Patent Issued for System that appropriately synthesizes output data and code provided by external settlement service, control method for system, and storage medium (USPTO 11683436): Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

2023 JUL 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventor Narita, Tateki (Tokyo, Japan), filed on September 20, 2021, was published online on June 20, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11683436 is Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo, Japan).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors:

“Field of the Invention

“The present invention relates to a system, a control method for the system, and a storage medium.

“Description of the Related Art

“In payments at retail stores and counter payments in various types of businesses, in order to improve operational efficiencies of business operators and the convenience of customers, the introduction of a cashless payment, which uses a settlement code such as a two-dimensional code, has been promoted. However, in some types of businesses such as medical institutions, despite a demand for improving the efficiency and convenience of the counter payment, the cashless payment is not widespread due to reasons such as a cost burden, etc.

“In the cashless payment that uses the settlement code, there are a store scanning method, in which the business operator scans the settlement code displayed by a user on a smartphone or the like, and a user scanning method, in which the user scans the settlement code presented by the business operator by using the smartphone or the like. The user scanning method has an advantage that the business operator does not need to prepare a scanning device, the cost burden is suppressed, and it is easy to introduce. Further, in the user scanning method, since by using the settlement code that includes information about the amount of money, it is not necessary to input the amount of money, as a result, it is possible to improve the efficiency and convenience of the counter payment. It is being considered to introduce a cashless payment that uses the user scanning method having such a feature into payments of the medical institutions. For example, by attaching an image of the settlement code that includes information about billed amount of money to medical receipts (hereinafter, simply referred to as “receipts”) such as health insurance claims of medical fees and dispensing fees, which are printed at the time of paying in the medical institution, it is possible to improve the efficiency and convenience of the counter payment of the medical institution while suppressing the cost burden. As techniques related to attaching a code image to a printed matter in this way, a technique disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (kokai) No. 2007-129586 has been proposed. In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (kokai) No. 2007-129586, a printing device generates a code pattern such as a QR code (registered trademark) based on personal information of a user who has logged in to the printing device, and synthesizes the generated code pattern and data to be printed.

“However, the settlement code (i.e., the code pattern) used in the cashless payment is generated not by the printing device that prints print data (i.e., the data to be printed), but by an external settlement service that provides a payment service based on the settlement code. Therefore, in order to synthesize the intended settlement code with the print data, there is a strong demand for a mechanism capable of appropriately associating the print data with the settlement code provided by the external settlement service.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent: “The present invention provides a system that appropriately synthesizes output data and a code provided by an external settlement service, a control method for the system, and a storage medium.

“Accordingly, the present invention provides a system comprising a transmitting unit configured to transmit information for generating a code used for paying a amount of money to an external settlement service, a receiving unit configured to receive the code generated based on the information transmitted by the transmitting unit, and a synthesizing unit configured to synthesize the code received by the receiving unit and output data.

“According to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately associate the output data with the code provided by the external settlement service.

“Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system comprising: at least one processor that causes the system to: transmit information for generating a code used for paying an amount of money to an external settlement service; receive the code generated based on the transmitted information; synthesize the received code and print data; cause a printer to execute printing based on data generated through synthesization of the received code and the print data; judge whether or not payment of the amount of money using the code has been completed; and notify an error in a case that it has been judged that the payment of the amount of money using the code has been completed.

“2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor further causes the system to: judge whether or not both the printing executed by the printer and the payment of the amount of money using the code have been completed; and notify an error in a case that it has been judged that both the printing and the payment of the amount of money using the code have been completed.

“3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor further causes the system to: accept identification information, and synthesize a code, which is received and corresponds to the accepted identification information, and the print data.

“4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the identification information is a user ID.

“5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the code is a two-dimensional code.

“6. A control method for a system, the control method comprising: a transmitting step of transmitting information for generating a code used for paying an amount of money to an external settlement service; a receiving step of receiving the code generated based on the information transmitted in the transmitting step; a synthesizing step of synthesizing the code received in the receiving step and print data; a printing step of executing printing based on data generated through synthesizing performed in the synthesizing step and the print data; a judging step of judging whether or not payment of the amount of money using the code has been completed; and a notifying step of notifying an error in a case that it has been judged in the judging step that the payment of the amount of money using the code has been completed.

“7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute a control method for a system, the control method comprising: a transmitting step of transmitting information for generating a code used for paying an amount of money to an external settlement service; a receiving step of receiving the code generated based on the information transmitted in the transmitting step; a synthesizing step of synthesizing the code received in the receiving step and print data; a printing step of executing printing based on data generated through synthesizing performed in the synthesizing step; a judging step of judging whether or not payment of the amount of money using the code has been completed; and a notifying step of notifying an error in a case that it has been judged in the judging step that the payment of the amount of money using the code has been completed.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Narita, Tateki. System that appropriately synthesizes output data and code provided by external settlement service, control method for system, and storage medium. U.S. Patent Number 11683436, filed September 20, 2021, and published online on June 20, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11683436)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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