WO2002048936A1

WO2002048936A1 - Card based information processing and recording system

Info

Publication number: WO2002048936A1
Application number: PCT/NZ2001/000284
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michael Jeffrey Whittaker
Original assignee: Ignite Technologies Ltd
Priority date: 2000-12-15
Filing date: 2001-12-17
Publication date: 2002-06-20
Also published as: AU2002216497A1; NZ508900A

Abstract

A card based system for processing and recording information, particularly directed at individually targeted promotions for customer loyalty programs. The system comprises a user card capable of being erased and overwritten by a read/write terminal. The card preferably has a visual display means to transmit information to the user.

Description

Card Based Information Processing and Recording System

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a card based system, including apparatus and method, for processing and recording information. In particular, the present invention provides a means for promoting or facilitating the sale of products or services, for example by delivering individually tailored promotions or recommendations for purchase of products and services. Furthermore, the individually targeted information can be provided in real time based upon current user specific data to the user in a re-writable visual format.

BACKGROUND

It has become well known that promotion of products, and the provision of information generally, is far more successful when individuals are targeted, rather than being broadcast to a mass market.

Therefore, individually targeted promotions have been proposed in various systems such as those disclosed in US Patent No. 5459306 (Stein et al), US Patent No. 5932869 (Gottlich et at) and US Patent No. 6024288 (Gotllich et al).

In Stein, knowledge of a consumer's previous purchasing history is used to produce individually targeted promotions and recommendations coupons. Information about each individual consumer is gathered, being based on prior purchasing history, for example. Also, information as to various product or other promotional offers which are available from suppliers is provided to a store that the consumer frequents. When the individual customer enters information that enables the system to identify the customer into the machine such as a stand alone kiosk, point of sale system or personal computer in the store, then the information about the individual customer is compared with currently available promotions and those promotions which would appear to be of interest to the customer are displayed by means of being recommended in a printed format by a paper coupon or the like.

As this has been pointed out in the Gottlich '869 patent, a disadvantage of the Stein system is that it relies on storage of a user's personal purchasing history on site at the store. Although Stein envisages uploading information from the store to some remote host site or system, Stein does not disclose any method for efficient or effective communication to the host system. Clearly, the disadvantage in this process is that if data is only uploaded infrequently, then a user can make a purchase at one store and then that purchasing information will not be available to a store that the customer may visit later in the day or only a few hours later, for example.

In the Gottlich '869 patent, the system disclosed includes a terminal which has an erasable read- write system. Each user has an identifiable individual card. On one side of the card is a magnetic stripe on which information may be written by the terminal and on which information may be received and read into the terminal. On the other side of the card is provided a rewritable visual format in the form of a thermo-reversible or thermo - chromic type film for displaying visual data in a human readable format.

As a means of overcoming the problem of availability of data in relation to individual consumers at different locations, Gottlich proposes that the magnetic stripe on the card may be used to store information about the individual user and recent purchases made by the user. Therefore, if the user takes the card to another location, the terminal reader at the new location can obtain some data about that user and use that data to make appropriate recommendations and the like. Furthermore, the Gottlich system has the advantage that the visual indicia carried on the other side of the card can be used to inform the card user of the various promotions and/or record various aspects of the card user's history, or products or services available to the user in a visual format that the user can easily read. Therefore, for example, if a particular chain of stores is using a point rewards system, such as air points, then the current level or number of points may be recorded in a visual format on the card so that it is immediately available to the user to look at any time. Furthermore, the same information can also be recorded on a magnetic strip on the back of the card so that the electronic systems are also aware of this information.

However, Gottlich still has a number of disadvantages. Perhaps the most significant disadvantage is that all transactional data is stored in the card read/write terminal. This means that there is very limited storage capacity for transactions without frequent and inconvenient uploads to a host site being performed. The limited data storage capacity also means that there is a limited ability for the system to enable customised individual communication with customers.

The magnetic stripe on the card still does not allow a very large amount of information to be recorded, so the system does not completely overcome the disadvantages of not having an efficient data transfer system back to a host to make the data available at other geographic locations that the customer may visit using the card.

The next disadvantage is that each terminal of the Gottlich system provides all the transaction processing and functionality and dial up to a host system through its own individual modem. This means that providing more than one terminal per geographic site, results in a high level of redundancy and inefficiency. In modern retail environments, with potential for many points of sale, for example supermarket or department store environments, it becomes highly desirable to have a single device responsible for communicating with a host system, and have that single device also being responsible for handling the bulk of the transaction processing.

A further disadvantage with the Gottlich system is that it can be difficult to change the software resident in the terminal. Although the Gottlich '288 patent discusses program downloads from a host, it is apparent that this relates to program parameters rather than new software. It is important in most promotional systems to update and change promotions regularly and this may entail changing some of the recommendations or offers that may be available or that may need be made by the machines. With the Gottlich system, having a number of discrete individual terminals that are not controlled by a single device, it is a difficult and expensive task to update or change the software i.e. the rules by which particular promotions are governed. In particular, it would be very desirable to have a system which enables software updates to be carried out promptly from a host site.

Another disadvantage with the Gottlich system, is that although the system envisages being interfaced with some way with a point of sale (POS) terminal, there is no provision for making an effective interface with the POS system whereby the rewritable card may be used to provide inlbrmation on a current purchase to the POS system of the site to actually effect the transaction while at the same time having various promotional offers, or other information provided to the user.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object to the present invention to provide a system or method which will at least go some way toward overcoming disadvantage associated with the prior art, or which will at least provide to the public with a useful choice.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly in one aspect the invention may broadly be said to consist in a system for recording individual user transaction data, including at least one erasable read/write terminal, a user card associated with the user and for use with the terminal, the user card having a viual display means capable of being erased and overwritten by the terminal, and a host terminal including data storage means and processing means, a first communication means between the read/write terminal and the host terminal to enable transaction data to be uploaded from the read/write terminal to the host terminal to be stored by the storage means, and the host terminal includng a second communication means for communication between the host terminal and the user whereby information may be transmitted from the host terminal to the user without using the read/write terminal.

Preferably the second communication means includes email communication to an address provided by the user.

Alternatively the second communication means includes communication to a telephone of the user.

Alternatively the second communication means includes communication with the user using the postal service, to a postal address provided by the user.

In a further aspect the invention may broadly be said to consist in a system for recording individual user transation data, including at least one erasable read/write terminal, a user card associated with the user and for user with the terminal, and a terminal controller, the terminal including;

means for reading machine readable code on the user card and for writing machine readable code to the card, means for erasing and writing visual information on the card, the terminal controller including; means for receiving data from, and transmitting data to the terminal, a set of program rules, and processing means for comparing information provided from the card with program data by application of the set of promotional program rules, and providing a response to the user on the card by providing a visual indication on the visual display means.

Preferably the terminal controller includes a storage means for storing information relating to the user.

Alternatively or additionally, information relating to the user is provided in the storage means and used by the system to compared to the program data to provide a response.

Preferably the response is recorded in the storage means.

Preferably any information provided to or by the user is recorded in the storage means.

Preferably the user information in the storage means is uploaded to a host.

Preferably the host includes means to update, change or modify the program rules in the terminal controller.

Preferably the host and/or the terminal manager further includes communication means to effect transfer of data and/or program rules therebetween.

In a further aspect the invention may broadly be said to consist in a system for recording individual user transaction data by a product or service provider including at least one erasable read/write terminal, a user card associated with the user and for use with the terminal, a host terminal including processing means to process data in accordance with predetermined program rules, an interface means to allow communication with other machines, and a program configuration means whereby the host terminal may be accessed remotely via the interface to alter the predetermined program rules.

In> a further aspect the invention may broadly be set to consist in a method for providing a program selected response to a particular user comprising the steps of; providing a user card to a user providing a read/write terminal for reading information from and/or writing information to

the card, providing a terminal controller, inserting the user card into the terminal reading the data on the card by the terminal, communicating the data from the terminal to the terminal controller, comparing information about the user from the card with information in the terminal controller, transmitting a response to the user by transmitting information to the terminal to instruct the terminal to write a visual indication on the card.

Preferably the method includes the step of providing a storage means in the terminal controller for storing information relating to the user.

Alternatively or additionally the method includes the step of, providing information relating to the user in the storage means and using this by the system to compare it to the program data to provide a response.

Preferably the method includes the step of recording the response in the storage means.

Preferably the method includes the step of recording any information provided to or by the user in the storage means.

Preferably the method includes the step of uploading the user information in the storage means to a host. Prefcrably the method includes the step of the host updating, changing or modifying the program rules in the terminal controller.

Preferably the method includes the step of the host and/or the terminal manager periodically transferring data and/or program rules therebetween.

In a further aspect the invention may broadly be said to consist in apparatus for enabling a product or service provider to communicate with an individual customer, comprising

a thermal read/write unit with which a consumer interacts, the read/write unit communicating via a thin client architecture to backend marketing database, the database also providing information for consumer contact through other mediums.

Although the descriptions herein focus on use of the direct targeted delivery system of the present invention as a marketing tool it will be appreciated that the system of the present invention is capable of being incorporated in the form of a variety of embodiments not restricted to those described herein. The invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects as examples only as will be seen by the appended claims. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.

The invention consists of the forgoing and also envisages constructions of which the following gives examples.

DRAWING DESCRIPTION

One preferred form of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which;

Figure 1 is a schematic overview of a system according to the present invention;

Figure 2 is a plan view of a front surface of a card;

Figure 3 is a plan view of a rear surface of a card;

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic perspective view of a terminal and peripheral devices, and Figure 5 - 7 are flow diagrams illustrating processes according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to figure 1 , a schematic overview of the system in accordance with the present is shown. A number of read/write terminals, referred to in figure 1 is Java terminals 100 are shown communicably connected to a terminal manager 200. The Java terminals 100 include a card slot for insertion of a card which is assigned to a particular user and has means to read encoded information from the card, erase information from the card and write encoded information to the card. The cards preferably also include a visual display area which may be erased and written over by the terminal 100, as will be described further below.

Referring to figures 2 and 3, the front and rear faces of a card 140 according to the invention are shown. In figure 2, which shows the front face, a thermo-chromic region 150 is provided. This region carries visual information in use, for example words, messages, pictures, or logos, and it preferably comprises a significant area of the overall card front face. Significantly, the visual information carried by thermo-chromic region 150 is capable of being erased and over written with any selected fresh visual information by the card erase/write terminals. On the rear surface (figure 3) of the card one or more magnetic stripes 160 are provided. The stripe and its function is described further below. The card may include one or more integrated circuits i.e. be a "smart card". Further information, for example the name of the organisation that issued the card, or the store or chain of stores in which the card is primarily intended to be used, and possibly the name of the card holder may be recorded on areas 170 and 180 of the card.

Referring again to figure 1, the terminal manager 200 preferably comprises a central processing unit and may be provided in the form of a personal computer or the like. The invention envisages a single terminal manager 200 being provided at each site at which the invention is provided. Each site will usually comprise an individual store, for example a supermarket or a department store or a vehicle service station. The connection made between the terminal manager and the java terminals will in essence be in the form of a local area network.

The terminal manager, by means of a communications gateway 300, is in communication with a data base 400 which acts as a data warehouse, recording information about each individual customer which uses the system, together with information about transaction history is for the customer, and other diagnostic data relating to operation to the system.

The host site also includes site management software applications 500 and the promotional program application (or a selection of promotional program applications) 600,

The client's (ie the store owner's) POS controller 700 is shown connected to the terminal manager 200. The store POS controller provides data to the client's transactional data warehouse 800 which can in turn provide transaction information directly to the backend database.

Supplier information, for example regarding promotional offers discounts etc is provided to the backend database at step 401. Using this information, the system provides information by the communications gateway to terminal managers in respect of individual customers that may be interested in receiving the information.

The information from consumer transactions that are recorded by the system and supplier information can also be used to contact the customer through other mediums, such as email, telephone, direct mail, the World Wide Web, or wireless application protocol apparatus such as WAP phones, docomo etc.

The Java terminal will now be described in more detail. Referring to figure 3, it will be seen that the terminal 100 includes a housing 101 with a slot 102 of suitable dimensions for accepting a rewrite card according to the present invention. Within the housing 101, and being the slot 102, is card reader/writer apparatus of a type which is presently commercially available. The preferred reader/writer apparatus includes magnetic strip reader/writer apparatus which will read encoded information on the magnetic strip of a card, from the card and will erase or overwrite that information if required, so that further encoded information may be written onto the magnetic strip for reading by the same apparatus or further apparatus at a future time.

The reader/writer apparatus preferably also includes thermo-chromic apparatus to write or erase or overwrite visual information onto a thermo-chromic surface of the card. The thermo-chromic service is preferably on the opposite side of the card from the magnetic strip. The java terminal 100 also includes a means to interface with a number of other devices that are, or may be, provided on the site. A further device which will be provided on each site is the terminal manager (as described with reference to figure 1 above). Further devices which may optionally be provided on the site include one or more POS terminals 106, an external voucher printer 108 (for example for ticketing), an external keypad 1 10, and an external display 112. Optionally, the java terminal 100 may be provided with internal devices such as a speaker or other audio device, and/or a voucher printer.

The terminal is scalable, so the simplest terminal configuration is just a java terminal connecting . to the terminal manager. However, this system also provides for the java terminal to connect to all of the devices identified above. Obviously, a plurality of java terminals may be provided interfaced with a single terminal manager.

The java terminal of the present invention is a simple device, and therefore requires little physical maintenance. However, changes to software will necessarily have to be made in use. Existing systems require expensive individual attendance by trained persons to perform software upgrades or to diagnose problems. The terminal of the present invention can be configured remotely from the host via the terminal manager, and the java terminal can provide diagnostic information to the host to assist with fixing any problems that may arise.

The terminal is able to be upgraded and configured remotely. Furthermore, it is able to return, upon request from the terminal manager, details of its own configuration including the nature of the external devices that are connected to it. As part of its system, each java terminal also has a unique identification number that it can provide upon request by the terminal manager.

The terminal manager can read one or more magnetic strips (or, information on integrated circuits if necessary). Most frequently, only a single strip of 3 tracks down the right hand edge of the card will be used, but will be appreciated that more than one strip may be read by the device.

The data stored on the magnetic strips in an encoded form may include any number of fields, up to the maximum character length of storage space on a card. The fields can be specific to any particular promotional scheme to implemented by the system, but typically the fields encoded on the card will include; card number, current point total, customer birthday, enrolment date, car expiry date.

The data will also include a security number which is 4 bytes long (but may be longer), and is created using an algorithm that is known only to the proprietor of the system. The number is used by the terminal manager upon insertion of the card into the java terminal to check for the validity of the card and hence provide a further barrier to the production of forged cards.

An additional check number is also included on the card, preferably as a check sum using the LUHN formula, that the terminal may use to ensure the data on the card is not corrupted. If data is corrupted, then the transaction will be cancelled without data being passed to the terminal manager, aside from recording a card read failure event. In the event of such a communications failure for reading a card, a read failure LED 104 (refer to figure 2) will light in a particular colour to indicate the problem that has occurred.

It will be appreciated that other means of providing a visual indication on a card may be used. However, the present invention in the prefered embodiment uses a thermal erase/write device to erase or write visual information onto a thermo-chromic surface of the card. This enables text or graphics to be displayed to the customer. The minimal print area that the java terminal supports is approximately 46mm by 25mm. This area includes graphics or text with a resolution of up to 400 dpi.

The java terminal is used primarily to update customer loyalty points or similar information on the customer's card. This involves reading the point total or other information from the magnetic portion of the card, then subsequently updating both the magnetic and thermal portions of the card with the new point total. The quantity of the update is determined from the terminal interfaced of either the POS terminal or the terminal manager (where the terminal manager is interfacing to the POS system). This interface provides the transaction total. It can also provide the composition of the transaction. For example, the transaction may consist, particularly in a supermarket or a convenience store setting, of a variety of line items that may carry with them different point reward total. Alternatively, the transaction composition may only be important at a backend data base level, i.e. at the level of data base 400 (figure 1).

The software application in the terminal manager is responsible for ascertaining, from the transaction data, what should be written back to the customer's card. The java terminal itself then writes the appropriate update to both the magnetic back surface of the card and the thermo- chromic front section.

The terminal manager is then notified of the completion of the card write process before the terminal releases the card back to the customer. The card is held within the terminal for the duration of a transaction.

As part of transaction processing, the terminal manager reviews cards to see whether any have been reported as lost or stolen. If a card matches a list of invalid cards (such as those that have been reported as lost or stolen), then the terminal manager issues a command to the terminal to reject the card.

The system also makes provision for schemes whereby discounts are required to be provided on the current transaction before it is finalised. Therefore, the card is placed in the terminal during the transaction and held in the terminal until completion. This also means that the terminal manager will pass messages indicating the presence of the card to the POS. The terminal allows these messages to pass through even though it may be connected to the POS device.

In addition to accumulating loyalty points and the like, the system must also be handle transactions where a customer redeems points for rewards. Such a redemption transaction involves the customer inserting the card into the terminal and then the redemption being selected at the POS system. The terminal manager checks that the redemption selected is valid, and if it is, the terminal manager then transmits to the terminal the appropriate point decrement to make from the card, or with other details of the redemption transaction.

The terminal must also in some instances be capable of printing vouchers or the like. The terminal may optionally have a printer associated with it, built into the same unit, or may interface to a separate printer provided in the same locality as the terminal. The printer is used with such functions as printing award redemption certificates and is preferably capable of taking customised paper to reduce possibility of fraud. The printer is capable of printing a bar code specified by the terminal manager and to print a variety of character sets, for example Asian character sets as well as Roman character sets.

A selected number of sites that implement the system will be able to issue cards. This will usually involve provision of separate terminal with this capability. The process of card issuing involves the customer filling a paper application form, or a form provided on a display unit which is filled in response to prompts on the display using a keyboard. The customer is then given a card and the information provided by the customer which needs to be recorded on the card (preferably birth date, card issuing date and expiry date) are recorded on the card itself which is provided to the customer.

For the purpose of logging various events to provide information for more efficient system operation, the java terminal is able to transmit notification to the terminal manger of the occurrence of certain events. The events include at least the following;

terminal start up, card read failure, transaction timeout (no response to card data), transaction timeout (no response to write complete), terminal manager (not responding), terminal manager not responding (other messages not being acknowledged), message transmission failure, terminal shutdown, terminal software reset.

All such events are logged with time stamp. To ensure reasonable accuracy of time stamps, the terminal periodically synchronises with the terminal manager.

In summary, the terminal itself will generally carry out the following steps in any transaction:

card identification and read, transmission of card data, processing of data to write. card write. transmission of write completion of notification, card rejection.

To assist with maintenance of the terminal and general reliability data, the terminal stores diagnostic counts for at least the following;

card swipes, card magnetic reads, card magnetic writes, card thermal erases, card thermal writes, voucher prints.

Turning now to the terminal manager, a significant part of the operation of the terminal manager as been described above. The main function of the terminal manager is to implement the particular rules i.e. software application, which governs the responses made by the system to transactions or data inputs carried out by the customer. The main areas of functionality for the terminal manager are;

site network management, terminal configuration, transaction storage, site logging, data upload, marketing, card issuing processing, invalid card processing, generic transaction processing.

In the particular instance of promotion or customer loyalty programs, the terminal manager also includes sales and redemption transaction processing. The terminal manager provides a network for connection to one or more java terminals on the site but also provides appropriate connections to network with POS terminals, LSD screens with customer feed back, and other devices. Therefore, the terminal manager requires only a single connection to the terminal network. However, another connection may be required in some installations to a POS system, if the transaction data is available from a single point. If the transaction is to be obtained from the POS terminals, rather than from a central POS controller, the java terminals will connect to the corresponding POS terminals and pass the POS data onto the terminal manager. Thus the terminal manager is always able to relate transaction data to both the POS location and a java terminal. This means that when transaction data is received, the terminal manager performs the appropriate loyalty points calculation at the correct java terminal. The terminal manager is also able schedule commands and messages being sent to other network devices, for automated activities. Furthermore, the terminal manager is able to distribute software upgrades and other configuration details to all the terminals on the site network. Therefore the terminal manager is capable of ascertaining the present configuration of each and every terminal on the site, as well as being able to transmit the upgrade data to them.

Data from all transactions that occur on site are stored by the terminal manager until such times they can be uploaded to the communications gateway (refer to figure 1) and onto the rear end data base (refer to figure 1). The terminal manager stores the transaction data, including the breakdown of the products and services purchased where applicable, of all sales involving the use of thermo read/write cards at the java terminals that occur on site. The transactions are stored along with the time and date that they occur.

The terminal manager connects to the communications gateway periodically to upload all of the transaction and event data that is stored. The frequency of the upload is configurable dependent on demand made by clients, transmission time, storage space and the quantity of transaction. Once the data has been acknowledged by the communications gateway is received and verified, the terminal manager deletes it to make space for further data. Ideally, the terminal manager stores a copy of the data on every customer of the loyalty scheme. However, due to storage restrictions this is unlikely to actually occur. Therefore, the terminal manager includes data storage regarding a list of customer profiles, indicating different preference categories that the customer can be considered part of. The terminal manager is also able to be configured to be restricted to storing all data relating to customers of particular geographic region. In a preferred embodiment, the terminal manager uses a PC architecture and operates within a system capable of supporting java version 1.2 and java version 1.1.8.

The communications gateway is mainly intended to implement; network management, site configuration, site data processing, data storage, event logging.

Each terminal manager can connect to the communications gateway by either internet or direct dial. Similarly, the communications gateway will be able to initiate a connection to any terminal manger by internet or direct dial. The communications gateway preferably comprises multiple gateways, each being the primary recipient of transmissions from a designated set of site. However, any gateway may act as a back up for any other gateway, so that sites are still valid if they are designated to a different communications gateway. A wide area network connects the communications gateway to the backend data base.

In the preferred embodiment the communications gateway operates on a system capable of supporting versions 1.1.8 and above of the sun java 1.1 releases, and versions 1.2.2 and above of the sun java 1.2 releases.

Referring to figure 5, a flow diagram of use of a system according to the present invention is shov/n. In the first step at 901, a user inserts a card (such as a card shown in figures 2 and 3) into the java terminal. The terminal then proceeds to read the magnetic strip of the card to ascertain any relevant data which is on the card at step 902. The data present on the card may only comprise a machine readable code that corresponds to the personal identification number, or other security number which the card holder possesses, to ensure that the person using the card is legitimately entitled to do so. Other information may be read from the magnetic strip, for example a number of air points on a card or other information such as payments made toward a layby (i.e. a product which is to be purchased at some future date once a certain programmed receipt of payments by a customer has been received), the last date and overall progress of payments toward the layby may be recorded on the magnetic stripe. As another example, if the system is being used to record time in attendance at a work place, the magnetic strip could include information as to the identity of the employee or other data regarding employee rostering. This would let the machine know whether the employee should in fact be turning up on that particular day or time.

Once the information from the card magnetic stripe has been read, the information is transmitted to the terminal controller in step 904. The terminal controller then preferably, but not necessarily, interfaces with a POS system (in the case of a store or retail outlet for example) to obtain information regarding the current transaction which is being undertaken by use of the card. This occurs in step 906.

In step 908, the controller, having received the foregoing information, processes that information based upon the software application resident in the controller. The software application may be a loyalty application for example, or include programming instructions regarding the layby scheme described above or the employee payroll application outlined above. Once the information is processed, data relating to the transaction is stored in memory of the terminal controller step 910, and a suitable response for recordal on the card both on the magnetic stripe and in the visual part of the card is transmitted to java terminal. In step 912 the java terminal writes the appropriate encoded data corresponding to the response onto the card magnetic stripe (such data may for example comprise a number of points awarded as a result of the value of the transaction just undertaken by use of the card, or record that a further payment towards a layby has been made), and writes the appropriate information to the visual panel (e.g the number of air points that have been accrued to date following the latest transaction). Then, the transaction having been completed, the card is ejected in step 914.

Turning now to figure 6, a further aspect of the invention is illustrated regarding the transfer of information between the terminal controller and the host. Thus in step 920, the terminal controller establishes a communication link to the host 400 using the communications gateway 300. Once a communication link has been established, an upload occurs of all the transaction and diagnostic data which is stored in the controller. This occurs in step 922. In the next step 924, the host, at a suitable time, preferably downloads all or selected transaction data from the host to the other terminals. Therefore, there is an interchange of data between all terminals, or at least all terminal controllers and a geographic region so that there is sufficient data if required for card users who may travel between different retail outlets to enable the system to work sufficiently and preferably seamlessly.

In step 926, the host application performs a step of direct communication with cardholders. This step allows communication with cardholders without the use of the card, and is particularly desirable in situations where it may be necessary for the system to alert the cardholder of some information within a certain timeframe. Therefore, this step can be important in situations where a cardholder has not used the card within the timeframe, or appears unlikely to use the card within the required timeframe. Obviously, if the user does not use the card within the timeframe, then there is no way for the system to alert the user to a potential opportunity or problem. Therefore, using the example of a layby purchasing scheme, if the cardholder forgot a payment on a layby scheme, the cardholder would not be aware of this until next time the card was used, this may be too late to enable the layby scheme to continue. Therefore, if a certain payment has been missed, the host can generate a communication directly to the cardholder to let the cardholder know so that the problem can be remedied with minimal cost and inconvenience. Such communication direct to the cardholder may take a variety of forms. In particular, the host is configured so as to provide communication by email to the cardholder, the emailed information being provided by the cardholder when the card was issued. Alternatively, the system can send a message to a postal address provided by the cardholder, or to a telephone by leaving a message, whether the telephone be on a landline or a cellular telephone. Furthermore, the system can also send messages using SMS or WAP. Finally, the host may also be directly accessible on the worldwide web by individual cardholders so that they may confirm the status information which has been printed or provided on their card.

Turning now to figure 7, a further aspect of the present invention is illustrated regarding configuration of software applications implemented by the host for various card users. Such applications may include loyalty applications or applications such as a layby example illustrated above, or the payroll example. In essence, the present invention allows a "client" such as the owner of a retailer store chain that may wish to implement a loyalty scheme using the card to establish a communication link with the host. This occurs in step 930 of figure 7. Clearly, the communication link established is preferably one which is in someway secure, for example by using encryption techniques such as a public key encryption system. The software resident on the host allows the client to make certain amendments or alterations to one (or a selection) of software applications. Therefore, the client may go about amending various parameters such as the required point's target that enables the user to redeem certain points on the card for certain products. The client performs the step of amending the software applications or various parameters of the software applications in step 932.

In step 934, the host application checks the changes that have been made to ensure that they are within required limits or parameters i.e. to ensure that a mistake has not been by the client which results in a nonsensical scheme or one which would be so clearly unprofitable that it should not be allowed to implemented. The host then transmits the required changes to the software applications to each of the terminal controllers so that the changes can be immediately implemented.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the present invention provides significant advantages over the prior art and may be used for a variety of uses apart from promoting products and services. For example, the invention is also applicable to processes such as lay-bye schemes and payroll and time management or employee awards systems.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A system for recording individual user transaction data, including at least one erasable read/write terminal, a user card associated with the user and for use with the terminal, the user card having a viual display means capable of being erased and overwritten by the terminal, and a host terminal including data storage means and processing means, a first communication means between the read/write terminal and the host terminal to enable transaction data to be uploaded from the read/write terminal to the host terminal to be stored by the storage means, and the host terminal includng a second communication means for communication between the host terminal and the user whereby information may be transmitted from the host terminal to the user without using the read/ write terminal.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the second communication means includes email communication to an address provided by the user.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the second communication means includes communication to a telephone of the user.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the second communication means includes communication with the user using the postal service, to a postal address provided by the user.

5. A system for recording individual user transaction data, including

at least one erasable read/write terminal, a user card associated with the user and for user with the terminal, and a terminal controller, the terminal including;

6. A system as claimed in claim 5 wherein the terminal controller includes a storage means for storing information relating to the user.

7. A system as claimed in claim 6 wherein information relating to the user is provided in the storage means and used by the system to compared to the program data to provide a response.

8. A system for recording individual user transaction data by a product or service provider including at least one erasable read/write terminal, a user card associated with the user and for use with the terminal, a host terminal including processing means to process data in accordance with predetermined program rules, an interface means to allow communication with other machines, and a program configuration means whereby the host terminal may be accessed remotely via the interface to alter the predetermined program rules.

9. A method for providing a program selected response to a particular user comprising the steps of; providing a user card to a user providing a read/write terminal for reading information from and/or writing information to

10. A method as claimed in claim 9 including the step of providing information relating to the user in a storage means and using this by the system to compare it to the program data to provide a response.