Patent Issued for Transaction management based on sensor data (USPTO 11157906): United Services Automobile Association

2021 NOV 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Hopkins, III, John C. (San Antonio, TX, US), Smith, Arthur Quentin (Fredericksburg, TX, US), filed on March 7, 2017, was published online on October 26, 2021.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11157906 is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Mobile device users have access to a large number and variety of mobile applications. Such applications enable a user to engage in various activities, access information, request services, or perform other actions that, in the past, may have required the user to interact in person or by telephone call with a store clerk, customer service representative, or other individual. Although mobile applications may provide convenient and efficient ways to access services, such ready access may also cause problems. For example, a user may employ a mobile application to perform an action without taking time to carefully consider any potentially negative ramifications of that action. In some instances, a user may perform an action, while in a state of physical, mental, and/or emotional impairment, that the user would not have performed had they been unimpaired.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Implementations of the present disclosure are generally directed managing transactions based at least partly on generated sensor data. More specifically, implementations are directed to generating sensor data such as biometric data regarding the user, detecting transactions requested by the user, and blocking, delaying, and/or performing other action(s) regarding the transactions if the generated sensor data indicates that the user may be in an impaired physical, emotional, and/or intellectual state.

“In general, innovative aspects of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that includes operations of: receiving an indication of a transaction requested by a user; receiving sensor data indicating one or more characteristics of the user, the sensor data generated by one or more sensor devices in proximity to the user; determining a current state of the user based at least partly on the sensor data; accessing constraint information describing at least one constraint on transactions of the user; and performing at least one action to manage the transaction, the at least one action based on determining that the requested transaction conflicts with the at least one constraint, based on the current state of the user.

“Implementations can optionally include one or more of the following features: the at least one action includes preventing the transmission, over a network, of a signal to initiate the transaction; determining that the requested transaction conflicts with the at least one constraint includes determining a competency level of the user based on the current state of the user, and determining whether the requested transaction is allowed, in view of the at least one constraint, based on the competency level of the user; the transaction is a purchase requested by the user; the transaction is an alteration of a security setting requested by the user; receiving an indication of a transaction includes determining a current location of the user, and determining the transaction that is associated with the current location; the sensor data includes biometric data generated by at least one biometric sensor of the one or more sensor devices; the operations further include transmitting a signal to instruct the at least one sensor device to begin generating the sensor data in response to receiving the indication of the requested transaction; the at least one action includes one or more of blocking the transaction, delaying the transaction for a time period, or transmitting, over a network, a message to at least one other user, the message notifying the at least one other user of the transaction requested by the user, and requesting approval of the transaction by the at least one other user; and/or the at least one constraint includes one or more of a spending rule, a budget, or a financial plan previously specified by the user.

“Other implementations of any of the above aspects include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs that are configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices. The present disclosure also provides a computer-readable storage medium coupled to one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations in accordance with implementations of the methods provided herein. The present disclosure further provides a system for implementing the methods provided herein. The system includes one or more processors, and a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the one or more processors having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations in accordance with implementations of the methods provided herein.

“Implementations of the present disclosure provide one or more of the following advantages. In traditional computing systems that manage transactions, a transaction may be backed out, rolled back, or otherwise undone if the user later decides that the transaction was a bad choice. The execution and/or subsequent rolling back of undesired transactions may consume processing power, memory capacity, storage space, network capacity, and/or other computing resources. By preventing particular transactions if the user is impaired and/or if the transactions violate previously established constraints, implementations avoid the wasteful consumption of computing resources that would otherwise be caused by executing then backing out the transactions. Further, in instances where the transaction would involve the transmission of data over a network, barring the transaction (when the user is in an impaired state) prevents such a transmission, thus reducing network traffic and freeing bandwidth for other communications. Moreover, implementations of the present disclosure prevent unwanted disclosure of personal data, allow computing resources to perform other tasks, reduce data fragmentation, and reduce the consumption of resources that may be caused by the performance of security tasks such as deleting unwanted tracking cookies, remediating viruses, and preventing other security risks.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method performed by at least one processor, the method comprising: retrieving, by the at least one processor, user profile data comprising a plurality of patterns of behavior associated with a user performing one or more transactions, wherein at least one of the plurality of patterns of behavior corresponds to a relationship between to a location of the user and an expected time for performing at least one of the one or more transactions; receiving, by the at least one processor, image data representative of a face of the user in response to determining that the expected time is within a threshold amount of time, wherein the image data is acquired by a camera within proximity of the user; accessing, by at the at least one processor, a plurality of previously acquired images of the user; comparing, by the at least one processor, the image data representative of the face of the user to the plurality of previously acquired images of the user to determine a current state of the user; receiving, by the at least one processor, sensor data representative of a current location of the user in response to determining that the expected time is within a threshold amount of time; accessing, by the at least one processor, constraint information describing at least one financial constraint on the one or more transactions of the user with respect to at least one state of the user and a location of the user, wherein the constraint information comprises one or more limits to one or more purchases and an alteration of a security setting, wherein the security setting comprises a password, a door locking mechanism, an access code, granting a computer device access, or any combination thereof; determining, by the at least one processor, whether the current state of the user corresponds to the at least one state of the user and the location of the user corresponds to the current location of the user; and performing, by the at least one processor, at least one action to a detected transaction during the threshold amount of time in response to determining that the current state of the user corresponds to the at least one state of the user and the location of the user corresponds to the current location of the user, wherein the at least one action is specified in the at least one financial constraint, wherein the at least one action comprises preventing a transmission, over a network, of a signal to initiate the detected transaction.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the current state of the user corresponds to the at least one state of the user comprises: determining a competency level of the user based on the current state of the user; and determining whether the detected transaction is allowed in view of the at least one financial constraint and the competency level of the user.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the detected transaction comprises a purchase requested by the user.

“4. The method of claim 1, comprising determining a type of transaction associated with the current location.

“5. The method of claim 1, comprising determining the current state of the user based in part on biometric data generated by at least one biometric sensor.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, by the at least one processor, a second signal to instruct the camera to acquire the image data in response to determining that the expected time is within a threshold amount of time.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one action includes: delaying the transaction for a time period; or transmitting, over the network, a message to at least one computing device associated with at least one other user, the message notifying the at least one other user of the transaction requested by the user, and requesting approval of the transaction by the at least one other user.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one financial constraint is associated with a spending rule, a budget, a financial plan previously specified by the user, or any combination thereof.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the security setting comprises a personal identification number.

“10. A system, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: retrieving, by the at least one processor, user profile data comprising a plurality of patterns of behavior associated with a user performing one or more transactions, wherein at least one of the plurality of patterns of behavior corresponds to a relationship between to a location of the user and an expected time for performing at least one of the one or more transactions; receiving audio data representative of speech by the user in response to determining that the expected time is within a threshold amount of time, the audio data acquired by a microphone within a proximity of the user; accessing previously acquired audio data of the user; comparing the audio data representative of speech by the user to the previously acquired audio data of the user to determine a current state of the user; receiving, by the at least one processor, sensor data representative of a current location of the user in response to determining that the expected time is within a threshold amount of time; accessing constraint information describing at least one financial constraint on the one or more transactions of the user with respect to at least one state of the user and a location of the user, wherein the constraint information comprises one or more limits to one or more purchases and an alteration of a security setting, wherein the security setting comprises a password, a door locking mechanism, an access code, granting a computer device access, or any combination thereof; determining, by the at least one processor, whether the current state of the user corresponds to the at least one state of the user and the location of the user corresponds to the current location of the user; and performing at least one action to a detected transaction in response to determining that the current state of the user corresponds to the at least one state of the user and the location of the user corresponds to the current location of the user, wherein the at least one action is specified in the at least one financial constraint, wherein the at least one action comprises blocking the detected transaction, delaying the detected transaction for a time period, or transmitting, over a network, a message of the detected transaction requested by the user to at least one other computing device associated with at least one other user.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one action includes preventing a transmission, over a network, of a signal to initiate the detected transaction.

“12. The system of claim 10, wherein the memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the operations comprises determining whether the current state of the user corresponds to the at least one state of the user comprises: determining a competency level of the user based on the current state of the user; and determining whether the detected transaction is allowed in view of the at least one financial constraint and the competency level of the user.

“13. The system of claim 10, wherein the audio data comprises a tone of voice of the user, a clarity of the voice of the user, a volume of the voice of the user, or any combination thereof.

“14. The system of claim 10, wherein the detected transaction comprises an alteration of a security setting requested by the user.

“15. The system of claim 10, wherein the memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the operations comprises determining a type of transaction associated with the location of the user.

“16. The system of claim 10, wherein the memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the operations comprises determining the current state of the user based in part on biometric data generated by at least one biometric sensor.

“17. The system of claim 10, wherein the memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the operations comprises: transmitting a signal to instruct the microphone to begin acquiring the audio data in response to determining that the expected time is within a threshold amount of time.

“18. The system of claim 10, wherein the message to at least one other user of the transaction requested by the user comprises requesting approval of the transaction by the at least one other user.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For additional information on this patent, see: Hopkins, III, John C. Transaction management based on sensor data. U.S. Patent Number 11157906, filed March 7, 2017, and published online on October 26, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11157906.PN.&OS=PN/11157906RS=PN/11157906

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)