WO2007149044A1

WO2007149044A1 - Method and system for payment of an article or a service

Info

Publication number: WO2007149044A1
Application number: PCT/SE2007/050448
Authority: WO
Inventors: Anders Mohss; Jan Eriksson
Original assignee: Anders Mohss Ab; Jomar Förvaltning AB; Paysystem Sweden Ab
Priority date: 2006-06-22
Filing date: 2007-06-20
Publication date: 2007-12-27
Also published as: SE0601373L

Abstract

According to a first aspect the present invention refers to a method for payment of an article (1) or a service that is provided by an automatic machine (2) , which is operatively connected to a telephone switchboard (3) . The inventive method is characterized by the steps that, the automatic machine (2) presents at least one number that leads to the verification device (3) to a presumptive buyer, the buyer calls said verification device number and determines an amount of money that the automatic machine (2) shall be charged with, the buyer accepts to be debited a cost corresponding to said charging amount by communicating an identity code that is unique for the automatic machine and that is presented by the automatic machine (2) to the verification device (3) , the buyer is debited (17) the cost corresponding to said charging amount, and the verification device (3) activates the automatic machine (2) by charging it with said amount of money, whereupon the automatic machine (2) provides the article (1) or service in question. According to a second aspect the invention refers to a system arranged to perform said method.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PAYMENT OF AN ARTICLE OR A SERVICE Technical field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for payment of an article or a service provided by an automatic machine, which is operatively connected to a verification device. The present invention also relates to a system arranged to per^¬ form said method.

Background of the Invention and prior art The problem to be solved is based in the infrastructure of the modern society, in which an endless number of situation arises daily, in which situations spontaneous demand of an article or a service arises in exchange for payment and in which the transaction is intended to be performed in real time between the buyer and a counterpart in the form of a machine or an automatic machine.

Such situations is constituted by for instance payment of parking space, payment in coffee machines, candy machines or other vending machines, which are located on public places, such as in the subway, at schools, in trains, etc. or payment for a safety box often present in train stations, for instance. Common for such situations is that they embraces spontaneous micro payments, i.e. that the purchases are not planned and takes place against several different types of automatic machines and managing companies, as well as that the amounts that are paid in the connection are comparatively small. It is not required that the buyer has to be a member in, or registered to, any company in order to utilize the services or to buy the articles. The development of today' s society is furthermore directed towards the fact that more and more payment situations will arise, in which the counterpart of the buyer is not constituted by a human but by a machine. Common for the most automatic machines is that it requires cash payment of- ten by means of coins, but in rare cases also bills, in or- der to get the product wanted. This often causes annoyance to the buyer that has to be prepared with a large amount of coins, thereto the automatic machine has to be frequently emptied since coins takes up a great deal of place and are heavy, which makes the emptying and handling more difficult. In addition it also arises a risk of robbery when money is handled, both against the automatic machine as such and against the company that has the task of supervising the automatic machines. In order to at least partly master some of the drawbacks, for instance some parking meters are equipped with card readers, a great drawback of these automatic machines is however that it most often is a must that the buyer possesses a specific gasoline company credit card or a specific credit card, which the man in the street does not have and not youths in particular.

Recently, payment systems have been provided, in which presumptive buyers uses their mobile phones in order to perform the payment. More precisely, the cost in question is charged to the mobile phone invoice of the buyer. This is shown for instance in US 6,782,080 to Leivo et al. and US 2005/0,165,674 to Edwars et al. The first mentioned document shows among orher things a vending machine, which when activated by the buyer, demands a verification from a cen- trally located verification device and at the same time communicates the telephone number of the verification device to the buyer. The buyer shall thereafter call said telephone number within a certain period of time. The telephone call of the buyer brings the verification device to send the de- manded verification to the automatic machine, which then is activated. A drawback of this system is that the buyer cannot control that the number he calls corresponds to the cost that it is intended to do, instead the telephone call is as such the accept that the purchase shall be performed. Thereto, the verification device only sends an "ok" signal to the automatic machine that provides the article that was chosen by the buyer in the first place. A drawback of this method is that the buyer must phone several times if he wishes to buy several articles. The latter document does as well show a transaction verification system, which however operates in a more different way in relation to the invention than the system that is shown in the first mentioned document but having the similarity that the payment may be charged to the telephone invoice of the buyer. The payment systems of today needs a more simple and more user friendly alternative for payment of articles and services, which are provided by automatic machines, in which the buyer is satisfied with the system and the security related to the payment procedure .

Objects and Features of the Invention

The present invention aims at obviating above mentioned drawbacks and failings of the previously known payment systems and at providing an alternative and improved payment system. A primary object of the invention is therefore to provide a payment method, which is easier and more clear for the buyer. Another object of the invention is to provide a payment system, in which the buyer accepts a purchase by means of a two step procedure and thereby increases the certainty against unwished and incorrect purchases. The object of the present invention is attained by means of the initially defined method and the initially defined system, which are characterized by the features defined in the independent claims. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are further defined in the dependent claims.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a payment method of the initially defined type, which comprises the steps that, the automatic machine presents at least one number that leads to the verification device to the presumptive buyer, the buyer calls said veri- fication device number and determines an amount of money that the automatic machine shall be charged with, the buyer accepts to be debited a cost corresponding to said charging amount by communicating an identity code that is unique for the automatic machine and that is shown by the automatic ma^¬ chine to the verification device, the buyer is charged with the cost corresponding to said charging amount, and the verification device activates the automatic machine by charging it with said amount of money, whereupon the auto- matic machine provides the article or service in question. According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a payment system of the initially defined type, which is characterized in that the automatic machine is arranged to present one number that leads to the verifi- cation device as well as a identification code that is unique for the automatic machine to the presumptive buyer, the verification device being arranged to determine an amount of money that the automatic machine shall be charged with upon telephone call, and to activate the automatic ma- chine by charging it with said amount of money.

Thus, the present invention is based on the insight that an alternative to the existing payment alternatives upon spontaneous purchases at an automatic machine is needed, as a complement to or instead of the systems and automatic machines of today. Such an alternative shall be available both in higher degree and for more presumptive buyers, than the alternatives of today.

Brief description of the drawings A more complete understanding of above mentioned and other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments in conjunction with the appended drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a schematic view of the inventive system, and Fig. 2 is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of the inventive method.

Detailed description of preferred embodiments

In figure 1 is shown a system for payment of an article

1 that is provided by a vending machine 2. Said vending machine 2 may be equipped with a conventional coin payment system, bill payment system and/or card payment system (not shown) as a complement to the inventive telephone payment system. It should be pointed out that the automatic machine

2 not necessarily has to be a vending machine but can be constituted by for instance an automatic machine 2 that provides services, such as a parking meter or a safety box. The invention is independent on the type of automatic machine, and may be applied to all automatic machines that in exchange of payment provides an article or a service. Further, the system comprises a verification device 3, in the form of a telephone switchboard, data server, telephone central, or the like, which is operatively connected to said automatic machine 2. It should be pointed out that a large number of automatic machines 2 of different or the same type may be operatively connected to one and the same verification device 3. Reference is now also made to figure 2 in which a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of the inventive method is shown.

The purchase starts 10 in that the presumptive buyer arrives at the specific automatic machine 2, from which he/she wishes to buy an article or a service. The automatic machine 2 is provided with an information means 4, in the form of a label, a text screen, or the like, that presents 11 a number that leads to the verification device 3 that is intended for this purpose, together with the necessary in- structions . This verification device number is in one era- bodiment a so called pay-per-call telephone number, wherein each call costs a predetermined amount of money. The infor^¬ mation means 4 may be arranged in a visible location on the outside of the automatic machine 2 or in direct connection with the article 1 that the verification device number is intended for, thereto said information means 4 may comprise several functions, some of which will be described in this document. Further, the automatic machine 2 is provided with an input means (not shown) in the form of a set of buttons, a touch screen, or the like, intended to be used by the buyer to chose one or several articles of services 1, or an amount thereof, among a number of offered articles or ser^¬ vices .

In the simplest embodiment the automatic machine 2 only presents one verification device number, in the case when each individual article 1 in the automatic machine 2 costs the same. Alternatively, the automatic machine 2 may present several verification device numbers, which corresponds to different values that the buyer intends to charge the auto- matic machine 2 with in order to correspond to the cost for the article or service 1 in question, which the buyer intends to buy. The several verification device numbers may lead to the same or different verification devices 3, in the case that different articles 1 have different prices. The buyer calls 12, by means of a telephone 5 via link a to the verification device 3 in order to determine the amount of money that the buyer intends to charge the auto^¬ matic machine with, and thus should be debited the buyer. According to one embodiment the verification device number that the buyer calls is a pay-per-call telephone number that corresponds to the value, which the buyer intends to charge the automatic machine 2 with, which in turn corresponds to the cost for the article or service 1 in question that he/she intends to buy. Alternatively, the buyer may deter- mine che amount of money that the automatic machine 2 should be charged with by in a suitable way communicate to the verification device the amount he/she will charge the automatic machine 2 with, either by multiples of the cost for the pay-per-call telephone number or a freely chosen amount of money. In a preferred embodiment of the inventive method a first check 13 takes place whether the buyer has cover for the cost corresponding to the determined charging amount. The check may for instance take place in the following way, in a first partial step the verification device determines if the calling telephone is a "cash card telephone" or a "subscription telephone" and dependent on which type of telephone 5 the buyer uses a further check is performed. In a second partial step in the case with a "cash card telephone" it is checked whether the buyer has enough capacity to pay on the cash card, i.e. that the balance of the card is high enough in order to cover the cost corresponding to the determined charging amount. In the second partial step in the case with a "subscription telephone" it is checked whether the subscription is valid, i.e. that it is not blocked or in another way invalid. If the buyer has not got cover for the cost the verifi^¬ cation device 3 ends the call whereupon the purchase is interrupted 14. If it on the other hand is determined that the buyer has cover for the cost the verification device 3 instructs 15 the buyer to communicate an identity code that is unique for the automatic machine and that for instance is available via above mentioned information means 4, or on another suitable location in connection with the automatic machine 2. This instruction may for instance be formulated in such a way that the verification device 3 communicates to the buyer that by communicating the identification code of the automatic machine he/she accepts that the cost corresponding to the determined charging amount is debited him/her. The buyer communicates preferably the identity code of the automatic machine by inputting it by means of the keypad of the telephone 5. Thus, through this action the buyer accepts that he/she wishes to buy the article 1 in question, and that the cost should be debited him/her, and that the automatic machine 2 shall be charged with the corresponding amount of money. Alternatively, there can be in^¬ structions on the information means 4 of the automatic ma- chine 2 to the buyer that instructs the buyer to communicate the identity code of the automatic machine 2 after the de^¬ termination of the charging amount.

When the buyer has communicated the identity code of the automatic machine 2 to the verification device 3, the verification device 3 checks 16 in a preferred embodiment of the inventive method whether the communicated identity code is valid. The validity of the identity code is determined for instance by comparing the communicated identity code with registers of valid identity codes that are connected to the specific verification device number.

If the communicated identity code is not valid the verification device 3 ends the call whereupon the purchase is interrupted 14. If it on the other hand is determined that the communicated identity code is valid the verifica- tion device 2 activates 27 the automatic machine 2. This is performed by the verification device 3 charges the automatic machine with a value corresponding to the determined charging amount. The charging is performed by an amount of money turning up on a text screen, for instance above mentioned information means 4, in a conventional way as when cash is charged into the automatic machine 2. Thereafter, the buyer may chose which one or which ones of the articles 1 he/she wishes to buy, provided that the total cost of the chosen articles does not exceed the value with which the automatic machine 2 is charged. Alternatively, the charging of the automatic machine 2 may realize that the article 1 in ques^¬ tion is made accessible or is delivered.

The activation of the automatic machine 2 is for in^¬ stance performed by the verification device 3 calling or sending a SMS to the automatic machine 2 via a link b, which implies that the automatic machine 2 as well is provided with a telephone number that is inaccessible for the buyer. The buyer shall only communicate with the verification device 3, which in turn communicates with the automatic machine 2. In the event of somebody by mistake would call di- rectly to the telephone number of the automatic machine 2, the call should be interrupted. This may for instance take place by the automatic machine 2 demanding a specific commu^¬ nication protocol or a code that only the verification device 3 uses, and that the callers telephone lacks. Alterna- tively, the activation of the automatic machine 2 may take place by the verification device 3 sending activation information via an information network to the automatic machine 2.

In connection with the activation of the automatic ma- chine 2 the buyer is debited the cost for the purchase. In the case with a "cash card telephone" the debiting is preferably performed by directly drawing the cost from the balance that the cash card is charged with. In the case with a "subscription telephone" the debiting is preferably per- formed by charging the cost to the telephone invoice of the buyer. Alternatively, the debiting may be performed by charging or drawing the cost from a bank card account or a credit card account. Hereby is the purchase completed 18. The automatic machine 2 may also be arranged to on one's own responsibility or as an answer on an inquire, send miscellaneous information to the verification device 3 or to the company supervising the automatic machine 2. Such infor^¬ mation may be stock balance in the automatic machine 2, sales levels over time, etc. It should also be pointed out that the inventive system and the inventive method may be realized within other fields than vending machines 2. At a parking meter the corresponding procedure takes place but the buyer receives a parking receipt instead of an article 1, and at a safety box the buyer can look and bring the key. In these cases the determination of the amount of money that shall be charged to the automatic machine 2 and debited the buyer may alternatively be performed by the buyer deciding how long time he/she wishes to use the service, and together with the communica^¬ tion of the identity code of the automatic machine 2 as well at this determination step, the verification device 3 deter^¬ mines the corresponding charging amount. Common for the pay^¬ ment system and the payment method is however that the cus^¬ tomer is not a member of, or preregistered to any service at, a company. Thus, the buyer is free to perform spontane- ous micro payments in each automatic machine 2 connected to the payment system, independent on the managing company and without any requirements of preregistration.

Feasible modifications of the Invention The invention is not limited only to the embodiments described above and shown in the drawings. Thus, the payment method or the payment system may be modified in all kinds of ways within the scope of the appended claims.

It should be pointed out that the verification device not necessarily has to be an automatic verification device, but may also be constituted by a manned verification device, and independently of the type of verification device the identity code that is unique for the automatic machine may be communicated orally as an alternative to the use of the keypad of the telephone.

In an embodiment of the inventive payment method and payment system the automatic machine may communicate to the verification device if the buyer presses the interrupt but^¬ ton or the return button, such that the remaining amount is repaid to the buyer. Alternatively, the buyer may receive change in cash from the automatic machine.

It should also be pointed out that the buyer not neces^¬ sarily has to be in person at the automatic machine, for in^¬ stance if the son of the buyer is at the automatic machine but has not got any money left on his cash card, then the buyer may phone instead of the son and see that the son gets the product he demands, as long as the buyer has access to the verification device number and the identity code of the automatic machine. Thus, the telephone of the buyer may be a mobile telephone or a household telephone or any other com^¬ munication means that is provided with a chargeable account/invoice. Thereto, the expression that the buyer calls the verification device, includes an ordinary telephone call, a SMS, or the like. It should also be pointed out that the cost that is debited the buyer either fully corresponds to the determined charging amount or corresponds to the determined charging amount plus a fee to the verification device operator, for instance .

Claims

1. A method for payment of an article or a service (1) that is provided by an automatic machine (2), which is operatively connected to a verification device (3), charac- terized by the steps that:

- the automatic machine (2) presents (11) at least one num^¬ ber that leads to the verification device (3) to a presump^¬ tive buyer,

- the buyer calls (12) said verification device number and determines an amount of money that the automatic machine (2) shall be charged with,

- the buyer accepts (15) to be debited a cost corresponding to said charging amount by communicating an identity code that is unique for the automatic machine and that is pre- sented by the automatic machine (2) to the verification device (3) ,

- the buyer is debited (17) the cost corresponding to said charging amount, and

- the verification device (3) activates the automatic ma- chine (2) by charging it with said amount of money, whereupon the automatic machine (2) provides the article or service (1) in question.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein it comprises the step that:

- the telephone number of the buyer is registered upon the calling of the verification device (3).

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the step that the buyer determines an amount of money that the auto^¬ matic machine (2) shall be charged with, is performed by the buyer communicating said charging amount be means of the keypad of the telephone (5).

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the step that the buyer determines an amount of money that the auto^¬ matic machine (2) shall be charged with, is performed by the calling of the verification device number itself, which is constituted by a pay-per-call telephone number.

5. The method according to any preceding claims, further comprises the step of:

- determining whether the buyer has cover for the cost cor- responding to the charging amount.

6. The method according to any preceding claims, wherein the step that the buyer communicates the identity code that is unique for the automatic device to the verification de- vice (3), is performed by the buyer communicating said iden^¬ tity code by means of the keypad of the telephone (5).

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprises the step that: - the verification device (3) determines whether the commu^¬ nicated identity code is valid.-

8. The method according to any preceding claims, wherein the automatic machine (2) presents a number of numbers cor- responding to different costs, which numbers all leads to said verification device (3).

9. The method according to any preceding claims, wherein the step that the buyer is debited the cost corresponding to the charging amount, is performed by the telephone operator managing the telephone number of the buyer, invoices the buyer with said cost.

10. A system for payment of an article or a service (1), comprising an automatic machine (2) that provides said arti^¬ cle or service (1), and a verification device (3) that is operatively connected to said automatic machine (2), characterized in that the automatic machine (2) is arranged to present a number that leads to the verification device (3), as well as an identity code that is unique for the automatic machine, to a presumptive buyer, the verification device (3) being arranged to upon call determine an amount of money that the automatic machine (2) shall be charged with, to ob^¬ tain said identity code from the buyer as an accept in order to debit the buyer the cost corresponding to the charging amount, and to activate the automatic machine (2) buy charging it with said amount of money.