FR2844374A1 - Electronic ticketing platform has a user interface that determines the type of terminal from which an order has been received so that the ticket, including a barcode, can be transmitted to the terminal in a suitable format - Google Patents

Abstract

Electronic ticketing platform (100) comprises: a user interface module (110) that receives order details (UD) and details specific to the type of output (11, 11') possible at the user terminal (10, 10') from which the order was received; a barcode generator (130) for generating a barcode representative of the ordered product or service and; an image conversion module for conversion of the barcode image into a format that can be displayed using the available terminal output.

Description

ELECTRONIC TICKET PLATFORM IMPLEMENTING CODES A

BARS

  The present invention relates to an electronic ticketing platform implementing, very generally, bar codes to represent consumption tickets for a product or service. The invention finds application in the general field of

  electronic commerce remotely, and more particularly but not exclusively, in that of electronic commerce where a user in a situation of mobility can order a given product or service and obtain a consumption ticket on a terminal allowing him to access the product or the service so ordered.

  "Consumption ticket" means any form of

  tickets themselves, such as show or travel tickets, but also any other type of dematerialized rights: reduction coupons, loyalty vouchers, or even simply the authentication of a person in order, for example, to charge a prepaid account.

  As will be understood better below, the invention is intended for all kinds of terminals, whether mobile phones, personal assistants (PDA) or personal computers (PC), the main thing being that they can access to said electronic ticketing platform 25 via a telecommunication network and that they have a graphical output means on which the barcode consumption ticket can be registered. Depending on the terminal envisaged, said graphic output means will be a

  display screen or printer.

  There are currently various electronic ticketing systems 30 using bar codes to represent a consumption ticket for a product or service. All of these systems use platforms capable, on the one hand, of receiving from a terminal constituted by a mobile telephone order data for said product or service transmitted through the World Wide Web, and, on the other hand, providing on the display screen of said mobile telephone said consumption ticket in the form of one or two-dimensional bar codes encapsulated in an SMS image ("picture SMS" in English). These known platforms therefore have the double disadvantage of limiting the order of the consumption ticket to the sole use of the World Wide Web to the detriment of other access modes, and also of limiting the representation of the consumption ticket to the only format. an SMS image ("Short Message Service"), also reduced to

  dimension, on the display screen of a mobile phone.

  Also, a technical problem to be solved by the object of the present invention is to propose an electronic ticketing platform, intended to receive from a terminal provided with a graphical output means of the order data of a product. or a service, and to provide on said means of graphic output from the terminal a consumption ticket for said product or service in the form of a bar code, which would make it possible to address the consumption ticket with bar codes on different types terminals (mobile phone, PDA, PC, etc.) respecting the associated formats and making the best use of the technical characteristics of the output means

  graphic of the terminals (screen dimensions for example).

  The solution to the technical problem posed consists, according to the present invention, in that said platform comprises: - an user interface module, capable of receiving said command data and of collecting data specific to said graphic output means of the terminal , - a barcode generation module, capable of constituting a barcode representative of the product or service ordered, and - an image conversion module, capable of providing said consumption ticket on the graphic output means of the terminal by converting the barcode constituted by the generation module according to specific data by means of graphical output collected by the module

user interface.

  Thus, when a buyer accesses the platform of the invention by means of his terminal to place an order for a product or service, the user interface module collects, in addition to the order data proper, specific data relating to the graphic output means of the terminal, namely, inter alia, the image format to be used (WBMP ("WirelessBitMaP"), JPEG (Joint Picture Expert Group "), MMS 5 (" Multimedia Message Service "), picture SMS, etc.) by the image conversion module to deliver the barcode consumption ticket to the terminal, as well as technical characteristics such as the dimensions and resolution of the graphic output means, in order to increase the amount

  information that can be coded.

  Ultimately, the ticketing platform according to the invention has a very generic character since it allows the use of all types of terminals (mobile phone, PDA, PC, etc.), in particular screen or printer, according to all types of image formats, with use

  optimal means of graphic output from the terminal.

  According to one embodiment of the platform, object of the invention, it is intended that it further comprises a knowledge base of the data specific to the graphic output means of a plurality of terminals. Another problem which the invention proposes to solve is being able to offer the buyer of a product or a service a wide range of means of access to the electronic ticketing platform, in particular

  means of access in mobility situations.

  The solution to this other technical problem consists, according to the present invention, in that said user interface module is capable of constructing a dynamic interface with said terminal for a plurality of

modes of access.

  In this way, the order phase of the product or service

  can be done not only via the World Wide Web but also according to a WAP ("Wireless Application Protocol") session, by SMS or 30 MMS exchanges, or via an interactive voice server (IVS).

  The description which will follow with regard to the appended drawing, given to

  by way of nonlimiting example, will make it clear what is

  the invention and how it can be realized.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram of an electronic ticketing system 35 with bar codes integrating a platform according to the invention.

  The electronic ticketing system shown in Figure 1a

  intended to allow a user with a terminal to remotely order a product or service from a merchant or through a telecommunications operator. It may, for example, be the order of a show place or a transport ticket.

  The user receives, after validation of his order and payment, an electronic consumption ticket displayed on a graphical output means of his terminal in the form of a bar code. When the electronic ticket is to be consumed, it suffices for the user to present to an appropriate reader, arranged at the entrance to the performance hall for example, the

  bar code displayed on said graphic output means.

  In Figure 1 is shown as a terminal a mobile phone 10 with a display screen 11 and a personal computer 10 'equipped with a printer 1i'. Of course, other terminals 15 can be envisaged in the context of the invention, such as an assistant

personal (PDA) and its screen.

  Using his terminal 10, 10 ', the user navigates to the site of a show operator, for example, and chooses a cinema ticket by filling in the different fields requested: location, film, day, 8 p.m. , price. He then validates his order by entering his name and membership number. We will note in the following UD ("User Data") all the

  order data provided by the user.

  The terminal 10, 10 'then accesses an electronic ticketing platform 100 via a telecommunications network 1. The UD data of the command are received on a user interface module 110 of the platform 100 via a dynamic interface 111 capable of establishing communication with the terminal 10, 10 ′ for a plurality of modes access through various access points. In the nonlimiting example chosen in FIG. 1, three access points 21, 22, 23 30 have been shown associated respectively with three particular access modes, namely

  an interactive IVR voice service, a WAP session or even a WEB page.

  Other modes of access can of course be envisaged, such as

SMS or MMS messages.

  More specifically, from the data received during the first request from the user to the platform 100, the dynamic interface module 111 detects the type of access mode and the type of terminal. As a function of this data, the module 111 generates the documents exchanged with the user according to the format adapted to the access mode and to the terminal. In the event of total or partial failure of this information carried transparently by the first request, a default document is returned and an inquiry phase is carried out in order to determine the best mode of communication with the user. The latter is offered the possibility of storing in the platform 100, or in a database 30 of the operator of shows in the example chosen, a piece of information making it possible to avoid taking information during future orders. . After identifying the means of communication, the documents necessary for collecting the information required for the

  ticket generation are generated on the fly.

  The user interface module 110 can thus extract two types of data: on the one hand, the command UD data which is then supplied to the database 30 of the operator of shows, for validation and storage of the ticket , and, on the other hand, specific data by means 11, it 'of graphic output from terminal 10, 10'. This specific data is in particular the type BCT ("Bar Code Type") of bar codes to be used and the type TT ('Terminal Type ") of the user's terminal. This last information can be directly obtained from simple communication with the terminal, in the case of a mobile phone, or on request from

  the user in the case of a personal computer for example.

  The order UD data is transmitted to a security module 120 for authentication by a validation module 121 for information relating to user identification and payment. Optionally, a security module 122 is intended to generate possible security elements (signatures, certificates,) to be applied to the consumption ticket in the form of bar codes when it is sent to the user. This precautionary measure will be taken mainly for relatively high amounts of products or services, transport tickets

for example.

  All of the control UD data and of the BCT, TT data relating to the means 11, 11 'of graphic output from the terminal 10, 10' are then processed by a bar code generation module 130. The function of this module is to constitute a bar code (BC) representing the UD order data, taking into account the various existing symbolisms. To this end, the module 130 for generating bar codes comprises modules for formatting bar codes according to particular symbols. This is how we find modules for formatting Aztec, Datamatrix, QR code, EAN 18, PDF 417. This modular entity can thus evolve according to new symbolisms which will prove compatible with the applications of electronic ticketing, depending on the evolution of terminals for example. The BC bar code 10 is generated in a neutral format, GPF ("General Picture Format") for example, independent of the output format, and sent to a module 140 of

image conversion.

  The purpose of this module 140 is to take in input the BC bar code in the GPF neutral format and to convert it to the OF format ("Output 15 Format") of desired output. In other words, the 140 conversion module

  provides the consumption ticket in the form of a bar code BC * OF in such a way that it can be represented on the graphic output means of the terminal 10, 10 ′, whether it is a display screen 11 or a 1l 'printer and whatever type. The writing BC * OF means that the BC bar code is put in the output OF format.

  To convert the barcode BC, the module 140 uses the specific TT data relating to the terminal to determine the output OF format. For this, the TT data can be directly the output OF format if the data are collected during the dialogue with the user, or, as shown in FIG. 1, from a knowledge base 40 which realizes the correspondence between the terminal TT type and the output OF format, this for a large number of known terminals. Like the barcode generation module 130, a set of additional modules makes it possible to support the different types of output OF format, such as WBMP, JPEG, picture SMS, MMS, etc., taking

  account of the technical characteristics of the terminals concerned.

  The scalability of the solution is thus guaranteed.

  The consumption ticket in the form of the bar code BC * OF is then stored, either in the terminal 10, 10 ′, or in the database 30 of the operator. When the user requests his ticket, before entering

  the performance hall, for example, the bar code is displayed on the terminal's graphic output means and is presented to a reader. If the code read has its equivalent in the database, the user is authorized to enter.

Claims (7)

CLAIMS s 1- Electronic ticketing platform, intended to receive from a terminal (10,10) provided with means (11,11) for graphical output of order data for a product or service, and supplying on said graphic output means of the terminal a consumption ticket for said product or service in the form of a bar code, characterized in that said platform (100) comprises: - an interface module (110) -user, able to receive said command data (UD) and to collect data (BCTTT) specific to said means (11,11 ′ for graphic output from the terminal (10,10 ′), - a code generation module (130) bar, able to constitute a bar code (BC) representative of the product or service ordered, and - an image conversion module (140), capable of providing said consumption ticket on the means (11,11 ' ) graphic output from the terminal (10, 10 ′ by conversion of the bar code (BC) constituted by the generat module (130) ion according to specific data (iT) by means (11,11 'of 20 graphical output collected by the user interface module (110).   2- Platform according to claim 1, characterized in that said user interface module (110) is capable of constructing a dynamic interface (111) with said terminal (10, 10) for a plurality of access modes.   3- Platform according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in   what it also includes a security module (120) capable of   authenticate said order data (UD).   4- Platform according to claim 3, characterized in that said   security module (120) is also able to secure said bar code 30 representative of the product or service ordered.   - Platform according to any one of claims 1 to 4,   characterized in that it further comprises a knowledge base (40) of data specific to the means (11, 11 ′ for graphic output of a plurality of terminals (10,10 '.   6- platform according to any one of claims 1 to 5,   characterized in that said bar code generation module (130) comprises modules for formatting bar codes according to particular symbolisms.   7- Platform according to any one of claims 1 to 6,   characterized in that said image conversion module (140) includes modules for bar code (BC) to a desired image format (OF).   8- Platform according to any one of claims 1 to 7, io characterized in that said graphic output means is a screen (11) of viewing.   9- Platform according to any one of claims 1 to 7,   characterized in that said graphic output means is a printer