Mobile Phone Payment System using Integrated Camera Credit Card Reader

• US 20100008535A1
• Filed: 07/14/2009
• Published: 01/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jumio Inc.
• Original Assignee: Jumio Inc.
• Inventors: COHEN, Eyal, ABULAFIA, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,269,010 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/32 using wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/327 Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices
• 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 20/409 Device specific authentication in transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/142 using hand-held instruments; Constructional details of the instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1444 Selective acquisition, locating or processing of specific regions, e.g. highlighted text, fiducial marks or predetermined fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/153 using recognition of characters or words
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2017/2525 optical code recognition [OCR], e.g. bar code reader
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/14 including a card reading device
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera constructional features concerning the integration of cameras in portable phones H04M1/0264

Abstract

A system and a method for conducting credit card transactions through a mobile device of a user. The mobile device comprises an image acquisition unit and a mobile application operated by the mobile device. The system enables acquiring an image of a client'"'"'s credit card, using the image acquisition unit; analyzing data of the image; outputting details of the credit card from the analysis; verifying the output details, wherein the verification is further carried out through the mobile application; verifying authorization of inputted monetary transaction, wherein the mobile application enables verifying the authorization by communicating with the billing center, associated with at least one credit company associated with the credit card over at least one communication network, wherein the communication is carried out by the mobile application using the mobile device; and conducting monetary transactions using the verified credit card details.

Claims

1. A method of conducting credit card transactions through a mobile device of a user, wherein said mobile device comprises an image acquisition unit and a mobile application operated by said mobile device, said method comprising:

acquiring an image of a client'"'"'s credit card, using said image acquisition unit;

analyzing data of said image;

outputting details of said credit card from said analysis;

verifying said output details, wherein said verification is further carried out through said mobile application;

verifying authorization of inputted monetary transaction, wherein said mobile application enables verifying said authorization by communicating with said billing center, associated with at least one credit company associated with said credit card over at least one communication network, wherein said communication is carried out by said mobile application using said mobile device; and

managing monetary transactions using said verified credit card details.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said image analysis for outputting details of the credit cards which image was acquired is carried out by using an Optical Characters Recognition (OCR) technique for identifying the number and expiry date of said credit card and the name of the owner of said card, wherein said details are presented over said credit card.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing a correction process, when said verification determines non-valid credit card details, for achieving valid details.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said correction process includes automatically acquiring of a new image of the client'"'"'s credit card and repeating of the verification process.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising authenticating the user by identifying of the user using a predefined authentication process.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the acquired image of the client'"'"'s credit card for future ratification of the transaction session.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said image analysis is carried out by a remote server, wherein said mobile application enables communicating with said server for retrieving the outputted details of the client'"'"'s credit card.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

identifying at least one segment area in the acquired image of the credit card surface that includes relevant details of the credit card, wherein said mobile application enables said identification of the segment area;

creating an image of the segment area, wherein said mobile application carries out said creation;

transmitting said image of said segment area to the image analysis module in said remote server;

analyzing the transmitted image of the segment area to identify and recognize the details of the credit card at said image analysis module; and

wherein said identified details are then verified via said mobile device of the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said image analysis includes:

identifying segments of the credit card details according to predefined segments by identifying area segments of the credit card surface from said image, wherein each segment includes characters relating to the credit card details;

recognizing the characters in each identified segment;

verifying whether all segments are identified and recognized;

transmitting the recognized details of all identified segments for confirmation; and

automatically repeating the process of acquiring a new image of the credit card to enable identification of segments that were previously unidentified.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said image analysis further includes:

receiving an image of the credit card surface comprising the relevant details;

identifying each of the characters in the image;

determining an accuracy level (AL) for each of the characters according to predefined rules defining the quality of the character'"'"'s image and the probability that the character identification is accurate;

assessing details recognition level according to the determined accuracy levels of all identified characters, according to predefined rules by calculating an overall accuracy level (OAL);

checking whether the OAL exceeds a predefined threshold OAL;

presenting the resulting details of the client'"'"'s credit card if the OAL exceeds the threshold OAL for further confirmation of the details; and

automatically repeating the image acquisition and the verification process if the calculated OAL does not exceed the predefined threshold OAL.

11. A system for conducting credit card transactions through mobile devices of a user, said system comprising:

at least one mobile device comprising an image acquisition unit enabling to acquire an image of a credit card;

a mobile application enabling to retrieve image data of an image of a credit card of a client acquired by said image acquisition unit, wherein said mobile application is operated by said mobile device, wherein said mobile application comprises;

a communication module enabling to communicate with a billing center associated with at least one credit card company of said credit card using said mobile device, over at least one communication network; and

a transactions module enabling to conduct monetary transactions through said billing center, wherein said transactions module enables verifying authorization for executing each transaction at said billing center; and

an image analysis module enabling to analyze said acquired image data of said credit card to output credit card details.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein said image analysis module is operated by said mobile application.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein said image analysis module is operated by a remote server enabling to communicate with said mobile device over said at least one communication network.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said mobile application further enables identifying at least one segment area in the acquired image of the credit card surface that includes relevant details of the credit card and creating an image of the identified segment area, and transmitting said image of said segment area to the image analysis module in said remote server, wherein said segment image is analyzed to identify the details of the credit card, wherein said identified details are then verified via said mobile device of the user.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said segment area includes the number of the credit card.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein said billing center comprises a computerized system enabling to receive data from said mobile device, store and retrieve data from at least one database comprising accounts details of credit cards holders, and process said data.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein said image acquisition unit is a camera.

18. The system of claim 11 wherein said image acquisition unit further comprises an autofocus mechanism enabling automatic focusing and defocusing over an object, thereby enabling to automatically focus the camera to acquire optimal image of a client'"'"'s credit card, when said card is placed in front of said image acquisition unit.

19. The system of claim 11 wherein said mobile application further comprises a user interface and said mobile device comprises a screen and a keypad, wherein said user interface enables a user of said mobile device to view details of the client'"'"'s credit card outputted from said image analysis, confirm said details, input transaction details and view transaction related data, using said screen and said keypad of said mobile device.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein said image analysis includes:

identifying segments of the credit card details according to a predefined segments by identifying area segments of the credit card surface from said image, wherein each segment includes characters relating to the credit card details;

recognizing the characters in each identified segment;

verifying whether all segments are identified and recognized;

transmitting the recognized details of all identified segments for user confirmation; and

automatically repeating the process of acquiring a new image of the credit card to enable identification of segments that were previously unidentified.