Introduced here is a technology for automatic notification of an invoice for a customer based on identification of a customer identifier included in transaction data received from a point-of-sale (POS) system of a particular merchant (“the invoice technology”). The notification can include a promotion to provide an incentive to the customer to pay the invoice. The notification can be presented on a display of the POS system. Alternatively, the notification can be presented in a receipt for the transaction conducted at the POS system, where that receipt can be transmitted for display at a user device of the customer. For example, the receipt can be in the form of an email message or a text message. Upon notification of the invoice, the customer can submit a payment for that invoice (“invoice payment”) in exchange for the promotion.

A method for supporting a user in initiating or stopping one or more payments for a parked vehicle at one or more locations. The method includes determining that a user activity indicative of the one or more payments for the parked vehicle is being performed during one or more time intervals where the one or more payments for the parked vehicle are to be initiated or stopped by: obtaining information relating to the user activity from one or more apps likely related to parking in a mobile communication device during the one or more time intervals, and/or monitoring operations likely related to parking generated by the user activity in the mobile communication device during the one or more time intervals.

Described are techniques for scheduling tasks on a heterogeneous system on a chip (SoC). The techniques including receiving a directed acyclic graph at a meta pre-processor associated with a heterogeneous SoC and communicatively coupled to a scheduler, wherein the directed acyclic graph corresponds to a control flow graph of tasks associated with an application executed by the heterogeneous SoC. The techniques further including determining a rank for a respective task in the directed acyclic graph, wherein the rank is based on a priority of the respective task and a slack in the directed acyclic graph. The techniques further including providing the respective task to the scheduler for execution on the heterogeneous SoC according to the rank.

Proposed is a blockchain-based virtual currency intermediation and distribution system according to a point return, which can calculate, at a set rate, the amount of return for points that are given or paid offline or online for a user's product purchase or service use, and either convert the calculated amount of point return into a cash currency stepwisely, or convert the calculated amount of point return into a virtual currency recordable on a blockchain according to accumulated points, thereby securing stability and complementarity to support virtual currency transactions.

A printing system includes: a printing device; and a data processing server. A first controller of the printing device is configured to perform: a reading process to read a reading target to generate image data; and a data transmission process to transmit the image data to the data processing server. A second controller of the data processing server is configured to perform: a data receiving process to receive the image data; a fee calculation process to calculate a fee to be charged for forming an image based on the image data; and a payment-related process related to a payment of the fee. The first controller is configured to further perform: an acquisition process to acquire print data corresponding to the image data after the payment of the fee is completed; and a printing process to form the image corresponding to the print data on a printing medium.

System and method for verification and/or reconciliation of electronic transactions, such as for example, toll transactions or other purchase transactions. A vehicle utilizes an onboard communication device, such as a mobile phone, to locate virtual tolling points using GPS location, and then to communicate to an electronic tolling service provider that the vehicle has passed through the virtual tolling point. In addition, roadside equipment may be used to capture photo/video of the vehicle as it passes the virtual tolling point. The GPS-based toll transaction data is used in conjunction with the photo-based toll transaction data to verify a proper toll transaction, and optionally to reconcile between missing and/or inconsistent GPS-based and photo-based toll transaction data.

A donation facilitation system that can allow a donor, such as a customer, to challenge another entity, such as a provider, to make a provider contribution to a portfolio of multiple charities set up by the donor upon, for example, the purchase of a good or service from the provider. The provided portfolio donation facilitation system can allow the other entity such as a provider to create its own provider portfolio of multiple charities and make a provider contribution to a customer's portfolio of multiple charities when at least one component of the provider's portfolio of multiple charities matches at least one component of the customer's portfolio of charities. The provider makes the contribution to the charity or charities.

An information processing apparatus, which is communicable with a printing device, includes a control device configured to: receive an obtainment application of paid authority information guaranteeing a paid guaranteed printing amount by a purchasing user; add a value of the paid guaranteed printing amount relating to the corresponding paid authority information to a value of an allowable printing amount for the printing device; associate free authority information guaranteeing a free guaranteed printing amount corresponding to the paid guaranteed printing amount with identification information of the printing device; receive a utilization application of the free authority information associated with the identification information of the printing device; and add a value of a utilized printing amount within the free guaranteed printing amount corresponding to the free authority information to the value of the allowable printing amount.

A method performed by a reservation apparatus for a charging facility installed in a control target area of electrical energy, the method includes: upon starting a trading period of a spot market for a target date of electrical energy trading, starting accepting a new usage reservation or a changed reservation for each time slot on the target date in a reservation table for the charging facility; upon starting a trading period of an hour-ahead market for the target date, performing first processing in which a usage fee for an available time slot in the reservation table is changed; and upon ending the trading period of the hour-ahead market for each frame on the target date, performing second processing in which a usage fee for an available time slot in the reservation table is changed or an acceptance of a reservation is prohibited.

A method of processing a transaction includes receiving a site location code. Site configuration information corresponding to the received site location code is received from a database. That information includes more product record(s), each corresponding to a reservable product or a non-reservable product. A selection of one or more of the product records in the retrieved information is received. If any selected product record corresponds to a reservable product, a reservation command is produced. That command requests reservation of selected reservable product(s). A method of selecting a product includes receiving a location input and determining a site location code with it. The site location code is transmitted and one or more product records are received. Representations of one or more of the received product records are presented and a selection of products is received. An indication of the selection is transmitted.