Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20130254118A1/en
Timestamp: 2019-08-24 16:53:05
Document Index: 325091280

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 1500', 'art 1500', 'art 1500', 'art 1500', 'art 1500', 'art 1500']

US20130254118A1 - Decoding system coupled to a payment system that includes a cryptographic key - Google Patents
Decoding system coupled to a payment system that includes a cryptographic key Download PDF
US20130254118A1
US20130254118A1 US13/829,209 US201313829209A US2013254118A1 US 20130254118 A1 US20130254118 A1 US 20130254118A1 US 201313829209 A US201313829209 A US 201313829209A US 2013254118 A1 US2013254118 A1 US 2013254118A1
US13/829,209
US8678277B2 (en
2011-11-17 Priority to US13/298,564 priority patent/US9916581B2/en
2013-03-14 Priority to US13/829,209 priority patent/US8678277B2/en
2013-03-15 Assigned to SQUARE, INC. reassignment SQUARE, INC. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: DORSEY, JACK, GRASSADONIA, BRIAN, HENDERSON, WILLIAM, WEN, XUANCONG, MCKELVEY, JAMES M.
2013-09-26 Publication of US20130254118A1 publication Critical patent/US20130254118A1/en
2014-03-25 Publication of US8678277B2 publication Critical patent/US8678277B2/en
A decoding system includes a decoding engine running on a mobile device that decodes signals produced from a read of a first party's financial transaction card. The decoding engine accepts and initializes incoming signals from a read of the first party's financial transaction card until the signals reach a steady state, detects the read once the incoming signals are in a steady state, identifies peaks in the incoming signals and digitizes the identified peaks in the incoming signals into bits. A transaction engine runs on the mobile device and is coupled to the decoding engine. The transaction engine receives as its input decoded first party's financial transaction card information from the decoding engine, and serves as an intermediary between the first party and a second party, so that the first party does not have to share his/her financial transaction card information with the second party.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 13/533,171 filed Jun. 26, 2012, which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 12/903,801 filed Oct. 13, 2010 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,231,055). This application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 13/298,564 filed Nov. 17, 2011.
The present invention relates generally to decoding systems, and more particularly to decoding systems that include a decoding engine running on a mobile device, a transaction engine running on the mobile device and coupled to the decoding engine, and a payment system in communication with the transaction engine, with the payment system in communication with a first party's financial transaction card institution and including a cryptographic key to decrypt and verify contents of a packet received from the transaction engine.
There is a need for improved decoding systems. There is a further need for decoding systems configured to be coupled to card readers for conducting financial transactions. Yet there is a further need for decoding systems coupled to a payment system that includes a cryptographic key to decrypt and verify contents of a packet received from the transaction engine.
An object of the present invention is to provide improved decoding systems, and their methods of use, for financial transactions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide decoding systems with transaction engines, and their methods of use, configured to be coupled to a payment system, with the payment system in communication with a first party's financial transaction card institution or a first party's financial account.
A further object of the present invention is to provide improved decoding systems, and their methods of use, where a tab between a first party, a payment service and a qualified second party.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide improved decoding systems, and their methods of use, where a tab between a first party, a payment service and a qualified second party, and the payment system includes a cryptographic key to decrypt and verify contents of a packet received from the transaction engine.
Another object of the present invention is to provide methods for establishing a tab between a first party, a payment system and a qualified second party, and using a cryptographic key at the payment system to decrypt and verify contents of a received packet at the payment system.
A further object of the present invention is to provide methods for establishing a tab between a first party, a payment system and a qualified second party, and using a cryptographic key at the payment system to decrypt and verify contents of a received packet at the payment system, and sending a first party's non-encrypted financial card information from the payment system to a first party's financial institution or a first party's financial account.
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved in a decoding system with a decoding engine running on a mobile device. The decoding engine decodes signals produced from a read of a first party's financial transaction card. The decoding engine accepts and initializes incoming signals from a read of the first party's financial transaction card until the signals reach a steady state, detects the read of the first party's financial transaction card once the incoming signals are in a steady state, identifies peaks in the incoming signals and digitizes the identified peaks in the incoming signals into bits. A transaction engine runs on the mobile device and is coupled to the decoding engine. The transaction engine receives as its input decoded first party's financial transaction card information from the decoding engine, and serves as an intermediary between the first party and a second party, so that the first party does not have to share his/her financial transaction card information with the second party. A tab is established between the first party, a payment service and a qualified second party. The payment system is in communication with the transaction engine and a first party's financial transaction card institution. The payment system includes a cryptographic key to decrypt and verify contents of a packet received from the transaction engine.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a method of transmitting information from a mobile device establishes a tab between a first party, a payment system and a qualified second party. A first party mobile device is in communication with the payment system. The mobile device is configured to be coupled and decoupled to a card reader via a microphone port of the mobile device. An response to a transaction of the first party an encrypted and signed packet is sent from the mobile device to the payment system. A cryptographic key is used at the payment system to decrypt and verify contents of the packet. A first party's non-encrypted financial card information is sent from the payment system to a first party's financial institution or a first party's financial account.
FIG. 15 depicts a flowchart of an example of a process to support financial transaction between a payer and a payee through a miniaturized card reader, which has length and height dimensions smaller than length of height dimensions of the associated mobile device, connected to a mobile device. In the example of FIG. 15, the flowchart 1500 starts at block 1502 where an amount of a financial transaction is provided through an interactive user application launched on the mobile device as shown in FIG. 16( a). The flowchart 1500 continues to block 1504 where a miniaturized card reader structured to minimize swipe error is connected to the mobile device as shown in FIG. 16( b). The flowchart 1500 continues to block 1506 where a card is swiped through the card reader to initiate the financial transaction as shown in FIG. 16( c). The flowchart 1500 continues to block 1508 where the payer confirms the amount of the card-present transaction via a signature signed via the interactive user application on the mobile device to complete the transaction as shown in FIG. 16( d). Payments are made with the use of the payment system which is coupled to the mobile device 100 Note that the signature is required as an additional layer of confirmation for the protection for the payer even when such signature may not be technically required to authorize the transaction. The flowchart 1500 continues to block 1510 where result of the transaction is received and presented to the payer and/or merchant as shown in FIG. 16( e) through the use of the payment system. The flowchart 1500 ends at block 1512 where an electronic receipt of the transaction is provided to the payer in the form of an electronic message as shown in FIG. 16( f).
In one embodiment of the present invention, illustrated in FIGS. 16( b) 16(c), 31 and 32, a card reader, generally denoted as 510, is provided that includes a housing 512 and a read head 514 positioned therein. The read head 514 is configured to be coupled to a mobile device 516 and includes a slot 518 for swiping a magnetic stripe of a card 520. In one embodiment, the card reader 510 with the slot 518 is utilized for a transaction between a buyer and seller. The read head 514 reads data on the magnetic stripe and produces a raw magnetic signal indicative of data stored on the magnetic stripe.
In another embodiment, a method is provided of transmitting information to a mobile device 516 with a small reader 510. The card reader 510 has length and height dimensions that are less than length or height dimensions of a coupled mobile device 516 (FIG. 16( b)). A card 520 is slid in the slot 518, data is read from the magnetic stripe, a raw magnetic signal indicative of data stored on the magnetic stripe is produced, and the raw magnetic head signal is processed into a processed digital signal that the microcontroller 526 can interpret. Rocking of the card 520 in the slot 518 is accommodated with a successful read of the magnetic stripe of the card 520. The rocking is in an amount of 1 to 10 degrees of rotation of a bottom surface of the card 520 away from a bottom surface of the slot 518. An output jack signal is thereafter sent to the mobile device 516.
a decoding engine running on a mobile device, the decoding engine in operation decoding signals produced from a read of a buyer's financial transaction card, the decoding engine in operation accepting and initializing incoming signals from a read of the buyer's financial transaction card until the signals reach a steady state, detecting the read of the buyer's financial transaction card once the incoming signals are in a steady state], identifying peaks in the incoming signals and digitizing the identified peaks in the incoming signals into bits;
a transaction engine running on the mobile device and coupled to the decoding engine, the transaction engine in operation receiving as its input decoded buyer's financial transaction card information from the decoding engine and serving as an intermediary between the buyer and a merchant, so that the buyer does not have to share his/her financial transaction card information with the merchant;
wherein the transaction engine is configured to be coupled to a payment service that sends a receipt to the buyer relative to the financial transaction.
2. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the mobile device a mobile digital device.
3. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the incoming signals are generated by swiping of the buyer's financial transaction card through a card reader configured to be coupled and de-coupled with the mobile device.
4. The decoding system of claim 3 wherein the incoming signals of low quality due to one or more of: low quality of data read from a single and/or low density track of a magnetic stripe of the card, sampling speed limitations of the mobile device, and noise introduced into the mobile device.
5. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the decoding engine in operation detects presence of the read of the buyer's financial transaction card by looking for points in the incoming signals that exceed a minimum signal amplitude threshold.
6. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the decoding engine in operation detects presence of the read of the buyer's financial transaction card by capturing signal of interest in the incoming signals via Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).
7. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the decoding engine in operation detects peaks in the incoming signals to be resistant to ringing in the incoming signals.
8. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the decoding engine in operation detects peaks in the incoming signals to be resistant to scratches in the card that cause slow quality or false peak information to manifest in the incoming signals.
9. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the decoding engine in operation detects peaks in the incoming signals by looking for local maxima and minima within a window of digital samples.
10. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the decoding engine in operation identifies the track from which data of the incoming signals are read through the read of the buyer's financial transaction card when only one track of data in a magnetic stripe of the buyer's financial transaction card is read.
11. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the decoding engine in operation digitizes the identified peaks in the incoming signals into bits only by checking and comparing polarities of peaks.
12. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the decoding engine in operation combines various peak detection and digitization approaches to cover various ranges of degradation in quality of the input signals read.
13. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the decoding engine in operation chooses and optimizes different process combinations and parameters depending on hardware platform of the mobile device.
14. The decoding system of claim 1 wherein the decoding engine in operation scales and adjusts decoding to account for at least one of, different amounts of noise, sampling speed variations, signal ringing, and a swipe direction of the buyer's financial transaction card when the buyer's financial card is swiped through a slot of a card reader.
15. The decoding system of claim 1, wherein an output jack signal received by a card reader coupled to the mobile device is an encrypted output jack signal.
16. The decoding system of claim 15, wherein the output jack signal is an encrypted and signed output jack signal.
17. The decoding system of claim 1, wherein the card reader includes a front end with an amplifier/filter, differentiator and a comparator.
18. The decoding system of claim 17, wherein the front end further includes wake-up electronics.
19. The decoding system of claim 18, wherein the wake-up electronics is a wake-up circuit.
20. The decoding system of claim 16, wherein the output jack signal is a synchronous Manchester encoded stream.
US13/829,209 2002-02-05 2013-03-14 Decoding system coupled to a payment system that includes a cryptographic key Active US8678277B2 (en)
US13/533,171 Continuation-In-Part US8413901B2 (en) 2009-10-13 2012-06-26 Systems and methods for decoding card swipe signals
US20130254118A1 true US20130254118A1 (en) 2013-09-26
US8678277B2 US8678277B2 (en) 2014-03-25
ID=49213284
US13/829,209 Active US8678277B2 (en) 2002-02-05 2013-03-14 Decoding system coupled to a payment system that includes a cryptographic key
US (1) US8678277B2 (en)
2013-03-14 US US13/829,209 patent/US8678277B2/en active Active
US8678277B2 (en) 2014-03-25
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:DORSEY, JACK;HENDERSON, WILLIAM;GRASSADONIA, BRIAN;AND OTHERS;SIGNING DATES FROM 20130311 TO 20130312;REEL/FRAME:030020/0400