Near Field Communication (NFC) Vehicle Identification System and Process

• US 20150223012A1
• Filed: 02/04/2015
• Published: 08/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NextGen Pro, LLC (RumbleOn, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Halcyon Consulting, LLC
• Inventors: Kakarala, Srinivas, Kakarala, Kartikeya
• Granted Patent: US 10,165,424 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/77 for interrogation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• 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

Abstract

An automotive near field communication (NFC) application that includes a process which is implemented as a mobile software application and uses near field communication tags to store and retrieve automotive vehicle information is disclosed. The process does not need a user to access the VIN and then manually enter or scan the VIN. In this process the VIN is written to an NFC tag using an NFC enabled mobile device and placed on the vehicle. A user can bump, touch, or place the NFC enabled mobile device on the NFC tag to retrieve the VIN. The application is configured to generate a vehicle value or vehicle report based, in part, on vehicle information received from the NFC tag.

Claims

1. A system that retrieves vehicle information by way of a vehicle identification number (VIN) stored on a near field communication (NFC) tag, the system comprising:

an NFC tag comprising an internally-stored VIN, the NFC tag placed at a position on the vehicle accessible by an NFC-enabled mobile computing device, wherein the mobile computing device comprises a storage device, a processor, and

an NFC receiver/transmitter that can read from and write to the NFC tag; and

a mobile software application that is installed on the storage device of the mobile computing device and when executed on the processor of the mobile computing device, performs set of instructions to (i) write the VIN to the NFC tag;

(ii) retrieve the VIN from the NFC tag when the NFC enabled mobile computing device makes contact with the NFC tag;

(iii) transfer the VIN and associated VIN-information to a database for storage and later retrieval.

2. The mobile software application of claim 1, wherein the application when executed on the processor of the mobile computing device performs additional steps to:

(iv) collect vehicle data from one or more of a third party database;

(v) analyze vehicle data associated with the VIN and vehicle data collected from third party sources; and

(vi) calculate one of a vehicle value or vehicle report.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the database resides on a server, including a cloud-based server.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the NFC enabled mobile device is configured for communication over a wireless network to one or more of a database residing on a server.

5. A method of generating a value for a vehicle associated with a vehicle identification number (VIN), wherein the VIN is stored on a near-field communication tag, the method comprising:

retrieving a VIN and VIN-associated data from a vehicle equipped with an NFC tag whereon VIN and VIN-associated data is written by an NFC-enabled portable device configured to read the NFC tag;

transferring the VIN and VIN-associated data via a wireless communications network from the NFC-enabled device to a database, wherein a collection of third-party vehicle information is stored;

comparing the VIN and VIN-associated data retrieved from the vehicle equipped with the NFC tag to the database of third-party vehicle information in order to calculate a value for the vehicle associated with the VIN; and

transmitting the calculated value for display on the NFC-enabled portable device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the value is one or more of an appraisal value, a trade-in value, or an auction value of a vehicle.

7. A method of generating an electronic purchase order form for a vehicle associated with a vehicle identification number (VIN) stored on a near field communication tag, the method comprising:

retrieving a VIN and VIN-associated data from a vehicle equipped with an NFC tag whereon VIN and VIN-associated data is written by an NFC-enabled portable device configured to read the NFC tag;

receiving a driver'"'"'s license number or other driver identification information via an input on the NFC-enabled portable device;

transferring one or both of the driver'"'"'s license number or other driver identification information and the VIN and VIN-associated data via a wireless communications network from the NFC-enabled device to a database;

combining the one or both of the driver'"'"'s license number or other driver identification information and the VIN and VIN-associated data and forming a purchase order record for the vehicle associated with the MN;

storing the purchase order record containing the driver identification information and vehicle information in the database for later retrieval;

inputting the information associated with the purchase order record into one or more fields of a purchase order form stored in the database, thereby generating a populated form; and

storing the populated purchase order form in the database for electronic delivery to a buyer or seller, thereby creating an electronic purchase order form for a particular vehicle of interest to the buyer or seller that is populated with identifying information related to the driver and vehicle.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

displaying the populated purchase order form on the NFC-enabled portable device.

9. A portable device comprising:

a display;

a communication unit that communicates with an NFC tag comprising an internally stored VIN and VIN-associated data and transmits VIN and VIN-associated data by a NFC receiver/transmitter configured to read from and write to the NFC tag; and

controls the communication unit to transmit the VIN and VIN-associated info to a database for storage and later retrieval by the portable device.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium having recorded thereon a program that causes a portable device to execute a method for generating a value for a vehicle associated with a vehicle identification number stored on a near field communication tag, the method comprising:

retrieving a VIN and VIN-associated data from a vehicle equipped with an NFC tag whereon VIN and VIN-associated data is written by an NFC-enabled portable device configured to read the NFC tag;

transferring the VIN and VIN-associated data via a wireless communications network from the NFC-enabled device to a database, wherein a collection of third-party vehicle information is stored;

comparing the VIN retrieved from the vehicle equipped with the NFC tag to the collection of third-party vehicle information in order to calculate a value for the vehicle associated with the VIN.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

transmitting the value calculated for the vehicle for display on the NFC-enabled portable device.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

storing the value calculated for the vehicle in a database for retrieval by a user.