Systems and methods for passive identification circuitry

• US 20110084147A1
• Filed: 10/13/2010
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wilson, Matt, Wen, Sam
• Granted Patent: US 8,584,956 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/492
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/087 flux-sensitive, e.g. magnetic, detectors G06K7/10336 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/209 Specified transaction journal output feature, e.g. printed receipt or voice output
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/34 using cards, e.g. integrated circuit [IC] cards or magnetic cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/347 Passive cards
• 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 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0886 the card reader being portable for interacting with a POS or ECR in realizing a payment transaction

Abstract

A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to enable an individual to complete a financial transaction by swiping a magnetic stripe card through a card reader connected to a mobile device. The size of the card reader is miniaturized to be portable for connection with the mobile device. The card reader is configured to reliably read data encoded in a magnetic strip of the card with minimum error in a single swipe and provide a signal that corresponds to the data read to the mobile device, which then decodes the incoming signal from the card reader and acts as a point-of-sale device to complete the financial transaction. Such an approach enables a person to become either a micro-merchant (payee) or a buyer/customer (payer) without having to purchase expensive card reader devices or software.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a housing;

a jack attached to the housing adapted to be inserted into a microphone input associated with a mobile device; and

a passive ID circuitry encapsulated in the housing and operable to deliver an unique ID of the device to the mobile device when the device is connected to the mobile device via the jack.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the mobile device is one of a cell phone, Apple'"'"'s iPhone, iPod, iPad, iTouch, and Google'"'"'s Android device.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein size of the device is miniaturized to be portable with the mobile device.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein size of the device is miniaturized to an overall length of less than 1.5″

.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein the housing is made of non-conductive material so that the device does not interfere with function of the mobile device.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein the unique ID of the device is in the form of a persistent set of bytes.

7. The device of claim 1 wherein the unique ID of the device is fixed per device and remains the same when the device is moved from one mobile device to another.

8. The card reader device of claim 1 wherein the output jack is a TRS connector.

9. The card reader device of claim 1 wherein the output jack is retractable within the housing.

10. The card reader device of claim 1 wherein the output jack is extendable beyond the housing in order to accommodate connection with the mobile device having a case or a recessed plug-in socket.

11. The device of claim 1 wherein the passive ID circuitry is powered by the mobile device via the jack.

12. The device of claim 1 wherein the passive ID circuitry functions independently without interfering with functions of the other circuitry inside the housing.

13. The device of claim 1 wherein the passive ID circuitry includes a memory storing the unique ID of the device, wherein the memory has at least one byte of persistent writeable memory for status of the device.

14. The device of claim 1 wherein the passive ID circuitry transmits the unique ID of the device to the mobile device immediately upon the device is connected to the mobile device.

15. The device of claim 1 wherein the passive ID circuitry transmits the unique ID of the device to the mobile device only once.

16. The device of claim 1 wherein the passive ID circuitry includes a charge pump that utilizes a digital circuit to raise a voltage of a power source the device to a higher level.

17. The device of claim 1 wherein the passive ID circuitry includes a plurality of latches controlled by a processor for switching among various subsystems of the ID circuitry.

18. The device of claim 1 wherein the passive ID circuitry utilizes a two stage boot up process during which a charge pump is active first before a processor boots up to increase active time between charge pump resets and save power consumption.

19. The device of claim 1 wherein the passive ID circuitry includes a low powered watchdog timer to control uniformity of resets of subsystems in the passive ID circuitry.

20. The device of claim 1 wherein the passive ID notifies the mobile device 100 of a reset so that mobile device does not report a disconnection from the device during the reset.

21. A method for providing an ID of a device to a mobile device, comprising:

connecting the device to the mobile device; and

delivering an unique ID of the device to the mobile device only once upon the device is connected to the mobile device.