Caterman as seen by an EPOS operator

1. Caterman as seen by an EPOS operator Signing On

4. The PIN Screen • There are several mechanisms for confirming the password is authentic. • These include password availability only from specific IP addresses or a range of IP addresses, and several other similar mechanisms. • A popular authentication is by PIN, either remembered by the operator or supplied by SMS via mobile phone or other mechanisms. • Combinations of authentication mechanisms is by user choice.

6. All of the previous screens can of course have audio prompts. • Input to the fields for password and/or for PIN can be provided from the keyboard, from a magnetic stripe card, from a RFID card/token, from a barcode reader, from a biometric identifier (iris scan, fingerprint scan, palm vein scan, etc.), or the screen may be bypassed and the information provided by a “passport” system or other corporate sign-on means.

8. General attributes of screens • On the previous screen, the status line at the bottom of the screen shows a “timeout” line. If there is no operator activity before the “timeout” an implied default is enacted, generally “exit”. • The “Help” gif provides access to the on-line help facilities within which the operator may enter the general “Help” system or go directly to the Help facility for the screen. • The last lines of data provide the identity and name of the operational unit in which the user is logged-on, the date and time the screen was generated, and the name of the user (in this case “EPOS”). Operational units of Caterman form a pyramid hierarchy, so that, if a password allows access to an operational unit that has sub-units, the password owner is allowed to either stay in the operational unit or to elect to descend into sub-units (or sub-sub-units if they exist, and so on). For example, an international organisation top-level password may choose a country, whereas a school top level password might choose a particular dining hall or a tuck shop. In the screen shown, the password allowed access only to a particular hospital in a UK health trust. • The password only has facilities for EPOS-type operations, in this case operation of an EPOS, addition of vouchers to an account (which is then also included as an EPOS operation) and the means of entering new customer orders (for example, a customer may wish to pre-order a meal to avoid waiting for service, or the operator might be a waiter/waitress). • All text and fields may be amended by empowered users to give different text/colors/fonts/position/gif/operator-instigated-action such as generating text-to-speech on double click/mouseover/etc. or evoking a new application and supplying the content of the field to it. • The next screen shows the effect of touching “Standard Sales Facilities” .

16. Menu and Recipe Selection • If the operator selected only one menu, the previous screen is displayed, but if more than one menu was selected, the screen offers a menu choice at the top right of the screen (see later) and displays all menus initially. • The menu shows only those dishes available to the particular customer. For example, if the customer is defined as being allergic to nuts, no recipe will be available to the customer which has been designated as containing nuts, or conversely, if the customer is only allowd recipes designated as nut-free, only those recipes will be offered. • The recipes/dishes on the menu are priced according to the particular customer, i.e. a visitor may be charged according to one price band and pay VAT/tax, whilst a student may be charged according to a different price and not be subject to VAT/tax. • The EPOS operator may now enter each chosen recipe/dish either by touch or click, or barcode scan, or for RFID installations the selected items will already have been assimilated by Caterman. • As each dish is chosen, it is highlighted on the menu by color change (optional by user choice) and is shown at the bottom of the screen.