Techniques for checking into a retail establishment

• US 10,026,031 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2015
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NCR Voyix Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation (NCR Voyix Corporation)
• Inventors: Finley, Michael Cain, Paskalev, Bisser G.
• Primary Examiner(s): VO, TUYEN KIM
• Application Number:
  US14/751,685
• Publication Number:
  US 20150302287A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,117 Days
• Field of Search: 235383, 235385, 235449, 235493, 235375
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06187 with magnetically detectable marking
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06206 the magnetic marking being emulated
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/327 Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services

Abstract

Techniques for checking into a retail establishment are provided. A retailer provides a substrate having a magnetic-field encoded tag. A consumer waves the consumer'"'"'s device over the tag to electronically capture the magnetic-field encoded tag. The consumer'"'"'s device is used to communicate the tag to a retailer to validate that the consumer is physically present and now checked into the retail establishment of the retailer.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a processing device including a electromagnet within a processor of the processing device, wherein the processor programmed to use the electromagnet to vibrate the processing device and produce a magnetic-field encoded tag; and

the magnetic-field encoded tag comprises a predefined sequence or series of North and South magnets having varying degrees of orientation and strengths arranged in a unique pattern such that the magnetic-field encoded tag when read through vibrations produced by the processing device provides an encrypted version of a unique identifier that is associated with a specific physical location of a particular retailer when the magnetic encoded tag is read from the vibrations of the processing device and decrypted and the magnetic-field encoded tag represented in the vibrations configured to be read by a consumer operated device for processing an automated action on behalf of a consumer at the specific physical location of the particular retailer, and wherein the processing device is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device.