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  Biometric tokenless electronic rewards system and methodRelated Patent Categories: Image Analysis, Applications, Personnel Identification (e.g., Biometrics)The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060083408. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
RELATED APPLICATION DATA [0001] This application is a continuation of copending U.S. Ser. No. 09/794,810, filed Feb. 26, 2001, now pending, which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09/020,363, filed Feb. 9, 1998, now abandoned. FIELD [0002] The invention relates generally to electronic rewards computer systems designed to calculate and store incentive rewards, and more specifically to biometric tokenless computer systems which do not require the recipient to use any man-made portable memory devices such as smart cards or magnetic swipe cards. BACKGROUND [0003] Consumer-oriented rewards systems have become an integral part of retail point of sale and interriet commerce marketing. Retailers have multiple objectives: to attract consumers to increase the price-point of their purchases; to induce consumers to increase the frequency of their purchases from a particular retailer, and establishing a loyal purchasing pattern by the consumer with that retailer; to increase the number of consumers who purchase from a particular retailer, and to obtain demographic data from consumers about their purchasing. Rewards systems are often customized for each reward provider, hence the recipient must carry a different rewards token for each retailer in order to receive that retailer's consumer incentive rewards. Hence, in addition to their debit and credit cards, consumers are now encumbered with additional cards to carry, all of which can easily be lost, damaged or stolen. After initially signing up with these incentive programs, consumers soon dispense with their incentive cards, therefore, either the consumer incentive program offered by the retailer fails or is not as successful as it was once thought to be. [0004] Such rewards systems may take many forms, such as providing the consumer with immediate discounts on purchased goods, accrued miles on frequent flyer programs offered by airlines, or accrued points towards the purchase of a product. [0005] Additionally, the use of cards by consumers for accessing such rewards systems is costly and disadvantageous. Namely, retailers must absorb the cost of producing such tokens and then distributing them to consumers. Furthermore, as tokens are lost, damaged, or stolen, retailers absorb the cost of replacing the token to the consumer. Further, retailers use these tokens to only identify the consumer's rewards account, rather than being able to identify the consumer directly. [0006] Last, such tokens have additional costs to the retailer in that the desired demographic and purchasing-pattern data can be easily de-linked once the token is separated from the consumer. This occurs because a fraudulent party makes purchases with a token that incorrectly identifies the user's rewards account as the original consumer's, thereby attributing such purchases by the fraudulent party to the original consumer's purchasing profile. At the same time, when the genuine consumer demands their rightful rewards upon making their own purchases without their appropriate rewards token, the retailer must use another, likely generic (e.g., store account), rewards account in order to accommodate that consumer's requirement of benefiting from the incentives rightly due to them based on their purchases. Hence, the retailer's franchise on accurate consumer purchasing patterns can be significantly diluted by such unreliable information, thereby causing the retailer additional losses as their target-marketing campaigns and inventory-efficiency strategies are adversely affected by this inaccurate demographic data. [0007] The use of various biometrics, such as fingerprints, hand prints, voice prints, retinal images, handwriting samples and the like have been suggested for identification of individuals. However, because the biometrics are generally stored in electronic (and thus reproducible) form on a token and because the comparison and verification process is not isolated from the hardware and software directly used by the recipient attempting access, the problem of having to carry cards is not alleviated. [0008] It has also been suggested that smartcards can also be used for tracking the rewards accrued by a consumer. However, smartcard-based system will cost significantly more than the "dumb" card. A smartcard costs in excess of $3, and a biometric smartcard is projected to cost in excess of $5. In addition, each point of sale station would need a smartcard reader. Furthermore, the net result of "smartening" the token is centralization of function. This may look interesting during design, but in actual use results in increased vulnerability for the consumer. Given the number of functions that the smartcard will be performing, the loss or damage of this all-controlling card will be excruciatingly inconvenient for the cardholder. Losing a card fill of accrued rewards will result loss of the accumulated rewards. [0009] There is a need for an electronic rewards transaction system that uses a strong link to the person being identified, as opposed to merely verifying a recipient's possession of any physical objects that can be freely transferred. [0010] A further need in an electronic rewards transaction system is ensuring consumer convenience by providing authorization without forcing the consumer to possess, carry, and present one or more proprietary tokens, such as man-made portable memory devices, in order to accumulate the rewards. Anyone who has lost a card, left it at home, had a card stolen knows well the keenly and immediately-felt inconvenience caused by such problems. Therefore, there is a need for an electronic biometric rewards transaction system that is entirely tokenless. [0011] There is another need in the industry for a transaction system that is sufficiently versatile to accommodate both consumers who desire to use personal identification numbers (PINs) for added security and also consumers who prefer not to use them. [0012] Lastly, such a system must be affordable and flexible enough to be operatively compatible with existing networks having a variety of electronic transaction devices and system configurations. SUMMARY [0013] It is an object of the invention therefore to provide a computer system that eliminates the need for a user to possess and present a man-made memory device, such as a smart card or magnetic swipe card, in order to initiate a system access request. [0014] It is another object of the invention to provide a computer system that is capable of verifying a user's identity, as opposed to verifying possession of propriety objects and information. [0015] It is yet another object of the invention to verify user identity based on one or more unique characteristics physically personal to the user. [0016] Yet another object of the invention is to provide a computer system wherein access is secure, yet designed to be convenient and easy for a consumer to use. Yet another object of the invention is to enable a user to earn incentive rewards which are either immediately provided to the user or are stored for later access by the user. [0017] Yet another object of the invention is to enable retailers to correctly identify a consumer using the computer system so that their purchasing patterns can be linked to their personal demographic data. In this way, the retailer can more efficiently deliver products and services to pre-identified or interested consumers. [0018] A method for processing tokenless electronic consumer rewards is described between a reward provider and a recipient using an electronic identicator comparator and at least one recipient biometric data. The method comprises creating an electronic registry of a reward provider's products or services each having a predetermined rewards value, the rewards being disbursed to recipients based upon the occurrence of predetermined criteria; a recipient registration step, wherein the recipient registers with the electronic identicator comparator at least one registration biometric sample, and recipient specific data; a recipient identification step, wherein the identicator comparator compares a recipient bid biometric sample with previously registered biometric samples for producing either a successful or failed identification of the recipient; and recipient rewards issuance step, wherein the rewards provider issues rewards to the recipient, wherein an electronic consumer rewards transaction is conducted without the recipient using any tokens, such as any plastic card or driver's licenses, or man-made portable memory devices, during the identification step. [0019] The present invention satisfies these needs by providing a significantly improved system and method for processing tokenless electronic consumer rewards between a reward provider and a recipient using an electronic identicator comparator and at least one recipient biometric data, comprising; creating an electronic registry of a reward provider's products or services each having a predetermined rewards value, the rewards being disbursed to recipients based upon the occurrance of predetermined criteria; recipient registration, wherein the recipient registers with the electronic identicator comparator at least one registration biometric sample, and recipient specific data; recipient identification, wherein the identicator comparator compares a recipient bid biometric sample with previously registered biometric samples for producing either a successful or failed identification of the recipient; and recipient rewards issuance, wherein the rewards provider issues rewards to the recipient. The above-mentioned method and system processes an electronic consumer rewards transaction without the recipient using any tokens such as any plastic card or drivers licenses, or man made portable memory devices such as smart cards, or magnetic stripe cards. [0020] According to one embodiment of the invention, there is a system and a method for processing tokenless electronic rewards transactions between a reward provider and a recipient comprising: recipient rewards registry recordation, wherein an electronic record is created of a registry of a reward provider's products and the rewards that accrue to a recipient based upon the recipient's purchase of said products; recipient registration, wherein the recipient registers with the electronic identicator system at least one registration biometric sample; a proposal, wherein the reward provider proposes a commercial transaction to the recipient; recipient identification, wherein the electronic identicator compares a recipient bid biometric sample with previously registered biometric samples for producing either a successful or failed identification of the recipient; electronic rewards calculation, wherein upon the successful identification of the recipient, the recipient's rewards are calculated resultant from the recipient's product purchases pursuant to the reward provider's proposed commercial transaction and pursuant to the recipient purchasing registry; recipient notification, wherein pursuant to the consummation of the commercial transaction, the recipient is notified of the results of the electronic rewards calculation; and, wherein a tokenless electronic rewards transaction is conducted without the recipient using any portable man-made memory devices such as smartcards or magnetic stripe cards. 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