Determining Status of Low-Cost Tags Used to Facilitate Mobile Transactions

Abstract

Systems, methods and computer program products for facilitating payments using low-cost barcode or RFID tags are disclosed. Such tags can be attached or affixed to physical, real-world objects thus allowing the objects to be purchased using a customer mobile device, without the need for a dedicated, on-site point-of-sale system. The tags may be constructed from paper, metal, leather, plastic or some other low-cost material. The tag allows a unique visual identifier such as a tag code to be imprinted so that it can be read using a mobile camera or other sensor enabled telephone.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit, and is a continuation of Applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14 / 281,250 (Attorney Docket No. 2007.04) titled “Using Low-Cost Tags to Facilitate Mobile Transactions,” filed May 19, 2014; which is a continuation-in-part of Applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 541,124 (Attorney Docket No. 2007.03) titled “Using Low-Cost Tags as a Virtual Storage Medium For Multimedia Information,” filed Jul. 3, 2012; which is a divisional of Applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 555,268 (Attorney Docket No. 2007.02) titled, “System and Method for Multimedia Storing and Retrieval Using Low-Cost Tags as Virtual Storage Mediums,” filed on Sep. 8, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,238,828; which was a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 078,978 (Attorney Docket No. 2007.01) titled, “System and Method for Storing and Retrieving Multimedia Messages On Low-Cost Tags in Order to Facil...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides methods and computer program products for using low-cost barcode or RFID tags to facilitate purchasing transactions without needing an expensive POS system. The invention uses pre-printed and recordable tags (e.g., paper tags) and buyer mobile devices to make payments. This eliminates the need for traditional POS systems and trusted service providers to complete checkout and payment transactions. The tag allows for secure, identifying, authenticating, and retrieving multimedia messages, and the software application or webpage can be stored, executed, or accessed on a mobile phone. The tags can be made from various low-cost materials, such as paper, metal, leather, or plastic. Overall, the invention provides a cost-effective solution for facilitating purchasing transactions.

Problems solved by technology

The above-described mechanisms of electronic communications, while they allow for rapid on-line / electronic communications, all have one deficiency.

That deficiency is that they do not allow themselves to be associated with a physical (i.e., real world, non-virtual) context.

While certain “clumsy” mechanisms can be thought of—such as sending an audio tape or player with the gift or writing a note containing a URL where an electronic message may be downloaded—there is no simple and elegant way to exchange rich electronic messages that can be tied to physical world contexts.

Current retail transactions are largely closed loop relying on expensive point of sale (POS) systems.

Despite built-in protections, the payments industry is besieged with several security issues including stolen card numbers, theft and fraud.

Mobile and portable (away from POS such as restaurant tables) often require cards to be carried by a service agent which is prone to security risks.

Flexibility is difficult because point of sale systems are often expensive, proprietary and difficult to modify to accept new payment mechanisms such as NFC based payments.

This is a widespread issue because virtually any vendor that desires to accept non-cash payments must have a point of sale system or software with card readers and printers.

These require expensive changes to POS systems and not very user friendly.

Emerging forms of payments such as micro transactions that deal with small purchase amounts are expensive to be handled through traditional credit card transactions.

Current self-checkout systems are not easy for consumers to use due to proprietary nature of the barcoded information and inability to easily identify and match payments to individual products.

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