RECEIPT OF COMMUNICATIONS FROM ANNOUNCEMENT RECIPIENTS OF CONSUMER DATA

• US 20100274626A1
• Filed: 04/22/2009
• Published: 10/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Carlson, Mark
• Application Number:
  US12/428,283
• Publication Number:
  US 20100274626A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

An announcement distributor distributes, or auctions an opportunity to distribute, an announcement to an announcement recipient such as a consumer, issuer, merchant, or acquirer within a payment processing system. The announcement when there has been a satisfaction of an announcement condition, such as the consumer being determined to be located within a predetermined spatial zone. The content of the announcement may, in turn, facilitate a subsequent cashless transaction for resources of merchants. Implementations describe various permutations of the content of the announcement, the announcement condition, and the announcement recipient.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for an announcement recipient to communicate with a consumer after the announcement recipient has received an announcement about the consumer, the computer implemented method comprising the steps of:

specifying, using a computing apparatus executing software, a selected said announcement recipient and at least one announcement condition including a presence of the consumer within in a zone, wherein the selected said announcement recipient receives the corresponding announcement after the announcement condition is satisfied; and

receiving, using the computing apparatus executing the software, a communication, addressed from the announcement recipient, that is responsive to the announcement received by the announcement recipient, wherein the receiving of the communication occurs while the consumer is present in the zone.

2. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 1 wherein the zone is selected from the group consisting of:

a spatial zone;

an Internet Zone;

a virtual zone; and

a combination thereof.

3. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 1 wherein:

the selected said announcement recipient is a merchant located in the zone; and

the communication includes an offer for resources of the merchant.

4. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 3 wherein the computer is a portable consumer device selected from the group consisting of:

a contactless device including a wireless processor, a transmitter, and a receiver;

a smart card;

a cellular telephone;

a personal digital assistant;

a digital audio player enabled device;

a portable global positioning system enabled device; and

a combination of any of the above portable consumer devices.

5. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 1 further comprising the step of providing, using the computing apparatus executing the software, information usable to determine when the at least one announcement condition has been satisfied.

6. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 5 wherein the information includes position data obtained from at least one of:

a global positioning system receiver;

a gyroscope; and

an accelerometer.

7. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 1 wherein the at least one announcement condition further includes a required direction of movement for the consumer.

8. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 1 wherein the announcement recipient is selected from the group consisting of:

a merchant;

an acquirer of the merchant;

an issuer that has issued an account to the consumer;

a transaction handler; and

any combination thereof and, wherein;

the transaction handler processes a plurality of transactions each between a corresponding said merchant and a corresponding said consumer;

each transaction is upon a corresponding said account of one of the consumers;

each of the merchants submits said transactions to corresponding said acquirers for processing by the transaction handler who requests corresponding said issuers to obtain corresponding payments from corresponding said accounts for the submitted said transactions; and

the corresponding said issuers forward the obtained said corresponding payments to the corresponding said acquirers to pay the submitting said merchants for corresponding submitted said transactions.

9. An apparatus for use with a system where an announcement condition includes presence of a consumer within a zone of interest to at least one announcement recipient, the system including an announcement distributor providing an announcement about a location of the consumer to at least one announcement recipient after the announcement condition occurs, the apparatus comprising a computer readable medium including stored instructions that, when executed by a computing device, the computing device performs the steps of:

receiving positioning data from which a location of the apparatus can be determined, wherein the apparatus is co-located with the consumer;

determining the location of the apparatus using the positioning data;

forming a transmission, for delivery to the announcement distributor, including the determined location; and

receiving a communication addressed from the at least one announcement recipient after the at least one announcement recipient has received the announcement, wherein;

the announcement includes data based on the determined location; and

the announcement recipient is selected from the group consisting of;

a merchant;

an acquirer of the merchant;

an issuer that has issued an account to the consumer;

a transaction handler; and

any combination thereof.

10. The apparatus as defined in claim 9 wherein the computer readable medium further comprises stored instructions that, when executed by the computing device, the computing device performs the step of receiving a confirmation that the at least one of the announcement recipients has received the announcement.

11. The apparatus as defined in claim 9 wherein the computer readable medium further comprises stored instructions that, when executed by the computing device, the computing device performs the steps of:

specifying a selected set of the announcement recipients;

receiving information usable to determine the zone of interest to each of the announcement recipients in the selected set; and

determining when the announcement condition has been satisfied including matching the determined location of the apparatus with the zones of interest of the at least one of the announcement recipient in the selected set, wherein the transmission also indicates that the announcement condition has been satisfied.

12. The apparatus as defined in claim 9 wherein the location of the apparatus includes at least one of:

an altitude of the apparatus;

a latitude location of the apparatus;

a longitude of the apparatus;

a World Geodetic System coordinates of the apparatus;

a speed of the apparatus;

a direction of movement of the apparatus;

an acceleration of the apparatus; and

a combination thereof.

13. The apparatus as defined in claim 9 wherein the apparatus is a portable consumer device selected from the group consisting of:

a financial card;

a contactless device including a wireless processor, a transmitter, and a receiver;

a smart card;

a cellular telephone;

a personal digital assistant;

a digital audio player;

a global positioning system enabled device;

a computer; and

a combination of any of the above portable consumer devices.

14. The apparatus as defined in claim 9 wherein the transmission is wirelessly communicated to at least one of:

a point of interaction terminal that is co-located with the apparatus;

a portable consumer device co-located with the apparatus;

a near field communication terminal that is co-located with the apparatus; and

a far field communication terminal that is co-located with the apparatus.

15. A computer implemented method for auctioning an announcement about a consumer to a plurality of auction participants, the computer implemented method comprising the steps of:

consenting, using a portable consumer device executing software, to an auctioning of the announcement, wherein the plurality of auction participants electronically bid on receiving data about the consumer that is co-located with the portable consumer device within a zone;

providing, using the portable consumer device executing the software, information usable to determine when the portable consumer device is in the zone; and

receiving, using the portable consumer device executing the software, a communication addressed from at least one of the auction participants that has a winning bid in the auction, wherein the receiving occurs while the portable consumer device is in the zone.

16. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 15 further comprising the step of specifying, using the portable consumer device executing the software, at least one required criterion for the winning bid.

17. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 15 further comprising the step of specifying, using the portable consumer device executing the software, the at least one specified condition.

18. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 17 wherein the portable consumer device is selected from the group consisting of:

a contactless device including a wireless processor, a transmitter, and a receiver;

a smart card;

a cellular telephone;

a personal digital assistant;

a digital audio player;

a portable global positioning system enabled device; and

a combination of any of the above portable consumer devices.

19. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 15 wherein the step of the providing the information includes providing, to a merchant, an account identifier of an account issued to the consumer by an issuer within a payment processing system, wherein the account identifier is sent within a payment authorization request from a point of interaction terminal that is co-located with the portable consumer device.

20. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 15 wherein at least one of the plurality of auction participants is selected from the group consisting of:

a merchant;

an acquirer of the merchant;

an issuer that has issued an account to the consumer;

a transaction handler; and

any combination thereof and, wherein;

the transaction handler processes a plurality of transactions each between a corresponding said merchant and a corresponding said consumer;

each transaction is upon a corresponding said account of one of the consumers;

each of the merchants submits transactions to corresponding said acquirers for processing by the transaction handler who requests corresponding said issuers to obtain corresponding payments from corresponding said accounts for the submitted said transactions; and

the corresponding said issuers forward the obtained said corresponding payments to the corresponding said acquirers to pay the submitting said merchants for corresponding submitted said transactions.