Background OCR during card data entry

• US 10,019,641 B2
• Filed: 10/03/2016
• Issued: 07/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bekmann, Joachim, Guo, Fei
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdi, Amara
• Application Number:
  US15/284,462
• Publication Number:
  US 20170147894A1
• Time in Patent Office: 645 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3223 Realising banking transactions through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3276 using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being read by the M-device
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/34 using cards, e.g. integrated circuit [IC] cards or magnetic cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/401 Transaction verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4018 using the card verification value [CVV] associated with the card
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/74 involving reference images or patches
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/95 structured as a network, e.g. client-server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/127 with the intervention of an operator
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/153 using recognition of characters or words
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/274 Syntactic or semantic context, e.g. balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/416 Extracting the logical structure, e.g. chapters, sections or page numbers; Identifying elements of the document, e.g. authors
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/122 Online card verification

Abstract

Financial transaction card data can be entered by providing a picture of the card to a server programmed with a text recognition algorithm. The server can perform text recognition on the image at the same time that a consumer enters additional required data, such as a zip code. The server can perform as much text recognition processing as possible in the time the consumer is entering the additional data. Once the additional data is received, a signal can be provided to the server indicating that the user is now waiting for results of the text recognition process, meaning the server should provide them as quickly as possible. Once text recognition results are received, a consumer can make a selection to identify a character which the text recognition algorithm did not sufficiently identify. Based on known account number constraints, the user selection can cause multiple characters to be identified.

Claims

1. A method, performed on a mobile computing device, for reducing a number of user corrections entered to obtain a correct account number for a financial transaction card, the method comprising:

obtaining, at the mobile computing device, multiple versions of text recognition results,

wherein each version of the text recognition results is associated with a total confidence score;

displaying, by the mobile computing device, a visual representation of a best guess comprising a version of the text recognition results that is associated with a highest total confidence score;

receiving, by the mobile computing device, a user selection, as a selected character from at least one of a plurality of characters to verify from the best guess selected based on individual confidence scores,

wherein the multiple versions of the text recognition results are updated by performing one or more of;

eliminating, from the multiple versions of text recognition results, one or more of the multiple versions of text recognition results that do not match the selected character;

eliminating, from the multiple versions of text recognition results, one or more of the multiple versions of text recognition results that do not satisfy the Luhn algorithm;

eliminating, from the multiple versions of text recognition results, one or more of the multiple versions of text recognition results that do not match any of multiple known issuer identification numbers;

updating the total confidence score for the multiple versions of text recognition results;

or

any combination thereof; and

updating, by the mobile computing device, the visual representation to display a new best guess from the remaining versions of the text recognition results,

wherein the new best guess comprises at least;

a first difference from the best guess that is a change of a first character in the best guess to the selected character, and

a second difference from the best guess that is a change of a second character in the best guess other than to the selected character.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

verifying that the new best guess includes the correct account number by;

sending a proposed account number associated with the new best guess to a financial institution; and

receiving, from the financial institution, a confirmation that the proposed account number associated with the new best guess indicates valid account data.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

sending the verified correct number associated with the new best guess to a server,

wherein the server is configured to link the financial transaction card to a service provided by a payment service system by storing the verified correct account number associated with the new best guess, in a database, with an association to a user and the service provided by the payment service system.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

sending the verified correct account number associated with the new best guess to a server, wherein the server is configured to perform a transaction using the verified correct account number associated with the new best guess.

5. A system for reducing a number of user corrections entered to obtain a correct account number comprising:

a memory;

a display; and

one or more processors configured to execute;

an input component configured to receive a correction character corresponding to a character displayed in a visual representation on the display, the correction character indicating a difference between a best guess text recognition result and the correct account number; and

a best guess updater component configured to select a new best guess based on the correction character and update the visual representation on the display with the new best guess;

wherein the new best guess includes at least;

a first difference from the best guess that is the correction character, and

a second difference from the best guess, other than the first difference, indicating a difference between the best guess and the correct account number.

6. The system of claim 5,

wherein the best guess is identified by selecting a text recognition result version that is associated with a highest total confidence score;

and

wherein the new best guess is identified by selecting a text recognition result version with an updated highest total confidence score.

7. The system of claim 5,

wherein the system is integrated in a mobile computing device;

wherein the system further comprises a transceiver configured to receive, from a server, multiple versions of text recognition results, wherein the best guess and new best guess are selected from multiple versions of text recognition results received through the transceiver;

wherein the system further comprises a display configured to display a representation of the best guess with one or more input areas indicating characters of the best guess which are candidates for receiving the correction character; and

wherein the correction character is received through a user selection to one of the input areas by actuating the input.