Integration of transaction status indications

• US 10,380,579 B1
• Filed: 12/22/2016
• Issued: 08/13/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hafemann, Sean Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender, Florian M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bruner, Nicole Elena
• Application Number:
  US15/389,022
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• Field of Search: 705 16, 705 18
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• 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 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/325 using wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0009 Details of the software in the checkout register, electronic cash register [ECR] or point of sale terminal [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/08 Key distribution or management, e.g. generation, sharing or updating, of cryptographic keys or passwords network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting key management in a packet data network H04L63/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4227 Providing Remote input by a user located remotely from the client device, e.g. at work

Abstract

Facilitating transaction status indications for point-of-sale (POS) systems is described. A POS application stored on a POS terminal of a POS system may communicate with a payment reader device coupled to the POS terminal and a payment server application. The POS application may receive, from a customer device associated with a customer and via a short-range communication network, payment information for satisfying a cost of a transaction. The POS application may send the payment information to the payment server application to attempt to authorize the payment information for the cost of the transaction and may receive, from the payment server application, an indication of a status of the transaction. Responsive to receiving the indication of the status of the transaction, the payment reader device and the customer device may output respective aspects of a transaction status indication associated with the status of the transaction.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a point-of-sale (POS) application associated with a POS system, payment information for satisfying a cost of a transaction between a customer and a merchant, the payment information received by a payment reader device of the POS system from a device associated with the customer;

sending, to a server, a request to authorize the payment information for the cost of the transaction;

receiving, from the server, a response indicating a status of the transaction;

selecting, by the POS application and from a plurality of transaction status indications, a transaction status indication for the transaction to communicate the status of the transaction to the customer and the merchant, wherein the transaction status indication is selected based at least in part on at least one of customer data associated with the customer, merchant data associated with the merchant, or transaction details associated with the transaction; and

sending, from the POS application, instructions associated with the transaction status indication to cause the payment reader device to output a first portion of the transaction status indication and the device associated with the customer to output a second portion of the transaction status indication.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an event associated with the transaction; and

determining the transaction status indication based at least in part on the event.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based at least in part on the transaction details, a location associated with the transaction; and

determining the transaction status indication based at least in part on the location.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based at least in part on the transaction details, a total spend associated with the transaction; and

determining the transaction status indication based at least in part on the total spend.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based at least in part on the transaction details, at least one item acquired via the transaction; and

determining the transaction status indication based at least in part on the at least one item.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based at least in part on the customer data, a status level associated with the customer; and

determining the transaction status indication based at least in part on the status level.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based at least in part on the transaction details, an identity of the merchant; and

determining the transaction status indication based at least in part on the identity of the merchant.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based at least in part on the merchant data, a category associated with the merchant; and

determining the transaction status indication based at least in part on the category associated with the merchant.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the transaction status indication is associated with an audio signal.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the transaction status indication is associated with a visual signal.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein sending instructions associated with the transaction status indication comprises:

sending first instructions to the POS system to cause the payment reader device to output the first portion of the transaction status indication; and

sending second instructions to the device associated with the customer to cause the device associated with the customer to output the second portion of the transaction status indication.

12. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media, that when executed by one or more processors associated with a POS terminal, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving payment information for satisfying a cost of a transaction between a customer and a merchant, wherein the payment information is received by a payment reader device associated with the POS terminal from a device associated with the customer;

sending the payment information to a payment server application, the payment server application to attempt to authorize the payment information for the cost of the transaction;

receiving, from the payment server application, an indication of a status of the transaction;

based on the indication, retrieving instructions for outputting a transaction status indication that signals the status of the transaction to the customer and the merchant, wherein the transaction status indication is selected, from a plurality of transaction status indications, based at least in part on at least one of customer data associated with the customer, merchant data associated with the merchant, or transaction details associated with the transaction; and

sending the instructions associated with the transaction status indication to cause the payment reader device to output a first portion of a transaction status indication and the device associated with the customer to output a second portion of the transaction status indication.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

first instructions associated with the first portion of the transaction status indication and a first time interval, lapse of which triggers the payment reader device to output the first portion at a first time; and

second instructions associated with the second portion of the transaction status indication and a second time interval, the lapse of which triggers a payment application executing on the device associated with the customer to output the second portion at a second time.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the instructions are associated with data corresponding to the respective portions of the transaction status indication.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the transaction status indication is associated with at least one of an audio signal or a visual signal.

16. A POS system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, at a point-of-sale (POS) application associated with the POS system, payment information for satisfying a cost of a transaction between a customer and a merchant, the payment information received by a payment reader device of the POS system from a device associated with the customer;

sending, to a server, a request to authorize the payment information for the cost of the transaction;

receiving, from the server, a response indicating a status of the transaction;

selecting, by the POS application and from a plurality of transaction status indications, a transaction status indication for the transaction to communicate the status of the transaction to the customer and the merchant, wherein the transaction status indication is selected based at least in part on at least one of customer data associated with the customer, merchant data associated with the merchant, or transaction details associated with the transaction; and

sending, from the POS application, instructions associated with the transaction status indication to cause the payment reader device to output a first portion of the transaction status indication and the device associated with the customer to output a second portion of the transaction status indication.

17. The POS system as claim 16 recites, wherein the first portion is associated with a first sound and the second portion is associated with a second sound and the first sound and the second sound are the same sound, output at the same time.

18. The POS system as claim 16 recites, wherein the first portion is associated with a first sound and the second portion is associated with a second sound and the first sound and the second sound are different sounds, output at the same time.

19. The POS system as claim 16 recites, wherein the first portion is associated with a first sound and the second portion is associated with a second sound and the first sound and the second sound are different sounds, output at different times.

20. The POS system as claim 16 recites, wherein the payment reader device is communicatively coupled to the POS system via Bluetooth®

, Bluetooth®

low energy, near-field communication, or radio-frequency identification, and the instructions are sent to the payment reader via Bluetooth®

, Bluetooth®

low energy, near-field communication, or radio-frequency identification.