Wireless payment systems, devices and methods for electronic payment

A computer-implemented method of electronic bill payment, comprising:

• receiving, by a server from a wireless communication device, a digital image of a bill captured by a digital camera of the wireless communication device, and a merchant identifier (ID) associated with a merchant;
• determining, by the server, a billed amount by analyzing the digital image using optical character recognition (OCR) by identifying a set of all numbers present in the bill, generating a subset of numbers by removing numbers above a threshold from the set of all number present in the bill, and selecting the highest number from the subset of numbers as the billed amount;
• determining, by the server, a user account associated with the wireless communication device based on a user ID associated with a user of the wireless communication device, the user ID received from the wireless communication device;
• determining a merchant account associated with the merchant ID;
• generating, by the server, a request for user input confirming payment of the bill based on the billed amount, wherein the request causes a visual user interface (VUI) screen to be displayed on a display of the wireless communication device, the VUI including an element for receiving user input for confirming payment of the bill;
• sending, by the server, the request to the wireless communication device;
• receiving, by the server, user input confirming payment of the bill from the wireless communication device, the user input indicating a payment amount;
• generating, by the server, an electronic payment instruction in response to receiving user input confirming payment of the bill from the wireless communication device, the electronic payment instruction being based on payment information associated with the user account, payment information associated with a merchant account of the merchant and the payment amount, wherein the payment information associated with the user account and the merchant are maintained by the server the merchant maintained by the server;
• and
• causing the electronic payment transaction to be performed.

A computer-implemented method of electronic bill payment, comprising:

• receiving, by a server from a wireless communication device, a digital image of a bill captured by a digital camera of the wireless communication device, and a merchant identifier (ID) associated with a merchant;
• determining, by the server, a billed amount and a location of a merchant establishment associated with the merchant by
• converting the digital image into a plurality of cells applying intelligent optical character recognition (OCR), each cell comprising text,
• selecting a value of a cell in the plurality of cells as the billed amount based on a first designated cell in accordance with a merchant-specific bill format of the bill, and
• selecting a value of a cell in the plurality of cells as the location of the merchant establishment based on a second designated cell in accordance with the merchant-specific bill format of the bill;
• determining, by the server, a user account associated with the wireless communication device based on a user ID associated with a user of the wireless communication device, the user ID received from the wireless communication device;
• determining a merchant account associated with the merchant ID;
• generating, by the server, a request for user input confirming payment of the bill based on the billed amount and the location determined from the bill, wherein the request causes a visual user interface (VUI) screen to be displayed on a display of the wireless communication device, the VUI including an element for receiving user input for confirming payment of the bill;
• sending, by the server, the request to the wireless communication device;
• receiving, by the server, user input confirming payment of the bill from the wireless communication device, the user input indicating a payment amount;
• generating, by the server, an electronic payment instruction in response to receiving user input confirming payment of the bill from the wireless communication device, the electronic payment instruction being based on payment information associated with the user account, payment information associated with a merchant account of the merchant and the payment amount, wherein the electronic payment instruction includes the location of the merchant establishment determined from the bill, wherein the payment information associated with the user account and the merchant are maintained by the server the merchant maintained by the server;
• and
• causing the electronic payment transaction to be performed.