Patent Publication Number: US-2007106618-A1

Title: Wireless-linked online transaction system for portable intelligent electronic device

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      This invention relates to wireless networking technology, and more particularly, to a wireless-linked online transaction system which is designed for use in conjunction with a portable intelligent electronic device, such as a palmtop computer, a notebook computer, or an intelligent mobile phone, for providing a user-operated wireless-linked online transaction capability that allows the user to utilize his/her portable intelligent electronic device to download a set of wireless Web page data and code from an advertising medium, such as poster, billboard, signboard, placard, catalog, shopping window, to name just a few, and whereupon the user is able to utilize his/her portable intelligent electronic device to browse related advertisements about the products or services exhibited on the advertising medium, and, if desired, able to carry out an online transaction procedure directly through his/her portable intelligent electronic device.  
      2. Description of Related Art  
      With the advent of the Internet technology, online shopping is nowadays a popular form of transaction between consumers and vendors. In the practice of online shopping, the consumer needs to utilize a computer platform, such as a desktop computer or a notebook computer, to connect to the Internet and link to a particular Web site that offers online shopping. Typically, the Web site will display product and price information about each item of product being sold online. If the user wants to purchase a certain item of product, the user needs just to input a set of transaction request data, including, for example, the item to be purchased, the buyer&#39;s name, shipment address, telephone number, method of payment, and so on, through the displayed Web page. The PC will then send the transaction request data via the Internet to the vendor&#39;s network server where an online transaction processing system is installed to process the user-initiated transaction request. This online transaction processing procedure includes, for example, a first step of notifying a dispatch center via network connection to send an item of the user-specified product to the user-specified address, a second step of linking to an online banking service system for processing the user-specified method of payment, such as by credit card, and so on.  
      One drawback to the aforesaid practice, however, is that it requires the user to know the location of the Web site where online shopping is available and then link his/her PC via the Internet to that Web site. Since new products are being introduced to the consumer market very quickly, if the consumers don&#39;t know the locations of the related Web sites, online shopping would be impossible for the consumers. When new products are introduced, vendors would typically demonstrate these products through various kinds of advertising media, such as posters, billboards, signboards, placards, catalogs, shopping windows, to name just a few. However, when a consumer sees the advertisement of a new product, for example from a poster, and wants to purchase an item of the advertised product, the consumer needs to take a note of the vendor&#39;s name or Web address shown on the poster, then utilize his/her home PC to link to the vendor&#39;s Web site for online shopping of the product. This practice is undoubtedly inconvenient and timing-consuming. There exists therefore a need for a new invention that allows the consumer to carry out an online shopping procedure immediately after the consumer sees the advertisement of a new product on a poster or billboard by way of his/her portable intelligent electronic device, such as a mobile phone or a palmtop computer.  
      Related art includes, for example, the following patents: 
          U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,493 B1 “SYSTEM AND METHOD: FOR FINDING A SPECIFIC RFID TAGGED ARTICLE LOCATED IN A PLURALITY OF RFID TAGGED ARTICLES”;     US Patent Application US2005/0116050A “MOBILE TERMINAL HAVING SMART CARD COUPLED WITH RFID TAG AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING RFID FUNCTION IN SUCH MOBILE TERMINAL”;     US Patent Application US2004/0103033A1 “RFID SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VENDING MACHINE CONTROL”;     US Patent Application US2004/0103034A1 “RFID SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PURCHASE ITEM ACCOUNTABILITY”;     US Patent Application US2005/0160003A1 “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INCREASING RFID TRANSACTION DEVICE USAGE AT A MERCHANT LOCATION”; and     US Patent Application US2003/0225713A “PREPAYMENT SYSTEM FOR POWER DISTRIBUTING USING RFID TECHNOLOGY”.        

      These patents respectively disclose various applications of the RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) technology in various fields. None of these patents, however, disclose the downloading of wireless Web page data and code to a portable intelligent electronic device by means of an RFID chip.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      It is an objective of this invention to provide a wireless-linked online transaction system for portable intelligent electronic device which allows a user to be able to carry out a wireless-linked online transaction procedure by way of a portable intelligent electronic device immediately after the user sees the advertisement of a new product or service exhibited on an advertising medium.  
      The wireless-linked online transaction system according to the invention is designed for use in conjunction with a portable intelligent electronic device, such as a palmtop computer, a notebook computer, or an intelligent mobile phone, for providing a user-operated wireless-linked online transaction capability that allows the user to utilize his/her portable intelligent electronic device to download a set of wireless Web page data and code from an advertising medium, such as poster, billboard, signboard, placard, catalog, shopping window, to name just a few, and whereupon the user is able to utilize his/her portable intelligent electronic device to browse related advertisements about the products or services exhibited on the advertising medium, and, if desired, able to carry out an online transaction procedure directly through his/her portable intelligent electronic device.  
      In architecture, the wireless-linked online transaction system according to the invention comprises at least 3 distributed units: (A) an advertising-side unit; (B) a customer-side unit; and (C) a server-side unit; wherein the advertising-side unit is installed on an advertising medium, and which includes: (A1) a data storage module, which is used to store a set of wireless Web page data and code; and (A2) a wireless access interface module, which is used to provide a wireless access interface function for the customer-side unit to gain access to the wireless Web page data and code stored in the data storage module in a wireless manner; wherein the customer-side unit is installed on the intelligent electronic device, and which includes: (B1) a wireless data read module, which is capable of linking in a wireless manner to the wireless access interface module of the advertising-side unit for reading out the wireless Web page data and code stored in the data storage module of the advertising-side unit; (B2) a browser module, which is capable of displaying the contents of the wireless Web page data and code received by the wireless data read module from the advertising-side unit; and which is capable of responding to a user-initiated transaction request event to issue a corresponding transaction request message; and (B3) a wireless networking interface module, which is capable of linking the customer-side unit via a wireless network system to the server-side unit for the customer-side unit and the server-side unit to exchange data via the wireless network system; and which is capable of transmitting the transaction request message issued by the browser module via the wireless network system to the server-side unit; and wherein the server-side unit is installed on at least one network server linked to the wireless network system, and which includes: (C1) a network communication module, which is linked to the wireless network system for the server-side unit and the customer-side unit to exchange transaction data via the wireless network system; and (C2) an online transaction processing module, which is capable of responding to the transaction request message received by the network communication module from the customer-side unit by performing a corresponding online transaction processing procedure.  
      The wireless-linked online transaction system according to the invention is characterized by the use of an advertising-side unit embodied in the form of an RFID chip to store a set of wireless Web page data and code and mounted on an advertising medium for the purpose of allowing the user of a portable intelligent electronic device to be capable of downloading the wireless Web page data and code stored in the advertising-side unit (RFID chip) in a wireless method into the portable intelligent electronic device, so that the user is able to carry out an online transaction procedure through the downloaded Web page. This feature allows the user to conveniently and immediately make an online transaction through his/her portable intelligent electronic device right after the user sees the advertisement of a new product or service. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
      The invention can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, with reference made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram showing the networking environment where the wireless-linked online transaction system of the invention is utilized;  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram showing the distributed architecture of the wireless-linked online transaction system according to the invention; and  
       FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram showing more detailed internal architecture of the wireless-linked online transaction system according to the invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      The wireless-linked online transaction system for portable intelligent electronic device according to the invention is disclosed in full details by way of preferred embodiments in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings.  
       FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  are schematic diagrams showing the application and distributed architecture of the wireless-linked online transaction system according to the invention (shown in  FIG. 2  as a dotted rectangular box designated by the reference numeral  50 ). As shown, the wireless-linked online transaction system of the invention  50  is designed for use in conjunction with a portable intelligent electronic device  10 , such as a palmtop computer, a notebook computer, an intelligent mobile phone, to name just a few, for providing a user-operated wireless-linked online transaction capability that allows the user to utilize the portable intelligent electronic device  10  to download a set of wireless Web page data and code from an advertising medium  20 , such as a poster, a billboard, a signboard, a placard, a catalog, a shopping window, to name just a few, and whereupon the user is able to utilize the portable intelligent electronic device  10  to browse more detailed online advertisement information about the products or activities exhibited on the advertising medium  20  and, if the user intends to make a transaction, able to immediately carry out an online transaction procedure directly through the intelligent electronic device  10 . In the application of the invention on a mobile phone, the portable intelligent electronic device  10  is for example based on a WinCE Phone Edition operating system developed by Microsoft Corporation.  
      As shown in  FIG. 2 , the wireless-linked online transaction system of the invention  50  is based on a distributed architecture comprising at least  3  separate units: (A) an advertising-side unit  100 ; (B) a customer-side unit  200 ; and (C) a server-side unit  300 ; and wherein as shown in  FIG. 3 , the advertising-side unit  100  includes: (A1) a wireless access interface module  110 ; and (A2) a data storage module  120 ; the customer-side unit  200  includes: (B1) a wireless data read module  210 ; (B2) a browser module  220 ; and (B3) a wireless networking interface module  230 ; and can further optionally includes: (B4) a transaction record module  240 ; and the server-side unit  300  includes: (C1) a network communication module  310 ; and (C2) an online transaction processing module  320 .  
      Firstly, the respective attributes and behaviors of the constituent modules  110 ,  120  of the advertising-side unit  100  are described in details in the following.  
      The advertising-side unit  100  per se is for example an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) compliant chip; and in accordance with the invention, the RFID chip is used to prestore a set of wireless Web page data and code about a new product or service on the consumer market, so that a potential customer can utilize an RFID reader (i.e., the SDIO wireless data read module  210  of the customer-side unit  200 ) installed on the portable intelligent electronic device  10  to read and download the wireless Web page data and code into the intelligent electronic device  10 . Since RFID is a well-known wireless interface technology in the information industry, more detailed description thereof will not be given in this specification. In practical application, the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100  is mounted on a specified spot  21  on the advertising medium  20 . When the user wants to download the wireless Web page data and code from the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100  into his/her intelligent electronic device  10 , the user can simply point his/her portable intelligent electronic device  10  at the specified spot  21  where the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100  is mounted, and activate it to emit an RFID radio beam against the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100 . This will cause the wireless access interface module  110  in the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100  to respond by retrieving the wireless Web page data and code stored in the data storage module  120  and transmitting the retrieved data and code back to the portable intelligent electronic device  10 .  
      Next, the respective attributes and behaviors of the constituent modules  210 , 220, 230, 240 of the customer-side unit  200  are described in details in the following.  
      The wireless data read module  210  is for example an SDIO (Secure Digital Input/Output) compliant interface module, which is capable of responding to a user-initiated download request event  401  (for example, an event of the user pressing a hot key  211  on the portable intelligent electronic device  10 ) by emitting an RFID radio signal in a user-aimed direction toward the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100 , and after that is capable of receiving the returned RFID signal from the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100 , where the returned RFID signal carries the wireless Web page data and code stored in the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100 . Since SDIO is a well-known RFID interface standard in the information industry, more detailed description thereof will not be given in this specification. In practical implementation, for example, the hot key  211  can be either a physical button on the control panel of the portable intelligent electronic device  10 , or an on-screen graphic button displayed on the screen  11 .  
      The browser module  220  can be, for example, the built-in Web browser program in WinCE Phone Edition operating system or a third-party Web browser program, which is capable of providing a user-operated browsing function to display the contents of the wireless Web page data and code received by the wireless data read module  210  from the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100 ; and which is further capable of responding to a user-initiated transaction request event  402  (i.e., an event of the user issuing a transaction request through the Web page downloaded from the advertising-side unit  100 ) by issuing a corresponding transaction request message.  
      The wireless networking interface module  230  is for example a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) compliant wireless interface module, which is capable of linking the customer-side unit  200  via a wireless network system  30  to the server-side unit  300  for the customer-side unit  200  and the server-side unit  300  to exchange data via the wireless network system  30 , i.e., the wireless networking interface module  230  is capable of transmitting the transaction request message issued by the browser module  220  via the wireless network system  30  to the server-side unit  300 , and is further capable of receiving responses from the server-side unit  300  via the wireless network system  30 .  
      The transaction record module  240  is capable of recording a set of related transaction data about each online transaction procedure carried out by the user with the customer-side unit  200  on the intelligent electronic device  10  by means of the wireless Web page data and code downloaded from the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100 . If the user has utilized the wireless-linked online transaction system of the invention  50  to purchase an item of commodity but later want to return the purchased item, the data stored in this transaction record module  240  can be used by the vendor for verification purposes.  
      Subsequently, the respective attributes and behaviors of the constituent modules  310 ,  320  of the server-side unit  300  are described in details in the following.  
      The network communication module  310  is installed on the server  40 , and which is linked to the wireless network system  30  for the server-side unit  300  and the customer-side unit  200  to exchange transaction data via the wireless network system  30 .  
      The online transaction processing module  320  is for example an online shopping system which includes, for example, a shipment handling system, a banking service system, a logistic service system, a tracking system, a customer database system, to name a few; and which is capable of responding to the transaction request message received by the network communication module  310  from the customer-side unit  200  by performing a corresponding online transaction processing procedure. In practical implementation, this online transaction processing module  320  is similar in architecture and functionality to most existing online shopping systems, so that detailed description thereof will not be given in this specification.  
      The following is a detailed description of an example of a practical application of the wireless-linked online transaction system of the invention  50  in actual utilization by a user. In this application example, it is assumed that the advertising medium  20  is an advertising poster that exhibits a new product, and the user of the portable intelligent electronic device  10 , after reading the contents of the advertising medium  20 , wants to purchase an item of the advertised product through an online method.  
      Referring to  FIG. 1  through  FIG. 3  together, in the above-mentioned case, the user needs first to switch on his/her portable intelligent electronic device  10  (which can be either a mobile phone, a palmtop computer, or a notebook computer), and then aim the SDIO wireless data read module  210  installed on the portable intelligent electronic device  10  directly at a specified spot  210  on the advertising medium  20  where the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100  is mounted, and then press the hot key  211  on the portable intelligent electronic device  10  to initiate a user-operated download request event  401 . This will cause the SDIO wireless data read module  210  to respond by emitting an RFID radio signal toward the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100 , which will cause the wireless access interface module  110  in the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100  to respond by retrieving the wireless Web page data and code stored in the data storage module  120  and then transmitting the retrieved data and code in RFID signal back to the SDIO wireless data read module  210 :  
      When the SDIO wireless data read module  210  receives the RFID signal of the wireless Web page data and code from the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100 , it will activate the browser module  220  to display the contents of the wireless Web page data and code on the screen  11  of the portable intelligent electronic device  10  for the user to browse the advertisement information and online purchase instructions related to the product exhibited on the advertising medium  20 . If the user wants to purchase an item of the advertised product, the user can simply initiate a transaction request event  402  by inputting a set of transaction data, including, for example, the user&#39;s name, shipment address, telephone number, method of payment, and so on, through the displayed Web page downloaded from the advertising-side unit (RFID chip)  100 .  
      As the user completes the inputting of required transaction data, it will cause the Web page displayed by the browser module  220  to respond by issuing a corresponding transaction request message which is then transmitted by the wireless networking interface module  230  via the wireless network system  30  to the vendor&#39;s server  40 .  
      The wireless networking interface module  230  is for example a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) compliant wireless interface module, which is capable of linking the customer-side unit  200  via a wireless network system  30  to the server-side unit  300  for the customer-side unit  200  and the server-side unit  300  to exchange data via the wireless network system  30 , i.e., the wireless networking interface module  230  is capable of transmitting the transaction request message issued by the browser module  220  via the wireless network system  30  to the server-side unit  300 , and is further capable of receiving responses from the server-side unit  300  via the wireless network system  30 .  
      On the vendor&#39;s side, when the server  40  receives the transaction request message via the wireless network system  30  from the user&#39;s portable intelligent electronic device  10 , the network communication module  310  will transfer the received transaction request message to the online transaction processing module  320 , where an online transaction processing procedure is performed to process the user-initiated transaction request. This online transaction processing procedure includes, for example, a first step of notifying a dispatch center via network connection to send an item of the user-specified product to the user-specified address, a second step of linking to an online banking service system for processing the user-specified method of payment, such as by credit card, and so on. This online transaction processing procedure is similar in functionality to most existing online shopping systems, so that more detailed description thereof will not be given in this specification.  
      When the online transaction processing module  320  of the server-side unit  300  completes the online transaction processing procedure, it will responsively issue a confirmation message and activate the network communication module  310  to send the confirmation message via the wireless network system  30  back to the portable intelligent electronic device  10 , for the purpose of notifying the user that the user-requested transaction is completed and confirmed. After this, all related transaction data, including a listing of items purchased, related product information, coupons, and so on, will be stored permanently in the transaction record module  240 .  
      After that, the user can utilize the data stored in the transaction record module  240  to track the progress of the shipment of the purchased product by the vendor. Since the tracking function utilized by the transaction record module  240  is similar in functionality to most existing online shopping systems, more detailed description thereof will not be given in this specification.  
      After the user has received the purchased product but is unsatisfied with the product and wants to return the purchased item, the user needs to bring the purchased product together with the portable intelligent electronic device  10  to a vendor site, where the data stored in the transaction record module  240  can be read out by the vendor for verification purposes, i.e., to verify the identity of the user, the returned product, and the portable intelligent electronic device  10  which was used to perform the online transaction procedure.  
      In conclusion, the invention provides a wireless-linked online transaction system which is designed for use with a portable intelligent electronic device for providing a user-operated wireless-linked online transaction capability, and which is characterized by the use of an advertising-side unit embodied in the form of an RFID chip to store a set of wireless Web page data and code and mounted on an advertising medium for the purpose of allowing the user of a portable intelligent electronic device to be capable of downloading the wireless Web page data and code stored in the advertising-side unit (RFID chip) in a wireless method into the portable intelligent electronic device, so that the user is able to carry out an online transaction procedure through the downloaded Web page. This feature allows the user to conveniently and immediately make an online transaction through his/her portable intelligent electronic device right after the user sees the advertisement of a new product or service. The invention is therefore more advantageous to use than the prior art.  
      The invention has been described using exemplary preferred embodiments. However, it is to be understood that the scope of the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements. The scope of the claims, therefore, should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass- all such modifications and similar arrangements.