Patent ID: 8392846

Claim:
A system incorporated into a retail terminal for displaying virtual PIN pad to a customer at a retail site in order to complete a payment transaction, said system comprising: a touch screen having a total area of predetermined size for touch detection; a processing device operatively connected to the touch screen to receive touch detection data corresponding to regions of the touch screen that are touched; a randomizer configured to generate data representative of various locations on the touch screen; memory operatively connected to the processing device, wherein the memory comprises program instructions that, when executed by the processing device, cause the touch screen to display a virtual PIN pad having a first plurality of virtual buttons at a pad location on the touch screen based on the data generated by the randomizer, said pad location being variable for a respective transaction and occupying a PIN pad area on said touch screen that is smaller than said total area; said touch screen being operative to provide touch detection data to said processing device for virtual buttons in said pad location and not to provide touch detection data to said processing device for touches occurring at portions of said total area outside of said pad location; wherein the touch screen comprises a plurality of detection mechanisms, each detection mechanism being adapted to detect a specific location on the touch screen; wherein the pad location corresponds to a corresponding subset of the plurality of detection mechanisms, such that each of said virtual buttons corresponds to at least one of the detection mechanisms but that other detection mechanisms are unused in said PIN pad; and wherein said virtual buttons of said PIN pad are spaced apart such that at least one unused detection mechanism is located between adjacent ones of said buttons.