Using dynamic occlusion to protect against capturing barcodes for fraudulent use on mobile devices

• US 10,114,999 B1
• Filed: 04/19/2017
• Issued: 10/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koupon Media, Inc. (Professional Datasolutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Koupon Media, Inc. (Professional Datasolutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Burke, Robert J., Reinhart, Brian Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Thien M
• Application Number:
  US15/491,751
• Time in Patent Office: 559 Days
• Field of Search: 23546212
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/36 by graphic or iconic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06028 using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06112 the marking being simulated using a light source, e.g. a barcode shown on a display or a laser beam with time-varying intensity profile
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10732 Light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1413 1D bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1465 using several successive scans of the optical code
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1473 error correction
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1491 the method including a reconstruction step, e.g. stitching two pieces of bar code together to derive the full bar code
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates

Abstract

Embodiments include technologies for applying dynamic occlusions to barcodes, which include determining a dynamic occlusion to be applied to a barcode, generating an object for displaying a series of images of the barcode with the dynamic occlusion, where the barcode is to be scannable at least once based on the series of images to be displayed, and providing the object for access by the mobile device. In specific embodiments, the dynamic occlusion includes a modification to a first portion of the barcode to create a first image of a modified barcode. In further specific embodiments, the object, when displayed for a first time period, is to render the first image of the modified barcode for at least a first interval occurring within the first time period. The first portion of the barcode is unscannable during the first interval and is at least partially scannable during one or more other intervals.

Claims

1. At least one machine readable medium including code that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform operations to:

determine a dynamic occlusion to be applied to a barcode;

generate an object for displaying a series of images of the barcode with the dynamic occlusion, the barcode to be scannable at least once based on the series of images to be displayed, wherein the dynamic occlusion includes a modification to a first portion of the barcode to create a first image of a modified barcode, wherein the object, when displayed for a first time period, is to render the first image of the modified barcode for at least a first interval occurring within the first time period, wherein the first image of the modified barcode includes an opaque layer masking the first portion of the barcode; and

provide the object for access by a mobile device.

2. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the barcode is unscannable during the first interval, and wherein the first portion of the barcode is at least partially scannable during one or more other intervals of the first time period.

3. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first time period is equivalent to a duration of displaying one iteration of the series of images.

4. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the object, when displayed for the first time period, is to render the series of images to show the opaque layer being shifted to mask successive portions of the barcode during successive intervals, respectively, of the first time period.

5. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein during a second interval of the first time period, the object is to render a second image of the series of images including a second opaque layer masking a second portion of the barcode and the opaque layer removed to expose the first portion of the barcode.

6. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 5, wherein the first portion of the barcode includes a first half of the barcode and the second portion of the barcode includes a second half of the barcode.

7. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first image of the modified barcode is to include an opaque layer masking a complete image of the barcode, and wherein the object is to further render a second image of the series of images with the opaque layer removed to expose the complete image of the barcode for a second interval occurring within the first time period.

8. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the second interval is not more than one-tenth of one second.

9. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first portion is at least one of a start indicator of the barcode and a stop indicator of the barcode.

10. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the series of images, when displayed for the first time period, is to render an animation of the barcode with the dynamic occlusion.

11. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein the object is an animated graphics interchange format (GIF) file.

12. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein providing the object for access by the mobile device is to:

provide the object in one of a mobile coupon channel or a landing page.

13. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein providing the object for access by the mobile device is to include:

sending the object to a mobile application on the mobile device or to a mobile web application in a website.

14. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein determining the dynamic occlusion is to include:

selecting the dynamic occlusion from a plurality of dynamic occlusions.

15. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the dynamic occlusion is selected based, at least in part, on a policy.

16. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the dynamic occlusion is selected based, at least in part, on a type of the barcode.

17. A method, comprising:

determining a dynamic occlusion to be applied to a barcode;

generating an object for displaying a series of images of the barcode with the dynamic occlusion, the barcode to be scannable at least once based on the series of images to be displayed, wherein the dynamic occlusion includes a modification to a first portion of the barcode to create a first image of a modified barcode, wherein the object, when displayed for a first time period, is to render the first image of the modified barcode for at least a first interval occurring within the first time period, wherein the first image of the modified barcode includes an opaque layer masking the first portion of the barcode; and

providing the object for access by a mobile device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein a complete image of the barcode is not displayed on the mobile device during a period of time in which the object is being displayed.

19. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory element for storing instructions; and

a processor coupled to the memory element, wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions to;

determine a dynamic occlusion to be applied to a barcode;

generate an object for displaying a series of images of the barcode with the dynamic occlusion, the barcode to be scannable at least once based on the series of images to be displayed, wherein the dynamic occlusion includes a modification to a first portion of the barcode to create a first image of a modified barcode, wherein the object, when displayed for a first time period, is to render the first image of the modified barcode for at least a first interval occurring within the first time period, wherein the first image of the modified barcode includes an opaque layer masking the first portion of the barcode; and

provide the object for access by a mobile device.