DETAILED ACTION
This communication is a Final Office Action rejection on the merits. Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been addressed below.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 10/30/25 (related to the 112 Rejection) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Applicant amended the claim and removed the limitation of “automatically performing the service.” Therefore, amended claim does not include new matter. The 112 Rejection has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed on 10/30/25 (related to the 103 Rejection) have been fully considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection. Applicant's amendments necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Rejection based on a newly cited reference(s) follows.
Applicant's arguments filed on 10/30/25 (related to the 101 Rejection) have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant states, on pages 14-17, that the system "may provide a centralized monitoring system of multiple terminals and/or centralized communication system for multiple agent devices, thereby preventing one or more of the multiple terminals from having to be individually configured to identify and communicate with an available agent at the service location" ([0013]). This is a technological improvement in the field of art of terminal device management, reducing computing and network resources and enabling new functionality that was not previously possible.
Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant. The amended limitations in their respective claims, are directed, in part, to identification and allocation of agents to a specific type of service. These claim elements are considered to be abstract ideas because they are directed to “certain methods of organizing human activity” which include “managing interactions between people.” In this case, the claim as a whole is directed to selecting an agent to perform a type of service for the user, which is merely following rules or instructions (see MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)). If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers managing interactions between people, then it falls within the “certain methods of organizing human activity” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
The main functions of the additional elements recited in claim 1 are merely used to: collect data (e.g., record log associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal), analyze the data (e.g., analyze the record log and select a set of agents that facilitate the service at the location), and display certain results of the collection and analysis (e.g., transmit a notification to the selected agent to perform the service for the user, wherein the notification indicates a time period in which the service should be provided and information associated with the operation). Those are functions that the courts have described as merely indicating a field of use or technological environment in which to apply a judicial exception (see MPEP 2106.05(h)). Also, the additional element of an application server is merely used to: receive status information of the agents that are logged into the application sessions (Paragraph 0012); configure individual terminals at multiple service locations to be communicatively coupled with available agents at corresponding service locations of the individual terminals (Paragraph 0013); and allow the agent devices to engage in application sessions, wherein the agents may be capable of providing a service (Paragraph 0022). This is considered “field of use” MPEP 2106.05h at Step 2A, Prong 2, since it’s just used to receive status information from the set of application sessions (e.g., availability such as standby mode or active session) and establish a new application session between the agent and the terminal (e.g., ATM or POS), but the application session is not improved. At Step 2B, this is conventional still, receiving or transmitting data over a network (see MPEP 2106.05d). Lastly, although claim 1 recites “a notification that identifies the operation to enable an agent, of the one or more agents, associated with the agent device to perform the service for the user,” the claim does not specify remedial actions that are executed to remediate or solve the specific issue at the terminal (see MPEP 2106.05(f), no details of how a solution of a problem is accomplished). Rather, as stated by the Applicant, the invention is merely used to: ensure that an available agent is aware of a specific issue at a specific terminal; and permits the agent device to communicate with the terminal (see Applicant’s specification, Paragraph 0046). Therefore, the amended claim does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or provide significantly more.
Independent claims 8 and 15 recite similar features and therefore are rejected for the same reasons as independent claim 1. Claims 2-7, 9-14, and 16-20 are rejected for having the same deficiencies as those set forth with respect to the claims that they depend from, independent claims 1,8, and 15.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., an abstract idea) without reciting significantly more.
Independent Claim 1
Step One - First, pursuant to step 1 in the January 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance (“2019 PEG”) on 84 Fed. Reg. 53, the claim 1 is directed to an apparatus which is a statutory category.
Step 2A, Prong One - Claim 1 recites: A system for managing a terminal, the system configured to: maintain a record associated with the terminal; receive, based on maintaining the record, a record associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal, wherein the record includes a time of the operation and a type of the operation; determine, based on the time of the operation and the type of the operation, that the operation is associated with one or more agents providing a service for the user; automatically determine, based on the service and from location information in the record, a location of the terminal; identify a set of agents that facilitates the service at the location, wherein the set of agents are identified based on determining that the set of agents are registered to a service location; access a set of statuses, wherein each status of the set of statuses indicates whether a particular agent, of the set of agents, is in a standby mode or is an active session; select, based on accessing the set of statuses, an agent of the set of agents; transmit, to the agent, a notification that identifies the operation to enable an agent, of the one or more agents, to perform the service for the user, wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation that was repeated a certain quantity of times within a certain time period and associated with a card being withheld within the terminal, wherein the notification includes the record associated with the operation associated with the card being withheld within the terminal, and wherein the notification indicates a time period in which the service should be provided, the time period being based on a time of the operation associated with the card being withheld within the terminal; provide, based on the notification, instructions that cause a new session between the agent and the terminal to be established, wherein the new session permits the agent to communicate with the terminal; monitor activity associated with at least one of the terminal or the agent; and perform the service based on the established new session and based on the time period indicated in the notification. These claim elements are considered to be abstract ideas because they are directed to “certain methods of organizing human activity” which include “managing interactions between people.” In this case, the claim as a whole is directed to selecting an agent to perform a type of service for the user, which is merely following rules or instructions (see MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)). If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers managing interactions between people, then it falls within the “certain methods of organizing human activity” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
Step 2A Prong 2 - The judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. Claim 1 includes additional elements: one or more memories; one or more processors; a terminal management server; a record log; from the terminal; an application server, a set of application sessions, hosted by the application server, that involves a set of agent devices that facilitates the service at the location and that are logged into the set of application sessions.
The memory is merely used to store a set of instructions (Paragraph 0062). The processor is merely used to execute the set of instructions (Paragraph 0062). The terminal management server is merely used to monitor activity based on information in the records (Paragraph 0020). The record log is merely used to maintain the records from the terminals (Paragraph 0021). The terminal is merely used to provide a record associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal (Paragraph 0002). The application server is merely used to: receive status information of the agents that are logged into the application sessions (Paragraph 0012); configure individual terminals at multiple service locations to be communicatively coupled with available agents at corresponding service locations of the individual terminals (Paragraph 0013); and allow the agent devices to engage in application sessions, wherein the agents may be capable of providing a service (Paragraph 0022). The set of application sessions is merely used to indicate statuses of corresponding agents that are logged into the application sessions (Paragraph 0012). The set of agent devices is merely used to receive, generate, store, process, and/or provide information associated with managing the terminal in association with the terminal management system (Paragraph 0052). Merely stating that the step is performed by a computer component results in “apply it” on a computer (MPEP 2106.05f). These elements of “memory,” “processor,” “terminal management server,” “log,” “terminal,” “application server,” “application sessions,” and “devices” are recited at a high level of generality such that it amounts no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer element. Also, the set of agent devices, the terminal, and the set of application sessions are considered “field of use” since they’re just used to receive/transmit information, but the technology is not improved (MPEP 2106.05h). Accordingly, alone and in combination, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. Therefore, the claim is directed to an abstract idea.
Step 2B - The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the claims describe how to generally “apply” the concept of identifying a set of agents that facilitates the service at the location. The specification shows that the memory is merely used to store a set of instructions (Paragraph 0062). The processor is merely used to execute the set of instructions (Paragraph 0062). The record log is merely used to maintain the records from the terminals (Paragraph 0021). The terminal is merely used to provide a record associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal (Paragraph 0002). The application server is merely used to: receive status information of the agents that are logged into the application sessions (Paragraph 0012); configure individual terminals at multiple service locations to be communicatively coupled with available agents at corresponding service locations of the individual terminals (Paragraph 0013); and allow the agent devices to engage in application sessions, wherein the agents may be capable of providing a service (Paragraph 0022). The set of agent devices is merely used to receive, generate, store, process, and/or provide information associated with managing the terminal in association with the terminal management system (Paragraph 0052). Also, the set of agent devices, the terminal, and the set of application sessions are considered a conventional computer function of “receiving and transmitting over a network” (MPEP 2106.05d). Thus, nothing in the claim adds significantly more to an abstract idea. The claim is ineligible.
Independent claim 8 is directed to an article of manufacture at step 1, which is a statutory category. Claim 8 recites similar limitations as claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons at step 2a, prong one; step 2a, prong 2; and step 2b. Claim 8 further recites “non-transitory computer-readable medium” – which is treated as just an explicit “processor/computer” for executing the operations and is treated under MPEP 2106.05f in the same manner as claim 1. Accordingly, this additional element of “non-transitory computer-readable medium” is viewed as “apply it on a computer” at step 2a, prong 2 and step 2b. Thus, the claim is ineligible.
Independent claim 15 is directed to a method at step 1, which is a statutory category. Claim 15 recites similar limitations as claim 1 and claim 18 and is rejected for the same reasons at step 2a, prong one; step 2a, prong 2; and step 2b. Thus, the claim is ineligible.
Dependent claims 2 and 12 are not directed to any additional claim elements. Rather, these claims offer further descriptive limitations of the abstract idea mentioned above - such as: wherein the operation involves withholding the card within the terminal, and wherein the notification indicates that the service involves the card being withheld within the terminal; and wherein the notification identifies at least one of: the type of the operation, a user identifier associated with the user, a terminal identifier associated with the terminal, or a location identifier associated with the location of the terminal. These processes are similar to the abstract idea noted in the independent claim because they further the limitations of the independent claim which are directed to certain methods of organizing human activity which include managing interactions between people. In addition, no additional elements are integrated into the abstract idea. Therefore, the claims still recite an abstract idea that can be grouped into certain methods of organizing human activity.
Dependent claims 3-5, 9-11, and 17-18 are not directed to any additional claim elements. Rather, these claims offer further descriptive limitations of elements found in the independent claims and addressed above - such as wherein the application session is further used to: receive a user credential; determine that the status indicates a standby mode; determine that the status indicates that the agent is designated to provide the service; determine, based on the status, a time period associated with the agent facilitating performance of the service; determine that the agent is registered to the location; and facilitate communication between the agent device and the user. These processes are similar to the abstract idea noted in the independent claim because they further the limitations of the independent claim which are directed to certain methods of organizing human activity which include managing interactions between people. The additional functions of the application session are considered “field of use” at Step 2A, Prong 2, since they’re merely used to receive information (e.g., agent status and credentials), but the technology is not improved (see MPEP 2106.05h). At Step 2B, this is conventional still, “receiving and transmitting over a network” (see MPEP 2106.05d). Thus, nothing in the claim adds significantly more to the abstract idea. The claim is ineligible.
Dependent claims 6 and 19 are directed to an additional element such as: a user device. The user device and/or the terminal are merely used to receive a notification to indicate to the user that the agent is available to provide the service for the user (Paragraph 0043). The agent device is further used to alert an agent to provide the service for the user (Paragraph 0040). These elements of “user device,” “terminal,” and “agent device” are considered “field of use” at Step 2A, Prong 2, since they’re merely used to receive information (e.g., a notification), but the technology is not improved (see MPEP 2106.05h). At Step 2B, this is conventional still, “receiving and transmitting over a network” (see MPEP 2106.05d). Thus, nothing in the claim adds significantly more to the abstract idea. The claim is ineligible.
Dependent claims 7, 13, 16, and 20 are not directed to any additional claim elements. Rather, these claims offer further descriptive limitations of elements found in the independent claims and addressed above - such as wherein the record log is further used to: provide a user identifier associated with the user; identify a terminal identifier; and maintaining record logs for individual terminals of a plurality of terminals. These processes are similar to the abstract idea noted in the independent claim because they further the limitations of the independent claim which are directed to certain methods of organizing human activity which include managing interactions between people. The additional functions of the record log are considered “field of use” at Step 2A, Prong 2, since they’re merely used to receive and store information (e.g., user identifier and terminal identifier), but the technology is not improved (see MPEP 2106.05h). At Step 2B, this is conventional still, “receiving and transmitting over a network” and “storing information in a memory” (see MPEP 2106.05d). Thus, nothing in the claim adds significantly more to the abstract idea. The claim is ineligible.
Dependent claims 14 is directed to an additional element such as: a user interface of the terminal. The user interface of the terminal is merely used to receive an indication of whether the user would like to receive an agent-based service associated with the terminal (Paragraph 0044). The user interface is considered “field of use” at Step 2A, Prong 2, since it’s used to receive information (e.g., a request for a service), but the technology is not improved (see MPEP 2106.05h). At Step 2B, this is conventional still, “receiving and transmitting over a network” (see MPEP 2106.05d). Thus, nothing in the claim adds significantly more to the abstract idea. The claim is ineligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Coutts et al. (US 7,545,816 B1), in view of Jan et al. (US 2020/0019935 A1), in further view of Block et al. (US 2016/0275760 A1) and Choudhuri et al. (US 2013/0024300 A1).
Regarding claim 1 (Currently Amended), Coutts et al. discloses a system for managing a terminal, the system comprising (Column 1, lines 7-10, The disclosure of the inventors' commonly assigned U.S. patent application entitled "Transaction Processing Systems," filed on even date herewith, is hereby fully incorporated herein by reference; Column 1, lines 15-17, The invention relates to communications networks in which there are one or more transaction processing terminals that may require servicing or maintenance):
one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to (Column 9, lines 46-48, The state of health monitor 172 is implemented by software which is executed on the processor 142 and by memory which is accessed by the software):
maintain, by a terminal management server, a record log associated with the terminal (Figure 4, item 22, Server; Column 17, lines 4-22, Error Logging. Within a transaction terminal, such as any ATM, there may exist processes that will monitor the terminal's usage. This may involve an error detection procedure where every time an action is taken by the terminal, the action is recorded. This process is called error logging. The logging can include anything, from storing an amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette to indication of a customer's card passing over a particular sensor. A log may be represented by a stored value indicating the number of times terminal has produced specific error condition or related mnemonic, e.g., the mnemonic PRINT_LO may be an abbreviation indicating a printer ribbon has nearly run out. The stored Log may represent the number of times the corresponding error condition mnemonic or Tally had occurred. Therefore, inside the traditional transaction terminal there may be an abundance of untapped and highly valuable data. All this information can be useful in detecting what has gone wrong with a terminal or predicting when components or supplies will need replacement);
receive, by the terminal management server and based on maintaining the record log and from the terminal, a record associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal, wherein the record includes … a type of the operation (Figure 4, item 22, Server; Column 2, lines 6-16, Clearly, critical failure resolution and consumable media management are important issues for ATM, SST and POS terminals. A number of techniques exist which attempt to address these issues. The larger retail stores often use a loudspeaker system to allow the operator to call for assistance. This could be in response to some critical situation such as a receipt paper jam where the customer must wait for the problem to be resolved. It could be in response to running low on low denomination currency where the customer may be given an undesirably large amount of small change. Either situation undesirably inconveniences the customer; Column 13, lines 51-53, The critical failure information includes the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the transaction terminal experiencing that failure; Column 17, lines 4-22, Error Logging. Within a transaction terminal, such as any ATM, there may exist processes that will monitor the terminal's usage. This may involve an error detection procedure where every time an action is taken by the terminal, the action is recorded. This process is called error logging. The logging can include anything, from storing an amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette to indication of a customer's card passing over a particular sensor; Examiner notes that the log tracks issues/errors of an operation involving a user/customer of the terminal. In this case, the record log includes “type of the operation” since it can keep track of at least “amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette” and/or “error type such as a card jam”);
determine, by the terminal management server and based on … the type of the operation, that the operation is associated with one or more agents providing a service for the user (Figure 4, item 22, Server; Column 4, lines 12-19, By virtue of this system, a malfunctioning transaction terminal may be able to determine if there is a maintainer available to repair the malfunction, and if a maintainer is available, the transaction terminal is able to send a request (e.g., using an alert agent) to the maintainer. The maintainer may be a service engineer, a local designated employee or official, or an automated assistance system. Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; Column 13, lines 51-53, The critical failure information includes the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the transaction terminal experiencing that failure);
automatically determine, based on the service and from location information in the record, a location of the terminal (Figure 4, item 22, Server; Column 13, lines 51-58, The critical failure information includes the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the transaction terminal experiencing that failure. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the LAN 10. Otherwise, the identification will include an IP address and contact information for gaining access to the malfunctioning transaction terminal; Column 25, lines 65-67, The data may then be passed from the WebServer class to the ObjectClient. In this example a vector that holds all the ATM location details can be used to send out a state of health request to all of the ATM modules in turn. This can be done simply by taking each of the locations in turn and sending out a request to them);
identify, based on an application server, a set of [agents], hosted by the application server, that involves a set of agent devices that facilitates the service at the location and that are logged into the [LAN] (Figure 4, item 22, Server; Column 4, lines 4-19, By virtue of this system, a malfunctioning transaction terminal may be able to determine if there is a maintainer available to repair the malfunction, and if a maintainer is available, the transaction terminal is able to send a request (e.g., using an alert agent) to the maintainer. The maintainer may be a service engineer, a local designated employee or official, or an automated assistance system. Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; Column 9, lines 25-32, The server 22 includes an I/O interface 132, an agent handler 140, a processor 142, an IP address and port number registry 170, a state-of health monitor 172, and transaction processing hardware/software 174; Column 11, lines 36-43, FIG. 9 shows a back office terminal 20 at which a maintainer can log on to the LAN 10. When a maintainer logs on to the LAN 10 via a back office terminal (e.g. 20a), a maintainer monitor 238 stores information about that maintainer and instructs an agent handler 240 to prepare and launch a service agent 50b (via physical I/O port 232) identifying that maintainer as an available service resource to the ATMs 16 and teller stations 18 on the LAN 10), wherein the set of agent devices are identified based on determining that the set of agent devices are registered to a service location via respective [LAN] involving agent devices of the set of agent devices (Column 4, lines 12-25, Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; and whether the maintainer is a primary contact or should only be contacted if there is no primary contact. Using information of this sort, if there are a plurality of maintainers available, the transaction terminal may be able to rank the available maintainers into a preferred visiting order according to the malfunction, the location of the maintainer, and other such details; Column 11, lines 65-66, The physical location of the maintainer (local or remote to the LAN 10));
access, via the [server], a set of statuses associated with the set of [agents], wherein each status of the set of statuses indicates whether a particular [agent], of the set of [agents], is in a standby mode or is an active session (Column 13, lines 1-11, The agent handler 40 uses the agent registry 45 to obtain the addresses of the maintainers to be visited by the alert agent 50c. If more than one maintainer is available (i.e. if more than one maintainer is currently logged on to the LAN 10) then the maintainers are prioritized within the address sub-fields of the alert agent 50c according to one or more predetermined criteria. The predetermined criteria may be the order in which the maintainers logged on to the LAN 10. Alternatively, the predetermined criteria may be based on the location of the maintainers, so that the maintainer that is closest has the highest priority and is visited first; Examiner interprets “maintainer currently logged on to the LAN” as the “standby mode”);
select, by the terminal management server and based on accessing the set of statuses, an agent device of the set of agent devices (Figure 4, item 22, Server; Column 4, lines 12-27, Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; and whether the maintainer is a primary contact or should only be contacted if there is no primary contact. Using information of this sort, if there are a plurality of maintainers available, the transaction terminal may be able to rank the available maintainers into a preferred visiting order according to the malfunction, the location of the maintainer, and other such details. The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking; Column 11, lines 36-43, FIG. 9 shows a back office terminal 20 at which a maintainer can log on to the LAN 10. When a maintainer logs on to the LAN 10 via a back office terminal (e.g. 20a), a maintainer monitor 238 stores information about that maintainer and instructs an agent handler 240 to prepare and launch a service agent 50b (via physical I/O port 232) identifying that maintainer as an available service resource to the ATMs 16 and teller stations 18 on the LAN 10; Examiner interprets the back office terminal as the agent device);
transmit, by the terminal management server, to the agent device, …, a notification that identifies the operation to enable an agent associated with the agent device to perform the service for the user (Figure 4, item 22, Server; Figure 9, Back Office Terminal 20; Column 4, lines 25-31, The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking. Preferably, if a maintainer declines to perform the repair or if a maintainer fails to respond to the alert agent within a predetermined time period, the alert agent travels to the next maintainer on the list; Column 28, lines 35-41, This class handled the records in the same manner as the Replenishers screen. It would extract the data and display it in the Field Engineer's screen. However, this screen presented more information and all the contents of the records were extracted and used. This included the ATM's location, module name, state of health, error name, full error description and components to check), wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation … associated with a card being [jammed/stuck] within the terminal, wherein the notification includes the record associated with the operation associated with the card being [jammed/stuck] within the terminal (Figure 9, Back Office Terminal 20; Column 4, lines 25-31, The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking. Preferably, if a maintainer declines to perform the repair or if a maintainer fails to respond to the alert agent within a predetermined time period, the alert agent travels to the next maintainer on the list; Column 28, lines 35-41, This class handled the records in the same manner as the Replenishers screen. It would extract the data and display it in the Field Engineer's screen. However, this screen presented more information and all the contents of the records were extracted and used. This included the ATM's location, module name, state of health, error name, full error description and components to check; Column 33, lines 42-54, When a critical failure occurs within an ATM or teller station in the network, an alert agent program may be launched by the site experiencing the failure. An alert agent program is shown in FIG. 41A as having been launched by the ATM 3. The alert agent may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam. The alert agents may use a location list built up in an agent registry 455 from the service agents that visited earlier. An alert agent may be launched to arrive at the agent handler at each location on its list either in turn or according to some predefined rules), and wherein the notification indicates a time period in which the service should be provided, the time period being based on a time of the operation associated with the card being [jammed/stuck] within the terminal (Column 32, lines 62-67, This information can be used to alert an operator of some impending problem. Alternatively, the information can be used to schedule an appropriate time to service a terminal site; Column 33, lines 42-54, When a critical failure occurs within an ATM or teller station in the network, an alert agent program may be launched by the site experiencing the failure. An alert agent program is shown in FIG. 41A as having been launched by the ATM 3. The alert agent may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam. The alert agents may use a location list built up in an agent registry 455 from the service agents that visited earlier. An alert agent may be launched to arrive at the agent handler at each location on its list either in turn or according to some predefined rules);
provide, by the terminal management server, based on the notification and to the application server, instructions that cause a new application session between the agent device and the terminal to be established, wherein the new application session permits the agent device to communicate with the terminal and is established by the application server (Figure 4, item 22, Server; Column 9, lines 25-32, The server 22 includes an I/O interface 132, an agent handler 140, a processor 142, an IP address and port number registry 170, a state-of health monitor 172, and transaction processing hardware/software 174; Column 33, lines 42-47, When a critical failure occurs within an ATM or teller station in the network, an alert agent program may be launched by the site experiencing the failure. An alert agent program is shown in FIG. 41A as having been launched by the ATM 3. The alert agent may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam; Column 33, lines 55-61, Upon reaching an agent handler of a replenisher or maintenance program, the alert agent may query training and authority levels recorded there in order to decide whether help is available. If a person is available who is trained and authorized to work on the error contained within the alert agent, then the alert agent may present a request for assistance on that person's terminal; Column 19, lines 31-39, FIG. 15 shows a peer-to-peer messaging component that would allow individual modules to inter-communicate, and host, application and user interface components that would provide the module functionality. The hardware interface would generate logs and tallies as the module operates and defines the state of health of the module. These logs and tallies could be accessed by the agent and embedded server components in order to provide added functionality contemplated by this invention; Column 34, lines 8-18, If at any point the alert agent successfully summons assistance, the alert agent may be acknowledged and critical failure information carried by the alert agent may be registered at the location capable of assisting. The information can include the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the terminal concerned. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the local area network. Otherwise, the identification may include an address and contact information for gaining access to the terminal; Examiner notes that the agent may provide assistance within the network (e.g., based on a terminal number and using an application). Therefore, based on broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification, Coutts et al. discloses “a new application session between the agent device and the terminal to be established, wherein the application session permits the agent device to communicate with the terminal” since an application is used to connect the selected agent with the terminal);
monitor activity associated with at least one of the terminal or the agent device (Column 8, lines 34-46, The ATM 16 has four service elements 44 in the form of a user interface 44a, a card reader 44b, a cash dispenser 44c, and a receipt printer 44d. The ATM 16 also has a service agent registry 45, and operation monitoring facilities 46 comprising a service element monitor 48 and an associated service registry 49. The service element monitor 48 interrogates the service elements 44 to obtain operating information relating to service elements 44 in the ATM 16. The operating information includes state of health information. The service element monitor 48 is located and arranged so as to provide operating data which indicates the state of health of the ATM 16 by monitoring the operations being carried out by the service elements 44; Column 20, lines 30-39, A feature of the UTC architecture is that it can integrates ATM modules of a branch office or region with the teller stations and back office systems through the regional server component. An example of a branch office network of this form is shown in FIG. 17. This environment provides a mechanism for servicing personnel or replenishers to directly monitor ATMs under their care through the embedded Web techniques and allows intelligent agent technologies to be employed within this environment, providing a means to continuously monitor conditions and report errors as they occur; It can be noted that the claim language is written in alternative form. The limitation taught by Coutts et al. is based on “monitor activity associated with at least one of the terminals");
and perform the service based on the established new application session and based on the time period indicated in the notification (Column 32, lines 62-67, This information can be used to alert an operator of some impending problem. Alternatively, the information can be used to schedule an appropriate time to service a terminal site; Column 34, lines 8-18, If at any point the alert agent successfully summons assistance, the alert agent may be acknowledged and critical failure information carried by the alert agent may be registered at the location capable of assisting. The information can include the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the terminal concerned. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the local area network. Otherwise, the identification may include an address and contact information for gaining access to the terminal).
Although Coutts et al. discloses a record associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal, wherein the record includes a type of the operation, Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the record includes a time of the operation.
However, Jan et al. discloses to receive, by the terminal management server and based on maintaining the record log and from the terminal, a record associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal, wherein the record includes a time of the operation and a type of the operation (Figure 9, Management Layer; Paragraph 0016, An automated teller machine (ATM) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, transfer funds, or obtaining account information, at any time and without the need for direct interaction with bank staff; Paragraph 0022, In embodiments, in which the hardware device being serviced is an ATM, some examples of ATM components that can be proactively serviced can include a card reader, keypad, display screen, receipt printer and cash dispenser, as well as other components and systems employed in ATM's. It is noted that this example is specific for ATM hardware devices, and that other hardware devices may have different components that can be serviced; Paragraph 0041, 1. A data acquisition process for the failure prediction model 50 can be executed resulting in retrieval of sensor data, hardware device usage data, periodical (e.g., weekly, monthly, etc.) hardware device availability data, hardware device configuration data, hardware device service record data, past repair event data. Sensor data may include, inter alia, time stamped error and warning messages, a status from each hardware machine, etc. Hardware device, e.g., ATM, usage data may include, inter alia, functionality data, transactional data, etc. ATM configuration data may include, inter alia, a machine manufacture, a machine model type, a machine model number, a machine hardware and software configuration, etc. Hardware service record data, such as ATM service record data, may include time stamped service records including, inter alia, incident ticket open time, affected component, repair notes, failure categories, parts, hours for repairs, technician traveling time, etc.; Examiner notes that Jan et al. discloses a type of the operation since it can identify at least an error operation);
determine, by the terminal management server and based on the time of the operation and the type of the operation, that the operation is associated with one or more agents providing a service for the user (Figure 9, Management Layer; Paragraph 0063, The cognitive priority model development application 57 can then calculate how many hardware machines, e.g., ATMs, will be serviced for each of the planning windows. This calculation can take into account the number of technicians, the travel time a technician needs to take to reach the site of the hardware machine that need service, the number of hardware machines that need service, and the amount of time per service call for each hardware machine being serviced; Paragraph 0066, For example, in one embodiments, in which the hardware devices are ATMs, once the prediction model 50 provides a prediction of failure, and the business priority data accumulating application 56 collects data on the hardware devices, e.g., ATMs 14a, 14n regarding machine usage, cross bank network transactions, criticality, locality, ATM inventories, and the score for the actual failure date vs. the predicted failure date, the cognitive priority model development application 57 can provide a regression model illustrating how the technicians can proactively service the system of ATMs 14a, 14n so that any missed called will have a minimized business effect on the system).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein a record associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal includes a type of the operation of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the record includes a time of the operation of the invention of Jan et al. because doing so would allow the system to determine the likelihood that specific hardware devices will need maintenance. Therefore, using proactive maintenance to avoid a failure that would interrupt the hardware devices ability to function in service; and take into account the component of the apparatus, i.e., ATM, that is likely to fail and is therefore needing proactive maintenance to avoid failure (see Jan et al., Paragraph 0022). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Although Coutts et al. discloses to select an agent based on a set of statuses associated with the agents (Column 13, lines 1-11, availability of the maintainers), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein an application session indicates a standby mode or an active session.
However, Block et al. discloses identify, based on an application server, a set of application sessions, hosted by the application server (Paragraph 0287, In the exemplary arrangement additional capabilities for operation of automated banking machines may be accomplished by computer software operating in one or more servers. The servers are in operative communication with at least one automated banking machine, at least one computer including a teller station terminal, and other computers; Paragraph 0352, The exemplary terminal may comprise a thin client software architecture in operative connection with a server running applications requested by the terminal. Alternatively the terminal may comprise a computer operative to run some applications locally therein while accessing other applications that are run remotely on another computer such as a server 90), that involves a set of agent devices that facilitates the service at the location and that are logged into the set of application sessions (Paragraph 0311, As can be appreciated the data may indicate that some transaction types may be handled by service providers who are capable of dealing with a wide variety of financial transactions while other transaction types will be routed to persons who are specialists. The services cloud may operate to route the messages to the workstations of service providers based on stored data which indicates the authority or capabilities of the workstation and/or the person currently signed on as the operator thereof; Paragraph 0312, Alternatively if the consumer is requesting a transaction outside of normal business hours the services cloud will operate in accordance with the associated programming to cause messages from the automated banking machine to be routed to teller terminals located at a facility in another location where remote tellers are currently working and available. Thus the exemplary arrangements have the capabilities for assuring that if a session with a teller is required, computers of the services cloud can provide the connection to an appropriate service provider during those times that the operator of the system wishes to provide the human teller assistance), wherein the set of agent devices are identified based on determining that the set of agent devices are registered to a service location via respective application sessions involving agent devices of the set of agent devices (Paragraph 0039, FIG. 19 shows a plurality of customer stations that are remotely located from a shared service provider station, which can communicate with each respective customer station; Paragraph 0287, In the exemplary arrangement additional capabilities for operation of automated banking machines may be accomplished by computer software operating in one or more servers. The servers are in operative communication with at least one automated banking machine, at least one computer including a teller station terminal, and other computers; Paragraph 0352, The exemplary terminal may comprise a thin client software architecture in operative connection with a server running applications requested by the terminal; Paragraph 0374, For example, other arrangements can include a plurality of service provider stations as needed to assist a large number of customer stations. The service provider stations can be located at a common location, where each service provider station is able to communicate with each customer station. The arrangement allows the next available service provider to then assist the next customer waiting in a holding queue);
access, via the set of application sessions, a set of statuses associated with the set of application sessions, wherein each status of the set of statuses indicates whether a particular application session, of the set of application sessions, is in a standby mode or is an active session (Paragraph 0313, The computers of the services cloud may operate to have a plurality of remote tellers available on standby to which associated terminals messages and communications from automated banking machines can be routed. The services cloud may operate to check the status of the different service provider workstations to determine which ones are currently available to receive a transaction and to route the necessary data thereto. Further the exemplary computers of the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to distribute the customer sessions among the plurality of remote tellers who are currently available to handle such calls. This will avoid any one particular teller from being required to handle a significantly larger number of customer transactions than other tellers. Further the computers in the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to route customer calls to other available remote teller stations if the current available group of teller stations are all occupied. This may be, for example, routing the consumer session that cannot be immediately handled because all of the remote tellers are busy, to a remote call center in another region or to another group of available standby service providers);
select, by the terminal management server and based on accessing the set of statuses, an agent device of the set of agent devices; and transmit, by the terminal management server, to the agent device and via the particular application session, a notification that identifies the operation to enable an agent, of the one or more agents, associated with the agent device to perform the service for the user (Paragraph 0313, Further the exemplary computers of the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to distribute the customer sessions among the plurality of remote tellers who are currently available to handle such calls. This will avoid any one particular teller from being required to handle a significantly larger number of customer transactions than other tellers. Further the computers in the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to route customer calls to other available remote teller stations if the current available group of teller stations are all occupied. This may be, for example, routing the consumer session that cannot be immediately handled because all of the remote tellers are busy, to a remote call center in another region or to another group of available standby service providers), wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation … associated with a card being [stuck/jammed] within the terminal (Paragraph 0273, Operating the devices 46 remotely could remedy the condition. This may include, for example, cycling the devices that have a problem to clear a jam. Alternatively, if the service provider cannot clear the jam through remote operation, or the jam is such that remote operation of the particular device is not sufficient (or making software changes, such as resetting a condition that is causing a software fault) cannot correct the problem, and then the remote service provider could take steps to provide alternative solutions; Paragraph 0326, In response to a computer in the services cloud receiving an indication that a check processing transaction cannot be carried out for a user, the computer may operate to cause one or more messages to be sent to a remote teller terminal. Messages to the teller terminal may operate to inform the service provider of the condition and the reason that such transaction would otherwise be denied. In response to receipt of these messages, the remote service provider may operate their terminal 22 to access the computer in the automated banking machine 760), …
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service based on availability of the agents and location of the terminal of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the availability is determined based on a set of application sessions being in a standby mode or in an active session of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to route the consumer session to available standby providers (see Block et al., Paragraph 0313). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Coutts et al. discloses to transmit a notification that identifies the operation to enable an agent associated with the agent device to perform the service for the user, wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation associated with a card being jammed/stuck within the terminal (e.g., the alert may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam). Although Coutts et al. discloses to detect or encounter an error associated with a received card such as a card error (e.g., card reader error due to a card jam), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose other errors associated with the received card (e.g., card withheld in response to fraudulent activity).
However, Choudhuri et al. discloses wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation that was repeated a certain quantity of times within a certain time period and associated with a card being withheld within the terminal (Paragraph 0106, The velocity data may be utilized in any manner within the multi-stage filtering process. For instance, in some embodiments, predetermined values and transaction counts for velocity data are set within the multi-stage filtration platform application 390 that may automatically "trigger" or "flag" any transaction that exceeds the predetermined values and/or counts without regard to other customer specific information. In such embodiments, any transaction that exceeds the predetermined acceptable velocity values and/or counts may be forwarded to the next filtration stage, or, if occurring in the final stage, the fraud-detection related action may be taken, such as the transaction may be declined, the customer contacted for further verification, etc.; Paragraph 0108, The velocity data analyzed may include strictly the quantity (i.e. velocity count) of transactions within a specified time period (e.g., 5+ transactions within an hour, 20+ transactions within a day, etc.; Paragraph 0135, In other embodiments, instructions are sent to a transaction device as illustrated by block 880, in order to identify an unauthorized user. The instructions can configure the transaction device to notify the user or an unauthorized user of a fraud alert, cancel a transaction, record an image or video of the user of the transaction device, and the like. The unauthorized user may be any user that does not have authorization or permission to access an account, conduct a transaction, and/or act on behalf of the user. The unauthorized user may be an individual, an organization, a business, or any type of user. In an exemplary embodiment, the transaction device (e.g., an ATM) is sent instructions to recapture a card associated with an account. For example, the ATM may keep the card within the machine after it is received. In this way the card is taken away from an unauthorized user to prevent further use of the card; Paragraph 0057, The fraud alert may be any type of alert that acts to notify the customer and/or a unit within the bank that a potential fraudulent transaction attempt is occurring or has already occurred), wherein the notification includes the record associated with the operation associated with the card being withheld within the terminal, … based on a time of the operation associated with the card being withheld within the terminal (Paragraph 0108, The velocity data analyzed may include strictly the quantity (i.e. velocity count) of transactions within a specified time period (e.g., 5+ transactions within an hour, 20+ transactions within a day, etc.; Paragraph 0135, In other embodiments, instructions are sent to a transaction device as illustrated by block 880, in order to identify an unauthorized user. The instructions can configure the transaction device to notify the user or an unauthorized user of a fraud alert, cancel a transaction, record an image or video of the user of the transaction device, and the like. The unauthorized user may be any user that does not have authorization or permission to access an account, conduct a transaction, and/or act on behalf of the user. The unauthorized user may be an individual, an organization, a business, or any type of user. In an exemplary embodiment, the transaction device (e.g., an ATM) is sent instructions to recapture a card associated with an account. For example, the ATM may keep the card within the machine after it is received. In this way the card is taken away from an unauthorized user to prevent further use of the card. In other embodiments, instructions are sent to the transaction device to configure the device to prompt the user or unauthorized user to input one or more security codes. For example, in addition to requiring a PIN to access an account, the transaction device may further require that the user or unauthorized user input a secondary PIN or answer a security question. The transaction device includes ATM's, POS's, computer devices, smartphones, mobile phones, and the like. The transaction device may be associated with a financial institution, business, third party, or the user).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein a record includes a type of the operation associated with a received card such as a card error (e.g., card reader error due to a card jam) of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate other known card errors (e.g., card withheld after detecting that an operations was repeated a certain quantity of times within a certain time period) of the invention of Choudhuri et al. because doing so is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 2 (Previously Presented), which is dependent of claim 1, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 1. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein the operation involves … the card within the terminal, and wherein the notification indicates that the service involves the received card being [jammed/stuck] within the terminal (Column 1, lines 39-44, Cards can jam in the card reader, currency can jam in the dispenser transport, and receipt paper can jam within the printer mechanism or its external transport. Such critical errors can immediately take the terminal out of service and require immediate actions to be taken to recover the situation; The critical failure information includes the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the transaction terminal experiencing that failure; Column 13, lines 53-58, The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the LAN 10. Otherwise, the identification will include an IP address and contact information for gaining access to the malfunctioning transaction terminal; Column 34, lines 8-20, If at any point the alert agent successfully summons assistance, the alert agent may be acknowledged and critical failure information carried by the alert agent may be registered at the location capable of assisting. The information can include the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the terminal concerned. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the local area network. Otherwise, the identification may include an address and contact information for gaining access to the terminal. Once an alert agent has successfully summoned assistance, it may return to the originating terminal site).
Coutts et al. discloses to transmit a notification that identifies the operation to enable an agent associated with the agent device to perform the service for the user, wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation associated with a received card being jammed/stuck within the terminal (e.g., the alert may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam). Although Coutts et al. to detect or encounter an error associated with a received card such as a card error (e.g., card reader error due to a card jam), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose other errors associated with the received card (e.g., card withheld).
However, Choudhuri et al. discloses wherein the operation involves withholding the card within the terminal, and wherein the notification indicates that the service involves the card being withheld within the terminal (Paragraph 0135, In other embodiments, instructions are sent to a transaction device as illustrated by block 880, in order to identify an unauthorized user. The instructions can configure the transaction device to notify the user or an unauthorized user of a fraud alert, cancel a transaction, record an image or video of the user of the transaction device, and the like. The unauthorized user may be any user that does not have authorization or permission to access an account, conduct a transaction, and/or act on behalf of the user. The unauthorized user may be an individual, an organization, a business, or any type of user. In an exemplary embodiment, the transaction device (e.g., an ATM) is sent instructions to recapture a card associated with an account. For example, the ATM may keep the card within the machine after it is received. In this way the card is taken away from an unauthorized user to prevent further use of the card; Paragraph 0057, The fraud alert may be any type of alert that acts to notify the customer and/or a unit within the bank that a potential fraudulent transaction attempt is occurring or has already occurred).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein a record includes a type of the operation associated with a received card such as a card error (e.g., card reader error due to a card jam) of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate other known card errors (e.g., card withheld) of the invention of Choudhuri et al. because doing so is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 3 (Currently Amended), which is dependent of claim 1, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 1. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive, from the agent device, a user credential associated with the [agent device], wherein the notification is transmitted to the agent device based on receiving the user credential (FIG. 9 shows a back office terminal 20 at which a maintainer can log on to the LAN 10. When a maintainer logs on to the LAN 10 via a back office terminal (e.g. 20a), a maintainer monitor 238 stores information about that maintainer and instructs an agent handler 240 to prepare and launch a service agent 50b (via physical I/O port 232) identifying that maintainer as an available service resource to the ATMs 16 and teller stations 18 on the LAN 10).
Although Coutts et al. discloses a user credential associated with agent device (e.g., identify the maintainer), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the user credential is associated with the application session (e.g., identify which maintainer is in standby mode).
However, Block et al. discloses receive, from the agent device, a user credential associated with the new application session, wherein the notification is transmitted to the agent device based on receiving the user credential (Paragraph 0311, As can be appreciated the data may indicate that some transaction types may be handled by service providers who are capable of dealing with a wide variety of financial transactions while other transaction types will be routed to persons who are specialists. The services cloud may operate to route the messages to the workstations of service providers based on stored data which indicates the authority or capabilities of the workstation and/or the person currently signed on as the operator thereof; Paragraph 0312, Alternatively if the consumer is requesting a transaction outside of normal business hours the services cloud will operate in accordance with the associated programming to cause messages from the automated banking machine to be routed to teller terminals located at a facility in another location where remote tellers are currently working and available. Thus the exemplary arrangements have the capabilities for assuring that if a session with a teller is required, computers of the services cloud can provide the connection to an appropriate service provider during those times that the operator of the system wishes to provide the human teller assistance; Paragraph 0313, The computers of the services cloud may operate to have a plurality of remote tellers available on standby to which associated terminals messages and communications from automated banking machines can be routed. The services cloud may operate to check the status of the different service provider workstations to determine which ones are currently available to receive a transaction and to route the necessary data thereto; Examiner interprets the “person currently signed on” as the “user credential”).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service based on availability of the agents and location of the terminal of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the agents are authorized to provide the service based on a user credential associated with the application session of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to route the consumer session to available standby providers (see Block et al., Paragraph 0313). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 4 (Currently Amended), which is dependent of claim 1, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 1. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein the one or more processors, to select the agent device, are configured to: determine that a status, of the set of statuses, indicates that the agent device is available to provide the service based on an [agent] associated with the agent device being in the standby mode, wherein the agent device is selected based on determining that the status indicates that the [agent] is in the standby mode (Column 4, lines 12-27, Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; and whether the maintainer is a primary contact or should only be contacted if there is no primary contact. Using information of this sort, if there are a plurality of maintainers available, the transaction terminal may be able to rank the available maintainers into a preferred visiting order according to the malfunction, the location of the maintainer, and other such details. The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking; Column 11, lines 36-43, FIG. 9 shows a back office terminal 20 at which a maintainer can log on to the LAN 10. When a maintainer logs on to the LAN 10 via a back office terminal (e.g. 20a), a maintainer monitor 238 stores information about that maintainer and instructs an agent handler 240 to prepare and launch a service agent 50b (via physical I/O port 232) identifying that maintainer as an available service resource to the ATMs 16 and teller stations 18 on the LAN 10; Examiner interprets “maintainer currently logged on to the LAN” as the “standby mode”).
Although Coutts et al. discloses to select an agent based on a set of statuses associated with the agents (Column 13, lines 1-11, availability of the maintainers), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein an application session indicates a standby mode or an active session.
However, Block et al. discloses wherein the one or more processors, to select the agent device, are configured to: determine that a status, of the set of statuses, indicates that the agent device is available to provide the service based on [[the ]]an application session associated with the agent device being in the standby mode, wherein the agent device is selected based on determining that the status indicates that the application session is in the standby mode (Paragraph 0313, The computers of the services cloud may operate to have a plurality of remote tellers available on standby to which associated terminals messages and communications from automated banking machines can be routed. The services cloud may operate to check the status of the different service provider workstations to determine which ones are currently available to receive a transaction and to route the necessary data thereto. Further the exemplary computers of the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to distribute the customer sessions among the plurality of remote tellers who are currently available to handle such calls. This will avoid any one particular teller from being required to handle a significantly larger number of customer transactions than other tellers. Further the computers in the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to route customer calls to other available remote teller stations if the current available group of teller stations are all occupied. This may be, for example, routing the consumer session that cannot be immediately handled because all of the remote tellers are busy, to a remote call center in another region or to another group of available standby service providers; Paragraph 0352, The exemplary terminal may comprise a thin client software architecture in operative connection with a server running applications requested by the terminal).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service based on availability of the agents and location of the terminal of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the availability is determined based on a set of application sessions being in a standby mode or in an active session of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to route the consumer session to available standby providers (see Block et al., Paragraph 0313). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 5 (Previously Presented), which is dependent of claim 4, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 4. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine, …, a time period associated with the agent facilitating performance of the service, … (Column 4, lines 12-27, Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; and whether the maintainer is a primary contact or should only be contacted if there is no primary contact. Using information of this sort, if there are a plurality of maintainers available, the transaction terminal may be able to rank the available maintainers into a preferred visiting order according to the malfunction, the location of the maintainer, and other such details. The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking; Column 11, lines 1-8, The state of health monitor 172 is thus able to use information provided by the returning monitor agents 50a to build up a dynamically changing picture of the transaction terminals in the LAN 10, identifying problem areas and scheduling replenishment and maintenance operations based upon local requirements as opposed to some overriding average as might be conducted by a centralized helpdesk approach. For example, the information can be used to schedule an appropriate time to replenish consumables in a transaction terminal; Column 33, lines 8-12, When logging on, the BACK OFFICE 1 automatically sends out a service agent program identifying that replenisher or field engineer to the ATMs 410 and teller stations 411 on the network as an available service resource; Examiner interprets “scheduling replenishment and maintenance operations” as a “time period”).
Coutts et al. discloses to: assign tasks based on the status of the agents (e.g., available); and a time period associated with the agent facilitating performance of the service (e.g., schedule an appropriate time to replenish consumables). Although Coutts et al. discloses all the limitations above, Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose to determine, based on the status, a time period associated with the agent facilitating performance of the service.
However, Block et al. discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine, based on the status, a time period associated with the agent facilitating performance of the service, wherein the notification indicates the time period (Paragraph 0071, The teller terminal is also operative to communicate in the network with other computers so as to indicate activities at the teller terminal. This activity, which may be evidenced by a receipt of inputs at the terminal and/or through communications to other computers in the system, may be used to indicate the activity ongoing at the particular resource, and also that nature of such activities, to the other computers. Such information may be used in exemplary embodiments for purposes of determining through operation of the computer a time after which the teller station will become available to conduct transactions for other banking customers; Paragraph 0181, This data may be used by one or more computers to generate messages to the banking customer; Paragraph 0313, Alternatively or in addition, computers of the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to place a consumer session on “hold” in a queue for a next available service provider when all of the service providers are busy. In these circumstances computers of the services cloud may operate to send appropriate messages to the customer at the automated banking machine to indicate to them that there will be a brief wait for a services provider. The computers may also operate in accordance with their programming to indicate to the customer at the automated banking machine the expected wait time that they will incur until they will be in contact with the human service provider).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service based on status of the agents (e.g., available) and location of the terminal of the invention of Coutts et al. to further determine, based on the status, a time period associated with the agent facilitating performance of the service of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to determine a time after which the teller station will become available to conduct transactions for other banking customers (see Block et al., Paragraph 0071). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 6 (Original), which is dependent of claim 1, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 1. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to at least one of: … that the agent is available to provide the service for the user; or … that the agent is available to provide the service for the user (Column 11, lines 36-43, FIG. 9 shows a back office terminal 20 at which a maintainer can log on to the LAN 10. When a maintainer logs on to the LAN 10 via a back office terminal (e.g. 20a), a maintainer monitor 238 stores information about that maintainer and instructs an agent handler 240 to prepare and launch a service agent 50b (via physical I/O port 232) identifying that maintainer as an available service resource to the ATMs 16 and teller stations 18 on the LAN 10); Column 13, lines 27-33, If a person is available who is trained and authorized to work on the error contained within the alert agent, then the alert agent may present a request for assistance on that person's terminal. If assistance is not available because the requested person is away from the terminal, the alert agent may be programmed to time out and move on to the next location on its list).
Although Coutts et al. discloses to determine whether the agent is available to provide the service for the user, Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose to transmit to the terminal, a notification to indicate to the user that the agent is available to provide the service for the user.
However, Block et al. discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to at least one of: transmit, to the terminal, a notification to indicate to the user that the agent is available to provide the service for the user; or transmit, to a user device associated with the user, a notification to indicate to the user that the agent is available to provide the service for the user (Paragraph 0313, The computers may also operate in accordance with their programming to indicate to the customer at the automated banking machine the expected wait time that they will incur until they will be in contact with the human service provider; Examiner notes that a waiting time of zero indicates that the agent is available to provide the service).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service based on availability of the agents and location of the terminal of the invention of Coutts et al. to further transmit a notification to indicate to the user that the agent is available to provide the service for the user of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to indicate to the customer at the automated banking machine the expected wait time that they will incur until they will be in contact with the human service provider (see Block et al., Paragraph 0313). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 7 (Original), which is dependent of claim 1, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 1. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to at least one of: identify, from the record, a user identifier associated with the user, … (Column 17, lines 7-14, This process is called error logging. The logging can include anything, from storing an amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette to indication of a customer's card passing over a particular sensor. A log may be represented by a stored value indicating the number of times terminal has produced specific error condition or related mnemonic; Column 28, lines 1-5, Service personnel could be identified by their log-in names and this could be used to tell the error data were to go to).
Coutts et al. discloses to identify an agent and a terminal, wherein a customer is using the terminal. Although Coutts et al. discloses all the limitations above, Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose to identify a customer.
However, Block et al. discloses wherein the one or more processors are further configured to at least one of: identify, from the record, a user identifier associated with the user, wherein the notification includes the user identifier to permit the agent to identify the user (Paragraph 0065, The user terminal may identify a user based on data read from a user card, other data bearing record that identifies the customer, and/or their financial accounts. Such identification of a customer from such inputs may be used to provide targeted output information through the welcome terminal in the manner of the incorporated disclosure; Paragraph 0148, For example, although the terminal would normally have a video output through the display, the terminal could be set up so that it hands off the video presentation or dialog with an actual teller to the user's mobile device. This may be done, for example, by having some correlation between the user ID, such as the user's card number or some other user identifying value, and the user's mobile phone number; Paragraph 0218, In an exemplary embodiment a banking customer or employee may only have access to the resources that correspond to the security level assigned to them. A banking computer system may be operative to activate different banking resources corresponding to each identified banking customer or employee when the banking customer or employee approaches the resource; Paragraph 0308, In the exemplary embodiment one or more computers of the services cloud is operative to make available at the remote teller workstation 22 information regarding the cash withdrawal transaction request. This will include, for example, the amount of the request, the account involved, the driver's license images and the results of facial recognition or other tests that are carried out through operation of the one or more computers. In addition, the teller workstation will also receive an indication that the identifying user data such as card and PIN data was determined to be authorized through operation of the transaction host. If the transaction data corresponds to an authorized user, the remote teller may operate their transaction terminal to determine if the customer's account includes the requested amount of funds. If the customer's account includes the requested amount of funds, the teller may operate their terminal by providing inputs through associated input devices in a manner previously discussed to cause the automated banking machine to dispense the cash requested).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service to a customer of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate to identify a customer of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to receive an indication that the identifying user data such as card and PIN data was determined to be authorized through operation of the transaction host (see Block et al., Paragraph 0308). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 8 (Currently Amended), Coutts et al. discloses non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions, the set of instructions comprising (Column 5, lines 11-18, The Thin Client architecture, a more recent proposal for networked computers (NCs), is similar but eliminates the main mass storage at the terminal. Application software is instead downloaded by the server for retention in and execution from the terminal's volatile executive memory. Peripheral service elements are still generally controlled by the terminals central processor executing the application software; Column 8, lines 49-51, FIG.3 illustrates an intelligent agent 50. Intelligent agents are a class of software consisting of code and data that can be transmitted around network computing environments):
one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the device to (Column 9, lines 46-48, The state of health monitor 172 is implemented by software which is executed on the processor 142 and by memory which is accessed by the software):
receive a record associated with an operation of a terminal (Column 17, lines 4-22, Error Logging. Within a transaction terminal, such as any ATM, there may exist processes that will monitor the terminal's usage. This may involve an error detection procedure where every time an action is taken by the terminal, the action is recorded. This process is called error logging. The logging can include anything, from storing an amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette to indication of a customer's card passing over a particular sensor. A log may be represented by a stored value indicating the number of times terminal has produced specific error condition or related mnemonic, e.g., the mnemonic PRINT_LO may be an abbreviation indicating a printer ribbon has nearly run out. The stored Log may represent the number of times the corresponding error condition mnemonic or Tally had occurred. Therefore, inside the traditional transaction terminal there may be an abundance of untapped and highly valuable data. All this information can be useful in detecting what has gone wrong with a terminal or predicting when components or supplies will need replacement);
determine, based on a type of the operation …, that the operation is associated with a service involving a user of the terminal (Column 2, lines 6-16, Clearly, critical failure resolution and consumable media management are important issues for ATM, SST and POS terminals. A number of techniques exist which attempt to address these issues. The larger retail stores often use a loudspeaker system to allow the operator to call for assistance. This could be in response to some critical situation such as a receipt paper jam where the customer must wait for the problem to be resolved. It could be in response to running low on low denomination currency where the customer may be given an undesirably large amount of small change. Either situation undesirably inconveniences the customer; Column 4, lines 12-19, By virtue of this system, a malfunctioning transaction terminal may be able to determine if there is a maintainer available to repair the malfunction, and if a maintainer is available, the transaction terminal is able to send a request (e.g., using an alert agent) to the maintainer. The maintainer may be a service engineer, a local designated employee or official, or an automated assistance system. Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; Column 17, lines 4-22, Error Logging. Within a transaction terminal, such as any ATM, there may exist processes that will monitor the terminal's usage. This may involve an error detection procedure where every time an action is taken by the terminal, the action is recorded. This process is called error logging. The logging can include anything, from storing an amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette to indication of a customer's card passing over a particular sensor; Examiner notes that the log tracks issues/errors of an operation involving a user/customer of the terminal. In this case, the record log includes “type of the operation” since it can keep track of at least “amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette” and/or “error type such as a card jam”);
automatically determine, based on the service and from location information in the record, a location of the terminal (Column 13, lines 51-58, The critical failure information includes the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the transaction terminal experiencing that failure. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the LAN 10. Otherwise, the identification will include an IP address and contact information for gaining access to the malfunctioning transaction terminal; Column 25, lines 65-67, The data may then be passed from the WebServer class to the ObjectClient. In this example a vector that holds all the ATM location details can be used to send out a state of health request to all of the ATM modules in turn. This can be done simply by taking each of the locations in turn and sending out a request to them);
identify, based on an application server, a set of [agents], hosted by the application server, that involves a set of agent devices that facilitates the service at the location and that are logged into the [LAN] (Column 4, lines 4-19, By virtue of this system, a malfunctioning transaction terminal may be able to determine if there is a maintainer available to repair the malfunction, and if a maintainer is available, the transaction terminal is able to send a request (e.g., using an alert agent) to the maintainer. The maintainer may be a service engineer, a local designated employee or official, or an automated assistance system. Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; Column 9, lines 25-32, The server 22 includes an I/O interface 132, an agent handler 140, a processor 142, an IP address and port number registry 170, a state-of health monitor 172, and transaction processing hardware/software 174; Column 11, lines 36-43, FIG. 9 shows a back office terminal 20 at which a maintainer can log on to the LAN 10. When a maintainer logs on to the LAN 10 via a back office terminal (e.g. 20a), a maintainer monitor 238 stores information about that maintainer and instructs an agent handler 240 to prepare and launch a service agent 50b (via physical I/O port 232) identifying that maintainer as an available service resource to the ATMs 16 and teller stations 18 on the LAN 10), wherein the set of agent devices are identified based on determining that the set of agent devices are registered to a service location via respective [LAN] involving agent devices of the set of agent devices (Column 4, lines 12-25, Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; and whether the maintainer is a primary contact or should only be contacted if there is no primary contact. Using information of this sort, if there are a plurality of maintainers available, the transaction terminal may be able to rank the available maintainers into a preferred visiting order according to the malfunction, the location of the maintainer, and other such details; Column 11, lines 65-66, The physical location of the maintainer (local or remote to the LAN 10));
access, via the [server], a set of statuses associated with the set of [agents], wherein each status of the set of statuses indicates whether a particular [agent], of the set of [agents], is in a standby mode or is an active session (Column 13, lines 1-11, The agent handler 40 uses the agent registry 45 to obtain the addresses of the maintainers to be visited by the alert agent 50c. If more than one maintainer is available (i.e. if more than one maintainer is currently logged on to the LAN 10) then the maintainers are prioritized within the address sub-fields of the alert agent 50c according to one or more predetermined criteria. The predetermined criteria may be the order in which the maintainers logged on to the LAN 10. Alternatively, the predetermined criteria may be based on the location of the maintainers, so that the maintainer that is closest has the highest priority and is visited first; Examiner interprets “maintainer currently logged on to the LAN” as the “standby session”);
select, based on accessing the set of statuses, an agent device of the set of agent devices (Column 4, lines 12-27, Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; and whether the maintainer is a primary contact or should only be contacted if there is no primary contact. Using information of this sort, if there are a plurality of maintainers available, the transaction terminal may be able to rank the available maintainers into a preferred visiting order according to the malfunction, the location of the maintainer, and other such details. The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking; FIG. 9 shows a back office terminal 20 at which a maintainer can log on to the LAN 10. When a maintainer logs on to the LAN 10 via a back office terminal (e.g. 20a), a maintainer monitor 238 stores information about that maintainer and instructs an agent handler 240 to prepare and launch a service agent 50b (via physical I/O port 232) identifying that maintainer as an available service resource to the ATMs 16 and teller stations 18 on the LAN 10; Examiner interprets the back office terminal as the agent device);
transmit, to the agent device and …, a notification that is associated with the operation (Figure 9, Back Office Terminal 20; Column 4, lines 25-31, The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking. Preferably, if a maintainer declines to perform the repair or if a maintainer fails to respond to the alert agent within a predetermined time period, the alert agent travels to the next maintainer on the list; Column 28, lines 35-41, This class handled the records in the same manner as the Replenishers screen. It would extract the data and display it in the Field Engineer's screen. However, this screen presented more information and all the contents of the records were extracted and used. This included the ATM's location, module name, state of health, error name, full error description and components to check), wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation … associated with a card being [jammed/stuck] within the terminal, wherein the notification includes the record associated with the operation associated with the card being [jammed/stuck] within the terminal (Figure 9, Back Office Terminal 20; Column 4, lines 25-31, The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking. Preferably, if a maintainer declines to perform the repair or if a maintainer fails to respond to the alert agent within a predetermined time period, the alert agent travels to the next maintainer on the list; Column 28, lines 35-41, This class handled the records in the same manner as the Replenishers screen. It would extract the data and display it in the Field Engineer's screen. However, this screen presented more information and all the contents of the records were extracted and used. This included the ATM's location, module name, state of health, error name, full error description and components to check; Column 33, lines 42-54, When a critical failure occurs within an ATM or teller station in the network, an alert agent program may be launched by the site experiencing the failure. An alert agent program is shown in FIG. 41A as having been launched by the ATM 3. The alert agent may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam. The alert agents may use a location list built up in an agent registry 455 from the service agents that visited earlier. An alert agent may be launched to arrive at the agent handler at each location on its list either in turn or according to some predefined rules), and wherein the notification indicates a time period in which the service should be provided, the time period being based on a time of the operation associated with the card being [jammed/stuck] within the terminal (Column 32, lines 62-67, This information can be used to alert an operator of some impending problem. Alternatively, the information can be used to schedule an appropriate time to service a terminal site; Column 33, lines 42-54, When a critical failure occurs within an ATM or teller station in the network, an alert agent program may be launched by the site experiencing the failure. An alert agent program is shown in FIG. 41A as having been launched by the ATM 3. The alert agent may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam. The alert agents may use a location list built up in an agent registry 455 from the service agents that visited earlier. An alert agent may be launched to arrive at the agent handler at each location on its list either in turn or according to some predefined rules);
provide, based on the notification and to the application server, instructions that cause a new application session between the agent device and the terminal to be established, wherein the new application session permits the agent device to communicate with the terminal and is established by the application server (Figure 4, item 22, Server; Column 9, lines 25-32, The server 22 includes an I/O interface 132, an agent handler 140, a processor 142, an IP address and port number registry 170, a state-of health monitor 172, and transaction processing hardware/software 174; Column 33, lines 42-47, When a critical failure occurs within an ATM or teller station in the network, an alert agent program may be launched by the site experiencing the failure. An alert agent program is shown in FIG. 41A as having been launched by the ATM 3. The alert agent may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam; Column 33, lines 55-61, Upon reaching an agent handler of a replenisher or maintenance program, the alert agent may query training and authority levels recorded there in order to decide whether help is available. If a person is available who is trained and authorized to work on the error contained within the alert agent, then the alert agent may present a request for assistance on that person's terminal; Column 19, lines 31-39, FIG. 15 shows a peer-to-peer messaging component that would allow individual modules to inter-communicate, and host, application and user interface components that would provide the module functionality. The hardware interface would generate logs and tallies as the module operates and defines the state of health of the module. These logs and tallies could be accessed by the agent and embedded server components in order to provide added functionality contemplated by this invention; Column 34, lines 8-18, If at any point the alert agent successfully summons assistance, the alert agent may be acknowledged and critical failure information carried by the alert agent may be registered at the location capable of assisting. The information can include the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the terminal concerned. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the local area network. Otherwise, the identification may include an address and contact information for gaining access to the terminal; Examiner notes that the agent may provide assistance within the network (e.g., based on a terminal number and using an application). Therefore, based on broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification, Coutts et al. discloses “a new application session between the agent device and the terminal to be established, wherein the application session permits the agent device to communicate with the terminal” since an application is used to connect the selected agent with the terminal);
monitor activity associated with at least one of the terminal or the agent device (Column 8, lines 34-46, The ATM 16 has four service elements 44 in the form of a user interface 44a, a card reader 44b, a cash dispenser 44c, and a receipt printer 44d. The ATM 16 also has a service agent registry 45, and operation monitoring facilities 46 comprising a service element monitor 48 and an associated service registry 49. The service element monitor 48 interrogates the service elements 44 to obtain operating information relating to service elements 44 in the ATM 16. The operating information includes state of health information. The service element monitor 48 is located and arranged so as to provide operating data which indicates the state of health of the ATM 16 by monitoring the operations being carried out by the service elements 44; Column 20, lines 30-39, A feature of the UTC architecture is that it can integrates ATM modules of a branch office or region with the teller stations and back office systems through the regional server component. An example of a branch office network of this form is shown in FIG. 17. This environment provides a mechanism for servicing personnel or replenishers to directly monitor ATMs under their care through the embedded Web techniques and allows intelligent agent technologies to be employed within this environment, providing a means to continuously monitor conditions and report errors as they occur; It can be noted that the claim language is written in alternative form. The limitation taught by Coutts et al. is based on “monitor activity associated with at least one of the terminals");
and perform the service based on the established new application session and based on the time period indicated in the notification (Column 32, lines 62-67, This information can be used to alert an operator of some impending problem. Alternatively, the information can be used to schedule an appropriate time to service a terminal site; Column 34, lines 8-18, If at any point the alert agent successfully summons assistance, the alert agent may be acknowledged and critical failure information carried by the alert agent may be registered at the location capable of assisting. The information can include the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the terminal concerned. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the local area network. Otherwise, the identification may include an address and contact information for gaining access to the terminal).
Although Coutts et al. discloses a record associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal, wherein the record includes a type of the operation, Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the record includes a time of the operation.
However, Jan et al. discloses to determine, based on a type of the operation and a time of the operation, that the operation is associated with a service involving a user of the terminal (Paragraph 0016, An automated teller machine (ATM) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, transfer funds, or obtaining account information, at any time and without the need for direct interaction with bank staff; Paragraph 0022, In embodiments, in which the hardware device being serviced is an ATM, some examples of ATM components that can be proactively serviced can include a card reader, keypad, display screen, receipt printer and cash dispenser, as well as other components and systems employed in ATM's. It is noted that this example is specific for ATM hardware devices, and that other hardware devices may have different components that can be serviced; Paragraph 0041, 1. A data acquisition process for the failure prediction model 50 can be executed resulting in retrieval of sensor data, hardware device usage data, periodical (e.g., weekly, monthly, etc.) hardware device availability data, hardware device configuration data, hardware device service record data, past repair event data. Sensor data may include, inter alia, time stamped error and warning messages, a status from each hardware machine, etc. Hardware device, e.g., ATM, usage data may include, inter alia, functionality data, transactional data, etc. ATM configuration data may include, inter alia, a machine manufacture, a machine model type, a machine model number, a machine hardware and software configuration, etc. Hardware service record data, such as ATM service record data, may include time stamped service records including, inter alia, incident ticket open time, affected component, repair notes, failure categories, parts, hours for repairs, technician traveling time, etc.; Examiner notes that Jan et al. discloses a type of the operation since it can identify at least an error operation);
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein a record associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal includes a type of the operation of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the record includes a time of the operation of the invention of Jan et al. because doing so would allow the system to determine the likelihood that specific hardware devices will need maintenance. Therefore, using proactive maintenance to avoid a failure that would interrupt the hardware devices ability to function in service; and take into account the component of the apparatus, i.e., ATM, that is likely to fail and is therefore needing proactive maintenance to avoid failure (see Jan et al., Paragraph 0022). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Although Coutts et al. discloses to select an agent based on a set of statuses associated with the agents (Column 13, lines 1-11, availability of the maintainers), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein an application session indicates a standby mode or an active session.
However, Block et al. discloses identify, based on an application server, a set of application sessions, hosted by the application server (Paragraph 0287, n the exemplary arrangement additional capabilities for operation of automated banking machines may be accomplished by computer software operating in one or more servers. The servers are in operative communication with at least one automated banking machine, at least one computer including a teller station terminal, and other computers; Paragraph 0352, The exemplary terminal may comprise a thin client software architecture in operative connection with a server running applications requested by the terminal. Alternatively the terminal may comprise a computer operative to run some applications locally therein while accessing other applications that are run remotely on another computer such as a server 90), that involves a set of agent devices that facilitates the service at the location and that are logged into the set of application sessions (Paragraph 0311, As can be appreciated the data may indicate that some transaction types may be handled by service providers who are capable of dealing with a wide variety of financial transactions while other transaction types will be routed to persons who are specialists. The services cloud may operate to route the messages to the workstations of service providers based on stored data which indicates the authority or capabilities of the workstation and/or the person currently signed on as the operator thereof; Paragraph 0312, Alternatively if the consumer is requesting a transaction outside of normal business hours the services cloud will operate in accordance with the associated programming to cause messages from the automated banking machine to be routed to teller terminals located at a facility in another location where remote tellers are currently working and available. Thus the exemplary arrangements have the capabilities for assuring that if a session with a teller is required, computers of the services cloud can provide the connection to an appropriate service provider during those times that the operator of the system wishes to provide the human teller assistance), wherein the set of agent devices are identified based on determining that the set of agent devices are registered to a service location via respective application sessions involving agent devices of the set of agent devices (Paragraph 0039, FIG. 19 shows a plurality of customer stations that are remotely located from a shared service provider station, which can communicate with each respective customer station; Paragraph 0287, In the exemplary arrangement additional capabilities for operation of automated banking machines may be accomplished by computer software operating in one or more servers. The servers are in operative communication with at least one automated banking machine, at least one computer including a teller station terminal, and other computers; Paragraph 0352, The exemplary terminal may comprise a thin client software architecture in operative connection with a server running applications requested by the terminal; Paragraph 0374, For example, other arrangements can include a plurality of service provider stations as needed to assist a large number of customer stations. The service provider stations can be located at a common location, where each service provider station is able to communicate with each customer station. The arrangement allows the next available service provider to then assist the next customer waiting in a holding queue);
access, via the set of application sessions, a set of statuses associated with the set of application sessions, wherein each status of the set of statuses indicates whether a particular application session, of the set of application sessions, is in a standby mode or is an active session (Paragraph 0313, The computers of the services cloud may operate to have a plurality of remote tellers available on standby to which associated terminals messages and communications from automated banking machines can be routed. The services cloud may operate to check the status of the different service provider workstations to determine which ones are currently available to receive a transaction and to route the necessary data thereto);
select, based on accessing the set of statuses, an agent device of the set of agent devices; and transmit, to the agent device and via the particular application session, a notification that is associated with the operation (Paragraph 0313, Further the exemplary computers of the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to distribute the customer sessions among the plurality of remote tellers who are currently available to handle such calls. This will avoid any one particular teller from being required to handle a significantly larger number of customer transactions than other tellers. Further the computers in the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to route customer calls to other available remote teller stations if the current available group of teller stations are all occupied. This may be, for example, routing the consumer session that cannot be immediately handled because all of the remote tellers are busy, to a remote call center in another region or to another group of available standby service providers), wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation … associated with a card being [stuck/jammed] within the terminal (Paragraph 0273, Operating the devices 46 remotely could remedy the condition. This may include, for example, cycling the devices that have a problem to clear a jam. Alternatively, if the service provider cannot clear the jam through remote operation, or the jam is such that remote operation of the particular device is not sufficient (or making software changes, such as resetting a condition that is causing a software fault) cannot correct the problem, and then the remote service provider could take steps to provide alternative solutions; Paragraph 0326, In response to a computer in the services cloud receiving an indication that a check processing transaction cannot be carried out for a user, the computer may operate to cause one or more messages to be sent to a remote teller terminal. Messages to the teller terminal may operate to inform the service provider of the condition and the reason that such transaction would otherwise be denied. In response to receipt of these messages, the remote service provider may operate their terminal 22 to access the computer in the automated banking machine 760), …
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service based on availability of the agents and location of the terminal of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the availability is determined based on a set of application sessions being in a standby mode or in an active session of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to route the consumer session to available standby providers (see Block et al., Paragraph 0313). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Coutts et al. discloses to transmit a notification that identifies the operation to enable an agent associated with the agent device to perform the service for the user, wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation associated with a card being jammed/stuck within the terminal (e.g., the alert may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam). Although Coutts et al. discloses to detect or encounter an error associated with a received card such as a card error (e.g., card reader error due to a card jam), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose other errors associated with the received card (e.g., card withheld in response to fraudulent activity).
However, Choudhuri et al. discloses wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation that was repeated a certain quantity of times within a certain time period and associated with a card being withheld within the terminal (Paragraph 0106, The velocity data may be utilized in any manner within the multi-stage filtering process. For instance, in some embodiments, predetermined values and transaction counts for velocity data are set within the multi-stage filtration platform application 390 that may automatically "trigger" or "flag" any transaction that exceeds the predetermined values and/or counts without regard to other customer specific information. In such embodiments, any transaction that exceeds the predetermined acceptable velocity values and/or counts may be forwarded to the next filtration stage, or, if occurring in the final stage, the fraud-detection related action may be taken, such as the transaction may be declined, the customer contacted for further verification, etc.; Paragraph 0108, The velocity data analyzed may include strictly the quantity (i.e. velocity count) of transactions within a specified time period (e.g., 5+ transactions within an hour, 20+ transactions within a day, etc.; Paragraph 0135, In other embodiments, instructions are sent to a transaction device as illustrated by block 880, in order to identify an unauthorized user. The instructions can configure the transaction device to notify the user or an unauthorized user of a fraud alert, cancel a transaction, record an image or video of the user of the transaction device, and the like. The unauthorized user may be any user that does not have authorization or permission to access an account, conduct a transaction, and/or act on behalf of the user. The unauthorized user may be an individual, an organization, a business, or any type of user. In an exemplary embodiment, the transaction device (e.g., an ATM) is sent instructions to recapture a card associated with an account. For example, the ATM may keep the card within the machine after it is received. In this way the card is taken away from an unauthorized user to prevent further use of the card; Paragraph 0057, The fraud alert may be any type of alert that acts to notify the customer and/or a unit within the bank that a potential fraudulent transaction attempt is occurring or has already occurred), wherein the notification includes the record associated with the operation associated with the card being withheld within the terminal, … based on a time of the operation associated with the card being withheld within the terminal (Paragraph 0108, The velocity data analyzed may include strictly the quantity (i.e. velocity count) of transactions within a specified time period (e.g., 5+ transactions within an hour, 20+ transactions within a day, etc.; Paragraph 0135, In other embodiments, instructions are sent to a transaction device as illustrated by block 880, in order to identify an unauthorized user. The instructions can configure the transaction device to notify the user or an unauthorized user of a fraud alert, cancel a transaction, record an image or video of the user of the transaction device, and the like. The unauthorized user may be any user that does not have authorization or permission to access an account, conduct a transaction, and/or act on behalf of the user. The unauthorized user may be an individual, an organization, a business, or any type of user. In an exemplary embodiment, the transaction device (e.g., an ATM) is sent instructions to recapture a card associated with an account. For example, the ATM may keep the card within the machine after it is received. In this way the card is taken away from an unauthorized user to prevent further use of the card. In other embodiments, instructions are sent to the transaction device to configure the device to prompt the user or unauthorized user to input one or more security codes. For example, in addition to requiring a PIN to access an account, the transaction device may further require that the user or unauthorized user input a secondary PIN or answer a security question. The transaction device includes ATM's, POS's, computer devices, smartphones, mobile phones, and the like. The transaction device may be associated with a financial institution, business, third party, or the user).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein a record includes a type of the operation associated with a received card such as a card error (e.g., card reader error due to a card jam) of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate other known card errors (e.g., card withheld after detecting that an operations was repeated a certain quantity of times within a certain time period) of the invention of Choudhuri et al. because doing so is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 9 (Original), which is dependent of claim 1, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 1. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein the one or more instructions further cause the device to: determine that individual agent devices of the set of agent devices are registered to the location via respective application sessions of the individual agent devices, wherein the set of agent devices are identified based on determining that the individual agent devices are registered to the location (Column 4, lines 12-27, Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; and whether the maintainer is a primary contact or should only be contacted if there is no primary contact. Using information of this sort, if there are a plurality of maintainers available, the transaction terminal may be able to rank the available maintainers into a preferred visiting order according to the malfunction, the location of the maintainer, and other such details. The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking).
Regarding claim 10 (Previously Presented), which is dependent of claim 8, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 8. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein the one or more instructions further cause the device to: determine that a status, of the set of statuses, indicates that the agent device is [available], wherein the agent device is selected based on determining that the status indicates that the agent device is [available] (Column 4, lines 12-27, Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; and whether the maintainer is a primary contact or should only be contacted if there is no primary contact. Using information of this sort, if there are a plurality of maintainers available, the transaction terminal may be able to rank the available maintainers into a preferred visiting order according to the malfunction, the location of the maintainer, and other such details. The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking).
Although Coutts et al. discloses to select an agent based on a set of statuses associated with the agents (Column 13, lines 1-11, availability of the maintainers), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein an application session indicates a standby mode or an active session.
However, Block et al. discloses wherein the one or more instructions further cause the device to: determine that a status, of the set of statuses, indicates that the agent device is in a standby mode, wherein the agent device is selected based on determining that the status indicates that the agent device is in the standby mode (Paragraph 0313, The computers of the services cloud may operate to have a plurality of remote tellers available on standby to which associated terminals messages and communications from automated banking machines can be routed. The services cloud may operate to check the status of the different service provider workstations to determine which ones are currently available to receive a transaction and to route the necessary data thereto. Further the exemplary computers of the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to distribute the customer sessions among the plurality of remote tellers who are currently available to handle such calls. This will avoid any one particular teller from being required to handle a significantly larger number of customer transactions than other tellers. Further the computers in the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to route customer calls to other available remote teller stations if the current available group of teller stations are all occupied. This may be, for example, routing the consumer session that cannot be immediately handled because all of the remote tellers are busy, to a remote call center in another region or to another group of available standby service providers; Paragraph 0352, The exemplary terminal may comprise a thin client software architecture in operative connection with a server running applications requested by the terminal).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service based on availability of the agents and location of the terminal of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the availability is determined based on a set of application sessions being in a standby mode or in an active session of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to route the consumer session to available standby providers (see Block et al., Paragraph 0313). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 11 (Previously Presented), which is dependent of claim 10, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 10. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein the one or more instructions further cause the device to: determine that the status indicates that the agent device is designated to provide the service, wherein the agent device is selected based on determining that the status indicates that the agent device is designated to provide the service (Figure 9, Back Office Terminal 20; Column 4, lines 12-19, By virtue of this system, a malfunctioning transaction terminal may be able to determine if there is a maintainer available to repair the malfunction, and if a maintainer is available, the transaction terminal is able to send a request (e.g., using an alert agent) to the maintainer. The maintainer may be a service engineer, a local designated employee or official, or an automated assistance system. Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; Column 4, lines 25-31, The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking. Preferably, if a maintainer declines to perform the repair or if a maintainer fails to respond to the alert agent within a predetermined time period, the alert agent travels to the next maintainer on the list; Examiner interprets “status indicates that the agent device is designated to provide the service” as “when the agent/maintainer associated with the agent device has the qualifications/skills to repair the specific type of malfunction”).
Regarding claim 12 (Original), which is dependent of claim 8, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 8. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein the notification identifies at least one of: the type of the operation, a user identifier associated with the user, a terminal identifier associated with the terminal, or a location identifier associated with the location of the terminal (Column 13, lines 51-58, The critical failure information includes the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the transaction terminal experiencing that failure. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the LAN 10. Otherwise, the identification will include an IP address and contact information for gaining access to the malfunctioning transaction terminal; Column 25, lines 65-67, The data may then be passed from the WebServer class to the ObjectClient. In this example a vector that holds all the ATM location details can be used to send out a state of health request to all of the ATM modules in turn. This can be done simply by taking each of the locations in turn and sending out a request to them; It can be noted that the claim language is written in alternative form. The limitation taught by Coutts et al. is based on at least “location identifier associated with the location of the terminal").
Regarding claim 13 (Previously Presented), which is dependent of claim 8, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 8. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein the one or more instructions further cause the device to: identify, from the record, a terminal identifier associated with the terminal (Column 13, lines 51-58, The critical failure information includes the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the transaction terminal experiencing that failure. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the LAN 10. Otherwise, the identification will include an IP address and contact information for gaining access to the malfunctioning transaction terminal; Column 25, lines 65-67, The data may then be passed from the WebServer class to the ObjectClient. In this example a vector that holds all the ATM location details can be used to send out a state of health request to all of the ATM modules in turn. This can be done simply by taking each of the locations in turn and sending out a request to them);
and provide, within the notification, the terminal identifier to indicate that the user is to receive the service (Column 28, lines 35-41, This class handled the records in the same manner as the Replenishers screen. It would extract the data and display it in the Field Engineer's screen. However, this screen presented more information and all the contents of the records were extracted and used. This included the ATM's location, module name, state of health, error name, full error description and components to check).
Regarding claim 14 (Original), which is dependent of claim 8, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 8. Although Coutts et al. discloses to cause the terminal to join the application session to facilitate communication between the agent device and the terminal (e.g., communicate to the agent location or type of malfunction), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the one or more instructions further cause the device to: cause the terminal to join the application session to facilitate, using a user interface of the terminal, communication between the agent device and the user.
However, Block et al. discloses wherein the one or more instructions further cause the device to: cause the terminal to join the application session to facilitate, using a user interface of the terminal, communication between the agent device and the user (Paragraph 0142, As illustrated in FIG. 27, the customer's touch screen 784 may present an output 786 that may include a (make selection) message and virtual buttons (function keys) for selecting a function involving any of the following: fast cash 788, withdraw 790, transfer funds 792, deposit 794, history 796, favorites 798, other tasks 810 and speak to teller 812. A customer may touch the corresponding key to select the transaction function desired. Touching the withdraw key 790 may correspond to a customer selection that initiates a withdrawal of funds from one of the customer's accounts. Touching the transfer funds key 792 may present the customer with a series of screen outputs for transferring funds from one account into another account. Touching the teller key 812 may connect the customer with a teller. The teller key 812 may be shown in every screen output so the customer can always contact the teller for assistance. It should be understood that many other buttons and screen displays can be presented to a customer. The displays output 786 through the customer's touch screen 784 may be determined and controlled by the corresponding computer programming).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service to a customer of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the service is provided via an application session of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to route messages from the machine to and from service provider terminals operated by remote tellers at a facility located in the same or in an adjacent time zone (see Block et al., Paragraph 0312). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 15 (Currently Amended), Coutts et al. discloses a method for managing a terminal, comprising (Column 4, lines 55-65, According to another aspect of the invention a method may be provided for communicating intelligent agent programs through a communications network comprising a plurality of interconnected network sites, the network having a server at one network site and a transaction terminal at another network site, the transaction terminal having at least one service element, where the method comprises the steps of monitoring the service element to derive operating data relating to an operating parameter thereof and; and launching from the transaction terminal to the server an intelligent agent program carrying the operating data):
receiving, by a device associated a terminal management server, a record associated with an operation of the terminal, wherein the record includes … a type of the operation (Column 17, lines 4-22, Error Logging. Within a transaction terminal, such as any ATM, there may exist processes that will monitor the terminal's usage. This may involve an error detection procedure where every time an action is taken by the terminal, the action is recorded. This process is called error logging. The logging can include anything, from storing an amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette to indication of a customer's card passing over a particular sensor. A log may be represented by a stored value indicating the number of times terminal has produced specific error condition or related mnemonic, e.g., the mnemonic PRINT_LO may be an abbreviation indicating a printer ribbon has nearly run out. The stored Log may represent the number of times the corresponding error condition mnemonic or Tally had occurred. Therefore, inside the traditional transaction terminal there may be an abundance of untapped and highly valuable data. All this information can be useful in detecting what has gone wrong with a terminal or predicting when components or supplies will need replacement; Column 31, lines 63-66, The server 414 may include a state of health monitor 421. The monitor 421 may periodically launch an intelligent agent program in the form of a monitor agent onto the network bus 413; Examiner interprets the “server” as the “device”);
determining, by the device and based on … the type of the operation, that the operation is associated with a service involving a user of the terminal (Column 2, lines 6-16, Clearly, critical failure resolution and consumable media management are important issues for ATM, SST and POS terminals. A number of techniques exist which attempt to address these issues. The larger retail stores often use a loudspeaker system to allow the operator to call for assistance. This could be in response to some critical situation such as a receipt paper jam where the customer must wait for the problem to be resolved. It could be in response to running low on low denomination currency where the customer may be given an undesirably large amount of small change. Either situation undesirably inconveniences the customer; Column 4, lines 12-19, By virtue of this system, a malfunctioning transaction terminal may be able to determine if there is a maintainer available to repair the malfunction, and if a maintainer is available, the transaction terminal is able to send a request (e.g., using an alert agent) to the maintainer. The maintainer may be a service engineer, a local designated employee or official, or an automated assistance system. Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; Column 17, lines 4-22, Error Logging. Within a transaction terminal, such as any ATM, there may exist processes that will monitor the terminal's usage. This may involve an error detection procedure where every time an action is taken by the terminal, the action is recorded. This process is called error logging. The logging can include anything, from storing an amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette to indication of a customer's card passing over a particular sensor; Column 31, lines 63-66, The server 414 may include a state of health monitor 421. The monitor 421 may periodically launch an intelligent agent program in the form of a monitor agent onto the network bus 413; Examiner notes that the log tracks issues/errors of an operation involving a user/customer of the terminal. In this case, the record log includes “type of the operation” since it can keep track of at least “amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette” and/or “error type such as a card jam”);
automatically determining, by the device and based on the service and from location information in the record, a location of the terminal (Column 13, lines 51-58, The critical failure information includes the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the transaction terminal experiencing that failure. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the LAN 10. Otherwise, the identification will include an IP address and contact information for gaining access to the malfunctioning transaction terminal; Column 25, lines 65-67, The data may then be passed from the WebServer class to the ObjectClient. In this example a vector that holds all the ATM location details can be used to send out a state of health request to all of the ATM modules in turn. This can be done simply by taking each of the locations in turn and sending out a request to them; Column 31, lines 63-66, The server 414 may include a state of health monitor 421. The monitor 421 may periodically launch an intelligent agent program in the form of a monitor agent onto the network bus 413);
identifying, by the device and based on an application server, a set of [agents], hosted by the application server, that involves a set of agent devices that facilitates the service at the location and that are logged into the [LAN] (Column 4, lines 4-19, By virtue of this system, a malfunctioning transaction terminal may be able to determine if there is a maintainer available to repair the malfunction, and if a maintainer is available, the transaction terminal is able to send a request (e.g., using an alert agent) to the maintainer. The maintainer may be a service engineer, a local designated employee or official, or an automated assistance system. Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; Column 9, lines 25-32, The server 22 includes an I/O interface 132, an agent handler 140, a processor 142, an IP address and port number registry 170, a state-of health monitor 172, and transaction processing hardware/software 174; Column 11, lines 36-43, FIG. 9 shows a back office terminal 20 at which a maintainer can log on to the LAN 10. When a maintainer logs on to the LAN 10 via a back office terminal (e.g. 20a), a maintainer monitor 238 stores information about that maintainer and instructs an agent handler 240 to prepare and launch a service agent 50b (via physical I/O port 232) identifying that maintainer as an available service resource to the ATMs 16 and teller stations 18 on the LAN 10), wherein the set of agent devices are identified based on determining that the set of agent devices are registered to a service location via respective [LAN] involving agent devices of the set of agent devices (Column 4, lines 12-25, Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; and whether the maintainer is a primary contact or should only be contacted if there is no primary contact. Using information of this sort, if there are a plurality of maintainers available, the transaction terminal may be able to rank the available maintainers into a preferred visiting order according to the malfunction, the location of the maintainer, and other such details; Column 11, lines 65-66, The physical location of the maintainer (local or remote to the LAN 10));
accessing, by the device and via the [server], a set of statuses associated with the set of [agents], wherein each status of the set of statuses indicates whether a particular [agent], of the set of [agents], is in a standby mode or is an active session (Column 13, lines 1-11, The agent handler 40 uses the agent registry 45 to obtain the addresses of the maintainers to be visited by the alert agent 50c. If more than one maintainer is available (i.e. if more than one maintainer is currently logged on to the LAN 10) then the maintainers are prioritized within the address sub-fields of the alert agent 50c according to one or more predetermined criteria. The predetermined criteria may be the order in which the maintainers logged on to the LAN 10. Alternatively, the predetermined criteria may be based on the location of the maintainers, so that the maintainer that is closest has the highest priority and is visited first; Examiner interprets “maintainer currently logged on to the LAN” as the “standby session”);
determining, by the device and accessing the set of statuses, that an agent device, of the set of agent devices, is available (Column 4, lines 12-27, Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; and whether the maintainer is a primary contact or should only be contacted if there is no primary contact. Using information of this sort, if there are a plurality of maintainers available, the transaction terminal may be able to rank the available maintainers into a preferred visiting order according to the malfunction, the location of the maintainer, and other such details. The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking; FIG. 9 shows a back office terminal 20 at which a maintainer can log on to the LAN 10. When a maintainer logs on to the LAN 10 via a back office terminal (e.g. 20a), a maintainer monitor 238 stores information about that maintainer and instructs an agent handler 240 to prepare and launch a service agent 50b (via physical I/O port 232) identifying that maintainer as an available service resource to the ATMs 16 and teller stations 18 on the LAN 10; Examiner interprets the back office terminal as the agent device);
performing, by the device, an action associated with the particular [server] to enable the agent device to facilitate performance of the service for the user (Figure 9, Back Office Terminal 20; Column 4, lines 25-31, The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking. Preferably, if a maintainer declines to perform the repair or if a maintainer fails to respond to the alert agent within a predetermined time period, the alert agent travels to the next maintainer on the list; Column 28, lines 35-41, This class handled the records in the same manner as the Replenishers screen. It would extract the data and display it in the Field Engineer's screen. However, this screen presented more information and all the contents of the records were extracted and used. This included the ATM's location, module name, state of health, error name, full error description and components to check; Column 19, lines 31-39, FIG. 15 shows a peer-to-peer messaging component that would allow individual modules to inter-communicate, and host, application and user interface components that would provide the module functionality; Examiner interprets the “alert communicated using an application” as the “action to facilitate performance of the service”);
transmitting, by the device and to the agent device, a notification that is associated with the operation, wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation … associated with a card being [jammed/stuck] within the terminal (Figure 9, Back Office Terminal 20; Column 4, lines 25-31, The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking. Preferably, if a maintainer declines to perform the repair or if a maintainer fails to respond to the alert agent within a predetermined time period, the alert agent travels to the next maintainer on the list; Column 28, lines 35-41, This class handled the records in the same manner as the Replenishers screen. It would extract the data and display it in the Field Engineer's screen. However, this screen presented more information and all the contents of the records were extracted and used. This included the ATM's location, module name, state of health, error name, full error description and components to check; Column 33, lines 42-54, When a critical failure occurs within an ATM or teller station in the network, an alert agent program may be launched by the site experiencing the failure. An alert agent program is shown in FIG. 41A as having been launched by the ATM 3. The alert agent may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam. The alert agents may use a location list built up in an agent registry 455 from the service agents that visited earlier. An alert agent may be launched to arrive at the agent handler at each location on its list either in turn or according to some predefined rules), and wherein the notification indicates a time period in which the service should be provided, the time period being based on a time of the operation associated with the card being [jammed/stuck] within the terminal (Column 32, lines 62-67, This information can be used to alert an operator of some impending problem. Alternatively, the information can be used to schedule an appropriate time to service a terminal site; Column 33, lines 42-54, When a critical failure occurs within an ATM or teller station in the network, an alert agent program may be launched by the site experiencing the failure. An alert agent program is shown in FIG. 41A as having been launched by the ATM 3. The alert agent may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam. The alert agents may use a location list built up in an agent registry 455 from the service agents that visited earlier. An alert agent may be launched to arrive at the agent handler at each location on its list either in turn or according to some predefined rules);
providing, by the device and based on the notification and to the application server, instructions that cause a new application session between the agent device and the terminal to be established, wherein the new application session permits the agent device to communicate with the terminal and is established by the application server (Figure 4, item 22, Server; Column 9, lines 25-32, The server 22 includes an I/O interface 132, an agent handler 140, a processor 142, an IP address and port number registry 170, a state-of health monitor 172, and transaction processing hardware/software 174; Column 33, lines 42-47, When a critical failure occurs within an ATM or teller station in the network, an alert agent program may be launched by the site experiencing the failure. An alert agent program is shown in FIG. 41A as having been launched by the ATM 3. The alert agent may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam; Column 33, lines 55-61, Upon reaching an agent handler of a replenisher or maintenance program, the alert agent may query training and authority levels recorded there in order to decide whether help is available. If a person is available who is trained and authorized to work on the error contained within the alert agent, then the alert agent may present a request for assistance on that person's terminal; Column 19, lines 31-39, FIG. 15 shows a peer-to-peer messaging component that would allow individual modules to inter-communicate, and host, application and user interface components that would provide the module functionality. The hardware interface would generate logs and tallies as the module operates and defines the state of health of the module. These logs and tallies could be accessed by the agent and embedded server components in order to provide added functionality contemplated by this invention; Column 34, lines 8-18, If at any point the alert agent successfully summons assistance, the alert agent may be acknowledged and critical failure information carried by the alert agent may be registered at the location capable of assisting. The information can include the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the terminal concerned. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the local area network. Otherwise, the identification may include an address and contact information for gaining access to the terminal; Examiner notes that the agent may provide assistance within the network (e.g., based on a terminal number and using an application). Therefore, based on broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification, Coutts et al. discloses “a new application session between the agent device and the terminal to be established, wherein the application session permits the agent device to communicate with the terminal” since an application is used to connect the selected agent with the terminal);
monitoring, by the device, activity associated with at least one of the terminal or the agent device (Column 8, lines 34-46, The ATM 16 has four service elements 44 in the form of a user interface 44a, a card reader 44b, a cash dispenser 44c, and a receipt printer 44d. The ATM 16 also has a service agent registry 45, and operation monitoring facilities 46 comprising a service element monitor 48 and an associated service registry 49. The service element monitor 48 interrogates the service elements 44 to obtain operating information relating to service elements 44 in the ATM 16. The operating information includes state of health information. The service element monitor 48 is located and arranged so as to provide operating data which indicates the state of health of the ATM 16 by monitoring the operations being carried out by the service elements 44; Column 20, lines 30-39, A feature of the UTC architecture is that it can integrates ATM modules of a branch office or region with the teller stations and back office systems through the regional server component. An example of a branch office network of this form is shown in FIG. 17. This environment provides a mechanism for servicing personnel or replenishers to directly monitor ATMs under their care through the embedded Web techniques and allows intelligent agent technologies to be employed within this environment, providing a means to continuously monitor conditions and report errors as they occur; It can be noted that the claim language is written in alternative form. The limitation taught by Coutts et al. is based on “monitor activity associated with at least one of the terminals");
and performing, by the device, the service based on the established new application session and based on the time period indicated in the notification (Column 32, lines 62-67, This information can be used to alert an operator of some impending problem. Alternatively, the information can be used to schedule an appropriate time to service a terminal site; Column 34, lines 8-18, If at any point the alert agent successfully summons assistance, the alert agent may be acknowledged and critical failure information carried by the alert agent may be registered at the location capable of assisting. The information can include the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the terminal concerned. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the local area network. Otherwise, the identification may include an address and contact information for gaining access to the terminal).
Although Coutts et al. discloses a record associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal, wherein the record includes a type of the operation, Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the record includes a time of the operation.
However, Jan et al. discloses receiving, by a device associated a terminal management server, a record associated with an operation of the terminal, wherein the record includes a time of the operation and a type of the operation (Figure 9, Management Layer; Paragraph 0016, An automated teller machine (ATM) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, transfer funds, or obtaining account information, at any time and without the need for direct interaction with bank staff; Paragraph 0022, In embodiments, in which the hardware device being serviced is an ATM, some examples of ATM components that can be proactively serviced can include a card reader, keypad, display screen, receipt printer and cash dispenser, as well as other components and systems employed in ATM's. It is noted that this example is specific for ATM hardware devices, and that other hardware devices may have different components that can be serviced; Paragraph 0041, 1. A data acquisition process for the failure prediction model 50 can be executed resulting in retrieval of sensor data, hardware device usage data, periodical (e.g., weekly, monthly, etc.) hardware device availability data, hardware device configuration data, hardware device service record data, past repair event data. Sensor data may include, inter alia, time stamped error and warning messages, a status from each hardware machine, etc. Hardware device, e.g., ATM, usage data may include, inter alia, functionality data, transactional data, etc. ATM configuration data may include, inter alia, a machine manufacture, a machine model type, a machine model number, a machine hardware and software configuration, etc. Hardware service record data, such as ATM service record data, may include time stamped service records including, inter alia, incident ticket open time, affected component, repair notes, failure categories, parts, hours for repairs, technician traveling time, etc.; Examiner notes that Jan et al. discloses a type of the operation since it can identify at least an error operation);
determining, by the device and based on the time of the operation and the type of the operation, that the operation is associated with a service involving a user of the terminal (Paragraph 0016, An automated teller machine (ATM) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, transfer funds, or obtaining account information, at any time and without the need for direct interaction with bank staff; Paragraph 0063, The cognitive priority model development application 57 can then calculate how many hardware machines, e.g., ATMs, will be serviced for each of the planning windows. This calculation can take into account the number of technicians, the travel time a technician needs to take to reach the site of the hardware machine that need service, the number of hardware machines that need service, and the amount of time per service call for each hardware machine being serviced; Paragraph 0066, For example, in one embodiments, in which the hardware devices are ATMs, once the prediction model 50 provides a prediction of failure, and the business priority data accumulating application 56 collects data on the hardware devices, e.g., ATMs 14a, 14n regarding machine usage, cross bank network transactions, criticality, locality, ATM inventories, and the score for the actual failure date vs. the predicted failure date, the cognitive priority model development application 57 can provide a regression model illustrating how the technicians can proactively service the system of ATMs 14a, 14n so that any missed called will have a minimized business effect on the system).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein a record associated with an operation involving a user of the terminal includes a type of the operation of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the record includes a time of the operation of the invention of Jan et al. because doing so would allow the system to determine the likelihood that specific hardware devices will need maintenance. Therefore, using proactive maintenance to avoid a failure that would interrupt the hardware devices ability to function in service; and take into account the component of the apparatus, i.e., ATM, that is likely to fail and is therefore needing proactive maintenance to avoid failure (see Jan et al., Paragraph 0022). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Although Coutts et al. discloses to select an agent based on a set of statuses associated with the agents (Column 13, lines 1-11, availability of the maintainers), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein an application session indicates a standby mode or an active session.
However, Block et al. discloses identifying, by the device and based on an application server, a set of application sessions, hosted by the application server (Paragraph 0287, n the exemplary arrangement additional capabilities for operation of automated banking machines may be accomplished by computer software operating in one or more servers. The servers are in operative communication with at least one automated banking machine, at least one computer including a teller station terminal, and other computers; Paragraph 0352, The exemplary terminal may comprise a thin client software architecture in operative connection with a server running applications requested by the terminal. Alternatively the terminal may comprise a computer operative to run some applications locally therein while accessing other applications that are run remotely on another computer such as a server 90), that involves a set of agent devices that facilitates the service at the location and that are logged into the set of application sessions (Paragraph 0311, As can be appreciated the data may indicate that some transaction types may be handled by service providers who are capable of dealing with a wide variety of financial transactions while other transaction types will be routed to persons who are specialists. The services cloud may operate to route the messages to the workstations of service providers based on stored data which indicates the authority or capabilities of the workstation and/or the person currently signed on as the operator thereof; Paragraph 0312, Alternatively if the consumer is requesting a transaction outside of normal business hours the services cloud will operate in accordance with the associated programming to cause messages from the automated banking machine to be routed to teller terminals located at a facility in another location where remote tellers are currently working and available. Thus the exemplary arrangements have the capabilities for assuring that if a session with a teller is required, computers of the services cloud can provide the connection to an appropriate service provider during those times that the operator of the system wishes to provide the human teller assistance), wherein the set of agent devices are identified based on determining that the set of agent devices are registered to a service location via respective application sessions involving agent devices of the set of agent devices (Paragraph 0039, FIG. 19 shows a plurality of customer stations that are remotely located from a shared service provider station, which can communicate with each respective customer station; Paragraph 0287, In the exemplary arrangement additional capabilities for operation of automated banking machines may be accomplished by computer software operating in one or more servers. The servers are in operative communication with at least one automated banking machine, at least one computer including a teller station terminal, and other computers; Paragraph 0352, The exemplary terminal may comprise a thin client software architecture in operative connection with a server running applications requested by the terminal; Paragraph 0374, For example, other arrangements can include a plurality of service provider stations as needed to assist a large number of customer stations. The service provider stations can be located at a common location, where each service provider station is able to communicate with each customer station. The arrangement allows the next available service provider to then assist the next customer waiting in a holding queue);
accessing, by the device and via the set of application sessions, a set of statuses associated with the set of application sessions, wherein each status of the set of statuses indicates whether a particular application session, of the set of application sessions, is in a standby mode or is an active session (Paragraph 0313, The computers of the services cloud may operate to have a plurality of remote tellers available on standby to which associated terminals messages and communications from automated banking machines can be routed. The services cloud may operate to check the status of the different service provider workstations to determine which ones are currently available to receive a transaction and to route the necessary data thereto. Further the exemplary computers of the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to distribute the customer sessions among the plurality of remote tellers who are currently available to handle such calls. This will avoid any one particular teller from being required to handle a significantly larger number of customer transactions than other tellers. Further the computers in the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to route customer calls to other available remote teller stations if the current available group of teller stations are all occupied. This may be, for example, routing the consumer session that cannot be immediately handled because all of the remote tellers are busy, to a remote call center in another region or to another group of available standby service providers);
determining, by the device and access the set of statuses, that an agent device, of the set of agent devices, is available; and performing, by the device, an action associated with the particular application session to enable the agent device to facilitate performance of the service for the user (Paragraph 0313, Further the exemplary computers of the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to distribute the customer sessions among the plurality of remote tellers who are currently available to handle such calls. This will avoid any one particular teller from being required to handle a significantly larger number of customer transactions than other tellers. Further the computers in the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to route customer calls to other available remote teller stations if the current available group of teller stations are all occupied. This may be, for example, routing the consumer session that cannot be immediately handled because all of the remote tellers are busy, to a remote call center in another region or to another group of available standby service providers).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service based on availability of the agents and location of the terminal of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the availability is determined based on a set of application sessions being in a standby mode or in an active session of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to route the consumer session to available standby providers (see Block et al., Paragraph 0313). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Coutts et al. discloses to transmit a notification that identifies the operation to enable an agent associated with the agent device to perform the service for the user, wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation associated with a card being jammed/stuck within the terminal (e.g., the alert may indicate a critical failure such as a card jam). Although Coutts et al. discloses to detect or encounter an error associated with a received card such as a card error (e.g., card reader error due to a card jam), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose other errors associated with the received card (e.g., card withheld in response to fraudulent activity).
However, Choudhuri et al. discloses wherein the notification indicates a type of the operation that was repeated a certain quantity of times within a certain time period and associated with a card being withheld within the terminal (Paragraph 0106, The velocity data may be utilized in any manner within the multi-stage filtering process. For instance, in some embodiments, predetermined values and transaction counts for velocity data are set within the multi-stage filtration platform application 390 that may automatically "trigger" or "flag" any transaction that exceeds the predetermined values and/or counts without regard to other customer specific information. In such embodiments, any transaction that exceeds the predetermined acceptable velocity values and/or counts may be forwarded to the next filtration stage, or, if occurring in the final stage, the fraud-detection related action may be taken, such as the transaction may be declined, the customer contacted for further verification, etc.; Paragraph 0108, The velocity data analyzed may include strictly the quantity (i.e. velocity count) of transactions within a specified time period (e.g., 5+ transactions within an hour, 20+ transactions within a day, etc.; Paragraph 0135, In other embodiments, instructions are sent to a transaction device as illustrated by block 880, in order to identify an unauthorized user. The instructions can configure the transaction device to notify the user or an unauthorized user of a fraud alert, cancel a transaction, record an image or video of the user of the transaction device, and the like. The unauthorized user may be any user that does not have authorization or permission to access an account, conduct a transaction, and/or act on behalf of the user. The unauthorized user may be an individual, an organization, a business, or any type of user. In an exemplary embodiment, the transaction device (e.g., an ATM) is sent instructions to recapture a card associated with an account. For example, the ATM may keep the card within the machine after it is received. In this way the card is taken away from an unauthorized user to prevent further use of the card; Paragraph 0057, The fraud alert may be any type of alert that acts to notify the customer and/or a unit within the bank that a potential fraudulent transaction attempt is occurring or has already occurred), wherein the notification includes the record associated with the operation associated with the card being withheld within the terminal, … based on a time of the operation associated with the card being withheld within the terminal (Paragraph 0108, The velocity data analyzed may include strictly the quantity (i.e. velocity count) of transactions within a specified time period (e.g., 5+ transactions within an hour, 20+ transactions within a day, etc.; Paragraph 0135, In other embodiments, instructions are sent to a transaction device as illustrated by block 880, in order to identify an unauthorized user. The instructions can configure the transaction device to notify the user or an unauthorized user of a fraud alert, cancel a transaction, record an image or video of the user of the transaction device, and the like. The unauthorized user may be any user that does not have authorization or permission to access an account, conduct a transaction, and/or act on behalf of the user. The unauthorized user may be an individual, an organization, a business, or any type of user. In an exemplary embodiment, the transaction device (e.g., an ATM) is sent instructions to recapture a card associated with an account. For example, the ATM may keep the card within the machine after it is received. In this way the card is taken away from an unauthorized user to prevent further use of the card. In other embodiments, instructions are sent to the transaction device to configure the device to prompt the user or unauthorized user to input one or more security codes. For example, in addition to requiring a PIN to access an account, the transaction device may further require that the user or unauthorized user input a secondary PIN or answer a security question. The transaction device includes ATM's, POS's, computer devices, smartphones, mobile phones, and the like. The transaction device may be associated with a financial institution, business, third party, or the user).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein a record includes a type of the operation associated with a received card such as a card error (e.g., card reader error due to a card jam) of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate other known card errors (e.g., card withheld after detecting that an operations was repeated a certain quantity of times within a certain time period) of the invention of Choudhuri et al. because doing so is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 16 (Previously Presented), which is dependent of claim 15, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 15. Coutts et al. further comprising: prior to receiving the record, maintaining record logs for individual terminals of a plurality of terminals, wherein the record is from the terminal based on the record log being one of the record logs and the terminal being one of the individual terminals (Figure 1, ATM Terminals 16; Column 17, lines 4-22, Error Logging. Within a transaction terminal, such as any ATM, there may exist processes that will monitor the terminal's usage. This may involve an error detection procedure where every time an action is taken by the terminal, the action is recorded. This process is called error logging. The logging can include anything, from storing an amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette to indication of a customer's card passing over a particular sensor. A log may be represented by a stored value indicating the number of times terminal has produced specific error condition or related mnemonic, e.g., the mnemonic PRINT_LO may be an abbreviation indicating a printer ribbon has nearly run out. The stored Log may represent the number of times the corresponding error condition mnemonic or Tally had occurred. Therefore, inside the traditional transaction terminal there may be an abundance of untapped and highly valuable data. All this information can be useful in detecting what has gone wrong with a terminal or predicting when components or supplies will need replacement).
Regarding claim 17 (Currently Amended), which is dependent of claim 15, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 15. Coutts et al. further comprising: determining that a status, of the set of statuses, indicates that the agent device is [available], wherein the agent device is selected to facilitate performance of the service based on determining that the status indicates that the agent device is [available] (Column 4, lines 12-27, Preferably, the maintainer information may include details for ranking the priority of the maintainer. These details may include the type of malfunctions the maintainer can repair, for example card reader malfunctions, cash drawer malfunctions, receipt printer malfunctions and such like. The details may also include an indication of the geographical location of the maintainer, for example whether the maintainer is local or remote; and whether the maintainer is a primary contact or should only be contacted if there is no primary contact. Using information of this sort, if there are a plurality of maintainers available, the transaction terminal may be able to rank the available maintainers into a preferred visiting order according to the malfunction, the location of the maintainer, and other such details. The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking; Column 11, lines 36-43, FIG. 9 shows a back office terminal 20 at which a maintainer can log on to the LAN 10. When a maintainer logs on to the LAN 10 via a back office terminal (e.g. 20a), a maintainer monitor 238 stores information about that maintainer and instructs an agent handler 240 to prepare and launch a service agent 50b (via physical I/O port 232) identifying that maintainer as an available service resource to the ATMs 16 and teller stations 18 on the LAN 10).
Although Coutts et al. discloses to select an agent based on a set of statuses associated with the agents (Column 13, lines 1-11, availability of the maintainers), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein an application session indicates a standby mode or an active session.
However, Block et al. discloses comprising: determining that a status, of the set of statuses, indicates that the agent device is in the standby mode, wherein the agent device is selected to facilitate performance of the service based on determining that the status indicates that the agent device is in the standby mode (Paragraph 0313, The computers of the services cloud may operate to have a plurality of remote tellers available on standby to which associated terminals messages and communications from automated banking machines can be routed. The services cloud may operate to check the status of the different service provider workstations to determine which ones are currently available to receive a transaction and to route the necessary data thereto. Further the exemplary computers of the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to distribute the customer sessions among the plurality of remote tellers who are currently available to handle such calls. This will avoid any one particular teller from being required to handle a significantly larger number of customer transactions than other tellers. Further the computers in the services cloud may operate in accordance with their programming to route customer calls to other available remote teller stations if the current available group of teller stations are all occupied. This may be, for example, routing the consumer session that cannot be immediately handled because all of the remote tellers are busy, to a remote call center in another region or to another group of available standby service providers; Paragraph 0352, The exemplary terminal may comprise a thin client software architecture in operative connection with a server running applications requested by the terminal).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service based on availability of the agents and location of the terminal of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the availability is determined based on a set of application sessions being in a standby mode or in an active session of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to route the consumer session to available standby providers (see Block et al., Paragraph 0313). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 18 (Original), which is dependent of claim 15, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 15. Although Coutts et al. discloses one or more actions (e.g., communicate terminal information to the agent device assigned to perform the service), Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose wherein performing the action comprises: causing the terminal to join the application session to facilitate communication between the agent device and the user.
However, Block et al. discloses wherein performing the action comprises: causing the terminal to join the application session to facilitate communication between the agent device and the user (Paragraph 0142, As illustrated in FIG. 27, the customer's touch screen 784 may present an output 786 that may include a (make selection) message and virtual buttons (function keys) for selecting a function involving any of the following: fast cash 788, withdraw 790, transfer funds 792, deposit 794, history 796, favorites 798, other tasks 810 and speak to teller 812. A customer may touch the corresponding key to select the transaction function desired. Touching the withdraw key 790 may correspond to a customer selection that initiates a withdrawal of funds from one of the customer's accounts. Touching the transfer funds key 792 may present the customer with a series of screen outputs for transferring funds from one account into another account. Touching the teller key 812 may connect the customer with a teller. The teller key 812 may be shown in every screen output so the customer can always contact the teller for assistance. It should be understood that many other buttons and screen displays can be presented to a customer. The displays output 786 through the customer's touch screen 784 may be determined and controlled by the corresponding computer programming).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service to a customer of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the service is provided via an application session of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to route messages from the machine to and from service provider terminals operated by remote tellers at a facility located in the same or in an adjacent time zone (see Block et al., Paragraph 0312). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 19 (Previously Presented), which is dependent of claim 15, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 15. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein performing the action comprises: transmitting, via the particular application session, a notification to the agent device to alert an agent of the agent device to provide the service for the user (Figure 9, Back Office Terminal 20; Column 4, lines 25-31, The transaction terminal may thus be able to generate a list of maintainers to be visited by the alert agent, where the first maintainer on the list has the highest ranking. Preferably, if a maintainer declines to perform the repair or if a maintainer fails to respond to the alert agent within a predetermined time period, the alert agent travels to the next maintainer on the list; Column 28, lines 35-41, This class handled the records in the same manner as the Replenishers screen. It would extract the data and display it in the Field Engineer's screen. However, this screen presented more information and all the contents of the records were extracted and used. This included the ATM's location, module name, state of health, error name, full error description and components to check); …
Coutts et al. discloses to: determine whether the agent is available to provide the service for the user; and to provide a notification to the agent device to provide the service for the user at the terminal. Although Coutts et al. discloses all the limitations above, Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose to transmit to the terminal, a notification to indicate to the user that the agent is available to provide the service for the user.
However, Block et al. discloses transmitting, to the terminal, a notification to indicate to the user that the agent is available to provide the service for the user; or transmitting, to a user device associated with the user, a notification to indicate to the user that the agent is available to provide the service for the user (Paragraph 0313, The computers may also operate in accordance with their programming to indicate to the customer at the automated banking machine the expected wait time that they will incur until they will be in contact with the human service provider; Examiner notes that a waiting time of zero indicates that the agent is available to provide the service).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service based on availability of the agents and location of the terminal of the invention of Coutts et al. to further transmit a notification to indicate to the user that the agent is available to provide the service for the user of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to indicate to the customer at the automated banking machine the expected wait time that they will incur until they will be in contact with the human service provider (see Block et al., Paragraph 0313). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 20 (Original), which is dependent of claim 15, the combination of Coutts et al., Jan et al., Block et al., and Choudhuri et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 15. Coutts et al. further discloses wherein performing the action comprises: identifying, from the record, a terminal identifier associated with the terminal and … (Column 13, lines 51-58, The critical failure information includes the error type, such as a card jam, and an identification of the transaction terminal experiencing that failure. The identification may simply be a terminal number in the case where assistance is to be provided from within the environment of the LAN 10. Otherwise, the identification will include an IP address and contact information for gaining access to the malfunctioning transaction terminal; Column 17, lines 7-14, This process is called error logging. The logging can include anything, from storing an amount of money dispensed from a particular cash cassette to indication of a customer's card passing over a particular sensor. A log may be represented by a stored value indicating the number of times terminal has produced specific error condition or related mnemonic; Column 25, lines 65-67, The data may then be passed from the WebServer class to the ObjectClient. In this example a vector that holds all the ATM location details can be used to send out a state of health request to all of the ATM modules in turn. This can be done simply by taking each of the locations in turn and sending out a request to them); …
Although Coutts et al. discloses a terminal identifier, Coutts et al. does not specifically disclose to provide a notification that indicates, via the terminal identifier and the user identifier, that the user is to receive the service in association with the terminal.
However, Block et al. discloses wherein performing the action comprises: identifying, from the record, a terminal identifier associated with the terminal and a user identifier associated with the user (Paragraph 0065, The user terminal may identify a user based on data read from a user card, other data bearing record that identifies the customer, and/or their financial accounts. Such identification of a customer from such inputs may be used to provide targeted output information through the welcome terminal in the manner of the incorporated disclosure; Paragraph 0148, For example, although the terminal would normally have a video output through the display, the terminal could be set up so that it hands off the video presentation or dialog with an actual teller to the user's mobile device. This may be done, for example, by having some correlation between the user ID, such as the user's card number or some other user identifying value, and the user's mobile phone number; Paragraph 0218, In an exemplary embodiment a banking customer or employee may only have access to the resources that correspond to the security level assigned to them. A banking computer system may be operative to activate different banking resources corresponding to each identified banking customer or employee when the banking customer or employee approaches the resource; Paragraph 0312, In addition in some exemplary embodiments one or more computers of the services cloud may operate in accordance with its programming to route the transaction messages to different remote teller terminals depending on other factors such as the time of day. Thus if a consumer is conducting a transaction at an automated banking machine during normal business hours in the area where the machine is located, the services cloud may operate to route messages from the machine to and from service provider terminals operated by remote tellers at a facility located in the same or in an adjacent time zone. Alternatively if the consumer is requesting a transaction outside of normal business hours the services cloud will operate in accordance with the associated programming to cause messages from the automated banking machine to be routed to teller terminals located at a facility in another location where remote tellers are currently working and available);
and providing, via the application session and to the agent device, a notification that indicates, via the terminal identifier and the user identifier, that the user is to receive the service in association with the terminal (Paragraph 0292, If the transaction processing host determines that the card and PIN data input by the user correspond to an authorized account and user, the computer included in the services cloud operates in accordance with its programming to cause a notification to be sent to a computer included remote teller workstation 22 (also referred to herein as a terminal) that is in operative connection with the services cloud. The selected workstation to which the transaction is routed may be determined by one or more computers in the services cloud based on the current availability of the service provider associated with the terminal to perform the transaction, and work load sharing software that operates in one or more computers of the services cloud. The remote teller workstation includes a computer that executes software instructions and has other data so as to carry out transaction functions. The computer in the services cloud then operates to cause one or more messages to the teller workstation operating services cloud client software to indicate to the human remote teller at the terminal through output devices connected to the terminal the nature of the request, the account involved, that the identifying data required to be input to the machine corresponds to an authorized account and users and if appropriate, the amount that the transaction processing host has already authorized as available to be dispensed from the machine).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for managing a terminal, wherein managing the terminal includes selecting agents to provide a service to a customer of the invention of Coutts et al. to further incorporate wherein the service is provided via an application session of the invention of Block et al. because doing so would allow the system to route messages from the machine to and from service provider terminals operated by remote tellers at a facility located in the same or in an adjacent time zone (see Block et al., Paragraph 0312). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Wang (Wang, J., Li, C., Han, S., Sarkar, S. and Zhou, X., 2017. Predictive maintenance based on event-log analysis: A case study. IBM Journal of Research and Development, 61(1), pp.11-121 (Year: 2017)) – In the case of bank ATMs (automatic teller machines), all device operations - e.g., inserting a card, querying one’s balance, withdrawing cash, and generating a receipt - are stored in its system logs. In addition, all errors and warnings occurring in an ATM are also recorded in logs. This is very important, since the errors contain informative messages, and incorporating them into a PdM model is essential for monitoring the condition of an ATM and gaining insights to be able to detect potential problems in advance of their actual occurrence. In the following sections, we will focus on ATM PdM for our case study (Page 121, Introduction; Figure 1, The procedure of failure prediction).
Delgrosso (WO 2006/110650 A1) – discloses to provide an alert based on the receipt of customer identification data and customer desired service data that meets an alert criteria. The alert criteria can comprise, for example, inclusion of the customer on a watch list; an attempt by the customer to open more than one account within a predetermined time period; or more than one withdrawal by the customer within a predetermined time period (see Paragraph 0033).
Joy et al. (US 2015/0278895 A1) – discloses to determine, based on elapsed time, repeated failed actions of the customer while conducting the financial transaction, and/or a resolved state of the financial transaction that a request for assistance should be automatically generated and raised by the assistance interface 121 (see at least Paragraph 0028).
Singhal (US 2017/0126812 A1) – discloses computing network can provide high availability of application resources using a network intermediary device (e.g., NetScaler® manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) that is deployed in an active-standby appliance pair. In an active-standby appliance pair, a first intermediary device actively services client device, while a second intermediary device is maintained in a standby mode. For example, and in some embodiments, a first intermediary device can be in an active mode and can parse and process an application session such as an ICA session. The first intermediary device can be paired with a second intermediary device that is maintained in a standby mode. The first intermediary device can maintain significant state information, which may be dynamic and change on a per-packet basis (e.g., as each packet is being processed). If the first intermediary device fails, then the standby device can become the new primary device (see at least Paragraph 0271).
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARJORIE PUJOLS-CRUZ whose telephone number is (571)272-4668. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thru 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/M.P./Examiner, Art Unit 3624 /PATRICIA H MUNSON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3624
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