Point of sale terminal having prompting display and automatic money handling

In a data processing terminal for use as a point of sald device having computer means with an electrical bus for interconnecting the computer means to the bill handling means, coin handling means, wherein said bill and coin handling means operate under the control of said computer means;

• and a housing means the combination comprising:
• said bill handling means having at least one electrically powered and electronically controlled bill transporting member and at least one bill accepting input channel;
• said channel connected to said bill handling means;
• at least two bill sensing members are disposed adjacent said bill transporting member;
• the first of said bill sensing members placed near to said input channel and the second of said bill sensing members placed about one bill length from said input channel along said transporting member;
• said computing means having means to compute the time when the first bill sensing member detects the presence of a bill;
• said computing means controlling the operation of said bill transporting member such that said transporting member is activated when a bill is sensed by said first detector member and deactivated by said computing means if no bill is sensed by said second detector member within a predetermined time interval.

In a data processing terminal for use as a point of sale device by an operator for selling merchandise to the public the combination comprising:

• a cabinet means having front, back, top surface members;
• a bill slot formed in the front member of the housing;
• a viewing window formed in the top member of the cabinet, said window having a physical size larger than a bill;
• keyboard means connected to the housing means, said keyboard means having number keys, function keys, category indicating keys;
• a computing means contained within the housing;
• a plurality of transparent bill belt means contained within the housing means for transporting a bill from the bill slot to the viewing window;
• a plurality of controllable and rotatable unstoring reel means and a controllable and rotatable storing reel means for supporting and controlling the direction of motion of each of the transparent bill belt means;
• at least three bill detector means associated with each of said transparent bill belt means;
• the first of said bill detector means disposed adjacent the bill slot;
• a second bill detector means placed adjacent the transparent bill belt means, about one bill length from the bill slot;
• the third bill detector means placed along the transparent bill belt means downstream the second detector means and the viewing window;
• electronic circuit means interconnecting said three bill detector means to said coupling means and to the controllable and rotatable storing and unstoring reel means;
• said computing means having a memory means to store a set of instructions to control the operation of the terminal;
• said computing means operative under the set of instructions to bring a tendered bill to the viewing window from one of said bill belt means;
• manual actuation of a function key controls the acceptance or rejection of a bill;
• acceptance of a bill causes the bill to remain confined by the transparent bill belt means, rejection of the bill causes the bill to be transported by the bill belt means back to the bill slot.