Clearing House for Universal Payment Indicia Recognition
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
New payment methods are not universally accepted, leading to slower transactions and uncertainty due to varying recognition by merchants, with only developers or proprietors of the technology able to read and complete transactions effectively.
Innovation Solution
A clearing house system that receives, reads, and communicates readable indicia between merchants, users, and vendors, allowing any readable indicia to be recognized and used for transactions, regardless of the vendor, by determining and storing information associated with each vendor's indicia and creating a communication link between parties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If new payment methods are introduced, then payment diversity and user choice are improved, but transaction speed and merchant recognition are worsened due to lack of universal acceptance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a clearing house as an intermediary system that mediates between merchants and multiple payment providers. The clearing house receives readable indicia from users, identifies the corresponding payment provider, and facilitates the transaction. This intermediary resolves the contradiction by enabling diverse payment methods to work universally across all merchants without requiring each merchant to integrate with every payment provider directly, thus maintaining transaction speed while supporting payment diversity.
Solution Approach 2:
The clearing house is designed as a universal system that can handle multiple types of readable indicia from different payment providers through a single interface. The system provides multi-functionality by supporting various payment methods (different barcode formats, QR codes, NFC protocols) while presenting a unified transaction processing mechanism to merchants, thereby achieving both payment diversity and universal acceptance.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple readable indicia vendors are supported, then payment versatility is improved, but system complexity increases due to need to recognize and translate different indicia formats
Solution Approach 1:
The clearing house acts as an intermediary that absorbs the complexity of recognizing and translating different readable indicia formats from multiple vendors. Rather than requiring merchants to implement complex recognition systems for each vendor, the clearing house centralizes this functionality, receiving various indicia types and translating them into a universal processing format, thus reducing merchant system complexity while maintaining vendor compatibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates and maintains a database of readable indicia templates and formats from different vendors. By storing reference copies of various indicia structures and their corresponding payment provider mappings, the clearing house can efficiently recognize and translate new indicia without requiring complex real-time analysis, thereby managing system complexity while supporting multiple vendors.
3Reliability
If readable indicia are made universally recognizable, then transaction reliability is improved, but information loss occurs in translating between different vendor formats
Solution Approach 1:
The clearing house intermediary preserves vendor-specific information by maintaining a mapping database that stores the relationship between different readable indicia formats and their corresponding payment providers. When translating indicia between formats, the system preserves critical information such as vendor identifiers, account references, and transaction parameters in the database, ensuring that no essential data is lost during the translation process while still achieving universal recognition.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameters of readable indicia representation by converting between different formats (barcode, QR code, NFC) while maintaining the essential transaction parameters through standardized data structures. The clearing house transforms vendor-specific parameter formats into a universal parameter set that preserves all necessary information for transaction completion, thereby achieving format flexibility without information loss.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of the invention include systems, methods, and computer-program products for a clearing house for directing readable indicia to/from merchants, users, and/or vendors. As such, merchants, users, and vendors may all be able to recognize, read, and complete transactions using any readable indicia, irrespective of the vendor providing the readable indicia. In some embodiments, the invention may provide merchants or users with readable indicia from one or more readable indicia vendors. In other embodiments, the invention may recognize readable indicia communicated to the system based on the vendor associated with the indicia. As such, the invention provides a clearing house for the directing, such as receiving, translating, and communicating readable indicia between parties of a transaction, such that each party may be able to recognize the readable indicia and complete the transaction.