Abstract:
One aspect of the invention relates to a technique for effecting payment, and involves: presenting a portable device; and causing the portable device to output a pseudo payment code.

Description:
This application claims the benefit of provisional application No. 60/581,246, filed Jun. 18, 2004. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates in general to techniques for effecting payment and, more particularly, to techniques for effecting payment without revealing the actual identity of a person making the payment. 
     BACKGROUND 
     It has become very common for merchants to provide products with identifiers that can be scanned or read automatically. For example, almost all products now have barcodes that can be scanned at a point-of-sale terminal. A new approach involves using small devices known as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. The RFID tags are attached to products in lieu of (or in addition to) barcodes. An RFID tag emits radio signals that contain selected information, such as a number identifying a product to which the tag is currently attached. 
     These types of technologies permit a cashier at a point-of-sale terminal to rapidly and accurately identify each product that is being purchased by a customer, and to rapidly determine the total payment owed by the customer. Further, the scanned information can be used by the merchant&#39;s computer to automatically and efficiently track and maintain inventory. 
     However, it is also becoming very common for merchants to use this scanned information to track buying habits of individual consumers. For example, if a consumer always pays the merchant with a particular credit card, or with a check from a particular checking account, the merchant&#39;s computer can compile a buying history associated with that particular credit card number or checking account number. There are commercially-available Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) software programs that are designed specifically to collect and analyze this type of customer information. The compiled information is valuable to the merchant, but it also raises significant questions in relation to the privacy rights of the consumers. Consequently, there is a need for techniques that allow a person to effect a payment without revealing his or her actual identity. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     One of the broader forms of the invention relates to a technique for effecting payment, and involves: presenting a portable device; and causing the portable device to output a pseudo payment code. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       A better understanding of the present invention will be realized from the detailed description that follows, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing FIGURE, which is a block diagram showing an arrangement that embodies aspects of a method and apparatus according to the invention, and that includes a user, a smart card, a financial institution, and a merchant. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The drawing FIGURE is a block diagram showing an arrangement  10  that embodies aspects of a method and an apparatus according to the invention. The block diagram shows a user  16 , a smart card  17 , a financial institution  18  such as a bank, and a merchant  19 . 
     Persons skilled in the art are familiar with smart cards. The smart card  17  is therefore described only to the extent needed to convey an understanding of the present invention. The hardware of the smart card  17  is known in the art. In the disclosed embodiment, the smart card  17  is a type of card commonly referred to as a microcontroller card with contacts. It includes a plastic card  26  that is similar in size and shape to a standard credit card. An integrated circuit is mounted on the card  26 , and includes a microcontroller  27 . 
     The microcontroller  27  includes, among other things, a processor  31  and a memory  32 . The memory  32  include two or more types of memory, such as a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), and/or a “flash” RAM memory. The memory  32  stores a program  33  that is executed by the processor  31 . The memory  32  also stores data used by the processor  31 , some of which will be discussed in more detail later. The smart card  17  has several not-illustrated metal contacts that are located on or near the integrated circuit containing the microcontroller  27 . An external device can use the contacts to supply operating power to the microcontroller  27 , and to electrically interact with the microcontroller  27 . 
     As indicated diagrammatically by a broken line arrow  41 , the smart card  17  is issued to the user  16  by the financial institution  18 , much as the financial institution  18  would issue a credit card to a user. The financial institution  18  maintains information  46  that relates to the user  16  and the smart card  17 . In the disclosed embodiment, the information  46  is stored in a memory that is part of a computer system used by the financial institution  18 . However, the information  46  could be maintained in some other manner. 
     The information  46  includes an actual identification  48  of the user  16 . The actual identification  48  includes information such as the true legal name of the user  16 , an address of the user  16 , a social security number of the user  16 , contact information such as telephone numbers, and other relevant information. The information  46  also includes an identification of an account  51  that belongs to the user  16 . In the disclosed embodiment, the account  51  is a credit card account maintained for the user  16  by the financial institution  18 . However, the account  51  could alternatively be some other type of account, such as a debit card account, a savings account, or a brokerage account. Further, it would alternatively be possible for the account  51  to be an account maintained by some entity other than the financial institution  18 , such as a different financial institution. 
     When the financial institution  18  issues the smart card  17  to the user  16 , the financial institution stores a table  56  in the memory  32  of the smart card  17 , and also saves an identical copy of the table  56  in the information  46  that relates to the user  16 . In the disclosed embodiment, each row of the table  56  includes pseudo-identifier information. For example, each row includes pseudo payment information such as a pseudo credit card number and a pseudo expiration date. Further, each row includes pseudo identity information, such as a fictitious name and a fictitious address for the user  16 . 
     The user  16  can use the smart card  17  in commercial transactions. For example, assume that the user  16  decides to purchase a product from the merchant  19 . In order to effect payment for the product, the user  16  presents the smart card  17 , in the same manner that a customer would normally present a standard credit card to the merchant. The presentation of the smart card  17  is represented diagrammatically in the FIGURE by a broken line arrow  62 . The smart card  17  may be configured so that it appears to be a standard credit card, and in that case the merchant  19  will believe that it is a standard credit card. 
     The merchant  19  inserts the smart card  17  into a reader  61  of a known type. The reader  61  has a plurality of electrical contacts that each engage a respective metal contact on the smart card  17 , in order to provide operating power to the microcontroller  27 , and in order to permit the reader  61  to interact with the microcontroller  27 . The microcontroller  27  on the smart card  17  selects a row in the table  56 , and then provides the merchant  19  with information from this row, including the pseudo credit card number and the pseudo expiration date. The merchant may also be given other information from the selected row of the table, such as pseudo identity information for the user  16 . 
     In any case, the merchant  19  receives only pseudo information, and thus does not know the actual identity of the user  16 , or any actual credit card number or account number of the user  16 . Consequently, even where the product has an identifier that can be scanned, such as a bar code or a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, it becomes difficult or impossible for the merchant  19  to link the purchased product(s) to any actual person. In the disclosed embodiment, the smart card  17  uses a different pseudo card number each time the user  16  carries out a transaction with the merchant  19 . Therefore, it is difficult or impossible for the merchant  19  to track buying habits of the user  16  across multiple transactions, or to develop a meaningful collection of information about the user  16 . 
     In order to obtain payment authorization for the purchase, the reader  61  takes the pseudo card number and the pseudo expiration date supplied by the smart card  17 , and forwards this pseudo information to the financial institution  18 , as indicated diagrammatically in the FIGURE by a broken line arrow  71 . The financial institution  18  then compares the pseudo credit card number to the pseudo card numbers that it has previously issued to many different users, including the user  16 . In this particular case, the financial institution  18  will find that the pseudo card number received from the reader  61  matches a pseudo card number in the table  56  that the financial institution saved at  46  in association with the user  16 . The financial institution can thus identify the particular user  16  who is associated with the pseudo card number sent by the reader  61 . 
     Assuming that the actual credit card account  51  of the user  16  is currently in good standing, the financial institution  18  will send authorization back to the merchant  19  at  71 . The financial institution  18  will charge the amount of the transaction to the actual credit card account  51  of the user  16 , but will not reveal to the merchant  19  the actual account  51  or the actual identification  48  of the user  16 . The merchant  19  will then complete the transaction using the pseudo credit card number and the pseudo expiration date. The smart card  17  will then be removed from the reader  61 , and the user  16  can depart the premises of the merchant  19  with the smart card  17  and the purchased product. 
     There are a variety of ways in which the microcontroller  27  can select one of the rows in the table  56  for a given transaction. For example, as the user  16  makes a number of successive purchase transactions over time, the microcontroller  27  can begin with the first row of the table and select successive rows for the respective transactions, until it eventually reaches the last row. The microcontroller  27  can then automatically wrap around to the first row and use the entries in the table again. Alternatively, the microcontroller  27  can stop after it reaches the last row, such that each pseudo card number is effectively a single-use card number. Where the microcontroller has stopped at the last row, it can be taken to the financial institution  18  in order to have the original table  56  replaced with a similar table that contains new pseudo information. 
     In an alternative approach for selecting rows from the table  56 , the program  33  may cause the microcontroller  27  to select rows using a random or pseudo-random selection technique. Rows that have already been randomly selected can optionally be flagged, so that they are not selected again until all other rows have been selected at least once. As still another approach, the rows in the first half of the table  56  might be designated for use between midnight and noon, and the rows in the second half of the table  56  might be designated for use between noon and midnight. Consequently, if the microcontroller  27  was selecting a row during the afternoon, it would select a row from the second half of the table  56 . When pseudo information from this row was forwarded from the reader  61  to the financial institution  18  a second or two later, the financial institution would, as part of the authentication process, verify that the pseudo information was from a row in the second half of the table  56 , rather then from a row in the first half. 
     As still another alternative, the selection of a row from the table  56  could depend in part on the particular transaction that is currently in progress. For example, when the smart card  17  is in the reader  61  of the merchant  19 , the smart card  17  can obtain information from the reader  61 , such as an identifier for the merchant  19 , or information about the particular product that is being purchased. The table  56  may have one or more rows that have been set aside for use only in transactions with merchant  19 , and the smart card  17  would thus select one of these rows when it sees that the current transaction is with the merchant  19 . Each such row could have a pseudo identifier that is configured or marked in a manner so that, when the merchant  19  is given the pseudo identifier, the merchant knows that the user  16  is a regular customer of the merchant  19 , even though the merchant  19  is not given any information about the actual identity  48  or the actual account  51  of the user  16 . 
     Although the disclosed embodiment takes the approach of providing the table  56  having a number of rows that each contain predetermined pseudo information, it would alternatively be possible to for the microcontroller to select or generate pseudo information in some other suitable manner. 
     The program  33  controls the manner in which pseudo identifiers are obtained, for example by selecting rows from the table  56 . The manner in which this occurs can be changed from time to time. For example, the financial institution may update the program  33  in the smart card  17 , possibly while the smart card  17  is in the reader  61  at a merchant. Alternatively, the financial institution  18  can issue a replacement smart card having an updated program. For example, if the program  33  was initially configured to recognize the particular merchant  19  and to take special action, the program  33  could be updated in a manner so that it no longer treats the merchant  19  differently from any other merchant, and takes no special action for the merchant  19 . The program  33  could also have the capability to automatically change the manner in which it operates. For example, the program  33  may initially be configured to permit any type of purchase. However, if the program  33  determines that the user has made purchases within a specified time period that total more than a selected credit limit, the program  33  could automatically change its operation to refuse to select a row from the table  56  for any single transaction that has a value in excess of a specified limit. 
     Although one selected embodiment has been illustrated and described in detail, it should be understood that a variety of substitutions and alterations are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, as defined by the following claims.