Service Enhancements Using Near Field Communication

• US 20120246074A1
• Filed: 03/22/2012
• Published: 09/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Annamalai, Magesh, Jin, Zhengyi, Shirekar, Shreenivas M.
• Granted Patent: US 10,168,413 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/44
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/68 Marker, boundary, call-sign, or like beacons transmitting signals not carrying directional information
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02 using radio waves using satellite radio beacon systems for determining position G01S19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4015 using location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

A near field communication (NFC) mobile device may obtain location information from a NFC terminal device that is communicating with the NFC mobile device. A data transfer link may be established between the NFC mobile device and a mobile telecommunication network. The mobile telecommunication network may prompt the NFC mobile device to obtain location information from the NFC terminal device. The mobile telecommunication network may then receive the location information from the NFC mobile device via the data transfer link, and may subsequently determine a location of the NFC mobile device using the location information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

establishing a data transfer link with a near field communication (NFC) mobile device using a mobile telecommunication network;

prompting the NFC mobile device to obtain location information from a NFC terminal device that is communicating with the NFC mobile device;

receiving the location information from the NFC mobile device via the data transfer link; and

determining a location of the NFC mobile device based at least on the location information received from the NFC mobile device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request from a client at the mobile telecommunication network to locate the NFC mobile device; and

transmitting the location of the NFC mobile device as determined from the location information to the client.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the client determines that a purchase transaction is legitimate when the client correlates the location with the purchase transaction, and determines that the transaction is fraudulent when the client is unable to correlate the transaction with the purchase transaction.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the prompting includes promoting the NFC mobile device to obtain the location information from the NFC terminal device when the NFC mobile device is unable obtain the location of the NFC mobile device using one or more additional positioning components of the NFC mobile device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising combining the location information with additional location information from one or more additional positioning components of the NFC mobile device to determine the location of the NFC terminal device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determining includes:

obtaining a terminal location of the NFC terminal device from a database using a NFC device identifier of the NFC terminal device in the location information; and

designating the terminal location as the location of the NFC mobile device.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determining includes:

obtaining a terminal location of the NFC terminal device from a database using a NFC device identifier of the NFC terminal device in the location information;

cross referencing the terminal location with additional location information on the NFC mobile device; and

designating the terminal location as the location of the NFC mobile device when the terminal location is within a predetermined range of an additional location indicated by the additional location information.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the additional location information is obtained from a Wi-Fi device, a Bluetooth device, an ultra mobile broadband (UMB) device that is communicating with the NFC mobile device, a global position system (GPS)-component of the NFC mobile device, an A-GPS component of the NFC mobile device, or a cellular positioning of the NFC mobile device by the mobile telecommunication network.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising updating a database entry in the database that provided the terminal location with the additional location when the terminal location is outside of the predetermined range of the additional location.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the cross referencing includes cross referencing the terminal location when a database entry holding the terminal location in the database is unmodified for a predetermined amount of time.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining additional location information on the NFC mobile device from one or more non-NFC sources, wherein the determining includes:

excluding one or more data entries in a database that correlates NFC device identifiers to locations based on an additional location as determined by another positioning data source;

correlating a NFC device identifier included in the location information with a remaining data entry in the database to obtain a terminal location of the NFC terminal device; and

designating the terminal location as the location of the NFC mobile device.

12. A computer-readable medium in a switch storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

receiving a request from a client to locate a near field communication (NFC) mobile device;

prompting the NFC mobile device to obtain location information on a NFC terminal device that is communicating with the NFC mobile device;

receiving the location information on the NFC terminal device from the NFC mobile device;

determining a location of the NFC mobile device based at least on the location information received from the NFC mobile device; and

transmitting the location of the NFC mobile device as determined from the location information to the client.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the location information includes at least one of a geographical address, a NFC device identifier that corresponds to the geographical address, a name of a business that hosts the NFC terminal device, or geographical coordinates that correspond to the NFC terminal device.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the determining includes:

obtaining a terminal location of the NFC terminal device from a database using the NFC device identifier of the NFC terminal device in the location information; and

designating the terminal location as the location of the NFC mobile device.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising storing a new data entry that correlates a new NFC device identifier of a new NFC terminal device with a new terminal location into the database following the NFC mobile device encountering the new NFC terminal device.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the new terminal location is obtained from a global position system (GPS)-component of the NFC mobile device, an A-GPS component of the NFC mobile, a cellular positioning of the NFC mobile by a mobile telecommunication network, or the new NFC terminal device.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the client authorizes a purchase transaction initiated by the NFC mobile device and received by the NFC terminal device when the location of the NFC mobile device is within a predetermined geographical area.

18. A mobile telecommunication network, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory that includes a plurality of computer-executable components, the plurality of computer-executable components comprising;

a near field communication (NFC) position component that prompts a NFC mobile device to obtain location information from a NFC terminal device that is communicating with the NFC mobile device;

a location component that determines a location of the NFC mobile device based at least on the location information received from the NFC mobile device; and

a client interface component that receives a request for the location of the NFC mobile device from a client and transmits the location of the NFC mobile device as determined from the location information to the client in exchange for a fee.

19. The mobile telecommunication network of claim 18, further comprising at least one of:

a Wi-Fi position component that obtains additional position data on the NFC mobile device based on an identifier of a wireless access point that is communicating with the NFC mobile device;

a cellular position module that obtains other position data on the NFC mobile device by analyzing signals between the NFC mobile device and one or more base stations;

a global positioning system (GPS) position component that obtains further position data from a GPS component or an A-GPS component of the NFC mobile device,

wherein the location component is to determine the location of the NFC mobile device based on the location information and one or more of the additional position data.

20. The mobile telecommunication network of claim 18, further comprising an authentication module that authenticates the NFC mobile device to the mobile telecommunication network based at least on the location information.