Patent ID: 7644859

Claim:
A portable device for selecting virtual cards for a transaction based on a context, comprising: a microprocessor chip comprising a plurality of virtual cards, wherein each of the virtual cards include transaction information that enables transaction capabilities and functionality of a traditional card transaction device, wherein the microprocessor chip activates an appropriate one of the plurality of virtual cards for the context upon receiving a determination of the appropriate one of the plurality of virtual cards for the context; an external interface coupled to the microprocessor chip that enables communication with a vendor device, wherein the external interface receives context information of the context from the vendor device and provides the context information to the microprocessor, and wherein the external interface further receives the transaction information of the appropriate one of the plurality of virtual cards for the context from the microprocessor chip and provides the transaction information of the appropriate one of the plurality of virtual cards to the vendor device in performing the transaction; and an internal interface coupled to the microprocessor chip that enables communication with an application layer of the portable device, wherein the internal interface receives the context information from the microprocessor chip and provides the context information to the application layer, and wherein the internal interface receives a determination of the appropriate one of the plurality of virtual cards for the context from the application layer and provides the determination of the appropriate one of the plurality of virtual cards for the context to the microprocessor chip, wherein the application layer comprises a services module that has access to rules for automatic selection of one or more of the plurality of virtual cards based on the context and a control module that processes at least one of the rules using the context information to automatically select the one or more of the plurality of virtual cards and provide the determination of the appropriate one of the plurality of virtual cards for the context.