Real-time Database for Multiscreen Point of Sale Coordination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional checkout systems are limited by their inability to provide a seamless, interactive point of sale experience across multiple devices and locations, often requiring physical hardware and resulting in awkward transactions and potential errors.
Innovation Solution
A real-time database is used to facilitate a multiscreen interactive point of sale experience by connecting multiple devices to the same database, allowing them to share information and coordinate transactions in real-time, regardless of location, device platform, or network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a smart tablet is mounted on a rotatable stand at the checkout counter, then the system can provide interactive functionality on a single device, but the tablet must be rotated back and forth between sales agent and customer which causes transaction errors and inefficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the checkout interaction into separate devices for different users. The customer uses their own mobile device while the sales agent uses a terminal device, eliminating the need to share or rotate a single tablet. Each party has dedicated access to the interface, preventing errors from device rotation while maintaining interactive functionality.
2Device complexity
If a single tablet is used for checkout interactions, then hardware requirements are simplified, but only one person can see the information at a time which causes miscued or repeated steps
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates duplicate displays of the same transaction information on separate devices. Both the customer's mobile device and the sales agent's terminal device show identical checkout information simultaneously, allowing both parties to see and verify the same data without sharing a single physical tablet, thus preventing errors while maintaining simple hardware requirements.
3Device complexity
If conventional checkout systems use a fixed POS location, then the system structure is simple, but it cannot provide seamless transactions across multiple devices and locations
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables the same checkout functionality to work across multiple device types and locations. Customers can use various mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) while sales agents use terminal devices, all connected through a unified backend system. This universal approach allows seamless transactions regardless of specific device or location, eliminating the limitation of fixed POS locations while maintaining manageable system structure through standardized protocols.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and media are provided for coordinating an interactive workflow between a first end user device having a first display and a first client application, and a second end user device having a second display and a second client application. In one example, a method comprises connecting the first end user device to a real-time database and setting a first listener on a field or table of the real-time database, connecting the second end user device to the real-time database and setting a second listener on the same or a different field or table of the real-time database.