Negotiated wireless peripheral systems

• US 7,222,154 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2005
• Issued: 05/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Eric M. Dowling
• Inventors: Dowling, Eric Morgan
• Primary Examiner(s): Barot, Bharat
• Application Number:
  US11/261,659
• Publication Number:
  US 20060069722A1
• Time in Patent Office: 568 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-203, 709217-219, 709227-229, 709/250, 705/14, 705/34, 705/40, 705/50, 705 52- 53, 705 77- 79, 713/150, 713/153
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• 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 20/327 Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3672 initialising or reloading thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/00 Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points handling coins or valuable papers, e.g. banknotes, G07D; apparatus for vending or hiring articles or services activated by coins, credit cards, paper currency or the like G07F7/00, G07F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/164 at the network layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/166 at the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 : Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 : including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 : Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 : Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 : Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 : Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 : Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• 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 4/24 : Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and business techniques are disclosed for use in mobile network communication systems. A mobile unit such as a smart phone is preferably equipped with a wireless local area network connection and a wireless wide area network connection. The local area network connection is used to establish a position-dependent ecommerce network connection with a wireless product or service access device supplied by a vendor. A negotiation sequence is carried out to electronically contract the services of the negotiated wireless peripheral from the vendor using a prepaid ecommerce protocol. The negotiated wireless peripheral is a general product or service vending device and the mobile unit acts as a digital authentication and payment device with digital pre-paid payment capabilities. The techniques are useful in many applications to include ticketing and admission systems to events and other types of services that involve ticketing.

Claims

1. For use in a system comprising a plurality of public access wireless local area network stations, an Internet, an Internet server, and a wireless handheld phone, a method comprising:

establishing a first ecommerce session between the wireless handheld phone and a member of the group consisting of a management server and any selected one of the plurality of public access wireless local area network stations, wherein the first ecommerce session is position-dependent by virtue of the wireless handheld phone and the selected public access wireless local area network station engaging in a handshaking sequence that is conducted via a wireless local area network air interface;

accepting from the wireless handheld phone a customer payment that is a member of the group consisting of a credit account payment, a debit account payment, a digital cash instrument, and a subscriber identity authentication; and

if the customer payment is found to be valid, supplying Internet access to the wireless handheld phone via the selected public access wireless local area network station to thereby provide the wireless handheld phone with an Internet access connection;

wherein the wireless handheld phone includes application layer software configured to accept user commands and in response thereto, to cause to be established via the supplied Internet access connection a second ecommerce session between the wireless handheld phone and the Internet server to purchase and download digital music content from the Internet server for playback using an audio playback function supplied by the wireless handheld phone.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first ecommerce session includes establishing a connection between the wireless handheld phone and the selected public access wireless local area network station.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first ecommerce session includes establishing a connection between the wireless handheld phone and the management server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the Internet comprises at least a portion of the ubiquitous global Internet.

5. For use in a system comprising a plurality of public access wireless local area network stations, an Internet, an Internet server, and a wireless handheld phone, a method comprising:

establishing a first ecommerce session between the wireless handheld phone and a member of the group consisting of a management server and any selected one of the plurality of public access wireless local area network stations, wherein the first ecommerce session is position-dependent by virtue of the wireless handheld phone and the selected public access wireless local area network station engaging in a handshaking sequence that is conducted via a wireless local area network air interface;

accepting from the wireless handheld phone a customer payment that is a member of the group consisting of a credit account payment, a debit account payment, a digital cash instrument, and a subscriber identity authentication; and

if the customer payment is found to be valid, supplying Internet access to the wireless handheld phone via the selected public access wireless local area network station to thereby provide the wireless handheld phone with an Internet access connection;

wherein the wireless handheld phone includes application layer software configured to accept user commands and in response thereto, to cause to be established via the supplied Internet access connection a second ecommerce session between the wireless handheld phone and the Internet server to purchase and download digital video content from the Internet server for playback using a video playback function supplied by the wireless handheld phone.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first ecommerce session includes establishing a connection between the wireless handheld phone and the selected public access wireless local area network station.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the first ecommerce session includes establishing a connection between the wireless handheld phone and the management server.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the Internet comprises at least a portion of the ubiquitous global Internet.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

wirelessly coupling from the wireless handheld phone to an external video viewing device wireless signals to thereby cause a motion video image related to the digital video content to be displayed on the external video viewing device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the external video viewing device comprises a wireless negotiated peripheral device.

11. For use in a system comprising a plurality of public access wireless local area network stations, an Internet, an Internet server, and a wireless handheld phone, a method comprising:

establishing a first ecommerce session between the wireless handheld phone and a member of the group consisting of a management server and any selected one of the plurality of public access wireless local area network stations, wherein the first ecommerce session is position-dependent by virtue of the wireless handheld phone and the selected public access wireless local area network station engaging in a handshaking sequence that is conducted via a wireless local area network air interface;

accepting from the wireless handheld phone a customer payment that is a member of the group consisting of a credit account payment, a debit account payment, a digital cash instrument, and a subscriber identity authentication;

if the customer payment is found to be valid, supplying Internet access to the wireless handheld phone via the selected public access wireless local area network station to provide the wireless handheld phone with an Internet access connection;

establishing a second ecommerce session between the wireless handheld phone and the Internet server via the Internet access connection; and

supplying from the Internet server to the wireless handheld phone customized digital content, wherein the customized digital content is selectively customized to an area-constrained user interface supplied by the wireless handheld phone or, if present, to an external set of one or more peripherals to include an external display monitor peripheral currently wirelessly coupled to the wireless handheld phone.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the external display monitor peripheral is a wireless negotiated peripheral device coupled to the wireless handheld phone.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

when the external display monitor peripheral is currently wirelessly coupled to the wireless handheld phone, wirelessly transmitting from the wireless handheld phone to the external display monitor peripheral wireless signals to cause the customized digital content to be displayed on the external display monitor peripheral.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the customized digital content comprises a desktop computer style graphical user interface.