DONGLE FACILITATED WIRELESS CONSUMER PAYMENTS

• US 20140188708A1
• Filed: 07/10/2013
• Published: 07/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: GOVINDARAJAN, Satish Narayan, Granbery, John Hastings
• Granted Patent: US 8,972,296 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/39
• 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 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3226 Use of secure elements separate from M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/327 Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3829 involving key management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/201 Multicast operation; Broadcast operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

Computing systems and methods for facilitating consumer transactions in retail and other establishments include communication interfaces adapted to couple a computing system to a plurality of third party mobile electronic devices, storage components adapted to store user information, participating merchant information, or any combination thereof, and processors in communication with the communication interfaces and storage components. The processors are adapted to facilitate automatic wireless transactions between third party users of the third party mobile electronic devices and the participating merchants when the third party devices are present at the participating merchants without any affirmative activity by the third party users.

Claims

1. A computing system, comprising:

one or more communication interfaces adapted to couple the computing system to a plurality of third party mobile electronic devices, the one or more communication interfaces including at least a Bluetooth low energy protocol communication interface;

one or more storage components adapted to store user information, participating merchant information, or any combination thereof; and

one or more processors in communication with the one or more communication interfaces and the one or more storage components, said one or more processors being adapted to facilitate automated wireless transactions between third party users of the third party mobile electronic devices and participating merchants, wherein said automatic wireless transactions take place when the third party mobile electronic devices are present at the participating merchants without any affirmative activity by the third party users at the participating merchants.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein said automatic wireless transactions are facilitated using the communication interfaces communicating with the third party mobile devices using Bluetooth low energy protocols and.

3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein said one or more processors are further adapted to facilitate output presentations on the third party mobile electronic devices, the output presentations including indications or information regarding the automated wireless transactions.

4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the computing system comprises one or more dongles adapted to be operated by the participating merchants and adapted to communicate with said one or more third party mobile devices.

5. A method of facilitating payment or credit for a purchase by utilizing an automated wireless process between a vendor device and a purchaser device, the method comprising:

providing software code to be used on the purchaser device, the software code including information regarding automated wireless processes using said purchaser device, said providing being performed electronically by a processor;

enabling the purchaser device to utilize a Bluetooth low energy protocol to detect the presence of the vendor device using the provided software code, said detecting occurring automatically without any affirmative action by the purchaser; and

facilitating a wireless communications exchange between the purchaser device and the nearby vendor device, said exchange occurring automatically without any affirmative action by the purchaser using the Bluetooth low energy protocol.

22. The method of claim 5, wherein providing software code comprises providing at least a generic universally unique identifier (UUID), metadata, and a specific beacon token.

6-7. -7. (canceled)

8. A non-transitory medium having a plurality of machine-readable instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a server controlled by a service provider, are adapted to cause the server to perform a method comprising:

providing software code to be used on a third party mobile computing device used by a purchaser, the software code including information regarding automated wireless processes using said third party mobile computing device;

enabling the third party mobile computing device to utilize a Bluetooth low energy protocol to detect the presence of the vendor device using the provided software code, said detecting occurring automatically without any affirmative action by the purchaser; and

facilitating a wireless communications exchange between the third party mobile computing device and the nearby vendor device, said exchange occurring automatically without any affirmative action by the purchaser.

9. A Bluetooth low energy dongle for wirelessly facilitating consumer payments, comprising:

a Bluetooth low energy communication interface adapted to couple the dongle to a plurality of consumer devices using a Bluetooth low energy protocol;

a wireless interface adapted to couple the dongle to a remote server over a network;

one or more storage components adapted to store at least consumer information and merchant information; and

one or more processors in communication with the Bluetooth low energy communication interface, the wireless interface, and the one or more storage components, the one or more processors being adapted to automatically facilitate the consumer payments between the consumer and merchants, wherein the consumer payments take place when the consumer devices are present at the merchants without any affirmative activity by the consumer at merchant locations.

10. The dongle of claim 9, wherein the dongle is installed at the merchant locations.

11. The dongle of claim 10, wherein the dongle is installed at check-out terminals in the merchant locations.

12. The dongle of claim 10, the dongle comprises multiple dongles installed at multiple locations within each of the merchant locations.

13. The dongle of claim 9, further comprising a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection adapted to pivot, slide, or swivel to facilitate installation of the dongle and to provide power to the dongle.

14. The dongle of claim 9, further comprising a battery for powering the dongle.

15. The dongle of claim 9, further comprising a display.

16. The dongle of claim 9, wherein the Bluetooth low energy communication interface is adapted to provide software code to the purchaser device used by a purchaser, the software code including information regarding automated wireless processes using the purchaser device.

17. The dongle of claim 9, wherein the one or more storage components are further adapted to store authentication keys and a set of unique beacon tokens.

18. The dongle of claim 17, wherein the Bluetooth low energy communication interface is adapted to provide at least one of the unique beacon tokens to the purchaser device.

19. The dongle of claim 18, wherein the Bluetooth low energy communication interface is adapted to receive an encrypted token from the purchaser device.

20. The dongle of claim 18, wherein the wireless interface is configured to provide the encrypted token to the remote server for decryption.

21. The dongle of claim 20, wherein the wireless interface is further configured to receive information for automatically facilitating the consumer payments from the remote server based on the decrypted token.