U.S. patent application number 13/465749 was filed with the patent office on 2012-11-22 for mobile rewards redemption system and method.
This patent application is currently assigned to MARITZ HOLDINGS INC.. Invention is credited to Carlo Pirillo.
Application Number | 20120296720 13/465749 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 47173039 |
Filed Date | 2012-11-22 |
United States Patent
Application |
20120296720 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Pirillo; Carlo |
November 22, 2012 |
MOBILE REWARDS REDEMPTION SYSTEM AND METHOD
Abstract
A mobile rewards real-time redemption system allows members of
programs to use a mobile rewards redemption application via their
mobile device to redeem currency or points. A `ghost` credit/debit
vehicle (account) is used to redeem the rewards currency or points.
The ghost card completes the financial transaction which is, from
the perspective of a redemption retailer, a conventional card
transaction.
Inventors: |
Pirillo; Carlo;
(Mississauga, CA) |
Assignee: |
MARITZ HOLDINGS INC.
Fenton
MO
|
Family ID: |
47173039 |
Appl. No.: |
13/465749 |
Filed: |
May 7, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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61569051 |
Dec 9, 2011 |
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61486821 |
May 17, 2011 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.17 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20130101;
G06Q 30/0226 20130101; G06Q 30/0229 20130101; G06Q 30/0236
20130101; G06Q 30/0239 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/14.17 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20120101
G06Q030/02; G06Q 30/06 20120101 G06Q030/06 |
Claims
1. A system comprising: a program component for managing a currency
(points) account of a person and for implementing a debit/credit
account; a mobile device of the person, said device having a
payment protocol; a terminal at a point-of-sale of a retailer for
communicating with the mobile device via the payment protocol to
effect a transaction between the person and the retailer in which
the person purchases goods/services from the retailer at a purchase
price; an application executable by the mobile device communicating
with the program component and converting currency (points) in the
person's currency account into an amount applied to the
debit/credit account; and said mobile device configured to pay for
at least part of the transaction by communicating with the terminal
via the payment protocol to apply the debit/credit account to the
transaction so that at least a part of the purchase price for the
goods/services purchased by the person from the retailer comprises
currency from the person's currency account applied to the
transaction via the debit/credit account.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the following: the
debit/credit account is initially a zero balance account reloadable
only by the program component and hidden from the person; the
debit/credit account is associated with only the currency account
of the person; and the debit/credit account is a card account of
the retailer.
3. The system of claim 1 the program component implements a
debit/credit card account which is usable only with selected
retailers and wherein the application transmits the retailer's
identity to the program component and the amount is applied to the
debit/credit account only if the retailer's identity corresponds to
one of the selected retailers.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein the application presents the
person with a redemption option in which the person selects the
amount of currency to be applied to the debit/credit account.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein the program component comprises a
mobile rewards control center communicating with a prepaid card
management system, a mobile rewards gateway and the
application.
6. The system of claim 5 wherein the prepaid card management system
communicates with a trusted service manager to establish the
debit/credit account associated with the currency account.
7. The system of claim 5 wherein the mobile rewards gateway
comprises an interface between the mobile rewards control center
and one or more award program platforms to which the person is a
member.
8. The system of claim 7 wherein at least one of the following: the
debit/credit account is initially a zero balance account reloadable
only by the program component and hidden from the person; the
debit/credit account is associated with the currency account of the
person; and the debit/credit account is a card account of the
retailer.
9. The system of claim 1 further comprising a mobile wallet
included in the mobile device for handling the debit/credit account
within the transaction; and wherein at least one of the following:
the debit/credit account is initially a zero balance account
reloadable only by the program component and hidden from the
person; the debit/credit account is associated with the currency
account of the person; and the debit/credit account is a card
account of the retailer.
10. The system of claim 1 further comprising an offer engine
providing offers to the person via the mobile device in response to
an action by the person.
11. A system for use with: a mobile device of a person having a
payment protocol, and a terminal at a point-of-sale of a retailer
for communicating with the mobile device via the payment protocol
to effect a transaction between the person and the retailer in
which the person purchases goods/services from the retailer at a
purchase price, said system comprising: a program component for
managing a currency (points) account of the person and for
implementing a debit/credit account; an application executable by
the mobile device communicating with the program component and
converting currency (points) in the person's currency account into
an amount applied to the debit/credit account; said application
executed by the mobile device to pay for at least part of the
transaction by communicating with the terminal via the payment
protocol to apply the debit/credit account to the transaction so
that at least a part of the purchase price for the goods/services
purchased by the person from the retailer comprises currency from
the person's currency account applied to the transaction via the
debit/credit account.
12. The system of claim 11 wherein at least one of the following:
the debit/credit account is initially a zero balance account
reloadable only by the program component and hidden from the
person; the debit/credit account is associated with the currency
account of the person; and the debit/credit account is a card
account of the retailer.
13. The system of claim 1 the program component implements a
debit/credit card account which is usable only with selected
retailers and wherein the application transmits the retailer's
identity to the program component and the amount is applied to the
debit/credit account only if the retailer's identity corresponds to
one of the selected retailers.
14. The system of claim 11 wherein the application presents the
person with a redemption option in which the person selects the
amount of currency to be applied to the debit/credit account.
15. The system of claim 11 wherein the program component comprises
a mobile rewards control center communicating with a prepaid card
management system, a mobile rewards gateway and the
application.
16. The system of claim 15 wherein the prepaid card management
system communicates with a trusted service manager to establish the
debit/credit account associated with the currency account.
17. The system of claim 15 wherein the mobile rewards gateway
comprises an interface between the mobile rewards control center
and one or more award program platforms to which the person is a
member.
18. The system of claim 17 wherein at least one of the following:
the debit/credit account is initially a zero balance account
reloadable only by the program component and hidden from the
person; the debit/credit account is associated with the currency
account of the person; and the debit/credit account is a card
account of the retailer.
19. The system of claim 11 further comprising a mobile wallet
included in the mobile device for handling the debit/credit account
within the transaction; and wherein at least one of the following:
the debit/credit account is initially a zero balance account
reloadable only by the program component and hidden from the
person; the debit/credit account is associated with the currency
account of the person; and the debit/credit account is a card
account of the retailer.
20. The system of claim 11 further comprising an offer engine
providing offers to the person via the mobile device in response to
an action by the person.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention generally relates to systems and
methods for allowing participants in a program, such as an
incentive, loyalty, frequency, affinity, retention, performance
improvement or award program, to redeem points or other currency
awarded to the participant by the program. In particular, the
present invention relates to real-time or near real-time point
redemption during a point-of-sale transaction.
[0002] Some prior redemption systems are not instantaneous because
there are delays from the time an rewards fulfillment request is
made to the time when the requested rewards are awarded so that the
member receives the requested rewards. In addition, many such
programs require the redemption system to have rewards in inventory
in order to provide instant rewards.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0003] A mobile rewards real-time redemption system allows members
of programs such as an incentive, loyalty, frequency, affinity,
retention, performance improvement or award program to use a mobile
rewards redemption application to redeem currency or points stored
in a database of the program (which may be held by a third party).
This solution will utilize a `ghost` credit vehicle (account) or
card to complete the financial transaction which is, from the
perspective of a redemption retailer, a conventional credit
transaction. Because of this, no integration or modifications are
required on the participating retailers POS systems. The `ghost`
card will not be visible or accessible to the member.
[0004] Other objects and features will be in part apparent and in
part pointed out hereinafter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system according to one
embodiment of the invention.
[0006] FIG. 2 is an illustration of the various components and
their interaction according to one embodiment of the invention.
[0007] FIG. 3 illustrates the process of initially downloading and
setting up on a mobile device an application according to one
embodiment of the invention.
[0008] FIG. 4 illustrates the process of real-time or near
real-time redemption and purchase according to one embodiment of
the invention.
[0009] FIG. 5 is an illustration of one embodiment of various
hardware and software components of the invention.
[0010] Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding
parts throughout the drawings.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0011] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system 10 according to one
embodiment of the invention. The system includes a program
component 20 for managing currency accounts (such as a points
account) of people involved in the program (e.g., program members).
For example, each account may be associated with a program
providing points earned by a person based on loyalty, based on
incentives awarded for previous purchases or based on some other
incentive, loyalty, frequency, affinity, retention, performance
improvement or award program involving the person, a person's
activities, a person's accounts and/or a person's transactions,
hereinafter collectively referred to as an award program 25. In
many embodiments, the program component 20 is a server or other
processor executing computer readable instructions for implementing
the award program 25 which awards and/or keeps track of points.
Such programs frequently have a sponsor, retailer or administrator
implementing the program, participating retailers and/or
participating consumers, each of which has certain access rights to
the program. In some embodiments, there is only one participating
retailer who also is the sponsor/administrator.
[0012] The program component 20 also has computer executable
instructions for implementing a debit/credit account 40 associated
with, assigned to or otherwise usable with a currency (points)
account 30 of a program member.
[0013] In one embodiment, the debit/credit account 40 is a hidden,
reloadable, debit or credit account initially having a zero
balance. The account is provided by a prepaid card management
system. In another embodiment, the debit/credit account 40 is a
prepaid debit card account, such as a gift card account, provided
by a card management system of a retailer offering the award
program 25 associated with the user's currency account 30. The
prepaid retailer account may be a hidden, reloadable, debit or
credit account initially having a zero balance. Alternatively, the
prepaid retailer account may be associated with a particular
currency account 30 of a particular member of the award program and
may have a balance corresponding to the balance of the particular
currency account 20 with which it is associated.
[0014] This type of account 40 may be referred to as a "ghost"
account or a hidden account because the account number is not known
and/or accessible by the person assigned to the account. The person
for which the account is used for their benefit does not
necessarily need to know the account number or its details. In
other words, the debit/credit account 40 is used for the benefit of
a person (e.g., a member of the program) but the debit/credit
account 40 is hidden from the person and the person is never
provided with any identification details regarding the account 40.
Currency or points are deposited in the member's currency account
30 based on the member's activities, such as based on the award
program. In one embodiment, only one, unique debit/credit card
account is associated with only one, unique currency account of a
user so that transactions can be tracked by either the card account
number or the currency account number. In one embodiment, only one,
unique debit/credit card account is associated with all currency
accounts of only one, particular user so that all transactions of
the particular user can be tracked by the card account number.
[0015] A mobile device 50 (e.g., smart phone) of each person who is
a member of the award program is used by each member as part of the
system 10. The mobile device 50 has a payment protocol 60. The
mobile device 50 is used at a terminal 70 at a point-of-sale of a
retailer. The terminal 70 communicates with the mobile device via
the payment protocol 60 to effect a transaction between the member
and the retailer in which the member purchases goods/services from
the retailer at a purchase price.
[0016] An application 80 executable by the mobile device
communicates with the program component 20 and converts currency
(points) in the member's currency account 30 into an amount applied
to the debit/credit account 40. As a result, at least part of the
transaction is paid by debit/credit account 40 so that a part of
the purchase price for the goods/services purchased by the member
from the retailer comprises currency from the member's currency
account 30 applied to the transaction via the debit/credit account
40.
[0017] FIG. 2 is an illustration of the various components and
their interaction according to one embodiment of the invention. In
particular, FIG. 2 illustrates one configuration of an
administrator's mobile rewards system 100 for implementing
real-time or near real-time redemption during a point-of-sale
transaction according to the invention. In this embodiment, the
system 100 includes a program component 114, such as a server, for
interfacing with a mobile device 115, such as a smart phone, of a
member 80 of one or more award programs 107, 108 (e.g., operated by
a server). The mobile device 115 includes a mobile wallet 104, a
mobile rewards application 105 and a near-field communication (NFC)
or other mobile payments protocol 106, each of which may be an
embedded part of the device 115 or may be a software application
(e.g., an "APP") which is downloaded and installed into the device
115. The protocol communicates with a retailer's point-of-sale
terminal 117 which effects purchase transactions of a retailer
122.
[0018] The program component 114 as illustrated includes a mobile
rewards control center 102 which is an interface for communicating
with a card management system 101 and a mobile rewards gateway 103
(e.g., a server). The mobile rewards control center 102, the
prepaid card management system 101, and the mobile rewards gateway
103 may be part of a single server (e.g. a single processor)
executing software, or separate components (e.g., separate
processors) executing separate software programs, as
illustrated.
[0019] The prepaid card management system 101 communicates with a
trusted service manager (TSM) 109 (e.g., a server) to establish a
ghost debit/credit card account 121 used to implement the rewards
redemption of the invention. As described herein, the debit/credit
card account 121 will be referred to as a ghost account with a zero
balance. However, as noted above, it may not be ghost account and
it may have a balance corresponding to the balance of the currency
account 30 of the member 80.
[0020] The role of the TSM is to provision the new virtual
card\account onto the secure element of the phone. The gateway 103
provides an interface between the control center 102 and the one or
more award programs platforms 107, 108 to which the member 80 the
member belongs. For example, it is contemplated that the gateway
103 interface with the loyalty platform 107 owned by the
administrator 120 and with the third party loyalty platform 108
owned by a third party 119. In one optional aspect, the member 80
may select via the rewards application 105 the particular retailer
122A-122N and may select the loyalty platform 107, 108 to be
involved in a transaction.
Initial Application Download and Setup
[0021] FIG. 3 illustrates the process of initially downloading and
setting up on a mobile device an application according to one
embodiment of the invention. The following refers to FIGS. 2 and
3.
[0022] Initially, a program member downloads at 302 a mobile
rewards redemption application 105 to their mobile device 115 which
is mobile payments ready (can support NFC or equivalent mobile
payments protocol 106). The application 105 comprises processor
executable instructions fixed in a tangible storage media.
Frequently, the application 105 is a software program 105 stored at
and available from a server. A copy of the application 105 is
stored on the server and transferred from the server (e.g., control
center 102) to the mobile device 115 where it is installed, stored
and executed. The download may also include a mobile wallet 104, if
the device 115 does not have one for handling the debit/credit
account within the transaction.
[0023] The program member logs on via the mobile rewards redemption
application 105 and responds to an authentication request at 124.
If the request is confirmed at 125, the device is authenticated
through a mobile rewards control center 102 which is part of the
system 100 of the administrator. Authentication may be through a
third party 108 if the administrator does not operate the award
program.
[0024] The core mobile rewards system 100 includes a rewards
control center 102 which submits a request 126 to a prepaid card
management system 101 for the issuance of a zero balanced,
filtered, reloadable `ghost` or virtual credit card 121.
[0025] The prepaid card management system 101 will issue at 110 a
ghost credit card 121 (an account number and associated security)
to the mobile device 115. The account may be zero balanced,
reloadable and/or be filtered for approval by only the redemption
retailers 122 participating in the award program 107, 108.
[0026] The issued ghost card 121 will be delivered at 111 to the
members mobile wallet 104 associated with the mobile rewards
application 105 via a TSM (Trusted Service Manager) 109 through OTA
(over the air) services. A TSM is a company with the capability to
securely deliver virtual credit vehicles OTA (over the air) and
provision them onto mobile devices enabled with mobile payments
capabilities. Upon successful delivery of the `ghost` card, the
prepaid card management system 101 sends a confirmation 127 to the
mobile rewards control center 102.
[0027] The ghost card 121 with zero balance will remain dormant
within the mobile wallet 104 of the mobile rewards application 105
until a redemption purchase request 112 is made.
Redemption Purchase
[0028] FIG. 4 illustrates the process of real-time (or near real
time) redemption and purchase according to one embodiment of the
invention. When the member via their mobile device 115 opens at 402
the mobile rewards application 105 an authentication request 124 is
submitted to the mobile rewards control center 102. An
authentication confirmation request 130 is sent from the control
center 102 via the mobile rewards gateway 103 to the loyalty
platform 107 or 108. The mobile rewards gateway 103 receives an
approval or denial 132 which is subsequently relayed to the mobile
rewards application 105 by the mobile rewards control center
102.
[0029] Upon successful authentication confirmation, the mobile
rewards application 105 requests a points update 134 from the
mobile rewards control center 102. The center 102 in turn requests
and obtains a points update 131 from the loyalty platform 107 or
108. The mobile rewards control center 102 sends the points update
confirmation data to the mobile rewards application 105. The data
includes member 115 profile information including current points
balance. The points update request 134 is initiated automatically
upon each instance the mobile rewards application 105 is started or
upon a specific request by the member via the mobile device
115.
[0030] The application 105 presents the member via the member's
device 115 with the available redemption retailers 122
participating in the program 107, 108, which retailers 122 may be
indicated by a filter applied to the ghost card 121. The
application 105 also presents the member via the member's device
115 with the available funds based on the amount of points
indicated by the points update confirmation data and based on an
individual currency exchange rate of points to currency according
to the loyalty platform 107, 108. The individual currency exchange
rate may be part of the confirmation data or it may be embedded in
the application 105. The mobile rewards control center 102 will
store all details associated to the individual client programs 107
or 108, as well as participating redemption retailers 122. Also,
the center may store the individual currency exchange rate and
provide it to the application 105.
[0031] If a particular member attempts to use the program at a
retailer which is not part of the participating retailers 122 of
the particular member, the transaction would be terminated when the
retailer 122A (FIG. 4) submits the account for approval. The
retailer would not be part of the filter which identifies the
retailers which are permitted to redeem the account of the
particular member so the account would not be approved by the
clearing house for use by the non-participating retailer.
[0032] The application 115 presents the member with the retailer
122 specific redemption options or offerings at 404 and the points
value for each, e.g., redeem 1200 points for $100 at Retailer `A`
or redeem 700 points for $500 at Retailer `A`. In one embodiment,
the member can select the number of points to be redeemed or the
member can select a dollar value to be applied to the debit/credit
account.
[0033] The member 115 selects the desired offering at 406 and
confirms their desire to redeem.
[0034] The mobile rewards management system 100 confirms that the
member 115 has sufficient points by requesting a points check with
the loyalty platform 107, 108, and requests a confirmation 132 that
the member is in good standing at 408. The mobile rewards
management system 100 deducts the redeemed points 133 from the
members account 107, 108.
[0035] The mobile rewards management system 100 sends via the
control center 102 a currency request 128 to the administrator's
card management system 101 to issue the redeemed for dollar value
to the ghost card 121. The prepaid card management system 101
issues the dollar value to the member's ghost card account 121
making the monies available for the transaction. The prepaid card
management system 101 confirms at 129 that the monies have been
successfully deposited into the members account associated with
their `ghost` card 121. The mobile rewards management system 100
confirms and communicates successful completion of the transaction
to the member through the mobile rewards mobile application
115.
[0036] The member 115 now has the redeemed for funds available to
spend at the retailer 122A at which they are located. The funds are
stored on the issued ghost card 121, which in turn is securely
stored within the mobile wallet 104 of the device 115.
[0037] The member can pay for products/services through a split
tender transaction or single tender transaction if they have
redeemed currency (points) for sufficient funds to pay for the
entire purchase.
[0038] At 118, the member completes the transaction with the device
115 through the wallet 104 and application 105 communicating with a
mobile payments protocol 113 such as NFC (Near Field
Communications) 106 by `tapping` their device 115 to the
contactless POS terminal 117 of the retailer 122A. This initiates a
standard credit transaction. The currency redeemed for will only be
available for use at the identified rewards partners utilizing the
filtering process of the card issuer. The transaction will be
transparent to the person and the retailer (i.e., the same as any
other debit/credit card transaction). The account is usable for the
particular transaction at the amount selected by the person and the
person is not aware of and does not otherwise have access to the
account. After the transaction, of the member transacted for less
then they redeemed the balance would remain on the card until their
next transaction or could be returned to points based on the
individual rules of the program. Although the currency is
interchangeable amongst the participating retailers 122, all
marketing communications to the person may be specific to the
individual retailer 122A, e.g. you have redeemed 1200 points for
$100 at Retailer `A` or you have redeemed 700 points for $500 at
Retailer `A`. At this point marketing messages from the program
owner 120, 119 can be delivered in real-time to the member 80, via
the mobile rewards application, through the Mobile rewards control
center
[0039] FIG. 5 is an illustration of one embodiment of various
hardware and software components of the invention. In this
configuration, a system 500 of the invention includes a mobile
device 502 having an NFC chip 504 which permits secure transactions
via an embedded NFC terminal 506 of a retailer 508. A card
management server 510 interfaces with the mobile device 502 to
assist in implementing a debit/credit card account associated with
a currency account of the user. In one embodiment, only one, unique
debit/credit card account is associated with only one, unique
currency account of a user so that transactions can be tracked by
either the card account number or the currency account number. In
one embodiment, only one, unique debit/credit card account is
associated with all currency accounts of only one, particular user
so that all transactions of the particular user can be tracked by
the card account number. Alternatively, or in addition, for
filtered accounts the server 510 assists in account approval. For
example, the debit/credit card account may be usable with only a
selected, limited number of retailers. In one embodiment, the
selected retailers would correspond to retailers that participate
in at the award program in which the selected retailers participate
and/or support. In other words, the currency (e.g., points) account
would be part of a program of which the retailer is also
involved.
[0040] In one embodiment, the issued ghost card account 121 may be
forwarded to a card fulfillment partner 137 (shown in FIG. 2), who
will in turn create a "physical" card in the form of an NFC sticker
505 (shown in FIG. 5). The sticker 505 would be shipped 136 to the
member 80 with instructions to adhere the sticker 505 to their
mobile device. This solution is an alternative to or in addition to
the imbedded NFC solution outlined above. When a sticker 505 is
part of the system and method of the invention, the mobile wallet
104 within the device 115 is optional. All other aspects of the
system and processes outlined above will remain with the NFC
sticker 505.
[0041] An instant rewards service manager 512 interfaces with both
the mobile device 502 and the card management server 510 to effect
transactions and communication as noted above with regard to FIGS.
1-4. In one form, the manager 512 is a server which accesses a
member database 514 and communicates with a third party award
program 518 via a third party gateway 516. In particular, the
manager 512 includes a real time issuance module 520, a currency
exchange management engine 522, an instant rewards service module
524, an OTA communications module 526 and an optional offers
management engine 527.
[0042] The optional offers engine 527 includes an alternative
`push` mechanism to provide the ability to issue offers to members.
An offer may be associated to an action of behavior, e.g., purchase
item X and receive offer Y, although any type of offer is
contemplated. Based on a pre-determined action (either explicit or
implicit), an offer can be pushed to the user. For example, from
the perspective of the member, the offer could be in the form of
tangible items, such as a free latte. All messaging through the
mobile rewards application 105 could be based on a tangible item.
However, in the background the tangible item (e.g., the latte)
would simply have a predefined financial amount (e.g., $4.71). From
the perspective of the members, they are receiving tangible items
within the offer mechanism. From the perspective of the merchant,
it is a traditional credit (or gift card) transaction. Offers may
be time bound and expire. In the case of an expired offer, both the
marketing message and the currency associated with the offer could
be removed from the members account at expiration.
[0043] Once a points redemption has been requested, validated and
the members account has been deducted, the real time issuance
module 520 manages the issuance of currency onto the account
through the card management server 510 in order to permit the
member 80 to complete a purchase transaction through a
participating retailer 122. The currency exchange management engine
522 allows the administrator of the program to manage several
individual instances of the mobile rewards solution and provide
unique currency exchange rates for individual programs or by
individual retailers. For example, the exchange rate at a retailer
122A is 12,000 points for $100 dollars, while at retailer 122B the
exchange rate is 14,000 points for $100. The instant rewards
service module 524 provides the means to manage all redemption
services such as authentication, account validation, redemption
transaction. The rewards service module 524 also manages all
communications and data exchange with the participating loyalty
platforms 107, 108. The OTA communications module 526 provides the
ability to deliver, through OTA services, real-time communications
associated to the program or a transaction within the program. For
example, a program owner 120 may want to send a message to a member
after a transaction congratulating the member on a successful
redemption.
[0044] As used herein, a program operated by platform 107, 108
includes but is not limited to any program, loyalty plan or policy
used to encourage or reward a participant's use of particular,
merchants which sell goods and/or services and/or encourage account
(e.g., card) usage. Frequently, such programs are referred to as
incentive, loyalty, frequency, affinity, retention, performance
improvement or award programs (i.e., award programs). This is
because such programs encourage or improve participant's loyalty,
affinity, retention, quality of performance or frequency of
performance. The program permits the participants to obtain a
rebate or incentive such as a motivational award (such as points,
cash, products and/or services). As used herein, incentives,
rebates, currency and points are used interchangeably and generally
denote but are not limited to any type of consideration being
administered by a program. Corresponding reference characters
indicate corresponding parts throughout the drawings.
[0045] For purposes of illustration, programs and other executable
program components, such as the operating system, are illustrated
herein as discrete blocks. It is recognized, however, that such
programs and components reside at various times in different
storage components of the computer, and are executed by the data
processor(s) of the computer.
[0046] Although described in connection with an exemplary computing
system environment, embodiments of the invention are operational
with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing
system environments or configurations. The computing system
environment is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the
scope of use or functionality of any aspect of the invention.
Moreover, the computing system environment should not be
interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any
one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary
operating environment. Examples of well known computing systems,
environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use
with aspects of the invention include, but are not limited to,
personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices,
multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top
boxes, programmable consumer electronics, mobile telephones,
network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed
computing environments that include any of the above systems or
devices, and the like.
[0047] Embodiments of the invention may be described in the general
context of data and/or computer-executable instructions, such as
program modules, stored one or more tangible computer storage media
and executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally,
program modules include, but are not limited to, routines,
programs, objects, components, and data structures that perform
particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.
Aspects of the invention may also be practiced in distributed
computing environments where tasks are performed by remote
processing devices that are linked through a communications
network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules
may be located in both local and remote computer storage media
including memory storage devices.
[0048] In operation, computers and/or servers may execute the
computer-executable instructions such as those illustrated herein
to implement aspects of the invention.
[0049] Embodiments of the invention may be implemented with
computer-executable instructions. The computer-executable
instructions may be organized into one or more computer-executable
components or modules on a tangible computer readable storage
medium. Aspects of the invention may be implemented with any number
and organization of such components or modules. For example,
aspects of the invention are not limited to the specific
computer-executable instructions or the specific components or
modules illustrated in the figures and described herein. Other
embodiments of the invention may include different
computer-executable instructions or components having more or less
functionality than illustrated and described herein.
[0050] The order of execution or performance of the operations in
embodiments of the invention illustrated and described herein is
not essential, unless otherwise specified. That is, the operations
may be performed in any order, unless otherwise specified, and
embodiments of the invention may include additional or fewer
operations than those disclosed herein. For example, it is
contemplated that executing or performing a particular operation
before, contemporaneously with, or after another operation is
within the scope of aspects of the invention.
[0051] When introducing elements of aspects of the invention or the
embodiments thereof, the articles "a," "an," "the," and "said" are
intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The
terms "comprising," "including," and "having" are intended to be
inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than
the listed elements.
[0052] In view of the above, it will be seen that several
advantages of the invention are achieved and other advantageous
results attained.
[0053] Not all of the depicted components illustrated or described
may be required. In addition, some implementations and embodiments
may include additional components. Variations in the arrangement
and type of the components may be made without departing from the
spirit or scope of the claims as set forth herein. Additional,
different or fewer components may be provided and components may be
combined. Alternatively or in addition, a component may be
implemented by several components.
[0054] The above description illustrates the invention by way of
example and not by way of limitation. This description clearly
enables one skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and
describes several embodiments, adaptations, variations,
alternatives and uses of the invention, including what is presently
believed to be the best mode of carrying out the invention.
Additionally, it is to be understood that the invention is not
limited in its application to the details of construction and the
arrangement of components set forth in the following description or
illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other
embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways.
Also, it will be understood that the phraseology and terminology
used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be
regarded as limiting.
[0055] Having described aspects of the invention in detail, it will
be apparent that modifications and variations are possible without
departing from the scope of aspects of the invention as defined in
the appended claims. As various changes could be made in the above
constructions, products, and methods without departing from the
scope of aspects of the invention, it is intended that all matter
contained in the above description and shown in the accompanying
drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting
sense.
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