SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING COUPON SERVICE USING RECEIPTS AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING COUPON SERVICE USING THE SAME

• US 20110225031A1
• Filed: 10/26/2009
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seunggu Hong, Seung-Joon Park
• Original Assignee: Innoinfo Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Park, Seung-Joon
• Granted Patent: US 9,349,133 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.25
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/047 using payment protocols involving electronic receipts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history

Abstract

Disclosed is a system for providing a coupon service using receipts and a method for providing a coupon service using the same. More specifically, the invention relates to the system and the method that extract coupon information from the image of a receipt provided by a customer or a distribution store in order to accumulate points for a corresponding coupon given to the customer, wherein the consumer and the distribution store are respectively registered as a member and a member store of the coupon service provider. The system according to the invention comprises: a personal terminal of the consumer which includes an image acquisition unit for acquiring an image of the receipt; a coupon product manufacturer server which stores the coupon product information for a product to which a coupon is attached; a coupon service provider server that is connected to the personal terminal and the coupon product manufacturer server through the Internet and provides point information to consumers; a database server that is connected to the coupon service provider server and stores the coupon product information, the receipt image provided by the consumer, and the point information extracted from the receipt image; and an image analyzing and processing device that extracts the coupon information from the receipt information provided by the consumer in order to accumulate the points given to the corresponding consumer, wherein the points are calculated through the extracted coupon information.

Claims

1. A system for providing coupon service using receipts, comprising:

a personal terminal of the consumer which includes an image acquisition unit for acquiring an image of the receipt to receive the image acquired by the image acquisition unit;

a coupon product manufacturer server which stores the coupon product information for a product to which a coupon is attached;

a coupon service provider server that is connected to the personal terminal and the coupon product manufacturer server through the Internet and includes an operating program to acquire the image data of the receipt and provide point information to consumers;

a database server that is connected to the coupon service provider server and stores the coupon product information transmitted from the coupon product manufacturer server, the receipt image provided by the consumer, and the point information extracted from the receipt image; and

an image analyzing and processing device that extracts a text from the receipt information provided by the consumer and then extracts the coupon information from the text in order to accumulate the points for the corresponding coupon given to the consumer, wherein the points are calculated through the extracted coupon information.

2. The system for providing coupon service using receipts of claim 1, wherein the receipt is provided from a distribution store registered as a member of the coupon service provider operating the coupon service provider server via a post or provided via a scanned image data.

3. The system for providing coupon service using receipts of claim 1, wherein the coupon service provider server comprises:

a portal web for allowing the consumers and the coupon product manufacture to access the server;

a member management module for managing a right of the consumers to access the server;

a coupon product manufacturer management server for managing a right of the coupon product manufacturer to access the server;

a data receiver module for generating an image data of the receipt delivered by the consumers and receiving the coupon product information delivered from the coupon product manufacturer;

an image acquisition module for acquiring an image data from the receipt delivered from the consumers via a post;

a point management module for showing the points accumulated upon log-in and managing the points; and

a database access module for enabling access to the database server and inquiry to the database.

4. The system for providing coupon service using receipts of claim 1, wherein the database server comprises:

a membership information database containing personal information of the consumer registered as a member;

a point accumulation money database accumulated via the coupon product purchased by the consumer;

a receipt image database for storing the image of the receipt transmitted by the consumer;

a receipt list database for storing as a text, the product list extracted from the image of the receipt transmitted by the consumer via the image analyzing and processing device;

a coupon product information database for storing the coupon product information provided by the coupon product manufacturer;

an event information database for storing various event information provided by the coupon product manufacturer; and

a combined file database for storing the file processed in conformity with a data format requested by various external systems.

5. The system for providing coupon service using receipts of claim 1, wherein the image analyzing and processing device comprises:

an image pre-processing module for removing and correcting a noise or a data transform present in the image data;

a text extraction module for recognizing and extracting text patterns present in the image data;

a category extraction module for extracting the category information of each product purchased by the consumer from a series of text files extracted via the text extraction module and extracting the coupon product information;

a point accumulation module for accumulating the points for the corresponding consumer via the coupon product information extracted from the text extraction module and the coupon product information stored in the database server; and

a database access module for accessing to the database server to call and upload the database stored in the database server.

12. The system for providing coupon service using receipts of claim 5, wherein the text extraction module comprises a barcode recognition module for extracting the barcode image and generating the barcode number from the extracted barcode image if the barcode image is contained in the image data;

and

the category extraction module receives the barcode number generated from the barcode recognition module and compares it with the barcode number extracted by the text extraction module to determine whether the image data is forged or not.

6. The system for providing coupon service using receipts, comprising:

a member store terminal for transmitting the receipt issued to a consumer registered as a member of a coupon service provider;

a coupon product manufacturer server for storing the coupon product information of a product to which a coupon is attached;

a coupon service provider server which is connected to the member store terminal and coupon product manufacturer server via the internet and includes an operating program to acquire data of the receipt provided from the member store provide the point information to the consumer;

a database server which is connected to the coupon service provider server for storing the coupon product information transmitted from the coupon product manufacturer server, the receipt information provided form the member store terminal, and the point information extracted from the receipt information; and

an image analyzing and processing device which extracts the coupon information from the receipt information provided by the member store terminal and accumulates the points calculated via the extracted coupon information for the corresponding consumer.

7. The system for providing coupon service using receipts of claim 6, wherein the member store terminal issues a paper receipt or an electronic receipt.

8. The system for providing coupon service using receipts of claim 6, wherein the member store terminal transmits the receipt information consisted of a receipt image or a text to the coupon service provider server.

9. The system for providing coupon service using receipts of claim 6, wherein the coupon service provider server comprises:

a portal web for allowing the consumers and the coupon product manufacturer to access the server;

a member management module for managing the right for the consumers to access the server;

a member store management module for managing the right for the member store to access the server;

a coupon product manufacturer management module for managing the right of the coupon product manufacturer to access the server;

a data receiver module for receiving the receipt information transferred from the member store terminal and receiving the coupon product information transferred from the coupon product manufacturer;

an image acquisition module for acquiring the image data from the receipt transferred by the member store via the post;

a point management module for showing the accumulated points upon log-in and managing the point; and

a database access module for enabling an access to the database server and an inquiry to the database server.

10. The system for providing coupon service using receipts of claim 6, wherein the database server comprises:

a member information database containing personal information of the consumer registered as a member,

a point accumulation money database accumulated via the coupon product purchased by the consumer,

a receipt image database for storing, as a text, the product list extracted via the image analyzing and processing device from the receipt information transmitted from the member store terminal;

a member store information database containing information of the member store;

a coupon product information database for storing the coupon product information provided by the coupon product manufacturer;

an event information database for storing various event information of the coupon product manufacturer; and

a combined file database for storing a file processed in conformity with a data format requested by various external systems.

11. The system for providing coupon service using receipts of claim 6, wherein the analyzing and processing device comprises:

an image pre-processing module for removing and correcting a noise or a data transform present in the image data;

a text extraction module for recognizing and extracting the text patterns present in the image data;

a category extraction module for extracting the category information of each product purchased by the consumer from a series of text files extracted by the text extraction module and extracting the coupon product information;

a point accumulation module for accumulating the points for the corresponding consumer via the coupon product information extracted from the text extraction module and the coupon product information stored in the database server; and

a database access module for accessing the database server to enable calling and uploading the database stored in the database server.

21. The system for providing coupon service using receipts of claim 11, wherein the text extraction module comprises a barcode recognition module for extracting the barcode image and generating the barcode number from the extracted barcode image if the barcode image is contained in the image data;

and

the category extraction module receives the barcode number generated from the barcode recognition module and compares it with the barcode number extracted by the text extraction module to determine whether the image data is forged or not.

13. A method for providing a coupon service using receipts to accumulate points for a consumer purchasing a coupon product, comprising steps of;

acquiring the image data to upload the image data via the internet and store it on the database server of the coupon service provider server after the consumer generates the image data of the receipt at a personal terminal; and

analyzing and processing the image data to extract the coupon product information from the image data of the receipt stored on the database server and accumulate the points for a corresponding coupon given to the consumer.

14. The method for providing a coupon service using receipts of claim 13, wherein said acquiring further comprises generating the image data of the receipt by the image acquiring unit connected to the coupon service provider server to store it on the database server, if a consumer or a distribution store registered as a member store of the coupon service provider server delivers the receipt via a post.

15. A method for providing a coupon service using receipts of claim 13, wherein said analyzing and processing comprises steps of:

removing and correcting a noise or a data transform present in the image data using an image pre-processing module;

extracting text patterns present in the image data via procedures such as statistic learning and pattern recognition using a text extraction module;

extracting a coupon product list by comparing the text pattern extracted in said extracting step with a coupon product information stored in the database server; and

calculating points for the corresponding product from the coupon product list extracted via a point accumulation module to store them on the database server.

19. The method of providing coupon service using receipts of claim 15, wherein said extracting the text pattern comprises steps of:

extracting the barcode image via the text extraction module to transmit it to a barcode recognition module via the text extraction module and generating the barcode number corresponding to the barcode image from the barcode image to transmit it to the category extraction module via the barcode recognition module if the barcode image is contained in the image data; and

comparing the barcode number generated by the barcode recognition module with the barcode number extracted by the text extraction module using the category extraction module to determine whether the image data is forged and doubly transmitted.

16. A method for providing a coupon service using receipts to accumulate points for a consumer purchasing a coupon product, comprising steps of;

acquiring data to store a receipt information issued for the consumer via a member store terminal of a coupon service provider on a database server of the coupon service provider server via a communication network; and

analyzing and processing data to extract the coupon product information from information of the receipt stored on the database server and accumulate the points for a corresponding coupon given to the consumer.

17. The method of providing coupon service using receipts of claim 16, wherein said acquiring further comprises receiving an electronic receipt consisted of an image data or a text of the receipt from the member store terminal.

18. The method of providing coupon service using receipts of claim 16, wherein analyzing and processing comprises steps of:

removing and correcting a noise or a data transform present in the image data using an image pre-processing module if the image data of the receipt is transmitted from the member store terminal;

extracting text patterns present in the image data via procedures such as statistic learning and pattern recognition using a text extraction module;

extracting a coupon product list by comparing the text pattern extracted in said extracting via a category extraction module with a coupon product information stored in the database server; and

calculating points for corresponding product from the coupon product list extracted via a point accumulation module to store them on the database server.

20. The method of providing coupon service using receipts of claim 16, wherein said analyzing and processing comprises steps of:

comparing a text contained in the electronic receipt with the coupon product information stored in the database server to extract the coupon product list if the electronic receipt consisted of a text is received from the member store terminal; and

calculating points for corresponding product from the extracted coupon product list to store them on the database server.

22. The method of providing coupon service using receipts of claim 18, wherein said extracting the text pattern comprises steps of:

extracting the barcode image via the text extraction module to transmit it to a barcode recognition module via the text extraction module and generating the barcode number corresponding to the barcode image from the barcode image to transmit it to the category extraction module via the barcode recognition module if the barcode image is contained in the image data; and

comparing the barcode number generated by the barcode recognition module with the barcode number extracted by the text extraction module using the category extraction module to determine whether the image data is forged and doubly transmitted.