Distributed transaction system

Abstract

A distributed transaction system for enabling users to conduct transactions using services from third party service providers includes a central processing center with one or more communications interfaces to facilitate transactions initiated by users at a plurality of kiosks wherein each of the kiosks includes a user interface enabling a user to access a user selected service and a data store for storing configurations associated with services provided by the third party service providers, whereby a user interfaces with one or more of physical system resources of the kiosk to open a user identity session such that the kiosk is operative to facilitate at least one first user action with the physical resources to initiate a financial transaction and the central processing center is operative to execute at least a second action to facilitate the transaction and to communicate with a financial institution.

1 . A distributed transaction system for enabling users to conduct transactions using services from third party service providers, the system including:
 a central processing center including one or more communications interfaces enabling the central processing center to communicate with the third party service providers whereby the central processing center receives transaction information from the third party service providers enabling the central processing center to facilitate transactions initiated by users at a plurality of kiosks located remote from the central processing center, the central processing system operative to interact with the kiosks via a communications resource associated with each of the kiosks to enable data transmission between the central processing center and the kiosks to facilitate transactions conducted by users at the remote locations using user selected services provided by the third party service providers and whereby the central processing center can communicate independently with each of the kiosks; and
 wherein each of the kiosks includes a plurality of associated physical system resources including at least one user interface and corresponding physical system resource interfaces enabling a user to access a user selected service and a processing platform running an operating system and a data store for storing configurations associated with services provided by the third party service providers, the configurations identifying those services available through a given kiosk and wherein there are multiple configurations stored in the data store, each associated with at least one service provided by the third party service providers available through the given kiosk wherein the configuration information for multiple services enables use of one of the same physical resources by a user to conduct user selected transactions with user selected services provided by the third party service providers and wherein the data store includes a series of instructions to initiate a user identity session, whereby the user interfaces with one or more of the physical system resources to open the user identity session whereby the kiosk is operative to facilitate at least one first user action with the physical resources to initiate a financial transaction and the central processing center is operative to execute at least a second action to facilitate the financial transaction and to communicate with a financial institution that executes a third action to conduct the financial transaction. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the central processing center is operative in conjunction with the available physical resources, corresponding physical system resource interfaces and operating system to execute a script comprising instructions to execute a predetermined series of sequential actions, each associated with a given service, enabling a user to conduct multiple transactions in a single user identity session using multiple services provided by multiple third party service providers. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein some of the predetermined sequential actions are executed by the central processing center and wherein others of the predetermined sequential actions are executed by the kiosk to conduct a transaction within the identity session using a third party service. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the central processing center communicates with selected ones of the kiosks to remotely enable or disable selected ones of the services based upon predetermined criteria. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the predetermined criteria is the number of transactions conducted by users utilizing selected ones of the kiosks over a predetermined time period. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the predetermined criteria is the value of transactions conducted by users utilizing selected ones of the kiosks over a predetermined time period. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the predetermined criteria is one of the calendar date or date(s) and the time or time(s) of day. 
     
     
         8 . A distributed transaction system for enabling users to conduct transactions using services from third party service providers, the system including:
 a central processing center including one or more communications interfaces enabling the central processing center to communicate with the third party service providers whereby the central processing center receives transaction information from the third party service providers enabling the central processing center to facilitate transactions initiated by users at a plurality of kiosks located remote from the central processing center, the central processing system operative to interact with the kiosks via a communications resource associated with each of the kiosks to enable data transmission between the central processing center and the kiosks to facilitate transactions conducted by users at the remote locations using user selected services provided by the third party service providers and whereby the central processing center can communicate independently with each of the kiosks; and
 wherein each of the kiosks includes a plurality of associated physical system resources including at least one user interface and corresponding physical system resource interfaces enabling a user to access a user selected service and a processing platform running an operating system and a data store for storing configurations associated with services provided by the third party service providers, the configurations identifying those services available through a given kiosk and wherein the central processing center is operative to transmit configurations associated with at least one service provided by a third party service provider to a given kiosk, wherein configuration information for multiple services enables use of one of the same physical resources by a user to conduct user selected transactions with user selected services provided by the third party service providers and wherein the data store includes a series of instructions to initiate a user identity session, whereby the user interfaces with one or more of the physical system resources to open the user identity session whereby the kiosk is operative to facilitate at least one first user action with the physical resources to initiate a financial transaction and the central processing center is operative to execute at least a second action to facilitate the financial transaction and to communicate with a financial institution that executes a third action to conduct the financial transaction. 
   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the central processing center is operative to transmit configurations to a given kiosk associated with services provided by the third party service providers based upon selected predetermined criteria. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the predetermined criteria is the value of transactions conducted by users utilizing selected ones of the kiosks over a predetermined time period. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the predetermined criteria is the number of transactions conducted by users utilizing selected ones of the kiosks over a predetermined time period. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein each kiosk includes a communications resource for communicating with the central processing center and wherein each kiosk transmits a message at predetermined periodic intervals to the central processing center including the status of physical system resources available to the kiosk. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the central processing center is operative to transmit configurations associated with at least one service provided by a third party service provider to a given kiosk at predetermined intervals corresponding to the intervals at which the kiosk transmits a message including the status of physical system resources available to the kiosk at the time the message is transmitted. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein each kiosk includes a communications resource for communicating with the central processing center and wherein each kiosk transmits a message to the central processing center at predetermined periodic intervals, the message including the services enabled on the kiosk. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the central processing center is operative to transmit configurations associated with at least one service provided by a third party service provider to a given kiosk at predetermined intervals corresponding to the intervals at which the kiosk transmits a message including the services available to the kiosk at the time the message is transmitted. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the central processing center is operative to transmit configurations associated with at least one service provided by a third party service provider to a given kiosk based upon user input at the kiosk. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the kiosk is operative, in a single user identity session, to facilitate multiple user selected transactions with different user selected services provided by different third party service providers. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein a plurality of first predetermined sequential actions are executed by the kiosk and wherein a plurality of second predetermined sequential actions are executed by the central processing center within the identity session to facilitate transactions with different user selected services provided by different third party service providers. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the configuration information for a selected service identifies the physical resources required to conduct a financial transaction. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein configuration information for each available service further includes information for interfacing with the necessary physical system resources required to enable a user to interface with a selected one of the available services.