Abstract:
The present invention provides a method, system and program product for real time on-demand coupon delivery during shopping. Consumers use built-in cameras or NFC-reader functionalities of their mobile devices to act on the tags of products they are interested in. The coupon client applications in their mobile devices capture, save and process data in the tags of products, create requests for coupons, send requests with data in the tags of products to coupon servers, fetch responses from coupon servers, save coupons in their mobile devices, and present coupons for products during checkout.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    Not Applicable 
       STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
       [0002]    Not Applicable 
       REFERENCE TO SEQUENCE LISTING, A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM LISTING COMPACT DISK APPENDIX 
       [0003]    Not Applicable 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    A coupon is an instrument to obtain discount or rebate for a type of product or service. It can be a paper certificate or a representation of digital format. Traditionally coupons are distributed through mails, newspapers or magazines. In the Internet age, a lot of coupons can be obtained from emails or websites. With the widespread use of mobile devices such as smart-phones and tablets, coupons can be downloaded or pushed into mobile devices. 
         [0005]    During shopping, it would be very cumbersome for a consumer to bring all the paper coupons. Through communication networks, the consumer could download digital coupons into his/her mobile devices to bypass the inconvenience of paper coupons before going to stores. In addition, the consumer could pre-select coupons based on his/her planed shopping-list. However, when the consumer finds a new product or is interested in a product not in his/her planed shopping-list, he/she may wonder whether there is any coupon for the product, where and how to get it right away if there is one. 
         [0006]    The generic issue is how to check whether there is a coupon for any product in stores, where and how to get the coupon, all in real time. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    The present invention provides a method, system and program product for real time on-demand coupon delivery during shopping. Consumers use built-in cameras or NFC-reader functionalities of their mobile devices to act on the tags of products they are interested in. The coupon client applications in their mobile devices capture, save and process data in the tags of products, create requests for coupons, send requests with data in the tags of products to coupon servers, fetch responses from coupon servers, save coupons in their mobile devices, and present coupons for products during checkout. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  illustrates a schematic architecture of a mobile device with a coupon client application, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  illustrates a schematic block diagram of a product, a coupon server, a communication network, and a mobile device with a coupon client application, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  illustrates a schematic sequence diagram of steps from coupon retrieval to coupon redemption, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0011]      FIG. 1  illustrates a schematic architecture of a mobile device with a coupon client application. In one embodiment, the mobile device  100  comprises central processing units  101 , system memories  102 , disk storages  103 , input interfaces  104 , output interfaces  105 , network interfaces  106 , power supply interfaces  107 , and system buses  108 . 
         [0012]    The central processing units  101  provide a means for executing executable programs and can be any types of micro-controllers, processors, micro-processors, or multi-processors. The system memories  102  provide a means for storing executable programs such as a basic input and output system (BIOS), one or more operating systems, a plurality of firmware modules, and a plurality of software or application modules. The system memories  102  can be any combinations of random-access memory and read-only memory. The coupon client application  113  is running in the system memories  102 . The disk storages  103  provide a means for storing programs, files and data, and can be any types of internal disks, external disks  109 , optical disks, and the like. 
         [0013]    The input interfaces  104  provide a means for transferring data into the mobile device  100  through the input devices  110  such as keyboards, keypads, touchpads, touch screens, thumbwheels, trackballs, styluses, joysticks, microphones, cameras, sensors, etc. The input devices  110  can be internal or external parts of the mobile device  100 . The output interfaces  105  provide a means for transferring data from the mobile device  100  to the output devices  111  such as screens, displays, televisions, speakers, etc. The output devices  111  can be internal or external parts of the mobile device  100 . 
         [0014]    The network interfaces  106  provide a means for transferring data between the mobile device  100  and other network devices  112  via communication networks (not shown) such as circuit-switched telephone networks or packet-switched data networks. They can be wireless interfaces such as radio interfaces with antennas, transmitters and receivers, wireless local, wide and metro area network interfaces, Near Field Communication (NFC) interfaces, and may include other wireless, wired and satellite network interfaces. 
         [0015]    The power supply interfaces  107  provide power to the mobile device  100 . They can be a number of batteries. They may include external power sources such as AC adapters. 
         [0016]    The system buses  108  provide a means for transferring data internally among the central processing units  101 , the system memories  102 , the disk storages  103 , the input interfaces  104 , the output interfaces  105 , the network interfaces  106 , and other components (not shown) of the mobile device  100 . 
         [0017]    Reference is now to  FIG. 2 , which illustrates a schematic block diagram of a product, a coupon server, a communication network, and a mobile device with a coupon client application. In one embodiment, the coupon server  204  maintains internal or external databases of mappings between product tags and coupons. The mobile device  201  has the same architecture as the one denoted in  FIG. 1 . The coupon client application  202  in the mobile device  201  can utilize built-in camera in the mobile device  201  or tap the product  205  by use of NFC technology to capture the data in the tag  206  of the product  205 . In addition, the coupon client application  202  in the mobile device  201  can communicate with the coupon server  204  through the communication network  203  for bi-direction data exchange. 
         [0018]    The communication network  203  provides a means for transporting data between network data senders and network data receivers. It comprises wireless networks, zero or more of wired networks and satellite networks. Wireless networks can be one or more of wireless local area networks such as WI-FI, wireless wide area networks, wireless metropolitan area networks such as worldwide interoperability for microwave access, long term evolution networks, cellular networks such as global system for mobile communication, general packet radio service, code division multiple access, digital enhanced cordless telecommunication, integrated digital enhanced network, and the like. Wired networks can be one or more of Internet, intranets, local area networks such as ethernet, wide area networks such as frame relay and asynchronous transfer mode, virtual private networks, public switched telephone networks, and the like. 
         [0019]    Reference is now to  FIG. 3 , which illustrates a schematic sequence diagram of steps from coupon retrieval to coupon redemption, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. During shopping, a consumer finds a particular product he/she is interested to buy. The consumer wants to check whether there is a coupon for the product, and would like to get the coupon immediately if there is one. In the first step  301 , the consumer starts the coupon client application in his/her mobile device. In step  302 , the consumer utilizes the built-in camera in his/her mobile device to capture data in the tag of the product if his/her mobile device has a built-in camera; or the consumer taps the tag of the product with his/her mobile device to capture data in the tag of the product by use of NFC technology if the tag of the product is a NFC-enabled tag and his/her mobile device is NFC-reader capable. In step  303 , the coupon client application saves and further processes data in the tag of the product. In step  304 , the coupon client application creates a request for coupon, and sends the request with data in the tag of the product to the coupon server through a communication network. 
         [0020]    In step  305 , the coupon server receives the request for coupon from the coupon client application in the mobile device, searches internal or external databases or storages for any matched coupons associated with the request, and then sends a response with either coupons if there are matches, or error messages if there is no match, back to the mobile device of the consumer through the communication network. 
         [0021]    In step  306 , the mobile device of the consumer receives the response from the coupon server through the communication network. The coupon client application in his/her mobile device processes the response, extract and save the coupons or error messages from the response. When the consumer proceeds to checkout in step  307 , he/she can present fetched coupons for the product. 
         [0022]    While the present invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.