Method and system of providing credit card user with barcode purchase data and recommendation automatically on their personal computer

• US 6,611,881 B1
• Filed: 03/15/2000
• Issued: 08/26/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Personal Data Network Corporation
• Original Assignee: Personal Data Network Corporation
• Inventors: Gottfurcht, Elliot A., Gottfurcht, Grant E., Dunn, Shawn C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): MAI, RIJUE
• Application Number:
  US09/525,235
• Time in Patent Office: 1,259 Days
• Field of Search: 710/18, 710/15, 710/72, 710/73, 710/74, 709/223, 709/224, 709/201, 709/203, 712/225, 711/100, 705/30, 705/41
• US Class Current: 710/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3576 Multiple memory zones on card
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/40 relating to drugs, e.g. their side effects or intended usage

Abstract

A method for providing recommendations to a user based on user activity. A plurality of activity data tracking a plurality of activities of a user is obtained. The activity data may be obtained over a wide area network such as the internet or downloaded from a data card which stores activity data whenever the user participates in an activity. The activity data is either stored on the data card or transmitted over the network whenever the user uses a card when participating in any activity such as when making a purchase of goods, paying for services, watching television, etc. The activity data is processed to identify a plurality of user patterns. The user patterns are used to form a user profile and may include user habit data. Recommendations specific to the user based on the user patterns are then created for and provided to the user. The recommendations are provided to a user when the user logs onto a computer network such as the internet. The recommendations may also be provided by electronic mail, electronic pager or other methods. The recommendations are provided by various data analysis techniques including rule based inference engines and other forms of artificial intelligence.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a transportable recordable medium (TRM) by communicating over a wide area network (WAN) the activity data to an account of the user on a profiler access device to a user;

processing a monetary transaction such that a financial account data on the TRM is accessed; and

transferring an activity data to a user accessible location derived from the TRM.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein processing comprises:

retrieving a list of financial accounts of the user in which the financial accounts of the user are maintained with at least two financial entities.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein retrieving a list of financial accounts comprises:

reading a financial account data from the TRM.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein processing further comprises:

obtaining user authorization to access the TRM;

displaying the list of financial accounts to the user;

prompting the user to choose from the list of financial accounts;

receiving an account choice from the user; and

prompting the user to accept a financial transaction involving the account choice.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein processing further comprises:

updating the financial account data on the TRM based on the monetary transaction and the account choice.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein retrieving a list of financial accounts comprises:

receiving the list of financial accounts over a wide area network (WAN) after presenting the financial account data.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein presenting comprises:

communicating with the financial entities.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein presenting comprises:

communicating with a profiler.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

processing the activity data to identify a plurality of user patterns;

creating at least one recommendation specific to the user based on the user patterns; and

providing the recommendations to the user.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein processing comprises:

analyzing the activity data to prepare user patterns comprising at least one of user buying habit data, user web habit data, user eating habit data, user health data, user entertainment habit data, user travel habit data, user telephone calling habit data;

sending at least one web query derived from the user patterns; and

receiving a plurality of responses to the web query.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein creating comprises:

evaluating the plurality of web responses to create a plurality of web page recommendations; and

evaluating one or more of the plurality of web responses, the user patterns and the user profile data to create a plurality of user relevant data.

12. A method comprising:

identifying a consumer at a point of purchase;

capturing discrete details including prices, quantity and a product identifier of at least one transaction conducted by the consumer at the point of purchase; and

automatically forwarding the details to a storage unit accessible by the consumer.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the storage unit is accessible by the consumer over a wide area network (WAN).

14. The method of claim 12 wherein identifying comprises:

reading an electronically readable medium.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

processing the descrete details to identify a plurality of user patterns;

creating at least one recommendation specific to the user based on the user patterns; and

providing the recommendation to the user.