Dongle facilitated wireless consumer payments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8972296-B2
Application number	US-201313938860-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 10, 2013
Priority date	Dec 31, 2012
Publication date	Mar 3, 2015
Grant date	Mar 3, 2015

Abstract

Computing systems and methods for facilitating consumer transactions in retail and other establishments include communication interfaces adapted to couple a computing system to a plurality of third party mobile electronic devices, storage components adapted to store user information, participating merchant information, or any combination thereof, and processors in communication with the communication interfaces and storage components. The processors are adapted to facilitate automatic wireless transactions between third party users of the third party mobile electronic devices and the participating merchants when the third party devices are present at the participating merchants without any affirmative activity by the third party users.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing system, comprising:
one or more communication interfaces comprising one or more dongles operated by participating merchants and allowing communication between the computing system and a plurality of third party mobile electronic devices, the one or more communication interfaces including at least a Bluetooth low energy protocol communication interface;
one or more storage components storing user information, participating merchant information, or any combination thereof; and
one or more processors in communication with the one or more communication interfaces and the one or more storage components, said one or more processors performing automated wireless transactions between third party users of the third party mobile electronic devices and the participating merchants;
wherein:
the one or more communications interfaces receive information for automatically transferring a consumer payment from a remote server;
said automatic wireless transactions are performed using the Bluetooth low energy protocol communication interface; and
said automatic wireless transactions take place when the third party mobile electronic devices are present at the participating merchants without any affirmative activity by the third party users at the participating merchants.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein said one or more processors further output presentations on the third party mobile electronic devices, the output presentations including indications or information regarding the automated wireless transactions.

3. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the dongles are installed at the merchant locations.

4. The computing system of claim 3 , wherein the dongles are installed at check-out terminals in the merchant locations.

5. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein a first one of the dongles comprises a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection configured to pivot, slide, or swivel to facilitate installation of the first dongle and to provide power to the first dongle.

6. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the first dongle comprises a battery for powering the first dongle.

7. The computing system of claim 1 , further comprising a display.

8. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the Bluetooth low energy communication interface provides software code to the purchaser device used by a purchaser, the software code including information regarding automated wireless processes using the purchaser device.

9. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more storage components further store authentication keys and a set of unique beacon tokens.

10. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein the Bluetooth low energy communication interface provides at least one of the unique beacon tokens to the purchaser device.

11. The computing system of claim 10 , wherein the Bluetooth low energy communication interface receives an encrypted token from the purchaser device.

12. The computing system of claim 10 , wherein the communications interfaces are configured to provide the encrypted token to the remote server for decryption.

13. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the communications interfaces are further configured to receive information for automatically transferring the consumer payment from the remote server based on the decrypted token.

14. A method for performing automated wireless transactions, the method comprising:
communicating with a plurality of third party mobile electronic devices using one or more communication interfaces comprising one or more dongles operated by participating merchants, the one or more communication interfaces including at least a Bluetooth low energy protocol communication interface;
storing user information, participating merchant information, or any combination thereof in one or more storage components;
performing one or more automated wireless transactions between third party users of the third party mobile electronic devices and the participating merchants;
receiving, via the one or more communication interfaces, information for automatically transferring a consumer payment from a remote server; and
performing the automatic wireless transactions using the Bluetooth low energy protocol communication interface;
wherein said automatic wireless transactions take place when the third party mobile electronic devices are present at the participating merchants without any affirmative activity by the third party users at the participating merchants.

15. A non-transitory medium having a plurality of machine-readable instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to perform a method comprising:
communicating with a plurality of third party mobile electronic devices using one or more communication interfaces comprising one or more dongles operated by participating merchants, the one or more communication interfaces including at least a Bluetooth low energy protocol communication interface;
storing user information, participating merchant information, or any combination thereof in one or more storage components;
performing one or more automated wireless transactions between third party users of the third party mobile electronic devices and the participating merchants;
receiving, via the one or more communication interfaces, information for automatically transferring a consumer payment from a remote server; and
performing the automatic wireless transactions using the Bluetooth low energy protocol communication interface;
wherein said automatic wireless transactions take place when the third party mobile electronic devices are present at the participating merchants without any affirmative activity by the third party users at the participating merchants.

Assignees

• Ebay Inc

Inventors

• Govindarajan Satish Narayan
• Granbery John Hastings

Classifications

• G06Q20/322

  Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices] · CPC title

• G06Q20/202

  Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR · CPC title

• G06Q20/327 Primary

  Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices · CPC title

• G06Q20/3224 Primary

  Transactions dependent on location of M-devices · CPC title

• G06Q20/20

  Point-of-sale [POS] network systems · CPC title