Augmented Reality Transaction Interface for Instant Item Purchase

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current methods lack the ability to facilitate immediate transactions for items identified in everyday life outside of traditional shopping environments, requiring users to manually remember and locate merchants for purchase, which is cumbersome and inefficient.

Innovation Solution

A system utilizing augmented reality that receives environmental data, identifies selected items, adds virtual data, and enables transactions through a user interface, allowing for instant purchase requests to be sent to merchant terminals based on user input and profile information.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of time

If traditional manual methods are used to identify and purchase items, then users can complete transactions, but the process is time-consuming and cumbersome requiring manual recall and location of merchants

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetime to complete transactionVSAvoidease of purchasing process

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of timeVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by automatically capturing environmental data, identifying items in advance, and pre-processing purchase information before the user actually intends to buy. The augmented reality interface prepares transaction data in advance, so when the user wants to purchase, the process is already substantially complete.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces manual mechanical processes (physically going to merchants, manually searching for items, remembering details) with automated optical and computational systems. Cameras capture images, image recognition algorithms identify items, and the system automatically retrieves merchant information and processes transactions electronically.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Productivity

If augmented reality technology is implemented to enable instantaneous transactions, then transaction speed and ease of operation are improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetransaction processing speedVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system combines multiple functions into a single augmented reality platform: environmental scanning, item identification via image recognition, augmented reality overlay display, merchant location services, and transaction processing. This multi-functionality consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate systems into one unified solution.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The augmented reality interface acts as an intermediary between the user and the complex backend systems. It presents a simple, intuitive overlay on the real-world view while handling complex image processing, database queries, and transaction operations in the background, shielding the user from system complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Measurement precision

If environmental data processing and item identification are automated, then accuracy of item identification is improved, but computational requirements and processing time increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaccuracy of item identificationVSAvoidcomputational energy consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the computational workload by first processing only the captured environmental image data for item identification, then separately handling transaction processing only after an item is selected. This segmentation allows the system to focus computational resources on identification only when needed, rather than continuously processing all data.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs partial action by processing environmental data only to the extent necessary for item identification, rather than analyzing all possible attributes. Once an item is identified and selected by the user, further processing is halted until purchase is confirmed, avoiding excessive computational effort on data that won't be used.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentUS10832312B2Systems and methods for facilitating a transaction relating to newly identified items using augmented reality

Publication Date: 2020.11.10 CAPITAL ONE SERVICES LLC

AI summary

A system may provide an augmented environment that facilitates a transaction. The system may store profile data including user payment or user profile information. The system may then receive environmental data including audio and visual information representing a physical environment. The system may then receive first user input data indicative of a selection of one or more items present in the physical environment, and identify one or more action items in the environmental data based on the first user input data. In response to this identification, the system may augment the environmental data by adding virtual environmental data, and then provide this virtual environmental data to a device to create an augmented environment. The system can then receive second user input data, and provide purchase request data to a merchant terminal to enable a transaction related to the one or more action items.