Method and apparatus for credit card tracking at pay stations
US8622289B2 · kind B2 · utility
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 1, 2011 |
| Grant date | Jan 7, 2014 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 1, 2031 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06Q20/4016
- WIPO fieldIT methods for management
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An enhancement to a pay station where subscribers can track usage of credit cards or groups of credit cards at parking and other facilities. The subscriber provides a key that can be used with a predetermined hash or encryption algorithm to hash or encrypt every credit card number that enters the system. A database of the coded results for a set of pre-registered credit cards belonging to that subscriber is maintained in the pay station database. Whenever an incoming credit card's coded output matches one of the coded results on the pre-registered list, a log entry can be made in a usage log. The subscriber generally has a list of the coded outputs for each of their pre-registered cards. The subscriber can thus track usage of any of these cards.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.