Architecture for secure reverse mobile commerce

• US 7,668,754 B1
• Filed: 07/21/2003
• Issued: 02/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Symbol Technologies, Inc. (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: Bridgelall, Raj
• Primary Examiner(s): ZURITA, JAMES H
• Application Number:
  US10/624,170
• Time in Patent Office: 2,409 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/37
• US Class Current: 705/26.9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 Item locations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A secure m-commerce system and device. A consumer m-commerce device receives product data via a number of data input techniques. The product data is uploaded to a remote personal agent that requests bids from commercial partners to transact the list. When a bid is selected, the consumer transacts remotely to complete the purchase thereof. The system tracks geographically the device such that the consumer is alerted to a partner location, and may stop by the location for further information. The device may also output a store map to the consumer that locates all products on the shopping list.

Claims

1. An m-commerce system comprising:

a program memory;

a storage device;

a computer processor;

a data input component configured to receive item data representative of an article of commerce;

a coordination component configured to receive a shopping list transmitted by the data input component and presents the article of commerce from the shopping list to a plurality of vendors for a bid, the coordination component further configured to receive the bid for transacting the article of commerce in real-time, and the data input component further configured to provide an alert when the data input component is within physical proximity of the vendor that is presented the bid and has the article in stock;

a location awareness component configured to track the location of the data input component, the vendor presented with the bid is notified when the data input component is within physical proximity of the vendor; and

a payment component configured to facilitate payment of the article of commerce and provides secure communication.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a wireless portable terminal.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the data input component is further configured to upload a shopping list to the coordination component.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the data input component is further configured to download item information from at least one of an appliance and a computer.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the data input component is is further configured to be in continuous communication with the coordination component.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data input component is further configured to communicate information using a virtual private network.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a user of the data input component specifies a price range for a list of the articles of commerce, in response to which the coordination component is configured to receive one or more of the bids to transact the list.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the data input component is further configured to locate the article of commerce in a vendor facility via RF backscattering.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the data input component is configured to facilitate receiving the item data by at least one of manual input, a dataform scanning system, an image capture system, an audio input system, a magnetic reading assembly, and an RF transponder reading assembly.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the location awareness component includes at least one of a GPS system, a general packet radio services network, and a RTLS architecture.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the coordination component is further configured to facilitate communication of awareness data to both the data input component and a vendor.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the awareness data communicated to the data input component provides at least one of notification that the vendor is located nearby, and one of a name and an address of the vendor.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the awareness data communicated to the vendor provides at least one of identification of the user of the data input component and notification that the data input component is located nearby.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the awareness data is further configured to facilitate pushing marketing information to the user of the data input component, which marketing information is targeted to the user.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the coordination component comprises at least one of remotely on a global communication network and a local backoffice network.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the coordination component is further configured to coordinate inter-component functions between the data input component, the location awareness component, and the payment component.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the payment component is further configured to provide secure communication using at least one of a biometric, radio frequency identification (RFID) data, and an article-of-commerce dataform.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the payment component component is further configured to distinguish selection of a first article of commerce from a second article of commerce by processing both RFID data and dataform data of the first article of commerce.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the payment component is further configured to facilitate secure communication of item data via a secure key cryptographic engine.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the engine receives as an input at least one of a manufacturer'"'"'s key, a retailer'"'"'s key, a unique item ID, and a locate command.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the engine outputs at least one of a product lookup code and a set/reset password.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the data input component is further configured to output at least one of a map and location information that indicates the location of the article of commerce in a store.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the data input component is further configured to receive via the coordination component, item information associated with the article of commerce.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the coordination component is further configured to retrieve item information associated with the article of commerce from a vendor data resource, and wherein the coordination component is further configured to download the information to the data input component for presentation to the user.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the coordination component is further configured to manage a transaction between a user of the data input component and a vendor selected to provide the article of commerce.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the payment component is further configured to facilitate at least one of deactivation and activation of an RFID tag associated with the article of commerce when the data input component reads RFID tag data.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the payment component is further configured to authenticate the data input component to a store network.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein the location awareness component is further configured to track the data input component in a wide area network and a local area network.

29. The system of claim 1, wherein the payment component is further configured to utilize electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology with bi-stable and resettable EAS data in an RFID tag.

30. The system of claim 1, wherein the location awareness component is further configured to update a vehicle location tracking system to present a location of the vendor offering the bid.

31. The system of claim 1, wherein the location awareness component is further configured to update the data input component with store information of a store as the data input component passes within range of a compatible store communication system.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the data input component is further configured to notify a user that the article of commerce is present in the store.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the data input component is further configured to automatically notify a user of a location of the article of commerce in the store.

34. The system of claim 1, wherein the location awareness component is further configured to facilitate synchronization of data of the data input component with a second data input component over a wireless personal data network.

35. The system of claim 1, wherein the coordination component is further configured to download multimedia content related to the article of commerce to the data input component in response to the item data being received.

36. The system of claim 1, wherein the data input component is further configured to transmit a unique password to a tag of the article of commerce to facilitate payment for that article of commerce.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the tag is an RFID tag that compares the unique password with a password of the RFID tag.

38. The system of claim 36, wherein the tag is at least one of received programmed with the password and programmed with the password at a time of source marking.

39. The system of claim 1, wherein the payment component includes a communication process that is prioritized according to a bandwidth provisioning architecture.

40. The system of claim 1, wherein the data input component is one of a cellular telephone and a connected person data assistant.