Credit card reader authenticator
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorNima Sharifi Mehr
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A credit card reader is attached to a mobile device to process credit card transactions at the point of sale. A user of the credit card reader slides an authenticator card through the credit card reader to activate the credit card reader. Accordingly, the credit card reader may compare data stored in the authenticator card to an expected value for the data to determine whether the user is authorized to utilize the credit card reader. If there is a match, the credit card reader displays a unique password, known to the user, which the user can use to verify that the credit card reader is authentic. Further, if there is a match, the credit card reader may allow the user to process credit card transactions through the credit card reader.
Claims20
An authenticator card device comprising:
- a card;
- a display unit engaged with the card so as to be visible from outside of the card;
- a magnetic strip comprising data in a form of magnetic pole orientations along the magnetic strip;
- one or more processors that are operatively coupled with the display unit;
- and
- memory including instructions executable by the one or more processors that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
- receive first information that is based at least in part on information stored within a payment card reader device through the magnetic strip;
- determine whether the first information and second information stored within the memory match;
- and
- cause the display unit to display authentication information based at least in part on whether the first information and second information match, the authentication information usable from outside of the authenticator card device to authenticate the payment card reader device.
A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- under the control of an authenticator card device configured with executable instructions,
- receiving, through contact with a hardware component of a payment authorization instrument reader, first information from the payment authorization instrument reader;
- deriving second information based at least in part on the first information, the second information usable by a user of the payment authorization instrument reader to authenticate the payment authorization instrument reader;
- and
- providing, through an output device of the authenticator card device, the second information.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, as a result of being executed by one or more processors of an authenticator card device, cause the authenticator card device to at least:
- in response to having received a first set of data through contact with a hardware component of a payment authorization instrument reader, perform one or more analyses based at least in part on the first set of data and a second set of data stored within the authenticator card device;
- provide, through one or more output devices of the authenticator card device, information based at least in part on results of the one or more analyses;
- and
- based at least in part on the results of the one or more analyses, determine whether to enable use of the payment authorization instrument reader for processing payment authorization instrument transactions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.