Kathleen Judson Cook

US Patent:

58954538, Apr 20, 1999

Filed:

Aug 27, 1996

Appl. No.:

8/703865

Inventors:

Kathleen Cook - New York NY

Assignee:

STS Systems, Ltd. - Quebec

International Classification:

H04N 718

US Classification:

705 22

Abstract:

Method and system for the detection of suspect sales transactions in a sales environment having point of sale devices and sales locations, having a first processor for gathering record information reflecting sales transactions that have occurred in the environment, extracting from the record information a plurality of extract records relevant to suspect transactions, and converting the extract records into a form readable by the first processor; and a second processor for reading and analyzing and inputting the converted extract records, in which the second processor performs the steps of applying a plurality of exception criteria to said converted extract records to create exception records, filtering from the exception records records indicative of suspect transactions, ranking the filtered records, applying scoring table values to said ranked, filtered records to create scored records, and outputting the scored records; and a report generator for generating reports from the scored records reflecting suspect sales transactions. The method and system are employed to determine the existence and frequency of suspect and illegal activity occurring at point of sale devices. The method and system further involve the use of surveillance cameras in which the output of the camera (whether video, film or digital) is keyed to the particular transactions in issue.