Portable electronic device and loyalty point system

• US 20010025879A1
• Filed: 02/21/2001
• Published: 10/04/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Kawagishi, Toshiyuki
• Granted Patent: US 6,409,080 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A portable electronic device, which executes a prescribed process based on a selling amount of money that is input from a terminal device, has a memory for storing information concerned with a loyalty point calculation process corresponding to a selling amount of money, calculates a loyalty point using information stored in the memory based on a selling amount of money which is input from the terminal device and updates a loyalty point stored in the memory to a calculated loyalty point.

Claims

1. A portable electronic device to execute prescribed process according to information on dealt amount of money input from a terminal device comprising:

storage means for storing loyalty points and information in connection with a loyalty point calculation process corresponding to a dealt amount of money;

means for calculating a loyalty point using the information stored in the storage means according to the information on the deal amount of money input from the terminal unit; and

means for updating the loyalty point stored in the storage means to a loyalty point calculated by the calculation means.

2. A portable electronic device according to

claim 1

, wherein the information on the calculation process of the loyalty point stored in the storage means is an application program for calculating a loyalty point.

3. A portable electronic device according to

claim 1

, wherein the storage means stores individual information of a person who is holding the portable electronic device, a qualification to add a special loyalty point based on the individual information and a size of a loyalty point added corresponding to the qualification.

4. A portable electronic device according to

claim 3

, wherein the calculation means includes:

means for judging whether the individual information stored in the storage means satisfies the qualification; and

means for calculating a loyalty point including a loyalty point that is especially added corresponding to the qualification when it is judged by the judging means that the qualification is satisfied.

5. A portable electronic device according to

claim 1

, wherein the storage means stores a qualification to add a special loyalty point in connection with date information and a size of a loyalty point to add corresponding to the qualification.

6. A portable electronic device according to

claim 5

, wherein the calculation means includes:

judging means for judging whether the date information input from the terminal device satisfies the qualification stored in the storage means; and

means for calculating a loyalty point including a loyalty point that is especially added corresponding to the qualification when it is judged by the judging means that the qualification is satisfied.

7. A portable electronic device according to

claim 1

, wherein the storage means stores individual information of customers who have a portable electronic device, qualification for adding a special loyalty point associated with individual information and date information, and size of loyalty point to be added especially corresponding to the qualification.

8. A portable electronic device according to

claim 7

, wherein the calculation means includes:

means for judging whether the qualification stored in the storage means is satisfied based on date information input from the terminal device and individual information stored in the storage means; and

means for calculating a loyalty point including a loyalty point that is specially added corresponding to the qualification when it is judged that the qualification is satisfied.

9. A portable electronic device according to

claim 1

, further comprising:

output means for outputting a loyalty point calculated by the calculating means to the terminal device.

10. A portable electronic device according to

claim 1

, further comprising:

output means for outputting the loyalty point calculated by the calculating means to the terminal device after updating the loyalty point stored in the storage means by the updating means.

11. A portable electronic device according to

claim 1

, further comprising:

means for executing the exchanging process of the loyalty point stored in the storage means based on the information stored in the storage means when an instruction for the exchanging process to exchange a loyalty point to another valuable thing from the terminal device; and

means for outputting the result of exchange by the execution means to the terminal device.

12. A portable electronic device according to

claim 2

, further comprising:

means for executing the loyalty point exchange process for the loyalty point stored in the storage means according to an application program stored in the storage means when an instruction is input from the terminal device for the exchange process to exchange the loyalty point to another valuable thing; and

means for executing the rewrite of an application program stored in the storage means according to an instruction from the terminal device when the exchange process by the execution means is completed.

13. A portable electronic device according to

claim 1

, wherein the storage means stores the information of the term of validity relative to the portable electronic device.

14. A portable electronic device according to

claim 13

, further comprising:

judging means for judging whether the term of validity of the portable electronic device has expired by comparing the date information input from the terminal device with the term of validity information stored in the storage means;

means for executing the loyalty point calculation process by the calculation means when the judging means judges that the term of validity is not yet expired and to execute the exchange process to exchange the loyalty point stored in the storage means to another valuable thing based on the information stored in the storage means when the judging means judges that the term of validity is expired; and

means for outputting the loyalty point calculated by the calculation means to the terminal device when the term of validity is judged to have not yet been expired by the judging means and to output the information showing that the term of validity has been expired together with the result of exchange by the execution means to the terminal device.

15. A portable electronic device according to

claim 2

, wherein the storage mean stores the information on the term of validity of the portable electronic device.

16. A portable electronic device according to

claim 15

, further comprising:

judging means for judging whether the term of validity of the portable electronic device was expired by comparing the date information input from the terminal device with the term of validity information stored in the storage means;

means for executing the loyalty point calculation process by the calculation means when the judging mean judges that the term of validity has not yet been expired and execute the exchange process to exchange the loyalty point stored in the storage means to another valuable thing according to the application program stored in the storage means when the judging means judges that the term of validity was already expired;

means for outputting the loyalty point calculated by the calculation means to the terminal device when the judging means judges that the term of validity has not yet been expired and to output the information showing that the term of validity was already expired to the terminal device together with the result of exchange by the execution means;

means for executing the rewrite of the application program stored in the storage means according to the instruction from the terminal device after outputting the information showing the expiration of the term of validity by the output means when the judging means judges that the term of validity was already expired; and

control means for controlling the calculation means to execute the loyalty point calculation process according to the rewritten application program stored in the storage means after completing the rewriting process by the rewriting means.

17. A loyalty point system comprising a terminal device having an input means for inputting prescribed information and a portable electronic device to execute prescribed processes for the information input from the terminal device;

wherein,

the portable electronic device includes;

storage means for storing a prescribed application program for calculating loyalty points corresponding to a dealt amount of money and loyalty points;

means for calculating a loyalty point based on the information on dealt amount of money input from the terminal device according to the application program stored in the storage means;

means for updating the loyalty point stored in the storage means to the loyalty point calculated by the calculation means; and

output means for outputting the loyalty point calculated by the calculating means to the terminal device;

the terminal device includes;

display means for displaying a loyalty point output from the portable electronic device.

18. A loyalty point system according to

claim 17

, wherein the terminal device further includes:

a application storage means for storing another application program separately from the application program stored in the portable electronic device; and

output means for outputing a rewriting instruction of the application program and another application program stored in the application storage means to the portable electronic device according to the instruction from the input means.

19. A loyalty point system according to

claim 17

, wherein the portable electronic device further includes:

means for executing the process to rewrite the application stored in the storage means to the application program output from the terminal device according to the rewriting instruction of the application program output from the terminal device.

20. A loyalty point system according to

claim 17

, wherein the terminal device further includes:

means for instructing the exchange process to exchange the loyalty point stored in the portable electronic device to another valuable thing;

the portable electronic device further includes;

means for executing the exchange process of the loyalty point stored in the storage means based on the application program stored in the storage means when the exchange process to exchange the loyalty point to another valuable thin is instructed from the terminal device; and

output means for outputting the result of exchange by the execution means to the terminal device.