INTRODUCTION:-

This invention relates to the field of billing and accounting systems for financial transactions. Further, the invention relates to a paperless printing system capable of generating dynamic QR code with integrated payment solution. Furthermore this invention relates to that of a standalone device in combination of software and hardware for printing in digital form. Still further, this invention provides a system in which the QR codes that are generated can be used to make payments using digital cards.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION:-

In conventional methods, bills are generated using paper which leads to extensive usage of paper. More particularly, in a country like India, where more than 20 million (approx.) billing counters are working daily for billing and generating paper bills which leads to trees being cut down and paper wastage. Already it is well known that apart from global variation in temperature causing phenomenon of global warming etc, in India, further problems due to ecology related matters are on the rise over the years. Irrational cutting of trees for paper usage has been found one of the major contributing factor for environmental problems in India.

Also, it can be seen that most of the bills are printed in thermal papers which are hazardous to health and it will consume time for natural degradation. Also, one can see that Conventional banking cards are made up of plastic which even contributes to environmental pollution when disposed. In our system, if we eliminate the paper process for printing, which is achieved through the concept of digital printing then it can be a huge benefit for safeguarding our environment and making our country and surroundings a safe place to live for us as well as the future generations. Digital card payments are facilitated by our hardware and thus eliminating present plastic banking cards.

Though, there have been efforts to eliminate paper for billing to a certain extent, there has been certain inadequacies and deficiencies in those methods which can be enumnerated as follows.

In a typical scenario where ebills are sent to customers through SMS or email, so that customers not able to view the bills at the time of purchase. In this system there is no proper acknowledgement. Sometimes, bills which sent through SMS or email are not delivered and there is no proper track of it. Also, to send this SMS or email we need to integrate third party API’s ( Application Programming Interface) to Point of Sales (POS). So, there is a chance of software crash in that POS system and there is a greater dependency over the third API provider for each and every changes. To use this Third-party API’s internet is compulsory to get an output. Also one cannot make payments using this existing system.

Also, in the few approaches for paperless transactions and billing, During payments, we use physical cards and card swiping machine to process the payments. At this time, we need to carry both physical cards and mobile phone to make payments and receive ebills through SMS or email. In present days we use static QR code (UPI) to make payments in shops which leads to fraudulent payments by sticking fake QR code over the original one and also shop owners not able to receive proper acknowledgement for the payments and this has resulted in huge losses to many commercial merchant establishments rendering them frustrated and making them go back to paper currency era due to the fear of such inadequate paperless transactions. Also, due to no proper acknowledgement, some fake apps are used to mimic the successful payment page.

Hence it can be seen that it is imperative to have a robust paperless digital billing system which is also, enabled for making digital payments.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

Its prime object of the invention is to provide a paperless billing device with a hardware and corresponding hardware enabled in it.

It is still further an object of the invention to provide an integrated device for enabling integrated digital bill printing as well as digital payments.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide a device and associated software which is capable of providing a QR code as output which when scanned through our mobile application can download the soft copy of the print job.

Furthermore, it is yet another object of the invention to provide a device connects to the internet by using either an inbuilt modem or it can be obtained from internet shared by host computer and also, it can be configured both as a local printer as well as an IP printer (with certain changes in configuration settings)

Still furthermore it is yet another object of the present invention to provide a device that is capable of rendering smart advertisements when it is in idle state and also the system hardware has a high resolution touch screen mounted display for easy user interaction.

Detailed Description of the Invention with respect to the accompanying drawings

Here, in this invention, the device will work in both scenario like it will act as normal USB Printer as well as Network printer (IP Printer). For these two types inputs will be different from the host. For Universal Series Bus (USB), the device will be connected to host through USB port. And in Network printer, the device will be connected through IP using Local Area Network (LAN).

Single Board Computer: Here, in this invention, the device which is developed uses Generic Single Board Computer

(SBC) i.e., Raspberry pi or Beagle Board. This SBC runs with custom-made Linux OS ( Operating System) and above that a unique software application which has been developed that helps in processing the inputs and converts that in to QR code. The Single Board Computer ( SBC) helps in paperless printing and to make digital payments securely.

Battery Management System:

Here, the custom designed Battery Management System (BMS) make sure that Single Board Computer (SBC) runs with proper input voltage. In case of power going off suddenly, the BMS supports SBC to process the shutdown command properly to prevent SBC from memory crash. The enhanced BMS also helps SBC to run in optimized battery power.

Modem:

The device contains in built modem for network support. And initially the device shares internet from host to reduce internet cost for the users. In case, if the host has problem in providing internet to the device, then the application runs in background and switches the internet on to built in modem and this helps user to work in a seamless manner

Detail description of the invention with reference to the drawing :-

The device is equipped with the computing module has the potential of printing any type of print job into aprint file and it will give output in the form of QR. For managing print functions, a custom developed printer driver is installed in the host system. This driver starts functioning once the print job is initiated and converts that print file into multiple bitmap files and the bitmap files are parsed in chunks to reconstruct that into a print file.

Once that print file generated, another service will be called in us inside the driver which initiates the communication protocol that transfers the print file as multiple file parts to the device. After successful completion of file transfer, the device will restructure that file parts into a single output file. Once that output file is obtained, that output file is processed in the secure server to accelerate the generation of dynamic QR within few seconds.

The mobile application for end users is provided to scan and make payment using the QR code generated by our device. Once the QR is scanned, digital or ebill will be downloaded in that mobile application and directly we can make contactless payment for the particular bill using digital cards which is been facilitated in the mobile application itself.

Fig 1 Shows the Paperless Printing device which is linked to the IP printer ( network)

Fig 2 Shows the Paperless printing device which is linked to the Universal Series Bus (USB) printer