Electronic Credit Card - ECC

• US 20090272796A1
• Filed: 05/15/2009
• Published: 11/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yong Kin Ong
• Original Assignee: Yong Kin Ong
• Inventors: ONG, Yong Kin (Michael)
• Granted Patent: US 8,322,606 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/379
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0728 the arrangement being an optical or sound-based communication interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07703 the interface being visual
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07749 the record carrier being capable of non-contact communication, e.g. constructional details of the antenna of a non-contact smart card
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07777 the antenna being of the inductive type
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07786 the antenna being of the HF type, such as a dipole
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• 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 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3415 Cards acting autonomously as pay-media
• 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 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4093 Monitoring of device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1066 PIN data being compared to data on card
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1091 Use of an encrypted form of the PIN

Abstract

An Electronic Credit Card (ECC) including a user verifier for verifying a user'"'"'s identity, a code generator for generating a unique authorization code for the user, storage of the user'"'"'s account details for use in an electronic funds transfer, and a communicator for non-visual communication of the account details and the authorization code to a transaction station.

Claims

1. An electronic credit card comprising:

a user verifier for verifying a user'"'"'s identity;

a code generator for generating a unique authorization code when the user'"'"'s identity is verified;

a storage for storing the user'"'"'s account details for use in an electronic funds transfer transaction; and

a communicator for non visually communicating the account details of the user and the authorization code to a transaction station in order to facilitate an electronic funds transfer transaction.

2. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the electronic credit card further comprises a timer for ending the verification of the user'"'"'s identity after a period of time.

3. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the electronic credit card further comprises a disabler for disabling use of the electronic credit card under certain conditions.

4. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 3, wherein the disabler operates when activated remotely by an issuer of the electronic credit card or other authority, so that the electronic credit card can not be ordinarily re-enabled.

5. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the communicator is configured such that the unique authorization code is secretly communicated to the transaction station such that it is not communicated to a merchant.

6. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the code generator is configured to generate the unique authorization code by combining a unique transaction identifier with a user identifier.

7. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 6, wherein the user identifier is a personal identification number.

8. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 6, wherein the user identifier is derived from a biometric reading of the user.

9. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the user verifier comprises a keypad for a personal identification number (PIN) entry and PIN verifier to authenticate the identity of the user.

10. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the user verifier comprises a fingerprint reader for reading a fingerprint and a fingerprint verifier means for verifying the identity of the user.

11. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the user verifier comprises a retina scanner for scanning a retina pattern and a retina pattern verifier means for verifying the identity of the user.

12. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the communicator is configured to electronically, magnetically or optically transmit the authorization code as a signal to the transaction station.

13. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the communicator comprises an infra red transmitter.

14. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the communicator comprises a radio frequency transmitter.

15. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the communicator comprises a magnetic induction transfer device.

16. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the communicator comprises a wire contact.

17. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the storage and communicator are partly in the form of a magnetic strip for storing the account details and communication of the account details to the transaction station.

18. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 1, wherein the communicator comprises a telephone network interface,

19. An electronic credit card in accordance with claim 3, wherein the disabler operates when a predetermined number of attempts verify the identity of the user fail.

23. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the communicating unique authorization code is the transaction station such that it is not communicated to the merchant.

20. A method of conducting an electronic funds transfer transaction using an electronic card comprising:

receiving an input from a user at the electronic card;

verifying the identity of the user from the input;

generating a unique transaction identifier when the user'"'"'s identity is verified;

communicating the unique transaction identifier and the user'"'"'s account details stored in the electronic card from the electronic card to a transaction station in a non visual form in order to facilitate an electronic fund transfer transaction.

21. A method in accordance with claim 20, further comprising ending the verification of the user'"'"'s identity after a period of time.

22. A method in accordance with claim 20, further comprising disabling use of the electronic credit card under certain conditions.

24. A method in accordance with claim 20, wherein the unique authorization code is generated by combining a unique transaction identifier with a user identifier.

25. A method in accordance with claim 24, wherein the user identifier is input to the card as personal identification number.

26. A method in accordance with claim 24 further comprising obtaining a biometric reading from the user and using the biometric reading as the user identifier.

27. A method in accordance with claim 20, wherein verifying the identity of the user comprises receiving a personal identification number (PIN) and authenticating the PIN to the identity of the user.

28. A method in accordance with claim 20, wherein verifying the identity of the user comprises reading a fingerprint of the user.

29. A method in accordance with claim 20, wherein verifying the identity of the user comprises scanning a retina pattern of the user.

30. A method in accordance with claim 20, wherein communicating the unique transaction identifier comprises electronically, magnetically or optically transmitting a signal to the transaction station representing the unique transaction identifier.

31. A method in accordance with claim 22, wherein the certain conditions comprises a predetermined number of attempts to verify the identity of the user fail.

32. An electronic card comprising:

an input device for receiving a user input to enable verifying a user'"'"'s identity;

an output device for non visually communicating with a transaction station;

a processor configured to generate a unique authorization code when the user'"'"'s identity is verified;

the processor configured to retrieve a stored user'"'"'s account details for use in an electronic funds transfer transaction; and

the processor also configured to transfer the generated unique authorization code and user account details to the transaction station via the output device.