Verified check-in

• US 9,571,965 B2
• Filed: 02/06/2012
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Stopel, Dima, Schlesinger, Benny, Abramovich, Evgeny, Axlerod, Elinor, Turgman, Ami
• Primary Examiner(s): Navar, Erica
• Application Number:
  US13/366,377
• Publication Number:
  US 20130203383A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,835 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/404.2, 455/410, 455/411, 4554561-4566, 380247-250, 701/486
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/12 Detection or prevention of fraud
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/65 Environment-dependent, e.g. using captured environmental data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

An embodiment of the invention provides a check-in verification system (VCS) that verifies a check-in by a user using a smartphone to check-in at a venue, by verifying that a geolocation provided by the smartphone agrees with a location of the venue and that a password used by the user and the venue are the same.

Claims

1. A method of verifying a check-in by a user using a mobile communication device to check-in at a venue, the method comprising:

receiving at an entity (antispoofer) configured to communicate with the user and the venue a user check-in request to check-in at the venue from the mobile communication device, the user check-in request comprising a user password, a user-ID data, and a venue-ID data;

determining if the mobile communication device is physically located at or near the venue;

responsive to the user check-in request, providing the mobile communication device a uniform resource locator (URL) for access to a venue check-in instruction set that is accessible to the communication device only via a wireless access point (WAP) located at or near the venue;

receiving at the venue a transmission from the communication device comprising an encrypted user password;

receiving, at the entity, a venue check-in request generated by executing the check-in instruction set to acknowledge the user check-in request, the venue check-in request comprising a communication device-provided encrypted user password and venue-provided venue-ID data;

verifying the check-in only if the user-password comprised in the user check-in request and the decrypted user-password in the venue check-in request are the same; and

if verified, notifying the user and the venue that the check-in is verified.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the venue check-in request further comprises communication device-provided user ID data, and wherein the check-in at the venue is verified only if the user-ID data and the communication device-provided user ID data identify the user and the venue-ID data and the venue-provided venue-ID data identify the venue.

3. The method according to claim 1 and comprising using a processor that does not generate a venue check-in request responsive to an encryption that is not received via the WAP to generate the venue check-in request.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein determining if the mobile communication device is physically located at or near the venue comprises:

receiving data acquired by the mobile communication device responsive to a natural or artificial feature of the venue environment; and

processing the data to determine if it was acquired from a location at or near the venue.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein determining if the mobile communication device is physically located at or near the venue comprises:

operating the mobile communication device WiFi enabled and in a hotspot mode so that it recognizes and is recognized by wireless communication devices with which it can be connected by a communication channel;

determining a geolocation of at least one communication device with which the mobile communication device can be connected by a communication channel;

determining a strength of the communication channel;

determining a geolocation of the mobile communication device responsive to the geolocation and the strength of the communication channel; and

determining if the geolocation of the mobile communication device is at or near the venue.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the user password comprises characters from a one-time salt.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein the WAP is a directional WAP having a limited azimuthal angular extent.

11. The method according to claim 4 wherein the data acquired by the mobile computing device based on the natural or artificial feature comprises data that provides at least one image of a feature located at or near the venue.

12. The method according to claim 11 wherein the at least one image comprises a sequence of images acquired within a predetermined relatively short period of time.

13. The method according to claim 4 wherein the data acquired by the mobile computing device based on the natural or artificial feature comprises a sound track of sounds recorded at or near the venue.

14. The method according to claim 1 wherein the user check-in request comprises an SSID for the WAP.

15. The method according to claim 1 wherein the venue check-in request comprises an SSID for the WAP.

7. A system for verifying a user check-in request by a user using a mobile communication device to check-in at a venue, the system comprising:

a wireless access point (WAP) characterized by a limited communication range located at or near the venue;

an instruction set addressable by a uniform resource locator (URL) that processes the user check-in request to generate a venue check-in request and is accessible for receiving the user check-in request only if the user check-in request is addressed with the URL and is transmitted to the instruction set via the WAP;

a server that receives the user check-in request and provides the user mobile communication device with the URL responsive to the user check-in request; and

an application specific software (APP) that configures the mobile communication device to transmit to the server the user check-in request comprising a user password, receive and use the URL to transmit to the instruction set via the WAP an encrypted user password; and

wherein the venue check-in request comprises communication-provided encrypted user password and venue-provided venue-ID data, and the server is configured to vet the user and venue check-in requests and verify the check-in only if the user password comprised in the user check-in request and the communication-provided encrypted user password are the same.

8. The system according to claim 7 wherein the user password comprises characters from a one-time salt.

9. The system according to claim 7 wherein the server verifies the check-in at the venue only if the first and second user-ID data identify the user and the first and second venue-ID data identify the venue.

16. Apparatus for verifying a user check-in request made by a user using a mobile communication device to check-in at a venue, the apparatus configured to communicate with the user and the venue and comprising:

a database comprising user-ID data for the user and venue-ID data for the venue, the user ID-data comprising a user name and a user password and the venue-ID data comprising a WiFi service set identifier (SSID) that identifies a wireless network to which a WAP located at or near the venue belongs and a universal resource locator (URL) that may be used to access a set of instructions configured to process the user check-in request to generate a venue check-in request only if the user check-in request is received by the venue via the WAP and addressed with the URL; and

a processor operable to;

determine based on the user check-in request as communicated to the apparatus by the mobile communication device if the mobile communication device is physically located at or near the venue;

vet the user check-in request to determine if it comprises first user-ID data and first venue-ID data that agrees with the user-ID data and venue ID-data in the database;

configure the apparatus to transmit the URL to the user if the first user-ID data and first venue-ID data agree with the data in the database;

vet the venue check-in request as received by the apparatus from the venue to determine if it comprises second user-ID data and second venue-ID data that agrees with the first user-ID data and first venue-ID data; and

verify the check-in at the venue only if the mobile communication device is determined to be physically located at or near the venue and the first and second user-ID data identify the user and the first and second venue-ID data identify the venue.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16 wherein the processor is configured to determine if the check-in request as received by the apparatus comprises data acquired by the mobile computing device based on a natural or artificial feature located at or near the venue and to process the acquired data to determine if the mobile communication device is physically located at or near the venue.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17 wherein the acquired data comprises data that provides at least one image of a feature located at or near the venue.

19. The apparatus according to claim 18 wherein the at least one image comprises a sequence of images acquired within a predetermined relatively short period of time.

20. The apparatus according to claim 19 wherein the data acquired by the mobile computing comprises a sound track of sounds recorded at or near the venue.