Social proximity payments

• US 10,496,978 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2017
• Issued: 12/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Runyan, William Henry
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Kito R
• Application Number:
  US15/436,647
• Publication Number:
  US 20170228718A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,019 Days
• Field of Search: 705 40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1057 Benefits or employee welfare, e.g. insurance, holiday or retirement packages
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/325 using wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/327 Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/384 using social networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/42 Confirmation, e.g. check or permission by the legal debtor of payment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0208 Trade or exchange of goods or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 : Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 : Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 : Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 : Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 : Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 : Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 : by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 : for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 : Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

An application or App on a payer'"'"'s mobile device is used to discover people known to the user and who are in close proximity to the user at the time of a payment request. Discovery can be through searching contact lists and/or social networks of the payer and/or through the payer device discovering contacts around the payer and then searching the payer'"'"'s contact or social network list to see if there are any matches. These people are then shown to the user on the user device, such as with a photo, icon, name, and/or email address. The user selects desired ones, which causes requests to be sent to the selected people, such as through text, voice, or email, to the respective devices. The selected people can then easily confirm or authorize a payment be sent to the user or to a payee.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a non-transitory memory;

one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the device to perform operations comprising;

receiving, over a first network connection, a digital invoice from a merchant at a device location;

transmitting, over a second network connection, a payment request to a payment provider for payment of the digital invoice from a user associated with the device;

determining a population density for the device location;

determining a boundary area surrounding the device based on the determined population density;

determining, using a global positioning system, other devices in proximity to the device, the other devices being in proximity when located within the determined boundary area;

identifying other users associated with the other devices, wherein the identifying comprises comparing the other users to a contact list or a social network of the user associated with the device;

presenting, on a display of the device, a visual representation of the other users identified;

receiving a selection of one or more desired payers from the visual representation of the other users identified;

transmitting, over the second network connection, a payer request to the payment provider including the selection of the one or more desired payers for payment of the digital invoice; and

receiving, over the second network connection, a notification from the payment provider indicating a payment of the digital invoice.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the determined boundary area decreases as the population density associated with the device location increases.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, on the display of the device, an input indicating additional users for the selection of the one or more desired payers, wherein the additional users are not present in the visual representation.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the additional users are input using an email address for each of the additional users.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise receiving from at least one of the one or more desired payers a modification of a payment amount for the payment of the digital invoice.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise receiving, via the display of the device, an input indicating an amount for each of the one or more desired payers to pay, and wherein each amount for each of the desired payers is included in the payer request.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the determining a population density for the device location comprises determining a device density of the other devices for the device location, wherein the device density comprises an amount of the other devices associated with the device location.

8. A method comprising:

receiving, over a first network connection, a digital invoice from a merchant at a device location;

transmitting, over a second network connection, a payment request to a payment provider for payment of the digital invoice from a user associated with a device;

determining a population density for the device location;

determining a boundary area surrounding the device based on the determined population density;

determining, using a global positioning system, other devices in proximity to the device, the other devices being in proximity when located within the determined boundary area;

identifying other users associated with the other devices, wherein the identifying comprises comparing the other users to a contact list or a social network of the user associated with the device;

displaying, on a display of the device, a visual representation of the other users identified;

receiving a selection of one or more desired payers from the visual representation of the other users identified;

transmitting, over the second network connection, a payer request to the payment provider including the selection of the one or more desired payers for payment of the digital invoice; and

receiving, over the second network connection, a notification from the payment provider indicating a payment of the digital invoice.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the payment request to the payment provider includes at least one of a merchant identifier, a user identifier, or the device location.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the determined boundary area increases as the population density associated with the device location decreases.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving, on the display of the device, an input indicating additional users for the selection of the one or more desired payers, wherein the additional users are not present in the visual representation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the additional users are input using an email address for each of the additional users.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving a modification of a payment amount for the payment of the digital invoice from at least one of the one or more desired payers.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving, via the display of the device, an input indicating an amount for each of the one or more desired payers to pay, and wherein each amount for each of the desired payers is included in the payer request.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving, over a first network connection, a digital invoice from a merchant at a device location;

transmitting, over a second network connection, a payment request to a payment provider for payment of the digital invoice from a user associated with a device;

determining a population density for the device location;

determining a boundary area surrounding the device based on the determined density;

determining, using a global positioning system, other devices in proximity to the device, the other devices being in proximity when located within the determined boundary area;

identifying other users associated with the other devices, wherein the identifying comprises comparing the other users to a contact list or a social network of the user associated with the device;

displaying, on a display of the device, a visual representation of the other users identified;

receiving a selection of one or more desired payers from the visual representation of the other users identified;

transmitting, over the second network connection, a payer request to the payment provider including the selection of the one or more desired payers for payment of the digital invoice; and

receiving, over the second network connection, a notification from the payment provider indicating a payment of the digital invoice.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a modification of a payment amount for the payment of the digital invoice.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the determined boundary area decreases as the population density associated with the device location increases.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving, on the display of the device, an input indicating additional users for the selection of the one or more desired payers, wherein the additional users are not present in the visual representation.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the additional users are input using an email address for each of the additional users.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise receiving, via the display of the device, an input indicating an amount for each of the one or more desired payers to pay, and wherein each amount for each of the desired payers is included in the payer request.