Managing Suspended Customer Transactions in a Retail Environment
AssigneeToshiba Global Commerce Solutions Holdings Corporation
InventorsAdrian Rodriguez, Jonathan Waite
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A network node associated with a retail store receives digital images from customers who have initiated a customer transaction at a first location. The digital images are unique and are associated with the transaction. The transaction is then temporarily suspended. To resume the transaction, the customer provides information describing features of the previously provided digital image. The network node uses this information to locate the corresponding digital image, and thus, the corresponding suspended transaction, and to authenticate the customer to resume the transaction. Provided the customer is authenticated, the node resumes the suspended transaction.
Claims20
A method implemented at a network node of resuming a suspended retail customer transaction, the method comprising:
- receiving a digital image from a customer at a first location, wherein the digital image is to be associated with a suspended customer transaction initiated by the customer at the first location;
- extracting feature information from the digital image for use in authenticating the customer based on an image analysis performed on the digital image;
- receiving information describing one or more features of the digital image, wherein the information is received from a device at second location different from the first location;
- authenticating the customer to resume the suspended customer transaction responsive to determining that the information received from the device at the second location matches the feature information extracted from the digital image to within a predetermined threshold;
- and
- resuming the suspended customer transaction responsive to authenticating the customer.
A computing device configured to resume suspended retail customer transactions, the computing device comprising:
- communications circuitry configured to communicate messages with one or more devices via a communications network;
- and
- processing circuitry communicatively connected to the communications circuitry and configured to:
- receive a digital image from a customer at a first location, wherein the digital image is to be associated with a suspended customer transaction initiated by the customer at the first location;
- extract feature information from the digital image for use in authenticating the customer based on an image analysis performed on the digital image;
- receive information describing one or more features of the digital image from a device at second location different from the first location;
- authenticate the customer to resume the suspended customer transaction responsive to determining that the information received from the device at the second location matches the feature information extracted from the digital image to within a predetermined threshold;
- and
- resume the suspended customer transaction responsive to authenticating the customer.
A computer readable medium storing program code that, when executed by a processing circuit of a computing device of a retail store, causes the computing device to:
- receive a digital image from a customer at a first location, wherein the digital image is to be associated with a suspended customer transaction initiated by the customer at the first location;
- extract feature information from the digital image for use in authenticating the customer based on an image analysis performed on the digital image;
- receive information describing one or more features of the digital image from a device at second location different from the first location;
- authenticate the customer to resume the suspended customer transaction responsive to determining that the information received from the device at the second location matches the feature information extracted from the digital image to within a predetermined threshold;
- and
- resume the suspended customer transaction responsive to authenticating the customer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.