JP2007065728A - Settlement system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a settlement system which is excellent in security and convenience. <P>SOLUTION: A personal identification device 26 identifies a customer U when the customer comes in a shop 20, and the customer U, who is in the shop 20, photographs the bar codes of articles with a cellular phone 32. A customer identification device 42 checks whether information from the personal identification device 26 is in agreement with information from the cellular phone 32, and identifies the customer to proceed to settlement processing if the agreement is obtained. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a system for performing a payment associated with purchase of a product.

Dr. Kunii, the present inventor, already suggested the future of an information society in 1969 based on the concept of “cyber world” based on the “system of the world created in information space” (Faculty of Information Science, University of Tokyo) Proposal for establishing a new research facility, "Invitation to system science-poetry, philosophy and science in the computer age", Science's October 1969 issue of science (pages 54-56), later called "synthetic worlds" Concept also proposed).
With the use of the Internet and the advancement of web technology, the information society is developing as expected by Kunii. So-called convenience stores are becoming increasingly important in supporting the cyber world. Convenience stores are often open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For convenience of consumers, terminals of financial institutions are placed, and various payments such as credit cards are also possible.
On the other hand, one core technology that supports the cyber world from the IT perspective is mobile technology. In reality, when purchasing products at convenience stores, it is becoming more common to simply hold a mobile phone or IC card over a cashier terminal. Mobile technology linked to web technology will continue to play a central role as the hardware technology that will lead the cyber world.
JP 2003-91778 A JP 2002-366865 A

  However, one drawback of mobile technology is the issue of identity authentication. Recently, issues such as credit card counterfeiting and skimming have been highlighted worldwide. The same applies to a terminal such as a mobile phone having a settlement function. When the internal information of the terminal or the terminal itself is stolen, it is misused like a credit card. Mobile terminals need to be more sensitive to misuse because they are more convenient.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a current situation, and an object thereof is to provide a settlement system that realizes high security and does not impair convenience.

  One aspect of the present invention is a payment system including a gate device, a mobile terminal, and a payment processing device. The gate device has a personal authentication device, and personally authenticates the customer when the customer enters a predetermined management area, for example, a store. The authentication result is notified to the payment processing apparatus.

  The mobile terminal has an information input device, and acquires product information and customer information when a customer wishes to purchase a product. The acquired product information and customer information are notified to the payment processing apparatus.

  The payment processing device has a customer authentication device, and authenticates the customer by comparing the personal authentication result received from the gate device with the customer information received from the mobile terminal. When the customer is correctly authenticated, the payment device withdraws the product price from the customer's account and transfers the product price to the sales entity that sold the product in the management area determined from the position of the gate device.

  In the embodiment, the present invention relates to a system in which a person (referred to as a customer) enters a store, purchases a product, and makes a payment in a series of flows. A gate device is placed at the entrance of the store, and this device personally authenticates each customer who enters the store. Information on the customer in the store is sent to the settlement processing device together with the ID of the gate device that authenticated the customer.

  The customer has a mobile phone. When a customer purchases a product, the product barcode is photographed with a camera built into the mobile phone. The merchandise information that covers the bar code and the customer's credit card information (also simply referred to as “customer information”) mounted on the mobile phone are sent to the payment processing apparatus.

  The settlement processing device receives the personal authentication result sent from the gate device, that is, the information on the person in the store, the product information and the customer information sent from the mobile phone. If the personal authentication result matches the customer information, the payment processing apparatus determines that the purchase is made by a legitimate customer. The payment processing device identifies the store from the ID of the gate processing device. As a result, even if the store does not place a cash register, the payment processing apparatus can mediate payment of the product price from the customer to the store.

  As can be seen from the above flow, the present embodiment is based on the following knowledge.

1. Mobile terminals such as mobile phones are not designed from the perspective of whether purchases are made correctly “in the store”. A fixed terminal such as a normal bank terminal that is not mobile has a fixed installation location, so it can be understood which customer has used at which location, but a mobile terminal does not have this viewpoint. Therefore, for example, when making a payment using a mobile terminal instead of a credit card, even if global management such as a global synchronization system guaranteed by a credit card company is performed, it is necessary to consider local management.

2. On the other hand, for products in the store, individual product information is indicated by codes such as tags and barcodes. However, such information is only information of the product itself, and has meaning only when sold in the store, that is, in local management. Therefore, even if local management is performed, the viewpoint that this is used for global management such as settlement is weak.

  In the present embodiment, 1. And 2. In this sense, the global synchronization management system promoted by credit card companies and the local management of displaying products using IC tags promoted by printing companies, etc. Can be integrated with the system.

  FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration of a payment system 100 according to an embodiment. The payment system 100 includes a shop 20 that sells merchandise and a management device 38 that is a payment processing device provided in a credit card company, and supplementarily depicts a bank 46 that has an account necessary for payment. The bank 46 has a customer account 52 and an account 54 of the shop 20. A communication device is used to exchange information, but this is omitted in FIG.

  The shop 20 has a gate device 24 at its entrance. The gate device 24 includes a personal authentication device 26 that personally authenticates a customer based on biometric information such as fingerprints and irises, and a product other than a product that the customer has completed purchase in the shop 20 (hereinafter referred to as “unsettled product”). ) Is provided.

  The management device 38 authenticates the customer who is taking the purchase action based on the result of the personal authentication received from the personal authentication device 26 and information sent when the customer makes a purchase action in the shop 20. A customer authentication device 42 and a payment device 44 for executing payment with the bank 46 for a purchase action of a customer correctly authenticated by the customer authentication device 42 are provided.

  The customer purchasing process in the above configuration will be described. First, the customer U enters the shop 20 from the outside of the shop 20 through the gate device 24. At this time, the personal authentication device 26 authenticates the customer U based on the biometric information of the customer U and the like. The customer ID (denoted as “UID” (User ID)), which is the authentication result, and the ID of the shop 20 where the personal authentication device 26 itself is located (denoted as “SID” (Shop ID)) are sent to the customer authentication device 42. Send.

  The customer U entering the shop 20 looks around various products (indicated as # 1, # 2, etc.). As a result, the customer U decides to purchase the item # 3. A two-dimensional barcode including the ID of the product is attached to the product # 3 in advance. The customer U photographs the two-dimensional barcode with the camera of the mobile phone 32. The product ID thus identified (denoted as “MID” (Merchandise ID)) and customer credit card information (denoted as “CID” (Credit ID)) are transmitted from the mobile phone 32 to the customer authentication device 42. If the owner of the credit card identified from the CID matches the UID acquired by the personal authentication device 26, the legitimate customer U enters the shop 20 with his / her mobile phone 32 and is about to purchase a product. Recognize. Accordingly, the customer authentication device 42 considers that the customer U has been authenticated when the UID and the CID are matched and correctly matched.

  When the authentication is correctly performed by the customer authentication device 42, the SID is sent from the customer authentication device 42 to the settlement device 44. Also, before and after this, the CID and MID are sent to the settlement apparatus 44. As a result, the settlement apparatus 44 acquires SID, CID, and MID, and first acquires a product and a price from the MID. Subsequently, credit card settlement can be prepared from the CID. Further, the shop 20 to which the product price is to be transferred is determined from the SID. As a result, due to the interaction between the settlement apparatus 44 and the bank 46, the necessary product price is withdrawn from the customer account 52 and transferred to the store account 54. Of course, at that time, the amount after deducting the fee of the credit card company is deposited into the account 54 of the shop.

  The settlement apparatus 44 further transmits information related to the product for which settlement has been completed in this way (denoted as “PI” (Information on Paid merchandise)) to the monitoring apparatus 28. The monitoring device 28 builds a list of commodities that have been settled in the shop 20 inside. Therefore, when the customer U leaves the shop 20 with a product, the monitoring device 28 can check whether there is an unsettled product when passing through the gate device 24. If the customer U tries to take out an unsettled product, the monitoring device 28 warns that fact or takes measures such as physically closing the gate (not shown) of the gate device 24 in some cases.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, since the gate device 24 is introduced to define the area or space to be physically or logically managed, the physical or logical position of the person using the mobile terminal is grasped. be able to. As a result, it is possible to prevent the mobile terminal from being misused even when the mobile terminal is faulty, for example, when the mobile terminal is passed to an unauthorized person due to theft or the like. Further, by combining the use of the mobile terminal and the personal authentication, there is no need to set up a cash register for settlement in the shop 20. For this reason, the customer can save time and labor at the cash register, and the shop 20 is advantageous in terms of the cost and space of the cash register, or the labor cost of the clerk.

  The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. Hereinafter, modifications of the embodiment will be described.

  (1) The customer authentication device 42 may have a global synchronization function. Global synchronization refers to a function that checks the consistency of usage actions in real time regardless of where the credit card is used. For example, if a person having the same customer information makes a purchase with the same credit card in Japan and the US at the same time, this is generally an physically impossible action, so some unauthorized use is estimated. Even if there is a time difference between the two purchases, the same estimation can be made if the customer is physically unable to move the distance. Therefore, also in the present embodiment, providing the authentication device 42 with such a global synchronization function is useful in combination with a mobile terminal that does not recognize the purchase place.

  (2) In the present embodiment, no cash register is provided in the shop 20. However, when using existing infrastructure, a cash register may be used. In that case, the customer U can purchase the product by holding the mobile phone 32 or the like over the cash register. Since the information of the shop 20 is given to the cash register, in that case, it is not necessary to provide the SID from the personal authentication device 26 to the customer authentication device 42.

  (3) Although the shop 20 is an area to be physically or logically managed by the gate device 24, the management area may be any area. For example, it may be a station, a theater, a library, a playground, an airport security area, and the like as well as a store.

  (4) In this embodiment, the shop 20 is set as one management area. However, a single area may be divided and managed by a plurality of gate devices 24 into a plurality of management areas. For example, in the case of a department store that is fairly large, it is desirable to divide and manage in a plurality of areas so that the number of customers U to be authenticated by the authentication device 42 does not become excessive.

  (5) The problem of unauthorized use due to theft of the mobile phone 32 in the shop 20 is not zero as a possibility. In order to cope with such a situation, it is sufficient to introduce a personal authentication function even in the purchase scene. As a simple example, a terminal-side authentication device (not shown) that prompts a customer to enter a password or the like when performing purchase processing using the mobile phone 32 may be provided. This device may authenticate the customer in the terminal, or may send authentication information such as a password to the customer authentication device 42 and the like and perform authentication by such an external organization.

It is a lineblock diagram of the settlement system concerning an embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  20 shops, 24 gate devices, 26 personal authentication devices, 28 monitoring devices, 32 mobile phones, 38 management devices, 42 authentication devices, 44 payment devices, 52 customer accounts, 54 shop accounts, 100 payment systems.

Claims (1)

A payment system comprising a gate device, a mobile terminal, and a payment processing device,
The gate device
A personal authentication device for personally authenticating the customer when the customer enters the predetermined management area;
A communication device for notifying the settlement processing device of the authentication result by the personal authentication device;
The mobile device is equipped with
When a customer wishes to purchase a product, an information input device that acquires the product information and customer information;
A communication device for notifying the payment processing device of the acquired product information and customer information;
The payment processing apparatus comprises
A communication device for receiving notifications from the gate device and the mobile terminal;
A customer authentication device that authenticates the customer by comparing the result of personal authentication received from the gate device with the customer information received from the mobile terminal;
When the customer is correctly authenticated by the customer authentication device, the payment device withdraws the product price from the account of the customer and transfers the product price to the sales entity that sold the product in the management area determined from the position of the gate device;
A payment system comprising:

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