METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRACKING USER PERFORMANCE

• US 20090091426A1
• Filed: 05/02/2008
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Bonalle, David S., Saunders, Peter D., Barnes, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 7,694,876 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/105 Human resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/00 Payment architectures, schemes or protocols apparatus for performing or posting payment transactions G07F7/08, G07F19/00; electronic cash registers G07G1/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• 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 20/342 Cards defining paid or billed services or quantities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/388 using mutual authentication without cards, e.g. challenge-response
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4014 Identity check for transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/14 Vascular patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/40 Spoof detection, e.g. liveness detection
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/29 the pass containing active electronic elements, e.g. smartcards
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/025 by means, e.g. cards, providing billing information at the time of purchase, e.g. identification of seller or purchaser, quantity of goods delivered or to be delivered
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/14 Systems including one or more distant stations co-operating with a central processing unit data transmission in general H04L; telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 : Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 : Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3231 : Biological data, e.g. fingerprint, voice or retina network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using biometrical features in a packet data network H04L63/0861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3273 : for mutual authentication network architectures or network communication protocols for achieving mutual authentication in a packet data network H04L63/0869

Abstract

A system and method for using RFID technology to track resource performance and task completion is disclosed. In one exemplary embodiment, a fob and an RFID reader may engage in mutual authentication. Where the RFID reader and the fob successfully mutually authenticate, the fob may transmit to the RFID reader information identifying the resource'"'"'s performance tracking account to which the fob is associated. The RFID reader may receive and forward the information to facilitate performance tracking. In one exemplary embodiment, the RFID reader may forward the information to a point of interaction terminal for transaction completion. In another exemplary embodiment, the fob completes tasks via a computer interface. In still another exemplary embodiment, the fob resource and/or a manager may access a resource engine, wherein the resource engine may be used to automatically grade, track, score, and assign resources based on resource skills and skill sets.

Claims

1-25. -25. (canceled)

26. A method for tracking performance by a shopper of a shopping activity comprising a plurality of shopping tasks, the method comprising:

initiating the tracking of the shopping activity, the initiation requiring an active initiation action by the shopper;

communicating a transponder identifier, from a transponder carried by the shopper, to a first reader in a first location via a radio frequency signal;

communicating the transponder identifier from the first reader to a resource engine;

associating the transponder identifier with a first time value and a shopper identifier corresponding to the shopper;

communicating the transponder identifier, from the transponder, to a second reader in a second location via an radio frequency signal;

communicating the transponder identifier from the second reader to the resource engine;

associating the transponder identifier with a second time value and the shopper identifier corresponding to the shopper;

computing a shopping task time representing a time period that the shopper was in a predefined shopping area, based at least on the first time value and the second time value;

associating, in the resource engine, the shopper identifier and the shopping task time with a corresponding shopping task of the shopping activity.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the tracing of the shopping activity is initiated by an interaction of the shopper with a user interface.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the tracking of the shopping activity is initiated by receiving an opt-in request from the shopper.

29. A computer readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the following steps:

initiating the tracking of a shopping activity, the shopping activity comprising a plurality of shopping tasks and the initiation requiring an active initiation action by a shopper;

communicating a transponder identifier, from a transponder carried by the shopper, to a first reader in a first location via a radio frequency signal;

communicating the transponder identifier from the first reader to a resource engine;

associating the transponder identifier with a first time value and a shopper identifier corresponding to the shopper;

communicating the transponder identifier, from the transponder, to a second reader in a second location via an radio frequency signal;

communicating the transponder identifier from the second reader to the resource engine;

associating the transponder identifier with a second time value and the shopper identifier corresponding to the shopper;

computing a shopping task time representing a time period that the shopper was in a predefined shopping area, based at least on the first time value and the second time value;

associating, in the resource engine, the shopper identifier and the shopping task time with a corresponding shopping task of the shopping activity.

30. The computer readable medium of claim 29, wherein the tracing of the shopping activity is initiated by an interaction of the shopper with a user interface.

31. The computer readable medium of claim 29, wherein the tracking of the shopping activity is initiated by receiving an opt-in request from the shopper.