WO2021102821A1

WO2021102821A1 - Method for generating electronic document and corresponding device

Info

Publication number: WO2021102821A1
Application number: PCT/CN2019/121663
Authority: WO
Inventors: Zhihong Guo; Liang Han
Original assignee: Orange
Priority date: 2019-11-28
Filing date: 2019-11-28
Publication date: 2021-06-03
Also published as: WO2021105763A1; EP4066191A1

Abstract

A method for generating an electronic document. The method is implemented by a peripheral device connected to a source device, and it comprises: obtaining, from said source device, a set of printing instructions formatted according to a print protocol, said set of printing instructions comprising printer command data and content payload data; extracting said content payload data from said set of printing instructions; generating an electronic document comprising said content payload data.

Description

A method for generating an electronic document and corresponding device.

1. Field of the disclosure

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of electronic document generation. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a technique that allows generating electronic receipts, for example at the end of a payment transaction.

2. Background

Points of sales (POS) systems usually comprise a printer allowing printing a paper receipt once a transaction has been carried out. The paper receipt provides information regarding the transaction (such as, for example, the name of the store where the transaction was made, the date of the transaction, references of the item purchased, amount, etc. ) . Such a paper receipt may be useful at a later stage, for example when a customer wants to return or exchange a purchased item, or simply do his accounting.

However, paper receipts have some drawbacks. For example, they are usually rather small pieces of paper, and thus easy to lose. They are also usually printed on low quality paper, with printed characters that tend to fade quickly as times goes, making the paper receipts becoming unreadable. Furthermore, many customers only give a quick look at such paper receipts at the time they received them (for example to quickly check that the amount of a purchase is correct) , and then throw them away almost immediately after they have been printed. Thus, in addition to costing money to the merchant (replacement of the paper roll, maintenance of the receipt printer, etc. ) , paper receipts also cost environment valuable resources.

To overcome some of the above-mentioned drawbacks, some merchants or some retail companies provide electronic receipts to their customers, instead of printing paper receipts. Electronic receipts (also sometimes referred to as “digital receipts” or “e-receipts” ) are digital version of paper receipts. They allow reducing paper usage, since the receipt now takes the form of an electronic document transmitted to a customer after a product or a service was purchased. The customer may then access the electronic receipt on a communication device, such as his smartphone, for example via a dedicated application. Electronic receipts offer all advantages of digital documents: they are easy to store, to search, to backup, to transmit, they do not degrade over time, etc.

However, despites these advantages of electronic receipts over paper receipts, many merchants and companies remain reluctant to engage in the way of proposing electronic receipts to their customers. Indeed, one key obstacle to the adoption of electronic receipts is that the integration of electronic receipt systems within existing transactions systems may currently prove difficult, expensive and/or time-consuming.

For example, the implementation of an electronic receipt system may require a merchant to upgrade or replace his existing transaction system to a new transaction system integrating e-receipt capabilities, or to use some appropriate Application Program Interfaces (API) to connect an existing transaction system to a dedicated e-receipt system. However, beyond the fact that these operations may be costly and time-consuming, they may also be hard to accept for merchants who are usually familiar and satisfied with their existing transaction systems. Furthermore, some important companies, such as mass retail companies for example, may already implement their own complex Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which may be difficult to extend.

As an alternative to above-mentioned software solutions, some merchants may choose hardware solutions that rely on standalone devices to generate electronic receipts. However, although they are simpler to implement, such standalone devices can’t generally communicate with the existing transaction system, forcing the merchant to duplicate the entry of transaction details on the standalone devices, usually by hand, making them impractical to use.

It would hence be desirable to provide a technique that would avoid at least some of these drawbacks of the prior art, and that would notably allow adding easy-to-use electronic receipt generation capabilities to existing transaction systems, without requiring expensive and/or time-consuming upgrades of these systems.

3. Summary

According to the present disclosure, a method for generating an electronic document is disclosed. Such a method is implemented by a peripheral device connected to a source device, and it comprises:

- obtaining, from said source device, a set of printing instructions formatted according to a print protocol, said set of printing instructions comprising printer command data and content payload data;

- extracting said content payload data from said set of printing instructions;

- generating an electronic document comprising said content payload data.

Thus, the proposed technique makes it possible to generate an electronic document in a way which is fully transparent to the source device. In other words, from the source device perspective, everything happens as it was connected to a conventional printer. More particularly, the data transmitted to the peripheral device are the same that would be transmitted to a conventional printer supported by the source device: they correspond to a typical set of printing instructions formatted according to a well-known print protocol.

According to an embodiment, the method comprises converting said set of printing instructions from a numeral system to a text format before extracting said content payload data.

According to an embodiment, extracting said content payload data comprises parsing said set of printing instructions as a function of a dictionary of printer commands available for said print protocol.

According to an embodiment, the method further comprises transmitting said electronic document to a communication terminal.

According to a particular feature of this embodiment, transmitting said electronic document to a communication terminal is carried out by using a transmission mode belonging to the group comprising:

- sending an email;

- sending a message through an instant messaging service;

- transmitting said electronic document via Near Field Communication means.

According to a complementary or alternative embodiment, the method further comprises uploading said electronic document to a remote server, and sending a downloading link to a communication terminal, said downloading link allowing downloading said electronic document from said remote server.

According to another complementary or alternative embodiment, the method further comprises converting said electronic document into a QR code, and displaying said QR code on a display of said peripheral device.

According to an embodiment, the source device is a point of sales terminal and content payload data represent information regarding a transaction carried out with said point of sales terminal.

According to an embodiment, said print protocol is the

protocol.

The present disclosure also concerns a peripheral device for generating an electronic document. Such a peripheral device comprises at least one processor configured to:

- obtain, from a source device to which said peripheral device is connected, a set of printing instructions formatted according to a print protocol, said set of printing instructions comprising printer command data and content payload data;

- extract said content payload data from said set of printing instructions;

- generate an electronic document comprising said content payload data.

According to another aspect, the present disclosure also pertains to a system for generating an electronic document. Such a system comprises at least one source device and a peripheral device connected to said at least one peripheral device, the peripheral device comprising at least one processor configured to:

- obtain, from said at least one source device, a set of printing instructions formatted according to a print protocol, said set of printing instructions comprising printer command data and content payload data;

- extract said content payload data from said set of printing instructions;

- generate an electronic document comprising said content payload data.

According to one implementation, the different steps of the method for generating an electronic document as described here above are implemented by one or more software programs or software module programs comprising software instructions intended for execution by at least one data processor of a peripheral device.

Thus, another aspect of the present disclosure pertains to at least one computer program product downloadable from a communication network and/or recorded on a medium readable by a computer and/or executable by a processor, comprising program code instructions for implementing the method as described above. More particularly, this computer program product comprises instructions to command the execution of the different steps of a method for generating an electronic document, as mentioned here above.

This program can use any programming language whatsoever and be in the form of source code, object code or intermediate code between source code and object code, such as in a partially compiled form or any other desirable form whatsoever.

According to one embodiment, the methods/apparatus may be implemented by means of software and/or hardware components. In this respect, the term “module” or "unit" can correspond in this document equally well to a software component and to a hardware component or to a set of hardware and software components.

A software component corresponds to one or more computer programs, one or more sub-programs of a program or more generally to any element of a program or a piece of software capable of implementing a function or a set of functions as described here below for the module concerned. Such a software component is executed by a data processor of a physical entity (terminal, server, etc. ) and is capable of accessing hardware resources of this physical entity (memories, recording media, communications buses, input/output electronic boards, user interfaces, etc. ) .

In the same way, a hardware component corresponds to any element of a hardware unit capable of implementing a function or a set of functions as described here below for the module concerned. It can be a programmable hardware component or a component with an integrated processor for the execution of software, for example an integrated circuit, a smartcard, a memory card, an electronic board for the execution of firmware, etc.

In addition, the present disclosure also concerns a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a computer program product recorded thereon and capable of being run by a processor, including program code instructions for implementing the method for generating an electronic document as described above.

The computer readable storage medium as used herein is considered a non-transitory storage medium given the inherent capability to store the information therein as well as the inherent capability to provide retrieval of the information therefrom. A computer readable storage medium can be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. It is to be appreciated that the following, while providing more specific examples of computer readable storage mediums to which the present principles can be applied, is merely an illustrative and not exhaustive listing as is readily appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art: a portable computer diskette; a hard disk; a read-only memory (ROM) ; an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) ; a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) ; an optical storage device; a magnetic storage device; or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are not restrictive of the disclosure, as claimed.

It must also be understood that references in the specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" , indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

4. Brief description of the drawings

Embodiments of the present disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following description and drawings, given by way of example and not limiting the scope of protection, and in which:

- Figure 1 represents a system in which the proposed technique for generating an electronic document can be implemented, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

- Figure 2 is a flow chart for illustrating the general principle of the proposed technique for generating an electronic document, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

- Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of a peripheral device for generating an electronic document, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the disclosure.

5. Detailed description

The present disclosure relates to a method that allows generating an electronic document.

Figure 1 represents a system 1 in which the method according to the proposed technique may be implemented.

Such a system 1 comprises a source device 11 and a peripheral device 12. The source device 11 and the peripheral device 12 can communicate with each other in order to exchange data. More particularly, the source device can be any conventional device capable of sending data formatted according to a print protocol. For example, the source terminal 11 may be a computer, a tablet, a smartphone, a point of sales (POS) terminal, etc. For its part, the peripheral device 12 is specifically designed to generate electronic documents from a set of printing instructions received from the source device, the set of printing instructions being formatted according to a print protocol. In other word, the method for generating an electronic document is more particularly implemented within the peripheral device 12, which represents on its own an object of the present disclosure. According to the proposed technique, and as it will be described in further details hereafter, the generation of an electronic document is fully transparent to the source device. From the source device perspective, the peripheral device 12 is seen as a conventional printer: the peripheral device 12 is connected to the source device 11 the same way than a conventional printer would be, and, the source device 11 transmits printing instructions to the peripheral device in a conventional way, i.e. according to a print protocol usually used by the source device to communicate with a conventional printer (such as, for example Epson

print protocol, Epson

print protocol, IBM

print protocol, Hewlett-Packard PCL print protocol, etc. ) .

Figure 2 is a flow chart for explaining a method for generating an electronic document, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As described above, the method is implemented by a peripheral device, which is further detailed in one embodiment later in the document, and which comprises at least one processor adapted and configured for carrying out the steps described hereafter.

At step 21, the peripheral device obtains from a source device to which it is connected a set of printing instructions formatted according to a print protocol, said set of printing instructions comprising printer command data and content payload data.

For example, when the source device is a POS terminal, the peripheral device may obtain from such a POS terminal a set of printing instructions formatted according to the

print protocol, which is a print protocol used by many POS terminals to communicate with POS printers dedicated to print paper receipts. In other words, the source device sends print instruction to the peripheral device as if this device was a conventional printer.

As an illustrative and non-limitative example, the POS terminal may send the following set of instructions to the peripheral device:

ESC @

Hello world

LF

GS V 41 03

This set of printing instructions formatted according to the

print protocol would typically correspond to instructions given to a POS printer to print a paper receipt on which the words “Hello world” would be written, if a POS printer was connected to the source device instead of the peripheral device according to the disclosure.

Such a set of printing instructions comprises a mix of

printer command data and content payload data. The printer command data correspond to specific commands used to control the printer (according to the considered print protocol, i.e. the

print protocol in the present example) , and content payload data correspond to the text to be print. For example, in the above set of printing instructions, and according to

print protocol, "ESC @" is a command used to initialize the printer, "LF" is a command used to make the printer prints the content of its print buffer and feeds the paper one line, and "GS V 41 03" is a command used to make the printer cut the receipt. Conversely, "Hello world” is the content payload data corresponding to the text to print, and is thus not recognized as an

command.

At step 23, the content payload data is extracted from the set of printing instructions obtained at step 21. According to an embodiment, extracting the content payload data comprises parsing said set of printing instructions as a function of a dictionary of printer commands available for said print protocol. In other word, the peripheral device uses a list of printer commands (that may have been previously stored within a memory of the peripheral device, or downloaded from a remote server to which the peripheral device is connected) to identify the printer command data within the set of printing instructions, and thus infer and extract the content payload data (i.e. the remaining data) . For example, referring back to the previous example, the peripheral device has access to a dictionary of

commands, which is used to analyze and parse the set of printing instructions. On this basis, the peripheral device identifies that “ESC @” , “LF” , and "GS V 41 03" are

command, and thus infers that “Hello world” –which cannot be retrieved within the dictionary of

commands –corresponds to the content payload data.

According to an embodiment, at an optional step 22, the set of printing instructions is converted from a numeral system to a text format before extracting the content payload data. Indeed, the source device may have performed a format conversion of the set of printing instructions before transmitting it to the peripheral device (for example to save space by using a more compact format) , and a reverse conversion should then be performed at a later stage at the peripheral device. For example, according to

print protocol, hexadecimal numeral system is used when it comes to transmit a set of printing instructions from a source device to a printer. Thus, referring back to the previous example, the whole set of printing instructions as received by the peripheral device then takes the form of the following hexadecimal code:

lb 40 48 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64 Oa ld 56 41 03

In this set of printing instructions "1b 40" is the hexadecimal code corresponding to the

command "ESC @" , “48 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64" is the hexadecimal code corresponding to the words "Hello world" , etc. When the peripheral device receives the set of printing instructions, it thus needs to translate this hexadecimal code into original text format before carrying out the extraction of the content payload data. In an alternative embodiment, the dictionary of

commands may be stored directly in a hexadecimal format at the peripheral device: in such a case, the conversion from hexadecimal numeral system to a text format may be performed only on the content payload data, after it has been extracted as a hexadecimal code.

At step 24, the peripheral device generates an electronic document comprising the extracted content payload data. The electronic document may take various forms, such as for example a raw text file format (e.g. ‘txt’ file) , a Portable Document file Format ( ‘PDF’ file) , a digital image format (e.g. ‘jpeg’ or ‘png’ images) , etc. It may then be provided to a user through various ways. According to an embodiment, the generated electronic document is transmitted to a communication terminal. For example, the generated electronic document may be transmitted as an email attachment, or as an instant message attachment, when an identifier of the recipient user (email address, phone number, etc. ) is available at the peripheral device. The generated electronic document may also be transferred directly to a communication terminal, through Near Field Communication (NFC) means, when the peripheral device is NFC-enabled: for example, the user can bring his NFC-compatible smartphone into close proximity with the peripheral device to get the electronic document in a dedicated application. According to another embodiment, the electronic document may be converted into a Quick Response code (QR code) displayed on a display of the peripheral device. A user may then scan the QR code with a camera available on his communication terminal, so as to obtain the electronic document. According to another embodiment, the peripheral device may upload the generated electronic document to a remote server, and then provide the user with a downloading link allowing downloading said electronic document from said remote server. The downloading link may be sent to a recipient user via email, SMS (Short Message Service) , or instant messaging service so that the user can download the electronic document at a later stage for example, or it may be converted and displayed as a QR code on a display of the peripheral device so that the user can scan it with his communication device to immediately get the electronic document. Of course, the above-mentioned means for providing the generated electronic document to a user may be used as alternative or as complementary means.

Figure 3 shows a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of a peripheral device 12 for generating an electronic document, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The peripheral device 12 may comprise at least one hardware processor 301, a storage unit 302, an input device 303, an interface unit 304, a network interface 305, a display unit 307 and a wireless transfer unit 308, which are typically connected by a data bus 306. Of course, constituent elements of the peripheral device 12 may be connected by a connection other than a data bus connection.

The hardware processor (s) 301 controls operations of the peripheral device 12. The storage unit 302 stores at least one program to be executed by the processor 301, and various data, including for example parameters used by computations performed by the processor 301 such as dictionaries of printer commands available for the print protocols supported by the peripheral device 12, intermediate data of computations performed by the processor 301 such as the content payload data extracted from a set of printing instructions obtained by the peripheral device 12, and so on. The processor 301 may be formed by any known and suitable hardware, or software, or a combination of hardware and software. For example, the processor 301 is formed by dedicated hardware such as a processing circuit, or by a programmable processing unit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that executes a program stored in a memory thereof.

The storage unit 302 may be formed by any suitable storage or means capable of storing the program, data, or the like in a computer-readable manner. Examples of the storage unit 302 include non-transitory computer-readable storage media such as semiconductor memory devices, and magnetic, optical, or magneto-optical recording media loaded into a read and write unit. The program causes the processor 301 to perform a method for generating an electronic document according to an embodiment of the present disclosure as described previously.

The input device 303 may be formed by a keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse, or the like for use by a user to input information and/or commands, for example to allow the user to provide an email address or a phone number at which a generated electronic document should be sent, or to provide connection information regarding a remote server to which generated electronic documents should be uploaded.

The interface unit 304 provides an interface between the peripheral device 12 and an external apparatus such as the source device 11. The interface unit 304 may be communicable with the external apparatus via cable or wireless communication that are typically used to connect a printer to a source device (USB, Ethernet, Serial port, WiFi, Bluetooth) .

The network interface 305 provides a connection between the peripheral device 12 and a remote equipment via a backbone network (not shown in the figures) , such as the Internet. The network interface 305 may provide, depending on its nature, a wired or a wireless connection to the backbone network.

The display unit 307 is configured to display the electronic document after that it has been generated and may therefore comprise a screen such as a LED display. This display unit 307 may be advantageously further configured to convert the electronic document in a display format enabling an easy transfer to an external apparatus such as a mobile terminal. For example, the display unit may comprise a QR code converting module which converts the electronic document into a QR code to be displayed on the display unit screen, in order for the external apparatus to acquire it through QR code capture.

The wireless transfer unit 308 provides an interface for conveniently transferring the electronic document to a nearby external apparatus such as a mobile terminal. In particular, this wireless transfer unit 308 can be implemented as a Near-Field-Communication unit (or NFC unit) configured to emit the electronic document to a nearby external apparatus using NFC signals in order to easily transmit the electronic document to this external apparatus.

The proposed technique may be particularly useful in the field of payment transactions carried out by using a POS terminal. Indeed, the peripheral device according to the present disclosure advantageously replace conventional paper receipt printer (e.g. POS printer) , without requiring any modification of the POS terminal. Unlike prior art solutions, it thus allows integrating easy-to-use e-receipt capabilities to an existing transaction system without requiring any difficult, expensive and/or time-consuming upgrade or any replacement of the POS terminal: the existing transaction system doesn’t have to be modified at all, since the POS terminal communicates with the proposed peripheral device in the same way as with a conventional receipt printer already supported. In other words, from the POS terminal perspective, everything happens as it was connected to a conventional receipt printer. The proposed technique thus makes it possible to overcome main obstacle to the wide adoption of electronic receipts.

Of course, while the invention has been mainly described with reference to exemplary embodiments relating to the generation of electronic receipts, it is to be understood that the invention can be embodied in various forms, and is not to be limited to the examples discussed above. More particularly, the proposed technique is not limited to the generation of electronic receipts, and it can be generalized to the generation of any electronic documents, from any source device capable of transmitting a set of printing instructions to a printer according to a print protocol.

Claims

A method for generating an electronic document, the method being implemented by a peripheral device connected to a source device, wherein the method comprises:

- obtaining (21) , from said source device, a set of printing instructions formatted according to a print protocol, said set of printing instructions comprising printer command data and content payload data;

- extracting (23) said content payload data from said set of printing instructions;

- generating (24) an electronic document comprising said content payload data.
The method according to claim 1, wherein it comprises converting (22) said set of printing instructions from a numeral system to a text format before extracting said content payload data.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein extracting said content payload data comprising parsing said set of printing instructions as a function of a dictionary of printer commands available for said print protocol.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein it further comprises transmitting said electronic document to a communication terminal.
The method according to claim 4, wherein transmitting said electronic document to a communication terminal is carried out by using a transmission mode belonging to the group comprising:

- sending an email;

- sending a message through an instant messaging service;

- transmitting said electronic document via Near Field Communication means.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein it further comprises uploading said electronic document to a remote server, and sending a downloading link to a communication terminal, said downloading link allowing downloading said electronic document from said remote server.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein it further comprises converting said electronic document into a QR code, and displaying said QR code on a display of said peripheral device.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein said source device is a point of sales terminal and wherein said content payload data represent information regarding a transaction carried out with said point of sales terminal.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein said print protocol is the
protocol.
A peripheral device for generating an electronic document, wherein said peripheral device comprises at least one processor configured to:

- obtain, from a source device to which said peripheral device is connected, a set of printing instructions formatted according to a print protocol, said set of printing instructions comprising printer command data and content payload data;

- extract said content payload data from said set of printing instructions;

- generate an electronic document comprising said content payload data.
A system for generating an electronic document, wherein the system comprises at least one source device and a peripheral device connected to said at least one peripheral device, the peripheral device comprising at least one processor configured to:

- obtain, from said at least one source device, a set of printing instructions formatted according to a print protocol, said set of printing instructions comprising printer command data and content payload data;

- extract said content payload data from said set of printing instructions;

- generate an electronic document comprising said content payload data.
A computer program product downloadable from a communication network and/or recorded on a medium readable by a computer and/or executable by a processor, comprising program code instructions for implementing a method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a computer program product recorded thereon and capable of being run by a processor, including program code instructions for implementing a method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.