Apparatus and Method for Monitoring Point of Sale Terminals

A notification system for monitoring point of sale terminals comprising:

• a point of sale terminals in a retail shopping facility;
• a tunable, visible light emitting status light configured to emit different visible wavelengths that are visible to customers but visually indistinguishable to the customers within the retail shopping facility;
• one or more optical sensors configured to detect specific wavelengths emitted by the tunable, visible light emitting status light;
• a light database with at least one of:
• a specific wavelength or a combination of wavelengths corresponding to different point of sale terminals or notifications provided by a particular point of sale terminal;
• a control circuit in communication with the one or more optical sensors and the light database, the control circuit configured to:
• analyze the detected specific wavelengths or the detected combination of wavelengths;
• and
• access the light database to determine the point of sale terminal and notification provided by the emission of the specific wavelengths.

A method of monitoring point of sale terminals comprising:

• providing point of sale terminals with one or more tunable light emitting status lights emitting visible light that is visible to customers within a retail shopping facility to indicate a visible status of the associated point of sale terminal, the tunable light emitting status lights tunable to emit different visible wavelengths that are visible to customers but visually indistinguishable;
• monitoring the point of sale terminals via one or more optical sensors configured to detect distinctions in the visible wavelengths emitted by the tunable light emitting status light;
• emitting different visible wavelengths from the tunable light emitting status light associated with one of the point of sale terminals;
• detecting the emission of the different visible wavelengths associated with the one of the point of sale terminals;
• and
• providing notification to a management device, via a control circuit in communication with the one or more optical sensors, regarding the detection of the different visible wavelengths emitted from the tunable light emitting status light and the point of sale terminal associated therewith.