed by the computer-based transaction machine.

25. A method for providing transaction services according to Claim 24 wherein middleware software allows or disallows access to particular web sites according to a rule database.

26. A method for providing transaction services according to Claim 24 or Claim 25 wherein middleware software is adapted to customise time-out of the display of individual Internet web sites.

27. A method for providing transaction services according to any preceding Claim wherein the computer-based transaction machine is adapted to allow the software applications and middleware to be altered across a network by an authority.

28. A method for providing transaction services according to any preceding Claim wherein the transaction machine can communicate information about their status to a remote monitoring station across a network.

29. A computer-based transaction machine having transaction devices; said computer-based transaction machine being controlled by one or more software applications, said computer-based transaction machine having an operating system which controls and receives information from said transaction devices; characterized in that the one or more software applications interact with said transaction devices through a programming interface of middleware software, said middleware software interacting with the operating system, wherein the services provided by the middleware software depend on the capabilities of the transaction devices but the programming interface does not depend on the capabilities of the transaction devices.

30. A computer-based transaction machine according to Claim 29 wherein the transaction machine is selected from a group which comprises automatic teller machines, kiosks and electronic point of sale machines.

31. A computer-based transaction machine according to Claim 29 or Claim 30 wherein middleware software comprises a series of transaction objects and controls for standard device functions.

32. A computer-based transaction machine according to Claim 31 wherein transaction objects are independent of the interface between the user and the transaction machine;
the interface between the user and the transaction machine being customisable.

33. A computer-based transaction machine according to Claim 31 or Claim 32 wherein controls implement a capabilities interface.

34. A computer-based transaction machine according to Claim 33 wherein the capabilities interface can communicate the capabilities of the control software.

35. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 31 to 34 wherein applications, objects and controls are concurrent and asynchronous.

36. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 31 to 35 wherein controls have a mode in which events are queued up and delivered to the application on demand.

37. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 31 to 36 wherein controls are adapted to run on the transaction machine even when supported hardware devices are not present.

38. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 29 to 37 wherein the middleware software uses one or more open standards for interacting with different hardware systems.

39. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 29 to 38 wherein middleware software only provides cancellation commands for functions which can be successfully cancelled.

40. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 29 to 39 wherein middleware software only requires a timeout command to be supplied when it is meaningful to do so.

41. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 31 to 40 wherein all controls are persistent.

42. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 31 to 41 wherein there is provided a control containing a persistent object.

43. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 29 to 42 wherein all errors and transgressions are asserted by the middleware software.

44. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 29 to 43 wherein the middleware software provides a trace facility that is always enabled and which logs trace events.

45. A computer-based transaction machine according to Claim 44 wherein the middleware software uses a ring buffer to store a log of trace events.

46. A computer-based transaction machine according to Claim 45 wherein them middleware software writes trace data to memory and then copies it to disk only when the transaction machine is idle.

47. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 29 to 46 wherein one or more software applications are hosted in a web browser.

48. A computer-based transaction machine according to Claim 47 wherein the use of a web browser provides support for software distribution and network connections.

49. A computer-based transaction machine according to Claim 47 or Claim 48 wherein an additional browser frame is provided which contains the device controls required to detect events which must be dealt with immediately they occur.

50. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 29 to 49 wherein middleware software comprises a series of COM components with a scriptable ActiveX~ interface.

51. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 29 to 50 wherein middleware software comprises a series of Javabeans TM components with a scriptable interface.

52. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 47 to 51 wherein use of a web browser allows conventional web sites to be displayed by the computer-based transaction machine.

53. A computer-based transaction machine according to Claim 52 wherein middleware software allows or disallows access to particular web sites according to a rule database.

54. A computer-based transaction machine according to Claim 52 or Claim 53 wherein middleware software is adapted to customise time-out of the display of individual internet web sites.

55. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 29 to 54 wherein the computer-based transaction machine is adapted to allow the software applications and middleware to be altered across a network by an authority.

56. A computer-based transaction machine according to any of Claims 29 to 55 wherein the transaction machine can communicate information about their status to a remote monitoring station across a network.

57. A network comprising a plurality of computer-based transaction machines according to any of Claims 29 to 56, one or more networking means and one or more application servers.

58. An Extranet formed by combining a plurality of networks of computer-based transaction machines according to Claim 57.

59. An Extranet according to Claim 58 provided with a security mechanism which limits the hardware functionality available to individual software applications.