Service enhancements using near field communication

• US 10,168,413 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2012
• Issued: 01/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Annamalai, Magesh, Jin, Zhengyi, Shirekar, Shreenivas M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kelley, Steven
• Application Number:
  US13/427,365
• Publication Number:
  US 20120246074A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,476 Days
• Field of Search: 455 411, 455 412, 4554561-457
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/68 Marker, boundary, call-sign, or like beacons transmitting signals not carrying directional information
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02 using radio waves using satellite radio beacon systems for determining position G01S19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4015 using location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

A near field communication (NFC) mobile device may obtain location information from a NFC terminal device that is communicating with the NFC mobile device. A data transfer link may be established between the NFC mobile device and a mobile telecommunication network. The mobile telecommunication network may prompt the NFC mobile device to obtain location information from the NFC terminal device. The mobile telecommunication network may then receive the location information from the NFC mobile device via the data transfer link, and may subsequently determine a location of the NFC mobile device using the location information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

establishing a data transfer link with a near field communication (NFC) mobile device using a mobile telecommunication network;

prompting the NFC mobile device to obtain location information from a first NFC terminal device that is communicating with the NFC mobile device;

receiving the location information from the NFC mobile device via the data transfer link;

obtaining additional location information indicative of a location of the NFC mobile device using one or more additional positioning components of the NFC mobile device; and

determining the location of the NFC mobile device based at least on the location information received from the NFC mobile device, wherein the location information is used to obtain a terminal location of the first NFC terminal device from a database and the terminal location is utilized in determining the location of the NFC mobile device, wherein the determining includes;

searching the database at a first speed using the location information;

eliminating one or more location data entries from the database that correlates NFC device identifiers to locations based at least on the additional location information as obtained by the one or more additional positioning components, wherein the eliminating results in a list of remaining location data entries;

determining that a NFC device identifier matches the first NFC terminal device and a second NFC terminal device;

searching the database at a second speed using the additional location information, the second speed being greater than the first speed;

correlating the NFC device identifier included in the location information with a remaining location data entry from the list of remaining location data entries in the database to obtain a terminal location of the first NFC terminal device;

designating the terminal location as the location of the NFC mobile device;

transmitting the location of the NFC mobile device to a client, the location including an indication that a purchase transaction is legitimate.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request from the client at the mobile telecommunication network to locate the NFC mobile device and transmitting the location of the NFC mobile device to the client in response to receiving the request.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the client determines that the purchase transaction is legitimate when the client correlates the location with the purchase transaction, and determines that the transaction is fraudulent when the client is unable to correlate the transaction with the purchase transaction.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising combining the location information with the additional location information to determine the location of the first NFC terminal device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determining includes:

obtaining the terminal location of the first NFC terminal device from the database using a NFC device identifier of the first NFC terminal device in the location information;

cross referencing the terminal location with additional location information; and

designating the terminal location as the location of the NFC mobile device when the terminal location is within a predetermined range of an additional location indicated by the additional location information.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the additional location information is obtained from a Wi-Fi device, a Bluetooth device, an ultra mobile broadband (UMB) device that is communicating with the NFC mobile device, a global position system (GPS)-component of the NFC mobile device, an A-GPS component of the NFC mobile device, or a cellular positioning of the NFC mobile device by the mobile telecommunication network.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the cross referencing includes cross referencing the terminal location when a database entry holding the terminal location in the database is unmodified for a predetermined amount of time.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising updating a database entry in the database that provided the terminal location with the additional location information when the terminal location is outside of a predetermined range of the additional location information.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the operations further comprise

designating the terminal location as the location of the first NFC terminal device based at least on the additional location information.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the first NFC terminal device is associated with a first location and the second NFC terminal device is associated with a second location that is different than the first location.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein searching the database at the first speed includes searching a first list of location data entries from the data base and searching the database at the second speed includes searching a second list of location data entries having less location data entries than the first list.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium in a switch storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

receiving a request from a client to locate a near field communication (NFC) mobile device;

prompting the NFC mobile device to obtain location information on a first NFC terminal device that is communicating with the NFC mobile device;

receiving the location information on the first NFC terminal device from the NFC mobile device;

obtaining additional location information indicative of a location of the NFC mobile device using one or more additional positioning components of the NFC mobile device;

determining the location of the NFC mobile device based at least on the location information received from the NFC mobile device, wherein the location information is used to obtain a terminal location of the first NFC terminal device from a database and the terminal location is utilized in determining the location of the NFC mobile device, wherein the determining includes;

searching the database at a first speed using the location information;

eliminating one or more location data entries from the database that correlates NFC device identifiers to locations based at least on the additional location information as obtained by the one or more additional positioning components, wherein the eliminating results in a list of remaining location data entries;

determining that a NFC device identifier matches the first NFC terminal device and a second NFC terminal device;

searching the database at a second speed using the additional location information, the second speed being greater than the first speed;

correlating the NFC device identifier included in the location information with a remaining location data entry from the list of remaining location data entries in the database to obtain a terminal location of the first NFC terminal device;

designating the terminal location as the location of the NFC mobile device; and

transmitting the location of the NFC mobile device as determined from the location information to the client, the location including an indication that a purchase transaction is legitimate.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the location information includes at least one of a geographical address, a NFC device identifier that corresponds to the geographical address, a name of a business that hosts the first NFC terminal device, or geographical coordinates that correspond to the first NFC terminal device.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the determining includes:

obtaining a terminal location of the first NFC terminal device from a database using the NFC device identifier of the first NFC terminal device in the location information;

combining the terminal location with the additional location information; and

designating a result of the combining of the terminal location with the additional location information as the location of the NFC mobile device.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising storing a new data entry that correlates a new NFC device identifier of a new NFC terminal device with a new terminal location into the database following the NFC mobile device encountering the new NFC terminal device.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the new terminal location is obtained from a global position system (GPS)-component of the NFC mobile device, an A-GPS component of the NFC mobile, a cellular positioning of the NFC mobile by a mobile telecommunication network, or the new NFC terminal device.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the client authorizes the purchase transaction initiated by the NFC mobile device and received by the first NFC terminal device when the location of the NFC mobile device is within a predetermined geographical area.

18. A mobile telecommunication network, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory that includes a plurality of computer-executable components, the plurality of computer-executable components comprising;

a near field communication (NFC) position component that prompts a NFC mobile device to obtain location information from a first NFC terminal device that is communicating with the NFC mobile device;

one or more additional positioning components of the NFC mobile device that obtain additional location information indicative of a location of the NFC mobile device;

a location component that determines the location of the NFC mobile device based at least on the location information received from the NFC mobile device, wherein the location information is used to obtain a terminal location of the first NFC terminal device from a database and the terminal location is utilized in determining the location of the NFC mobile device, wherein the determining includes;

searching the database at a first speed using the location information;

eliminating one or more location data entries from the database that correlates NFC device identifiers to locations based at least on the additional location information as obtained by the one or more additional positioning components, wherein the eliminating results in a list of remaining location data entries;

determining that a NFC device identifier matches the first NFC terminal device and a second NFC terminal device;

searching the database at a second speed using the additional location information, the second speed being greater than the first speed;

correlating the NFC device identifier included in the location information with a remaining location data entry from the list of remaining location data entries in the database to obtain a terminal location of the first NFC terminal device; and

designating the terminal location as the location of the NFC mobile device; and

a client interface component that receives a request for the location of the NFC mobile device from a client and transmits the location of the NFC mobile device as determined from the location information to the client in exchange for a fee, the location including an indication that a purchase transaction is legitimate.

19. The mobile telecommunication network of claim 18, wherein the additional positioning components include at least one of:

a Wi-Fi position component that obtains additional location information on the NFC mobile device based on an identifier of a wireless access point that is communicating with the NFC mobile device;

a cellular position module that obtains additional location information on the NFC mobile device by analyzing signals between the NFC mobile device and one or more base stations;

a global positioning system (GPS) position component that obtains additional location information from a GPS component or an A-GPS component of the NFC mobile device.

20. The mobile telecommunication network of claim 18, further comprising an authentication module that authenticates the NFC mobile device to the mobile telecommunication network based at least on the location information.