Systems and methods for implementing automatic payer authentication

• US 9,881,303 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2014
• Issued: 01/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vohra, Nikant, Agarwal, Priyanshu, Raibhandare, Tushar, Annamalai, Prasanna, Pahuja, Anupam
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Steven
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sax, Timothy
• Application Number:
  US14/297,416
• Publication Number:
  US 20150356563A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,335 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/401 Transaction verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

A system or method may be provided to facilitate automatic user authentication for electronic transactions. In particular, the system or method may automatically authenticate a customer such that the customer may make complete hands free payments without the intervention of the customer or the merchant. The automatic authentication may include a check-in process and a payment authentication process. When a customer enters a designated area of a merchant, a BLE beacon device of the merchant may automatically check the customer in at the designated area of the merchant. After the customer is checked in at the merchant'"'"'s designated area, the merchant may identify the customer who is about to make a payment from a plurality of other customers who also are checked in at the merchant via Bluetooth proximity and facial recognition in parallel. Thus, the customer may automatically be authenticated to make payments by facial recognition or Bluetooth proximity.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a wireless beacon associated with a physical location;

one or more server machines comprising one or more hardware processors couple to a non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the computer system to perfom operations comprising;

providing, by the one or more server machines, a one-time use payment token to a user device associated with a user account permitted for automated authentication at the physical location, the user account being associated with a facial recognition profile of a user of the user device;

providing, by the one or more server machines, a digital signature and a one-time use token to the wireless beacon associated with the physical location;

detecting, by the wireless beacon, the user device when the user device is present at the physical location using Near Field Communication;

sending, by the wireless beacon, the digital signature and the one-time use token to the user device in response to the detecting, wherein the digital signature is used to verify the wireless beacon;

receiving, by the wireless beacon, an encrypted value sent from the user device wherein the encrypted value comprises the one-time use payment token of the user device and the one-time use token of the wireless beacon;

sending, by the wireless beacon, the encrypted value comprising the one-time use payment token of the user device and the one-time use token of the wireless beacon to the one or more server machines;

authenticating, by the one or more server machines, the user device and the wireless beacon based on the one-time use payment token of the use device and the one-time use token of the wireless beacon;

receiving, by the one or more server machines, an image of a human captured at the physical location;

comparing, by the one or more server machines, the image of the human captured at the physical location to the facial recognition profile of the user account associated with the authenticated user device;

automatically authenticating, by the one or more server machines without human involvement, the user account for a pending transaction at the physical location based on the comparing of the image of the human captured at the physical location to the facial recognition profile of the user account associated with the authenticated user device; and

performing, by the one or more server machines, the pending transaction using the authenticated user account.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying the user account from among a plurality of user accounts associated with user devices authenticated at the physical location.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

calculating a confidence score for each facial recognition profile of a plurality of user accounts associated with respective user devices authenticated at the physical location, each confidence score indicating a degree of similarity between the human in the image and a respective one of the facial recognition profiles; and

determining that one of the respective facial recognition profiles matches the human in the image, at least in part, based on the confidence scores.

4. The computer system of claim 3, wherein the matching facial recognition profile has a highest confidence score among the confidence scores.

5. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying one or more other user accounts associated with user devices authenticated at the physical location that are present in the image.

6. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying the user account among the plurality user accounts associated with the user devices authenticated at the physical location based on a wireless signal strength of the user device in association with the wireless beacon.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the identified user account has a greatest signal strength associated with the wireless beacon indicating that the user device is located most proximate to the physical location among one or more other user devices.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

automatically completing the pending transaction without receiving identifying information for the user account.

9. The computer system of claim 1, Wherein the physical location is unmanned.

10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein a payment is automatically made from the user account associated with the pending transaction based on the automatic authenticating of the user account.

11. A machine-implemented method for automated authentication of a user at a physical location, comprising:

providing, by one or more server machines, a one-time use payment token to a user device associated with a user account permitted for automated authentication at a physical location, the user account being associated with a facial recognition profile of a user of the user device and the user account;

providing, by the one or more server machines, a digital signature and a one-time use token to a wireless beacon associated with the physical location;

detecting, by a wireless beacon, the user device when the user device is present at the physical location using Near Field Communication;

sending, by the wireless beacon, the digital signature and the one-time use token to the user device in response to the detecting, wherein the digital signature is used to verify the wireless beacon;

receiving, by the wireless beacon, an encrypted value sent from the user device wherein the encrypted value comprises the one-time use payment token of the user device and the one-time use token of the wireless beacon;

sending, by the wireless beacon, the encrypted value comprising the one-time use payment token of the user device and the one-time use token of the wireless beacon to the one or more server machines;

authenticating, by the one or more server machines, the user device and the wireless beacon based on the one-time use payment token of the user device and one-time use token of the wireless beacon;

receiving, by the one or more server machines, an image of a human captured at the physical location;

comparing, by the one or more server machines, the image of the human captured at the physical location to a facial profile of the user account associated with the authenticated user device;

automatically authenticating, by the one or more server machines without human involvement, the user account for a pending transaction at the physical location based on the comparing of the image of the human captured at the physical location to the facial profile of the user account associated with the authenticated user device; and

performing, by the one or more server machines, the pending transaction using the authenticated user account.

12. The machine-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

collecting images of the user for building the facial recognition profile, of the user; and

building the facial profile of the user based on analyzing the collected images.

13. The machine-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the images of the user are collected at least from two or more of a contact list of the user, a social network account, a digital photo album, or one or more images stored in association with the user device.

14. The machine-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the facial profile of the user comprises information indicating one or more unique facial features of the user.

15. The machine-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the facial profile of the user is updated periodically based on one or more newly collected images associated with the user.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable by a computer system to cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

providing, by one or more server machines, a one-time use payment token to a user device associated with a user account permitted for automated authentication at a physical location, the user account being associated with a facial recognition profile of a user of the user device and the user account;

providing, by the one or more server machines, a digital signature and a one-time use token to a wireless beacon associated with the physical location;

detecting, by the wireless beacon, the user device when the user device enters the physical location using Near Field Communication;

sending, by the wireless beacon, the digital signature and the one-time use token to the user device in response to the detecting, wherein the digital signature is used to verify the wireless beacon;

receiving, by the wireless beacon, an encrypted value sent from the user device wherein the encrypted value comprises the one-time use payment token of the user device and the one-time use token of the wireless beacon;

sending, by the wireless beacon, the encrypted value comprising the one-time use payment token of the user device and the one-time use token of the wireless beacon to the one or more server machines;

authenticating, by the one or more server machines, the user device and the wireless beacon based on the one-time use payment token of the user device and the one-tirne use token of the wireless beacon;

receiving, by the one or more server machines, an image of a human captured at the physical location;

comparing, by the one or more server machines, the image of the human captured at the physical location to the facial profile of the user account associated with the authenticated user device;

automatically authenticating, by the one or more server machines without human involvement, the user account for a pending transaction at the physical location based on the comparing of image of the human captured at the physical location to the facial profile of the user account associated with the authenticated user device; and

performing, by the one or more server machines, the pending transaction using the authenticated user account.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the physical location is unmanned and the automatic authenticating of the user account is performed, at least in part, based on detecting the user device at the physical location.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the automatic authenticating of the user account is further based on a detected wireless signal strength of the user device.