City map in payment terminals

Article from 05.24.09

Today the results of the DevGeneration 2009 contest in which I participated and, most likely, didn’t take anything sensible, will be known. Therefore, I am posting here my idea, which I sent to this contest. My idea, helped me with OSM Evgeny Usvitsky (SSU), for which many thanks to him.

Map of the city in payment terminals.

Prerequisites:

Suppose you are in a city you are unfamiliar with. You are at the station / bus station / airport and vaguely imagine where you should go next. Of course there is a taxi, whose driver is 99% likely to deceive you; there is transport, though it's hard to imagine what you can get on, you have to ask people (and probably more than once), and still not all of them will know where; you can call and find out who you came to, and what if he is out of the zone or on a mobile battery?



Another case. You stand at a bus stop in your hometown and such a familiar city and call for work, ask to get to some place and give the address. You are not familiar with the address. You start asking people at the bus stop, but not the fact that someone knows where to go, what to do?

Solution Option:

There are many cases similar to those described above, and all of them are somehow connected with the cards and with the place of access to them. This is the problem and it all comes down to it. The original idea came along with the now popular payment terminals (a kind of touch kiosk) and the parallel developing OSM project (OpenStreetMap). Let us consider in more detail the components and then the idea itself.

Touch kiosk (payment terminals):

Touch kiosk is a hardware-software complex assembled on the basis of a personal computer and equipped with a touch monitor that simplifies human-computer interaction. Touch kiosk (self-service kiosk) is designed to provide the user with various information without involving service personnel.

Payment terminal - a hardware-software complex that ensures the receipt of payments from individuals in self-service mode. A payment terminal is characterized by a high degree of autonomy of its operation. Work control can be done via the Internet. Basically, the payment terminal is designed to

• accepting payments for mobile services, utilities, Internet providers, in repayment of bank loans;
• replenishment of personal accounts in payment systems, bank card accounts.

The principle of operation is as follows:

Using the on-screen menu of the terminal, the user selects the service that he would like to pay, indicates the necessary details (phone number, personal account number, etc.). Following the instructions displayed on the screen, enters the required amount into the bill acceptor and presses the "Pay" button. The terminal independently recognizes the authenticity of cash and its face value.

Using a GPRS modem or other means of communication, the terminal sends the entered payment data to the server of the payment system that provides payment processing. Having processed the data, the server of the payment system transmits them to the gateway of the server of the organization to which the payment is intended. After that, the amount entered into the terminal is credited to the user's account and the terminal prints and gives the user a check. This sequence may differ slightly, but it is not so important for us.

OSM (OpenStreetMap):

OpenStreetMap (OSM; literally "open road maps") is a free project for the joint development of publicly accessible maps and maps of cities, streets, roads using manual or automatic data entry, as well as receiving data from portable GPS receivers. The project was founded in the UK in July 2004 by Steve Coast. In April 2006, OSM began registration as a foundation. “The OpenStreetMap Foundation is an international nonprofit organization created to support the development and dissemination of geospatial data, as well as providing opportunities for anyone to use geospatial data.”

Idea:

So, we briefly got acquainted with two components of the idea: a viewer and a map. The very idea is already beginning to be drawn. But what if you insert this card into the payment terminal? After all, the payment terminal does not fully use its resources! The last phrase is a fact. Here is the technical information about the standard equipment of the OSMP-2 machine: The system itself consists of a program that allows you to view the site located on the terminal’s hard drive. Agree that such a nimble machine, with Windows Embedded installed on it (the embedded version), can do more than show the site and send requests.

IBM PC совместимый компьютер

1. Процессор Intel Celeron 310 (2130MHz, 533 MHz FSB) 256Kb BOX w/cooler (Socket 478)
2. Материнская плата ECS P4M800-M (VIA P4M800) SVGA, Sound, LAN, 3 PCI, 2 DDR 3200, mATX (Retail)
3. Модуль памяти DDR SDRAM 256Mb PC-3200 Hynix-1 Original
4. Контроллер ST-Lab I-152 PCI 2 port fast serial + 1 port EPP combo (Retail)
5. Сторожевой таймер версия 1.0 (таймер версии 2.0 может быть установлен за дополнительную плату)
6. Блок питания InWin 300W ATX (P4)
7. Вентилятор GlacialTech GT1225EBDL-1/черный 120×120x25 для корпуса, подшипник скольжения
8. Накопитель HDD Western Digital 40Gb WD400BB 7200rpm 2Mb
9. Кабель сетевой монитор-компьютер 1.8 м.
10. RAM-512 Mb DDR

Сенсорный монитор

1. Вандалостойкий сенсорный монитор TFT 17″ LG L1750S или ACER AL1716 As
2. Интерфейсный шнур монитора
3. Шнур питания монитора
4. Вандалостойкий сенсорный экран 17 дюймов
5. Контроллер сенсорного экрана



So, it is proposed to make a touch kiosk by definition, i.e. to carry some information, in this case information - a map of the city and the region in which the terminal is located.

Implementation:

Server :

Starting the server on which the cards will be stored. The card itself will be used as a help system, i.e. on it you can put the addresses of houses, firms, information about companies, advertisements (if the building belongs to some company, you can write the name on it along with the logo) and take the subscription fee from these companies.

Terminal :

A beta version of the card will be installed on the terminal with its subsequent update. The card function itself will be built into the site, in no way interfering with the operation of the payment system.

Promo picture.

Update:

Update takes place on the server with the map and:

Option 1 (traffic savings):

Rendering the map on the terminal, i.e. Updates will come in binary form, and a map will be “created” on the terminal itself. In this case, there will be a saving in Internet traffic, but we do not yet know if this option is feasible, because the system requirements are somewhat lower, and we did not conduct testing.

Option 2 (traffic costs):

Rendering a map on the server and sending updated images to the terminal. Updates will come in the form of pictures replacing the old ones. This option is more wasteful in terms of Internet traffic compared to the previous one, although if an unlimited tariff, then it is more profitable in terms of implementation. This option is also suitable for terminals with modest technical capabilities.

Benefit:

A little higher, I mentioned that the card can be used as a help system, in connection with which the benefit looms:

• Subscription fee from firms / companies / enterprises that want to place information about themselves on the map: phones, addresses, name, etc.
• The system works all over Russia, and there is only one server with a card, so you can take a few people in this, and they can handle a fairly large number of requests.

Also, due to the fact that the OSM project is quite widely developed, most of the work has already been done, which will save a large number of man-hours.

Due to the fact that this idea is planned to be implemented on payment terminals, there is another benefit - the growth of cash transactions, and this should be of interest to the company through which this terminal makes money transfers. Of course, I don’t work in statistics and do not make forecasts, but my opinion is that if someone looks at the card, in most cases he will conduct some kind of money transaction: he will pay the bill, throw money on the phone, etc.

Problems:

No matter how well things work out in words, this idea has some problems:

• Each machine belongs to any agent and without his knowledge and consent, the card cannot be installed on his terminal;
• The licensing agreement between the agent and the company through which the money transactions go, i.e. You can change their site or not;
• Technical problems, such as starting the card on the terminal and its integration into the terminal system. This is a problem because it seems there are no similar analogues yet;

Although all these problems are quite easily solved, you can’t turn a blind eye to them.

Additions:

There are also ideas to implement the following with the card:

• Routes of all vehicles
• Having indicated the place of departure and destination, the machine will print on the check or show on the screen which transport to take, where to get off, what to change, how and how much to go, etc.
• Search by various parameters (street, company name, etc.) or by several parameters at once (street, number and type of vehicle, etc.).
• Telephone directory of the city, if at one time this will be relevant in Russia.
• The ability to pick up the GLONASS system to the map in order to monitor the transport online.

The idea is in the process of a startup , though it is still standing still. Who wants to join - contacts in the profile

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