Card reader emulation for cardless transactions
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method comprising:
- detecting user input at a point-of-sale (POS) system located at a merchant location where a consumer is physically present at a time of a payment transaction involving the consumer and a merchant, the user input entered via a user interface of the POS system, the user input specifying the consumer and being indicative of an intent to initiate the payment transaction;
in response to the user input, initiating the payment transaction in the POS system by outputting, to a POS module in the POS system, data that emulates output of a physical card reader associated with a card read event, without an actual card read event having occurred in relation to the payment transaction, wherein said outputting data that emulates output of a physical card reader includes invoking a card reader application programming interface (API) associated with the physical card reader;
after the payment transaction has been approved by a payment processing entity, preventing generation of a printed receipt for the payment transaction by intercepting a print signal generated by the POS module for activating a receipt printer, the print signal including receipt data; and
in response to the print signal, sending a first message from the POS system to cause a second message to be sent to a mobile device of the consumer, the second message for enabling the mobile device to output a virtual receipt for the payment transaction to the consumer.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed are method and apparatus that enable a cardless payment transaction to be executed from a merchant point-of-sale (POS) system. A user is enabled to check in at a merchant by using a mobile device of the user and then to pay by simply appearing at the merchant and mentioning his name. By emulating card read events and intercepting receipt printer outputs, the technique cleanly integrates into a conventional merchant POS system, without the need for customized software or hardware to accommodate individual POS vendor-proprietary application programming interfaces (APIs).
108 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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detecting user input at a point-of-sale (POS) system located at a merchant location where a consumer is physically present at a time of a payment transaction involving the consumer and a merchant, the user input entered via a user interface of the POS system, the user input specifying the consumer and being indicative of an intent to initiate the payment transaction; in response to the user input, initiating the payment transaction in the POS system by outputting, to a POS module in the POS system, data that emulates output of a physical card reader associated with a card read event, without an actual card read event having occurred in relation to the payment transaction, wherein said outputting data that emulates output of a physical card reader includes invoking a card reader application programming interface (API) associated with the physical card reader; after the payment transaction has been approved by a payment processing entity, preventing generation of a printed receipt for the payment transaction by intercepting a print signal generated by the POS module for activating a receipt printer, the print signal including receipt data; and in response to the print signal, sending a first message from the POS system to cause a second message to be sent to a mobile device of the consumer, the second message for enabling the mobile device to output a virtual receipt for the payment transaction to the consumer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium tangibly storing program code that, if executed by one or more processors in a point-of-sale (POS) system located at a POS location of a merchant, will cause the POS system to perform operations including:
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detecting, at the point-of-sale (POS) system, user input entered via a user interface of the POS system, the user input specifying a consumer and being indicative of an intent to initiate a payment transaction involving the consumer; in response to the user input, initiating the payment transaction in the POS system by outputting, to a POS module in the POS system, data that emulates output of a physical card reader associated with a card read event, without an actual card read event having occurred in relation to the payment transaction, wherein said outputting data that emulates output of a physical card reader includes invoking a card reader application programming interface (API) associated with the physical card reader; after the payment transaction has been approved by a payment processing entity, preventing generation of a printed receipt for the payment transaction by intercepting a print signal generated by the POS module for activating a receipt printer, the print signal including receipt data; and in response to the print signal, sending a first message from the POS system to cause a second message to be sent to a mobile device of the consumer, the second message for enabling the mobile device to output a virtual receipt for the payment transaction to the consumer. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification