Transaction System and Method

• US 20080167966A1
• Filed: 10/26/2005
• Published: 07/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Coca-Cola Company
• Original Assignee: The Coca-Cola Company
• Inventors: Dennett, Robert, Ramsdale, David, Dompietro, Gino
• Granted Patent: US 8,275,664 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• 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

Abstract

The present invention generally relates to cashless transactions. In particular, the present invention relates to methods (100) for conducting cashless transactions and systems (400, 500) for implementing said methods. In a first aspect there is provided a method (100) of processing a cashless transaction. The method includes, determining (102) a first identification from a first identification device (426); pre-authorising (104) the cashless transaction on the basis of first identification; determining (106) a second identification from a second identification device (420A); and in the event that the first identification and the second identification are associated, authorising (110) the cashless transaction.

Claims

1. A method of processing a cashless transaction including:

determining a first identification from a first identification device;

pre-authorising the cashless transaction on the basis of the first identification;

including;

(a) identifying a user, or group of users, authorised to use the first identification device on the basis of first identification;

(b) identifying one or more financial accounts to be used in the transaction on the basis of first identification; and

(c) identifying whether there is a valid second identification associated with the first identification device that can be used to authorise a transaction;

determining a second identification from a second identification device; and

in the event that the first identification and the determined second identification are associated, authorising the cashless transaction.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first identification from the first identification device includes determining a unique identifier corresponding to the first identification device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein pre-authorising the cashless transaction includes one or more of the following:

retrieving user profile data relating to a user, or group or users, authorised to use the first identification device to make a cashless transaction; and

determining at least one authorisation criterion that must be met to authorise the transaction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first identification from the first identification device can include, receiving identification data from the first identification device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the first identification from the first identification device further includes reading the identification data from the first identification device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein either one or both of, the first identification device and the second identification device, is a radio frequency transponder.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the authorisation criterion (or criteria) is based on at least one of the following factors:

the identity of the user making the transaction;

the value of the transaction;

a transaction value limit;

a user account status;

a financial account status;

a financial account balance;

the location at which the transaction is made;

the time and/or date of the transaction;

the type of association formed between the first identification and the second identification.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a second identification from the second identification device includes, receiving identification data from the second identification device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining a second identification from the second identification device further includes reading the identification data from the second identification device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second identification device is a passive identification device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the second identification device includes a machine readable indicium.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the machine readable indicium is a one-dimensional barcode or two-dimensional barcode symbol.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the second identification from the second identification device includes determining an unique identifier corresponding to the second identification device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further includes determining if the second identification is associated with the first identification.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining if the second identification is associated with the first identification includes, interrogating an accounts database to determine if the first identification device is associated with the second identification device.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein determining if the second identification is associated with the first-identification includes, attempting to decrypt encrypted data received from one (or both) of the first and second identification devices, using data received from the respective other identification device, and in the event that the decryption is successful, verifying that an association has been formed between the second identification device and the first identification device.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein determining if the second identification is associated with the first identification includes comparing at least a portion of the data obtained from the first identification device to at least a portion of the data obtained from the second identification device to determine whether an association has been formed between the identification devices.

21. The method of claim 1, further including storing transaction data relating to the transaction.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the transaction data includes one or more of the following types of transaction data:

transaction value data, transaction participant data, data describing the nature of the transaction, the identification determined from the first identification device;

the identification determined from the second identification device, the time and/or date of the transaction, the location at which the transaction took place.

23. The method of claim 1, further including receiving an authorisation code from a user to authorise a transaction.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the authorisation code is a personal identification number (PIN) or password.

65. The method of claim 1, wherein data obtained from the second identification device is encrypted and the authorisation code forms part of the decryption scheme used to decrypt said data.

18. (canceled)

19. (canceled)

20. (canceled)

25. (canceled)

26. (canceled)

27. A system for processing a cashless transaction including:

at least one first reader configured to read a first identification from a first identification device,

at least one second reader configured to read second identification from a second identification device;

a transaction processing system computer configured to authorise the transaction if the first identification and the second identification are associated with each other; and

data storage means in communication with the transaction processing system computer, that stores thereon an account database including account data for a plurality of user accounts, the account data for each user account including at least one identifier corresponding to at least one respective first identification device, and at least one associated identifier corresponding to at least one respective second identification device;

wherein in the event that a user account includes a plurality of second identifiers corresponding to a plurality of second identification devices, a financial account is associated with a subset of the second identifiers.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the account data also includes financial account data identifying at least one financial account associated with the user account that can be used in a transaction.

30. The system according to claim 27, wherein the transaction processing system computer is further configured to interrogate the database on the basis of the first identification to determine whether the first identification and second identification are associated with the same user account.

31. The system according to claim 27, wherein the transaction processing system computer is further configured to decrypt encrypted data received from one (or both) of the first and second identification devices, using data received from the respective other identification device to determine whether the first identification and second identification are associated with the same user account.

32. The system according to claim 31, wherein in the event that the decryption is successful the transaction processing system computer is configured to verify that an association has been formed between the second identification device and the first identification device.

34. The system according to claim 27, wherein the transaction processing system computer is further configured to pre-authorise a cashless transaction on the basis of the first identification.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein pre-authorisation of a cashless transaction includes one or more of the following:

identifying, from the account database, that a user account corresponding to the first identification has at least one associated second identifier;

identifying a group of second identifiers respective ones of a plurality of user accounts corresponding to the first identification;

identifying a financial account to be used in the transaction on the basis of first identification;

determining at least one authorisation criterion that must be met to authorise the transaction.

36. The system according to claim 27, wherein in the event that one or both of the first or second identification devices is an active identification device then at least one of the first or second readers includes a receiver configured to receive a transmission from one or both of the first or second identification devices.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the at least one of the first or second readers includes a transmitter configured to transmit an excitation signal to one or both of the first or second identification devices.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein in the event that one or both of the first or second identification devices is an active identification device the excitation signal is configured to trigger a response from one or both of the first or second identification devices.

39. The system of claim 37, wherein in the event that one or both of the first or second identification devices is a passive identification device the excitation signal is configured to be at least partially reflected by one or both of the first or second identification devices.

40. The system of claim 27, wherein the first and second readers are of different types.

41. The system of claim 27, wherein at least one of the first and second readers is a radio frequency transponder reader.

42. The system of claim 27, wherein the second reader is a symbol reader.

43. The system of claim 27, further including a remote terminal in data communication with the transaction processing system computer and the at least one reader, and configured to receive identification data from the at least one reader and communicate said identification data to the transaction processing system computer.

44. The system of claim 43, wherein the remote terminal includes an interface component configured to communicate with a point of sale system of a merchant or other transaction participant.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the interface component is configured to receive transaction data for the cashless transaction for communication to the transaction processing system computer.

46. The system of claim 27, wherein the system further includes an account interface component configured to enable a user account to be established and/or edited.

47. The system of claim 46, wherein the account interface component is implemented as a website.

28. (canceled)

33. (canceled)

48. A method of enabling the establishment of an account to be used for conducting a cashless transaction by a user of a first identification device, said cashless transaction being authorised using a second identification device, the method including:

(i) providing an account database for storing account data;

(ii) distributing one or more second identification devices to a user of a first identification device;

(iii) receiving account data from a user including;

(a) data identifying a first identification device;

(b) data identifying a second identification device;

(c) financial account data relating to at least one financial account; and

(iv) creating an account for use in the cashless transaction processing system by establishing an association between the first identification device, the second identification device and at least one financial account.

49. The method of claim 48 further including receiving an authorisation code to be used in conjunction with the second identification device to authorise a transaction.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the authorisation code can be a personal identification number or password and the authorisation code can be used to decrypt data received from the first and/or second identification devices.

52. The method of claim 48, wherein distributing one or more second identification devices includes transmitting data representative of a second identification device to enable generation of a second identification device.

53. The method of claim 48, further including a step of, providing a plurality of unique second identification devices that are not associated with a first identification device.

54. The method of claim 48, further including a step of, providing a second identification device that has been pre-associated with a predetermined first identification device such that an association can only be associated with said predetermined first identification device.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein establishing the association between the first identification device and at least one of said plurality of second identification devices includes obtaining at least one of the following types of data for storage in the account database:

the name of the user of a first identification device

an identifier associated with the second identification device;

demographic data relating to the use; and

financial account data relating to an account to be used in a cashless transaction.

56. The method of claim 48, further including providing a website including at least one webpage to enable updating of the account database.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the updating of the account data relating to the first identification device can only be done by an authorised user of the first identification device.

58. The method of claim 48, wherein a plurality of second identification devices can be associated with the first identification device.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein each user of the first identification device is associated with a unique second identification device.

60. The method of claims 48, wherein the first identification device is a radio frequency identification device.

61. The method of claims 48, wherein the second identification device includes a barcode or two-dimensional symbol.

51. (canceled)

62. A method of establishing an account to be used for conducting a cashless transaction by a user of a first identification device, said cashless transaction being authorised using a second identification device, the method including:

receiving account data from a user including;

data identifying a first identification device, and

financial account data relating to at least one financial account; and

generating identification data, to be encoded into a second identification device, for use in authorising a cashless transaction using the account.

63. The method of claim 62 further including transmitting the identification data to a user for encoding into a second identification device.

64. The method of claim 63 further including generating said second identification device using said identification data.