Device and membership identity matching

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016321679-A1
Application number	US-201514700876-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 30, 2015
Priority date	Apr 30, 2015
Publication date	Nov 3, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Apparatus and method for a physical store to associate a mobile device identity with a customer's membership card ID. A non-intrusive solution automatically builds a link between the identified device d and a recorded transaction associated with a membership card ID. The method builds a device visiting journey trajectory for a device d from data recording the physical movement of that device d obtained from an in-store locating system, and Points of Interest data information. There is further built from purchase transaction data and data representing a physical store layout, a member's procurement journey. A membership matching engine analyzes the spatio-temporal occurrences and sequences used to build up the feasible link and their binding possibility. In addition, the system can also use historical data and update the linkage and binding possibility adaptively. The system automatically detects the membership card and device matching without asking customer to perform the binding manually.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for automatic binding of a membership card identifier (ID) with a mobile device identifier (ID) comprising:
tracking, using a wireless electronic device tracking system, physical locations of one or more stores visited by a customer's mobile electronic device, said tracking including identifying the customer's mobile device identifier (ID); building, at a processor device, a first data structure representing a trajectory corresponding to the movement of the customer's tracked mobile electronic device at one or more store locations, and a time interval thereof corresponding to an amount of time visited at each location; building, at the processor device, a second data structure representing one or more purchase transactions conducted by customers at various store locations, each customer purchase transaction indicating a membership card ID associated with the customer, and a corresponding purchase payment time point; and identifying, at said processor device, from said first and second data structures, a compatible match indicating a potential binding of a customer's mobile device ID to a membership card ID, said identifying a compatible match including detecting when a purchase payment time point associated with a customer membership card ID and for a purchase conducted at a particular store location matches a time interval window recorded for a tracked customer mobile device detected at that store location, wherein said compatibility match identifying occurs seamless to said customer.

2 . The method for automatic binding of claim 1 , wherein said tracking comprises:
recording in real-time a customer's mobile electronic device location when visiting a store location and storing said recorded data representing said visiting, wherein said building said first data structure comprises:
obtaining, from a memory storage device, any identified points of interest visited by said customer in a relevant time interval, each point of interest corresponding to one of: a store location or a transaction payment terminal, said store location or transaction payment terminal having a corresponding identifier (POI_ID); and
generating a list including one or more device_IDs, and, for each device_ID, generating a corresponding list of one or more physical locations that each device_ID had visited in a corresponding time interval, said corresponding time interval including a time of entry and a corresponding exit time at that point of interest, and the POI_ID of the point of interest visited at the corresponding time interval.

3 . The method for automatic binding of claim 2 , further comprising:
recording, in a memory storage device, one or more recent purchasing transactions conducted at transaction payment terminal by a user using a membership card ID when visiting one or more points of interest, said recorded data representing said purchase transaction and an associated product identifier of a purchased product, wherein said building said second data structure comprises:
obtaining, from the memory storage device, data representing one or more recent purchase transactions conducted by a user with said membership card ID at a point of interest; and
generating a list including one or more user membership card IDs of said recent purchasing transactions, and, for each membership card ID, generating a corresponding list of identifiers of one or more store locations which the user had conducted the corresponding recent purchase transaction, and a corresponding payment time point for the purchase transaction.

4 . The method for automatic binding of claim 3 , wherein said transaction payment terminal is one of: located within a visited store location in which a customer purchase is made, or located at a different location according to a centralized transaction payment scheme wherein purchase transactions are paid at a subsequent time point at said different location, wherein said generated list of identifiers of one or more store locations which the user had conducted the corresponding recent purchase transaction includes an identifier of an authorized terminal of an entity accepting payment for the user purchases at the one or more store locations.

5 . The method for automatic binding of claim 4 , wherein said identifying, at said processor device, from said first and second data structures, a compatible match indicating a potential binding of a detected customer's mobile device ID to a membership card ID, further comprises:
detecting when a purchase payment time point t mi conducted according to said centralized transaction payment scheme and associated with a customer membership card ID m and a prior product purchase transaction i conducted at a particular store location occurs prior to a time point recorded for that customer membership card ID m exiting that store location after obtaining the purchased product according to said centralized transaction payment scheme; and the customer's mobile electronic device d has been physically detected at or near a purchase payment terminal location a mi at the recorded payment time point t mi .

6 . The method for automatic binding of claim 1 , further comprising:
calculating, by said processor device, a probability measure of a potential binding of a membership card identifier ID m with a mobile device identifier ID.

7 . The method for automatic binding of claim 6 , wherein said probability measure calculating comprises:
determining a wait time indicating a time a detected device d of membership card identifier ID m waits on a queue prior to said payment time point at a purchase payment terminal location; and determining a leave time indicating a time after said payment time point it takes for said detected device d of membership card identifier ID m to leave a pre-defined area proximate the purchase payment terminal location, said wait time and leave time defining a time interval window recorded for a membership card ID m payment at an associated payment terminal location; and computing said probability measure of a potential binding of a membership card identifier ID m with a mobile device identifier ID using a binding probability function and at least said determined leave time.

8 . The method for automatic binding of claim 7 , wherein said binding probability function ƒ(d,m,i) for a device d and identified membership card m for a transaction i used to compute said binding probability measure is according to:

f


(

d
,
m
,
i

)

=

1

1
-
b

·

1

2

π


δ





(

(

t

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Dong Wei Shan
• Lin meng xiang
• Peng Hong
• Tian Chun Hua
• Wang Ke Fei

Classifications

• G06Q30/0201 Primary

  Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data · CPC title

• H04W4/02

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04W4/029

  Location-based management or tracking services · CPC title