Abstract:
A system and method for paying hard copy bills using a computer is disclosed. Merchants and payors create electronic accounts with this system and method. Merchants generate bills and register them with the merchant account. Payors scan the bill with a computer, cell phone, or other electronic device, and pay the bill with a networked application. Payment method is selected by payor. Third parties can also create accounts and gather data for statistical purposes such as marketing.

Description:
BACKGROUND  
     Prior Art  
       [0001]    The following is a tabulation of some prior art that presently appears relevant: 
       U.S. Patent Application Publications 
       [0002]      
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 Publication Nr. 
                 Kind Code 
                 Publ. Date 
                 Applicant 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 20120278232 
                 A1 
                 Nov. 1, 2012 
                 Portal 
               
               
                   
                 20110078081 
                 A1 
                 Mar. 31, 2011 
                 Pirzadeh 
               
               
                   
                 20070244811 
                 A1 
                 Oct. 18, 2007 
                 Tumminaro 
               
               
                   
                 20110238569 
                 A1 
                 Sep. 29, 2011 
                 Kim 
               
               
                   
                 20110022515 
                 A1 
                 Jan. 27. 2011 
                 Tallitsch 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
       FIELD OF INVENTION 
       [0003]    The present invention relates to the field of electronic commerce, more specifically to transactions involving hard copy bills and completed using a computer or mobile device. 
       BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
       [0004]    Cell phones and computers are an integral part of modern life. There is a multitude applications on cell phones and computers which exist to make life easier and more convenient. There are applications for everything from navigation and weather reports to automatic stock price monitoring. The thing in common with many applications is that they automate tasks that people need to do in ways that are less tedious and more user friendly than any manual equivalent. 
         [0005]    One common function of life that has not yet found use of such applications is paying paper bills. Although there are various on-line bill paying technologies already in existence, there remain circumstances that demand use of paper bills, such as restaurant bills. Although one aim of the present invention is to bypass “standing in line” to pay a bill via such an application, the full scope of the invention is for payment of any paper bill electronically. 
       SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
       [0006]    In accordance with this invention, bills may be paid by cell phone or computer by taking a photograph of the bill and using an application to transact the payment using a networked server or system of servers. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]    FIG.  1 —This figure is a flowchart depicting the steps in making electronic payment using this invention 
           [0008]    FIG.  2 —This figure depicts the discrete parts of a typical system implementing this invention and the corresponding network connection. 
           [0009]    FIG.  3 —This figure is a flowchart depicting multiple persons paying for parts of the same bill. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0010]    This invention is a system and method for making payments of paper or other physical bills electronically using a computer. This computer can be the traditional desktop or laptop but also includes mobile devices such as but not limited to PDAs, cell phones, and tablet computers. The computer must contain both a network connection and a visual input device such as a camera, barcode scanner, or any other visual input device as well known in the art.  FIG. 1  depicts a typical sequence of events using the methodology in accordance with this invention. The method starts with a merchant using the uploading step  11  to get the billing information to a network connected server that handles the transaction. Next is the generating step  12  whereby a visual representation of a bill such as but not limited to a paper hard copy of the bill is created. The visual representation of the bill contains at least some computer recognizable format as is well known in the art (e.g. barcode, QR code, plain text etc.). This visual representation is scanned by the payor in the scanning step  13  with the visual input device on the payor&#39;s computer, and an electronic representation of the paper bill is generated by an application on the computer for upload to the same server in the payor upload step  14 . Once uploaded to the server, the data scanned from the visual representation of the bill uniquely identifies the bill. Finally, in the payment step  15  the payor uses the application to make payment to the server using any electronic payment system accepted by the server, such as but not limited to credit card, debit card, electronic wire transfer, prepaid account, etc. 
         [0011]      FIG. 2  depicts the relationships between parts of a representative system in accordance with this invention. The point of sale device (“POS”)  23  (which includes an integrated or external printing devices capable of printing the bill) interfaces the billing server  25  through a network connection  21  and generates a bill (or receipt or invoice)  24  that contains the visual representation of the bill  24   a  from the billing information from the server  25 . The billing server  25  also interfaces the application  20   c  on the payor&#39;s device  20 , and the payment server  27  via a network connection  21  to facilitate the exchange of payment between the payor and merchant. The billing server  25  verifies payor and merchant credentials to secure all communications with the payment server  27  and handles payment information for the payor and merchant to allow the payment server  27  to exchange payment between the two parties. 
         [0012]    Use of the system starts with the merchant entering billing information into the POS  23  which then uploads the billing information to the billing server  25  to register the transaction. Then the billing server  25  responds with the information needed to generate the visual representation of the bill  24   a.  The POS  23  prints the bill  24  with the visual representation of the bill  24   a  after receiving the necessary data from the billing server  25 . The POS device  23  is notified that the transaction has been paid for (see following paragraph) and closed when the billing server  25  receives confirmation from the payment server or servers  27  that full payment is processed and received. 
         [0013]    The visual representation of the bill  24   a  is presented to the payor and then the payor scans the bill with input device  20   a  and uses the application  20   c  on the payor&#39;s computer  20  to pay the bill  24 . The application  20   c  uses following steps to complete the transaction: (1) verify/authenticate logon credentials, (2) input the visual representation of the bill  24   a,  (3) process the visual representation of bill  24   a,  (4) interface the billing server  25  to retrieve billing information, (5) select payment method or methods, (6) make authorized payment or payments from payment server(s)  27 , and (7) verify payment completion from the billing server  25 . These steps need not be performed in this exact order, however, the verify/authenticate step must come before payment is processed and the visual representation  24   a  must be scanned before interfacing the billing server  25 . In other words, the input of the visual representation may either precede or follow the authentication step in a particular embodiment of this invention. 
         [0014]    Optionally, any number of payors can claim ownership of part of the bill  24  and participate with the payment by separately scanning the visual representation of the bill  24   a  with their own respective applications  20   c.  See  FIG. 3 . The billing server  25  sends the billing information to each payor. The application  20   c  may also provide a mechanism for the payor to pay for part or all of individual items on the bill  24  or pay for a numerical (fractional) proportion of the bill  24 . In the most efficient embodiment (i.e. most cost effective as of the time of the conception of this invention), after all the items of the bill  24  are claimed by payors, the payment information from each payor is collected by the billing server  25  and processed via the payment server  27  or servers. However, there is no reason all items on the bill  24  must be claimed before processing payment, i.e. individual payments may be processed as each payor uses the application  20   c.    
         [0015]    Although  FIG. 2  depicts the POS  23 , billing server  25 , application  20   c,  and payment server  27  as distinct and discrete entities, there is no reason why they must reside on physically separate machines. For example, the POS  23  and billing server  25  could reside on the same physical machine owned by the merchant or the billing  25  and payment servers  27  might all reside somewhere in a computing cloud. Furthermore, there is no requirement that the network connection  21  is the Internet, or even a local network, as it could easily be (at least in part) an internal network inside of a computer (i.e. local loopback). The scope of the system portion of this invention is not limited by the location of the discrete parts of the system, but only that they must logically exist somewhere in some form in order to implement the method portion of this invention. 
         [0016]    As stated above, in one class of embodiments multiple payors can claim and pay for parts of a bill  24  using the application  20   c  on their respective devices  20  to allow for a simple check splitting interface. The check splitting method could be as simple as allowing arbitrary amounts of contributions from each payor, or it could compute contributions from itemized lines on the bill  24 . In those cases the billing server  25  coordinates the multiple transactions between the payors, merchant, and payment server or servers  27  to ensure the bill  24  is paid in full and all payors involved transact payment with the merchant. 
         [0017]    In order to transact any payment exchange, both payor and merchant must set up accounts used by the billing server  25 . Configuration of the payor, merchant, and third party (i.e. advertisers) accounts can be managed through the application  20   c  or through a web interface  28 . Payors can manage their login credentials and their payment methods, review prior transactions, retrieve data based on transaction history, and manage privacy settings (e.g. disallow third party use of information). Merchants can manage their login credentials and their account information, review prior transactions, and produce transaction statistics. Third party users can manage their login credentials and their payment methods, and view data and statistics about payors and merchants based on defined criteria. Data, statistics, and trends can be produced by the billing server  25  (such as popularity of certain menu items at merchant&#39;s restaurant) for the merchant and payment and eating trends for the user on their application  20   c  or website  28 . 
         [0018]    These account management features for payors, merchants, and third parties are merely examples and are not intended to limit the scope of this invention. Additional features can include anything that makes sense in a given context. For example, a payor account can be able to interface a calorie counter or nutrition analysis application for purchases at a restaurant, or a merchant account can be used to deliver advertisements or coupons to customer accounts. 
         [0019]    Although accounts must be set up by at least the merchant and the payor, and the accounts are used by the billing server  25 , there is no reason that the accounts must be managed by and exclusively reside on the billing server  25 . It is permissible under this invention that these accounts (as well as any 3rd party accounts) may be managed by a completely separate server or servers. In fact, the billing server  25  may conceptually be thought of as the collection of all the discrete but cooperative computing entities that manage both accounts and billing.