WO2008033892A2

WO2008033892A2 - Age verification system for self-service content access terminal

Info

Publication number: WO2008033892A2
Application number: PCT/US2007/078234
Authority: WO
Inventors: Richard Lee Malone; Craig Allen Keefner
Original assignee: Kiosk Information Systems, Inc.
Priority date: 2006-09-12
Filing date: 2007-09-12
Publication date: 2008-03-20
Also published as: WO2008033892A3

Abstract

A system for controlling access to content requested by a user at a self-service terminal. One embodiment of the invention includes jurisdiction tables, a filter engine, an age verification engine and a content gatekeeper. The jurisdiction tables include decryption and/or decoding information for each of a plurality of drivers license or other document-issuing jurisdictions. The filter engine determines whether the requested content is age dependent. The age verification engine receives encrypted and/or encoded age information representative of a user's age read from a storage medium on a drivers license or other document issued by the jurisdiction, and jurisdiction information representative of the identity of the jurisdiction that issued the document. The age verification engine identifies the jurisdiction table associated with the jurisdiction that issued the document as a function of the jurisdiction information, decrypts and/or decodes the age information as a function of the identified jurisdiction table to determine the user's age, and determines whether the user's age is appropriate for the requested content. The content gatekeeper grants or denies access to the content as a function of the age determination.

Description

AGE VERIFICATION SYSTEM FOR SELF-SERVICE CONTENT ACCESS TERMINAL

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/825,352, filed on September 12, 2007 and entitled Age Verification System and Method for Self-Service Content Access Terminal, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates generally to terminals for accessing content over computer networks such as the Internet. In particular, the invention is a system for controlling access to content on the basis of the age of the person operating the terminal.

BACKGROUND

Digital content can be accessed at self-service kiosks, terminals, or other units that are made available in public locations. For example, computer-based terminals are often deployed at grocery stores, airports, libraries, or other places, allowing users to access content such as games, music, movies, images, text (e.g., stories, information), Internet web sites, and others. In some instances, the content may be accessed without the need for a payment. For example, the content may be accessed through a library. In other instances, payment may be required to access the content. Payments can, for example, be made with a credit card using a credit card reader at the terminal.

The content may or may not be age appropriate for all users. For example, games may contain violence that is not appropriate for children under a certain age. Unfortunately, conventional publicly available self-service systems do not adequately validate and control access to digital content based on age. There is, therefore, a need for systems capable of efficiently and accurately verifying users' ages at computer-based terminals. SUMMARY

The invention is a method for controlling a user's access to content at a terminal. One embodiment includes receiving from an input device verifiable age information representative of the user's age, wherein the information is transferred to the input device from a storage medium on a document issued by an official entity, determining from the age information whether the user's age is appropriate for content access, and granting or denying access to the content as a function of the age determination. In another embodiment of the invention, receiving age information includes receiving encrypted and/or encoded age information transferred from a storage medium on the official document. The method of this embodiment further includes decrypting and/or decoding the age information received from the input device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a graphical illustration of a computer system network that includes an age verification system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating functional components of a content access system including an age verification system in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the steps of an algorithm implemented in one embodiment of the age verification system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Fig. 1 illustrates a computer system network 100 in which an age verification system in accordance with the present invention can be used to control access to content at a self-service terminal 102. The self-service terminal 102 may be an electronic kiosk, and is typically, although not necessarily, in a public location such as an airport, arcade, theater, grocery store, or library. The terminal 102 may also be in a semi-public location, such as an office building, or in a private location. The terminal 102 includes a user interface offering the user various functionality and/or content. The term "terminal" is not intended to imply a "dumb" terminal, but rather a computer-based system that can provide a full set of functions, examples of which are discussed further below. The user can select the offered functions and content with an input device such as a touchscreen, keyboard, mouse or other interface device. An attendant may or may not be available to answer questions from, and otherwise assist, a user of terminal 102.

In some embodiments of the terminal 102, payment is required by the user before the user can access content and/or functions of the terminal 102. The terminal 102 is operable to prompt for, receive and process payment. Payment may be made in any number of ways and on any number of bases. By way of example, but not limitation, payment may be on a "per-use" basis, wherein the user pays for each use of the terminal 102, or each access to content or functions provided thereon. As another example, the user may have an account through the terminal 102 provider, whereby the user pays on a periodic (e.g., monthly, yearly, etc.) subscription basis. In this regard, the user may present a customer identifier (e.g., a user name and password) at the terminal 102, which the terminal 102 verifies using a list of subscribing customers, prior to granting access to functions and content. Of course, there may be different payment schemes. For example, the user may subscribe on a periodic basis to use the terminal 102, but be required to pay on a per-use basis for functions and/or content used at the terminal 102.

In illustrated embodiment, the terminal 102 is connected to a credit card reader 103 through which the user can swipe his/her credit card to make payment. In other embodiments (not shown), the terminal 102 includes a currency input device, such as a dollar bill feeder that accepts dollar bills for payment and/or a coin feed that accepts coins for payment. In these and other embodiments, the terminal 102 may be configured to accept voucher payments (e.g., prepaid cards). In yet other embodiments, the user may pay through an online payment service, such as PayPal™, a contactless credit card, coupon, access code, or other e-commerce payment service, which is accessible by the terminal 102.

Content provided through the terminal 102 may be age sensitive, and therefore access to the content may be age dependent. Content can include any type of digital content such as, but not limited to, video games, audio, images, graphics, music, video, movies, movie clips, advertisements and text. Content may be local to the terminal 102, such as local content 104. Alternatively, content may be remote, such as remote content 106. The illustrated embodiment of network 100 includes a remote content server 108 operable to serve the remote content 106 to the terminal 102 via a network such as the Internet 110. The remote content server 108 may be a web server computer that can provide web pages that include content. In this regard, the remote content 106 may be composed of Internet browser readable files such as, but not limited to, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or Extensible Markup Language (XML) or variations thereof. In other embodiments, the web server may provide entertainment, games and the like in a variety of digital forms which are not restricted to web pages.

One or more items of local content 104 and remote content 106 can be age sensitive. The terminal 102 includes an age verification system to verify a terminal user's age and control access to age sensitive content based on the user's age. In the illustrated embodiment, the terminal 102 receives information from an input device 105 to determine whether the user is old enough to access content. The input device 105 can, for example, be a magnetic strip reader and/or bar code reader. In other embodiments of the invention the functions of card reader 103 and input device 105 can be combined. In one embodiment of the invention, the user may swipe or insert one or more official documents through input device 105. The input device 105 reads information from the magnetic strip and/or the bar code (e.g., one-dimensional, two-dimensional, etc.) on the official document. The information can be used to verify the user's age for purposes of allowing access to, or presenting content to the user. In one embodiment, the one or more documents that the user swipes include a drivers license. The drivers license is issued by a governmental entity of a jurisdiction, such as, but not limited to, a state or locality in the United States of America. The magnetic strip and/or the bar code typically include information about the licensee, the jurisdiction, and other data. At least part of the data is age information, such as the licensee's date of birth, which can be used by the terminal 102 to verify the user's age.

In another embodiment of the invention, the age verification is based on a combination of the user's drivers license and credit card information. In this embodiment, the terminal 102 verifies the age information from the drivers license and may use the credit card information to obtain other useful information about the user.

The terminal 102 can be located in any one of multiple jurisdictions issuing the drivers license or other documentation, and users of the terminal 102 may be from another jurisdiction. For example, the terminal 102 may be located in California, and a user of the terminal 102 may be from Colorado. Typically, the data in the magnetic strip and/or bar code of the drivers license or other documentation is encrypted, encoded and/or formatted in a manner that is specific to the jurisdiction that issued the documentation. Each jurisdiction may encrypt, encode and/or format the data differently. The terminal 102 is configured to access data encrypted, encoded, and/or formatted in accordance with multiple jurisdictions.

In this regard, the terminal 102 has access to jurisdiction-specific algorithms and/or data 1 12. In one embodiment, the jurisdiction-specific algorithms and/or data 1 12 is stored in memory at terminal 102 and includes an encryption/decryption algorithm associated with each jurisdiction, and lookup data tables that specify the format of data encoded on drivers licenses from the jurisdictions. The decryption algorithm for the associated jurisdiction is used to decrypt the data read by input device 105 from the magnetic strip and/or the bar code. The lookup tables are used to identify one or more sets of data encoded therein. As described in greater detail below, one embodiment of the age verification system includes a jurisdiction information processing engine. A jurisdiction information processing engine of this type is available from the Intelli-Check™, Inc. of Woodbury, NY. These embodiments include the utilities of the Intelli-Check Software Development Kit (SDK) incorporated into the terminal 102 to perform the age verification using the decrypted jurisdiction data.

Also shown in the computer network 100 of Fig. 1 is an administrative server 114 that performs administrative functions related to the terminal 102. Administrative functions performed by the server 114 include, but are not limited to, monitoring terminal 102 health/operability, monitoring sales of the terminal 102, monitoring manner of use of the terminal 102, and generating reports about any monitored aspect. The administrative server 114 also determines when and if the terminal 102 should be updated with new jurisdiction algorithms and/or data, new content, new user interface displays, new software, or others. If the terminal 102 can be updated with new jurisdiction algorithms and/or data, the administrative server 114 can cause jurisdiction-specific algorithms and/or data 116 to be uploaded to (or downloaded by) the terminal 102. Updates to the terminal 102 may be performed periodically or on an event-driven basis. The updates may be made on a substantially real-time basis and/or in a batch mode at a predetermined time. Content servers and/or databases (not shown) may also be accessible by the administrative server 114, such that the administrative server 114 can cause new content to be loaded onto the terminal 102. Although not illustrated in Fig. 1 , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that in actual operation, there will typically be multiple terminals 102, administrative servers 114, remote content servers 108 and sets of jurisdiction- specific algorithms and data 116. In addition, although databases are shown in Fig. 1 , it will be understood that any suitable memory may be used, and the memory need not be in the form of a database. Regardless of the type of memory used, content and other data may be stored in any number of formats, such as, but not limited to, hierarchical, relational, flat files, or object-oriented. Fig. 2 illustrates an exemplary content access system 200 that may be employed at a terminal, such as terminal 102 in Fig. 1, through which a user can access content that may or may not be age sensitive. For content that is age sensitive, terminal 102 performs age verification to verify that the user is of appropriate age to access the content. For content that is not age sensitive, age verification need not be employed, although in some embodiments age verification may be performed for all users, and regardless of the content that is accessed.

The illustrated embodiment of the content access system 200 includes a user interface 202, a content gatekeeper 204, and multiple jurisdiction tables 206a, 206b, ..., 206x. In one embodiment, there is a jurisdiction table 206a-206x for each of the states (forty-nine in one embodiment) that provide data on drivers licenses that is accessible using the Intelli-check™ age verification engine. The content gatekeeper 204 includes a payment processor 208, a filter engine 210, and an age verification engine 212. Information from the user interface 202 is used by the content gatekeeper 204 to determine whether the user is allowed to access one or more items of content 214a, 214b, ..., 214n.

More or fewer modules than those shown in the content access system 200 of Fig. 2 may be included in the content access system 200. In addition, the arrangement of modules may be different than that shown in Fig. 2. For example, in some embodiments the age verification engine 212 is separate from the content gatekeeper 204. In such embodiments, the age verification engine 212 can include an Intelli-check™ module and the content access gatekeeper 204 communicates with the age verification engine 212 through an OCX or Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) module (not shown).

In the illustrated embodiment, the filter engine 210 determines if content 214 is associated with age-dependent access indicia 216 to determine whether access to the content depends on the user's age. To illustrate, content item 1 214a has age-dependent access indicia 216a and content item n 214n has age- dependent access indicia 216n, while content item 2 214b is not associated with age-dependent access indicia. Age-dependent access indicia is any indicator that the associated content is appropriate for only certain ages and/or is inappropriate for certain ages. By way of example, but not limitation, age-dependent access indicia 216 could indicate a rating, such as a rating set forth by the Internet-based Content Rating Association (ICRA), the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA), or other ratings standards body. As such, the age- dependent access indicia 216 could include metadata or other data associated with content 214 to indicate age sensitivity of the content. In this case, the filter engine 210 can read ratings metadata to determine if web content (or other browser readable content) has been rated as being age sensitive. Other age- dependent access indicia 216 could include, by way of example, the location of content 214, the source of content 214, a historical score based on previous access or user reviews, or a configured table in memory that provides age- dependent access indicia for specified content. In some embodiments, the terminal 102 may include a filter engine 210 which may have access to a list of websites known to contain adult-content or other content deemed inappropriate for the user and/or venue. This list may be updated periodically and may be used to categorize the content the user wishes to access.

The filter engine 210 may determine whether access to content 214 is age dependent at any time suitable to the implementation. In some embodiments, the filter engine 210 determines age-dependency of content at the time that the user requests (e.g., by selecting a graphical button on the user interface) to access the content 214, and the user may be prompted at the time of content selection to input verifiable age information. In other embodiments, the filter engine 210 determines whether any content is associated with age-dependent access indicia at the beginning of a user session, and the user may be automatically prompted to input verifiable age information.

In some embodiments, the user may present his/her drivers license by swiping or inserting the license through the credit card reader 103 and/or input device 105 at the content access system 200. The data that is read is jurisdictional by state. The jurisdictional data is received by the user interface 202 and passed to the age verification engine 212. As discussed above, the age verification engine 212 can include an Intelli-check™ module. The Intelli- check™ module can check the age of the user on a jurisdictional basis. The Intelli-check™ module decodes the jurisdictional data from the user's drivers license and identifies age information using jurisdictional tables 206. The jurisdictional table corresponding to the state of the drivers license is selected for purposes of decoding the state-specific information. The Intelli-check™ module returns an indication, such as a message, that the user is either above a threshold age (e.g., 18) or not above the threshold age.

The payment processor 208 ensures that payment is received for functions and/or content that require payment. The payment processor 208 may cause the user interface 202 to prompt the user to enter payment information, such as, by swiping a credit card through reader 103, entering a voucher code, or entering a credit card number. The payment processor 208 determines whether the payment information is valid, and may trigger the payment transaction or transfer in realtime or later. If the payment is valid, the payment processor 208 enables the user to proceed with access to the function or content; otherwise access is denied.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary embodiment of an algorithm 300 that may be employed at a self-service content access terminal such as 102 to verify age of users. The algorithm 300 may include more or fewer operations than the operations shown in Fig. 3. In addition, the order and arrangement of operations shown in Fig. 3 may be changed without straying from the scope of the invention. For example, two or more operations shown in Fig. 3 may be combined. As another example, particular steps of an operation may be broken out into separate operations.

In a prompting operation 302, the user is prompted to enter age information. In this particular embodiment, the prompting operation 302 prompts the user to insert or swipe an official document, such as the user's drivers license, through an input device such as 105. In response, the user swipes the magnetic strip and/or the bar code of the user's drivers license. When the user swipes the drivers license, the data is read. A determining operation 304 determines the jurisdiction associated with the drivers license information. In some embodiments, the jurisdiction is a state of the USA. Based on the determined jurisdiction, the drivers license information is decrypted in a decrypting operation 306. Each state may use a different decryption algorithm. Thus, the decrypting operation 306 chooses the decryption algorithm associated with the state of the user's drivers license.

In a locating operation 308, the user's age information is located and read from the drivers license information. The locating operation 308 may utilize a jurisdictional table to determine where the age information resides in the drivers license information. In another determining operation 310, it is determined whether the user's age is appropriate to allow access to age sensitive content. In some embodiments, the determining operation 310 determines whether the user's age is above a legal age limit, such as 18 years. In addition to age information, a drivers license may be used to determine regional home information. According to one embodiment, this information may be used to present tailored information along with validating privilege to access age-restricted content. For example, the tailored information may include weather, news, sports scores, and the like for the determined home region. In another embodiment, the information determined about the user, such as age, regional home, and the like, may be used to select advertisers and advertisements on which should be displayed on a user basis.

Based on the results of the determining operation 310, access to content may be granted or denied in various ways. Three possible approaches are shown in Fig. 3. In a presenting operation 312, only icons or buttons associated with accessible content are presented in the user interface. In another presenting operation 314, all icons or buttons are presented, but icons and buttons associated with inaccessible content are grayed out, and not selectable. In a third presenting operation 316, icons and buttons for all content are presented, and when a user selects one of the buttons, accessibility is determined at the time of the user selection. If the user is of appropriate age, the user will be granted access to the selected content; otherwise, access to the content is denied. In summary, beneficially, systems and methods described herein provide for controlling access to digital content at publicly available terminals based on the terminal user's age. Using age information from the terminal user, the system verifies whether the user is old enough to access age dependent content. In some embodiments, the age information is provided from a readable official document of the user, such as a magnetic strip or a bar code on the user's driver's license. Age information that is encoded on the magnetic strip and/or the bar code is decoded, and used to determine whether the user is of an age that is appropriate for digital content.

In some embodiments, the age information is encoded (or encrypted) on a jurisdictional basis. Each of multiple jurisdictions (e.g., states, countries) may encode the age information differently. As such, a different algorithm or different data may be used to decode the encoded age information for each jurisdiction. Jurisdiction-based decoding algorithms and/or data may be stored locally at the terminal, and updated from time to time, as jurisdictions may change their encoding/decoding formats.

In accordance with various embodiments, the age verification system makes use of a jurisdiction information processing engine. One such engine is provided by Intelli-check™, Inc. These embodiments include the Intelli-check Software Development Kit (SDK) to provide utilities for interfacing with the jurisdiction information processing engine. The jurisdiction information processing engine is operable to identify the various parts of the information included in the bar code and/or magnetic strip information for different jurisdictions. This typically involves lookup tables that specify the data format for the different jurisdictions.

A network-based administration server can monitor one or more geographically distributed terminals. The administration server may cause terminals to be updated with content, decoding algorithms/data, new interface displays, software, and others. In addition, the administration server can monitor terminals for operability or health, level of use or sales, jurisdiction, credit card verification and others. Still further, the administration server can generate reports about the terminals based on the monitoring.

In some embodiments, a content access system at a terminal determines whether content has associated age dependent access indicia. If so, the system can prompt the user to provide age information in one or more forms. By way of example, but not limitation, age information can be provided from a credit card or a driver's license. Using the age information, the system determines whether the user is allowed to access age dependent digital content. In some embodiments the system presents selectable icons (e.g., graphical buttons) for only the content that the user is allowed to access based on the results of the age verification. In some embodiments, the system presents icons for all available content, but "grays out" (renders unselectable) icons for content that the user is not allowed to access. In still other embodiments, the system presents icons for all available content, and determines whether to grant access when the user selects (e.g., single clicks on, double clicks on) the associated icon.

According to some embodiments, a filter engine uses age dependent access indicia associated with content to determine whether access to the content depends on the user's age. In these embodiments, the filter engine may analyze metadata or other data associated with content to determine if the content is age sensitive. For example, Internet-based content may include ratings information, such as the ratings standards set forth by the "Internet Content Rating Association". In this case, the filter engine can read ratings metadata to determine if the web content has been rated by its creator as being age sensitive. The filter engine can determine whether content is age sensitive based on other criteria, such as, but not limited to, media location of the data (e.g., which database or area in a database), a historically derived age sensitivity indication, or a table in memory with a list of age sensitive content.

In accordance with various embodiments, a content access terminal provides multiple functions. By way of example, but not limitation, functions can include taking pictures, printing pictures, providing content, granting access to content, age verification, writing content to computer-readable media (e.g., compact disc, flash drive, etc.), distributing computer-readable media, voting functionality, providing human resources information, receiving payment, processing payment, printing of text, images, and other content, refilling prescriptions, online ordering, and/or delivering tickets (e.g., movie tickets, concert tickets, etc.). Access to one or more functions provided by the terminal may be controlled based on the user's age using age verification methods.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognized that changes can be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, a terminal user's age can be verified locally at the self- service terminal or remotely, as for example, at a remote server. As another example, the age verification of the user can occur in response to content selection by the user.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a user's access to content at a terminal, including: receiving from an input device verifiable age information representative of the user's age, wherein the information is transferred to the input device from a storage medium on a document issued by an official entity; determining from the age information whether the user's age is appropriate for content access; and granting or denying access to the content as a function of the age determination.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein: receiving age information includes receiving encrypted and/or encoded age information transferred from a storage medium on the official document; and the method further includes decrypting and/or decoding the age information received from the input device.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein: the method further includes: receiving from the input device entity information representative of the entity that issued the document; and identifying the trusted entity as a function of the entity information; and decrypting and/or decoding the age information includes using an algorithm associated with the identified entity.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein: the document is a document issued by a governmental jurisdiction; and identifying the entity includes identifying the jurisdiction that issued the document.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein: the document is a document issued by a state; and identifying the entity includes identifying the state that issued the document.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the document is a drivers license.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the age information includes birth date.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the user's age is appropriate for content access is performed locally by the terminal accessed by the user.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the user's age is appropriate for content access is performed remotely from the terminal accessed by the user.

10. The method of claim 1 and further including determining whether requested content is age dependent.

1 1. The method of claim 10 wherein determining whether requested content is age dependent includes checking age dependent access indicia associated with the requested content.

12. The method of claim 10 and further including prompting the user to transfer verifiable age information.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein prompting the user to transfer verifiable age information is performed after determining whether the requested content is age dependent.

14. A method for controlling a user's access to content at a terminal, including: determining whether requested content is age dependent; prompting the user to provide verifiable age information representative of the user's age from a storage medium on a document issued by an official entity; receiving encoded and/or encrypted age information and entity information provided by the user from an input device, wherein the information is transferred to the input device from a storage medium on a document issued by an official entity; identifying the entity as a function of the received entity information; decrypting and/or decoding the age information includes using an algorithm associated with the identified entity; determining from the age information whether the user's age is appropriate for content access; and granting or denying access to the content as a function of the age determination.

15. The method of claim 15 wherein receiving age information and entity information includes receiving information from a drivers license.

16. A system for controlling access to content requested by a user at a terminal, including: jurisdiction tables including decryption and/or decoding information for each of a plurality of document-issuing jurisdictions; an age verification engine coupled to the jurisdiction table to: receive encrypted and/or encoded age information representative of a user's age read from a storage medium on a document issued by a trusted jurisdiction; receive jurisdiction information representative of the jurisdiction that issued the document; identify the jurisdiction table associated with the jurisdiction that issued the document as a function of the jurisdiction information; decrypt and/or decode the age information as a function of the identified jurisdiction table to determine the user's age; and determine whether the user's age is appropriate for the requested content; and a content gatekeeper coupled to the age verification engine for granting or denying access to the content as a function of the age determination.

17. The system of claim 16 and further including a filter engine to determine whether requested content is age dependent.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the jurisdiction tables and age verification engine are local to the terminal.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the jurisdiction tables and age verification engine are remote from the terminal.