Virtual terminal

Abstract: A system and method for processing a wireless electronic payment transaction is described. One embodiment comprises receiving a transaction authorization request for an electronic payment transaction from a customer, the authorization request submitted from a mobile communication device of the customer; authenticating the transaction authorization request; authorizing the transaction authorization request and transmitting an authorization code to the mobile communication device, the authorization code being communicated to a merchant from the customer; receiving a transaction approval request from the merchant, the transaction approval request submitted from a virtual terminal associated with the merchant, the virtual terminal being a wireless communication device having a point of sale processing application installed therein; authenticating the transaction approval request; approving the transaction approval request and transmitting an approval code to the virtual terminal; and generating and executing transaction settlement instructions between a financial account of the customer and a financial account of the merchant.

Abstract: With only one process viewable and operational at any moment, the standard terminal forces the user to continually switch between contexts. Yet this is unnatural and counter-intuitive to the normal working environment of a desk where the worker is able to view and base subsequent actions on multiple pieces of information.The window manager is an emerging computing paradigm which allows the user to create multiple terminals on the same viewing surface and to display and act upon these simultaneous processes without loss of context. Though several research efforts in the past decade have introduced window managers, they have been based on the design or major overhaul of a language or operating system; the window manager becomes a focus of—rather than a tool of—the system. While many of the existing implementations provide wide functionality, most implementations and their associated designs are not readily available for common use; extensibility is minimal.This paper describes the design and implementation of BRUWIN, the BRown University WINdow manager, stressing how such a design can be adapted to a variety of computer systems and output devices, ranging from alphanumeric terminals to high-resolution raster graphics displays. The paper first gives a brief overview of the general window manager paradigm and existing examples. Next we present an explanation of the user-level functions we have chosen to include in our general design. We then describe the structure and design of a window manager, outlining the five important parts in detail. Finally, we describe our current implementation and provide a sample session to highlight important features.

Abstract: A method of operating a communications system such that connections supporting a communications session being run on a first terminal (1) may be diverted to a second terminal (2) such that the session may be coninued on the second terminal comprises the steps of creating a user profile on a server device (3), the user profile identifying a plurality of terminals (1,2) , generating from the user profile a set of parameters defining a virtual terminal (12, 22), storing, as parameters of the virtual terminal, details of a current communications session (11) made using a first terminal, on instruction from one of the user terminals (1, 2), diverting the routing of a communications connection supporting the session from the first terminal (1) to a second terminal (2), and and transferring the details of the current session (11) to the second terminal for use in continuing the session. This process allows a user to continue a session on a second terminal if it becomes more convenient to do so, rather than having to start a new session and potentially losing any information obtained whilst using the first terminal.

Abstract: A hybrid system environment includes a proprietary operating system and processing unit and a non-proprietary operating system (UNIX based) and processing unit. The systems tightly couple to a system bus in common with a main memory and a number of multiline communications controllers and communicate through a common area of main memory. The UNIX terminal connections to such controllers are virtual connections applied by a virtual terminal driver through the system proprietary communications software components. These components include a server, a network terminal driver (NTD) and a number of multiplexer driver modules. A multiplexer physical terminal driver is included in the UNIX-based operating system and a switching mechanism is incorporated into the virtual terminal driver for enabling switching to such physical terminal driver when a user switches via a switch command to the UNIX-based operating system. The server module upon being invoked upon such switching operates to establish a direct communications path between an application running under the UNIX-based operating system and the controller communications line paths through the multiplexer driver module and logically disconnects the virtual communications line path from the NTD module to the multiplexer driver module thereby improving system efficiency and terminal connectivity.