DYNAMIC GENERATION OF QUICK RESPONSE (QR) CODES FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION FROM/TO A MOBILE DEVICE

• US 20150178721A1
• Filed: 12/20/2013
• Published: 06/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: PANDIARAJAN, Vijayakumar, COMMONS, William Dakota, KANNAMANGALAM, Ramakrishna, PATNAM, Siva, GHOSHAL, Jayant
• Granted Patent: US 10,769,625 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06112 the marking being simulated using a light source, e.g. a barcode shown on a display or a laser beam with time-varying intensity profile
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3274 using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being displayed on the M-device
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3276 using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being read by the M-device
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting

Abstract

Dynamically generated quick response (QR) codes are used for secure communication to/from mobile devices. In one example, a QR code identifies a product or service selected by a user using a mobile device. The mobile device generates the QR code identifying the user'"'"'s selection, and displays the QR code for reading by a retail kiosk. The retail kiosk, such as movie-rental kiosk, extracts the product or service selection encoded in QR code and provides the identified product or service to the user. The QR code can additionally identify a user account, such that payment for the product or service is automatically charged to the account identified from the QR code. In another example, the QR code is used to transfer money and/or credits between a user and a retailer, or between two users.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, in a mobile device executing a retail application, selection of a product or service by a user of the mobile device;

generating, in the mobile device and based on the received user selection of the product or service, a quick response (QR) code encoding identification of the selected product or service and identification of a user account of the user of the mobile device;

displaying, by the mobile device, the generated QR code such that the QR code can be communicated to a retail kiosk associated with the retail application to allow the retail kiosk to provide the selected product or service from the retail kiosk in response to having read the displayed QR code.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected product or service is provided by the retail kiosk without the user identifying the product or service through a user interface of the retail kiosk.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the retail application and the retail kiosk are associated with a same retailer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining, in the mobile device from an application server associated with the retail application, information on a plurality of products or services offered by a retailer through the retail kiosk; and

displaying, on a display screen of the mobile device, the obtained information on the plurality of products and services offered by the retailer through the retail kiosk,

wherein the selection of the product or service by a user of the mobile device is received through a user interface of the mobile device in response to the displaying of the obtained information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the QR code in the mobile device comprises executing on a processor of the mobile device an algorithm for encoding an identifier for the user account and an identifier for the selected product or service within the QR code.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the QR code in the mobile device comprises transmitting, from the mobile device to an application server in communication with the retail application, the received selection of the product or service, and receiving data for generating the QR code encoding identification of the selected product or service from the application server.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading, by a QR reader of the retail kiosk associated with the retail application, the QR code displayed by the mobile device; and

processing, by the retail kiosk, the QR code read by the QR reader in order to extract identification of a product or service and identification of a user account encoded in the QR code,

wherein the product or service provided by the retail kiosk is the product or service identified by the identification extracted from the QR code.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating the QR code comprises generating an encrypted QR code in which at least one of the identification of the selected product or service and the identification of the user account is encrypted.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving, in the mobile device, an encryption key prior to generating the QR code; and

generating the QR code in the mobile device using the received encryption key.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the receiving of the encryption key comprises:

reading, using a camera of the mobile device, a second QR code displayed by the retail kiosk and encoding the encryption key; and

processing, by the mobile device, the second QR code read using the camera in order to extract the encryption key encoded in the QR code.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the receiving of the encryption key comprises retrieving, by the retail application executing on the mobile device, the encryption key from an application or authentication server associated with the retail application.

12. A method comprising:

receiving, in a mobile device executing a payment application, user account information;

generating, in the mobile device and based on the received user account information, a quick response (QR) code encoding identification of the user account of the user of the mobile device;

displaying, by the mobile device, the generated QR code such that the QR code can be read by a QR reader of a device for processing a payment transaction; and

receiving, from a payment application server associated with the payment application, a payment confirmation message in response to the device for processing the payment transaction successfully completing a payment transaction based on the user account identification encoded in the generated QR code.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

authenticating, by the mobile device, the received user account information by communicating the received information to a payment application server associated with the payment application,

wherein the generating the QR code is performed in response to receiving an authentication confirmation from the payment application server.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the generating of the QR code in the mobile device comprises executing on a processor of the mobile device an algorithm for encoding an identifier for the user account within the QR code.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving, in the mobile device, selection of a transaction amount by a user of the mobile device,

wherein the generating the QR code comprises generating the QR code encoding identification of the user account and identification of the selected transaction amount.

16. A method comprising:

reading, by a quick response (QR) code reader of a device for processing a payment transaction, a QR code displayed by a user'"'"'s mobile device;

processing, by the device for processing the payment transaction, the QR code read by the QR reader in order to extract identification of a user account of the user of the mobile device encoded in the QR code;

generating a payment transaction request message in the device for processing the payment transaction, the payment transaction request message including the identification of the user account extracted from the QR code and a transaction amount;

transmitting the generated payment transaction request message from the device for processing the payment transaction to a payment application server; and

receiving, from the payment application server, a payment confirmation message in response to the payment application server successfully completing a payment transaction based on the user account identification extracted from the QR code.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

displaying, by the device for processing the payment transaction for reading by the user'"'"'s mobile device, a second QR code encoding an encryption key prior to the reading the QR code,

wherein the QR code is an encrypted QR code, and

wherein the processing the QR code read by the QR reader comprises decrypting information encoded in the QR code using a decryption key corresponding to the encryption key encoded in the second QR code.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the processing the QR code comprises processing the QR code in order to extract identification of the transaction amount encoded in the QR code, and

wherein the generating the payment transaction request message comprises generating the payment transaction request message including the identification of the transaction amount extracted from the QR code.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the processing the QR code comprises processing the QR code in order to extract identification of a maximum transaction amount encoded in the QR code,

the method further comprising:

computing, in the device for processing the payment transaction, a transaction amount;

comparing the computed transaction amount to the maximum transaction amount extracted from the QR code; and

upon determining that the transaction amount is less than the maximum transaction amount extracted from the QR code, generating the payment transaction request message including the identification of the user account extracted from the QR code and the computed transaction amount.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

authenticating, by the device for processing the payment transaction, the user account identified by the identification extracted from the QR code by transmitting the extracted identification of the user account to an authentication server,

wherein the receiving the payment confirmation message comprises receiving the payment confirmation message only upon the authentication server successfully authenticating the user account.