Pre-Registered Customer Tokens for PIN Pad-Free Payment Authorization

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Solution Overview

Problem

POS systems face challenges with maintaining PIN pads, which can be expensive and inconvenient for certain transactions, and may inaccurately process customer-added amounts, such as gratuities, due to the need for separate authorization processes and potential fraud.

Innovation Solution

Utilizing personal electronic devices for pre-registration with payment issuers, generating tokens based on device identifiers, and using these tokens for transaction authorization, allowing closed-loop authentication of customer-added amounts through image capture and OCR processing to transfer authorization responsibility to the payment issuer.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If PIN pads are used for payment transactions, then payment authorization can be processed, but maintenance costs increase and operation convenience decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepayment authorizationVSAvoidoperation convenience

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the PIN pad functionality from the POS system and replaces it with mobile device-based authentication. The mobile device's camera and processing capabilities are used to capture and verify payment information, eliminating the need for dedicated PIN pad hardware while maintaining payment authorization reliability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the mechanical PIN pad system with an optical-based solution using the mobile device's camera to capture payment information. Image processing and OCR technology substitute for the physical key entry mechanism, improving ease of operation while maintaining security.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Reliability

If PIN pads are used for payment transactions, then payment authorization can be processed, but maintenance costs increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepayment authorizationVSAvoidmaintenance cost

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces expensive, durable PIN pad hardware with a software-based solution running on mobile devices. The mobile device's existing camera and processing capabilities are utilized, eliminating the need for costly specialized hardware while maintaining payment authorization functionality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #27Cheap short-living objects (Disposable)

3Reliability

If separate authorization processes are used for customer-added amounts, then payment security is maintained, but processing accuracy decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepayment securityVSAvoidprocessing accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges the authorization process for base amounts and customer-added amounts into a single unified process. The mobile device captures and processes all payment information together, eliminating the need for separate authorization steps and reducing errors associated with manual data entry and transfer between systems.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentUS12443944B2Authorizing payments using pre-registered customer tokens

Publication Date: 2025.10.14 TOSHIBA GLOBAL COMMERCE SOLUTIONS INC

AI summary

A method, computer program product, and system are described. The method comprises receiving payment information, receiving a communication from an electronic device of a user, wherein the communication comprises a token that corresponds to the combination of the user and the electronic device. The method further comprises transmitting, to a payment processor of a payment network, the token and an identifier of the electronic device that is derived from the communication. The method further comprises receiving, from the payment network, a payment authorization that indicates that the token and the identifier of the electronic device were previously registered with an issuer corresponding to the payment information.