CN102982458A - Populating user data - Google Patents

Abstract

A computer system for receiving user data comprising: a user access component having a processor arranged to execute a data receiving application and a display, wherein the data receiving application provides at least one address field on the display; and a geographical location device in communication with the location network and arranged to identify a geographical location of the device using information from the location network, the geographical location device being located at a user address, the geographical location device being operable to provide location data from which address data for the user address is derived and supplied to the data receiving application to automatically populate the address field on the display.

Description

Populate user data

technical field

The present invention relates to populating user data in computer systems.

Background technique

User terminals in computer systems are often connected in communication networks in order to provide them with access to a wide range of services. In particular, a user terminal may execute a web browser for accessing the public Internet for calling a website associated with a particular service provided by a host server also connected to the Internet. In order to access the services provided by the host server, the user at the user terminal has to provide user data to be supplied to the host server via a communication network (eg the Internet) and in return the service can be accessed. To prompt the user to enter data, the web browser may initiate a page with a series of fields into which the user is expected to enter certain user data, such as user name, login details, and the like. In particular, the type of data that is often required to authorize online transactions is address data. For security reasons, such data is generally not stored at the host server or user terminal. Accordingly, such data must be re-entered each time the user wishes to perform an online transaction. A user may enter such data using a user interface such as a mouse/cursor or keyboard or any other suitable interface (eg a touch screen).

A zip code mapping service exists so that if a user terminal or website is connected to such a service, the user can enter a zip code and a range of alternative addresses is displayed to the user associated with the address field so that the user can click Correctly displayed address to select the correct address to populate the address field. This reduces the amount of data that must be entered into the address field by the user.

Even so, entering addresses on mobile devices with touch screens or numeric keypads is extremely annoying, and some people may make mistakes when entering them.

It is an object of the present invention to increase the facilities with which a user can fill address fields accurately and efficiently.

Contents of the invention

According to the present invention, there is provided a computer system for receiving user data, comprising:

a user access component having a processor and a display arranged to execute a data receiving application, wherein the data receiving application provides at least one address field on the display; and

a geolocation device in communication with the location network and arranged to use information from the location network to identify the geographic location of the device, the geolocation device being located at the address of the user, the geolocation device being operable to provide location data, the location of the user's address Address data is derived from the location data and supplied to the data receiving application to automatically populate address fields on the display.

The invention also provides a method of supplying address data to a data store in a computer system, the method comprising:

executing a data receiving application on a processor of the computer system, the data receiving application providing an address data field to a user on a display;

The notification geolocation device uses information from the location network to identify the location of the computer system and to supply the data store with address data derived from the geolocation data; and

The data receiving application retrieves the address data from the data store and automatically populates the address field with the address data.

The present invention also provides a computer program product, which implements the aforementioned method when executed by a computer.

The present invention is particularly useful in the context of online billing, where users enable mobile payments by allowing billing address data for the payment process to be completed using a geolocation device present on their mobile device. That is, the computer system preferably includes an integral mobile device that provides user access components and geolocation facilities within a single housing that can be carried by the user.

Geolocation devices may include GPS/AGPS navigation systems or may rely on mobile cellular network location systems.

A geolocation device operates by providing location coordinates identifying the geographic location of the device. The computer system can be connected to an external address service via a data connection that uses location coordinates to provide a precise address for that geographic location.

Such an external address service may use the database and search facilities in existing navigation systems, where addresses are entered to provide a geographic location, and the search is performed "reversely".

GPS/AGPS systems operate by transmitting wireless signals to a network of satellites and receiving responses from which the device's location can be identified through a lookup process that may take a while, perhaps 1 or 2 seconds.

It would be advantageous if the geolocation device could pre-initialize its lookup process so that the necessary address information could be available at the user terminal at the moment it is needed. This can be done by initiating the lookup process if it is known that the user's address will be needed in a process already started on the user terminal. To achieve this, the data receiving app can post a notification to the geolocation device when the data entry process that requires the user's address begins.

For a better understanding of the invention and to show how the same may be practiced, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, by way of example.

Description of drawings

1 is a schematic block diagram of a communication system;

Figures 2 and 3 illustrate example screens in the online process; and

Fig. 4 is a flowchart.

Detailed ways

The computer system 2 includes a user access component 4 connected to a user interface 6 . User access components include processor 8 , display 10 and memory 12 . The computer system also includes a geolocation device, which in the described embodiment includes a geographic positioning system (GPS). In a particularly preferred embodiment, the computer system is a single user terminal, such as a monolithic mobile device in which the various components are enclosed in a single housing. Accordingly, GPS 14 operates to provide the location of the mobile device. As is well known, the GPS navigation system operates to provide position data of its position using a network of satellites, indicated schematically by the reference numeral 15 . The operation of GPS is assumed to be known and therefore not further described here.

FIG. 1 shows a computer system 2 connected to a communication network such as the Internet 18 . A host server 20 accessible by the user terminal 2 allows users at the user terminal 2 to access services via the Internet.

To access the service, a user at user terminal 2 enters user data using user interface 6 into a page on display 10 initiated by a web browser executing on processor 8 . User data is communicated to the host server 20 via the Internet 18 and in this way services at the host server 20 can be accessed. One particular type of service that occurs frequently is online charging services. To effectuate an online purchase, the user may be presented with a series of pages of a website from which the user wishes to purchase goods or services, and by means of this, the user may select a series of goods or services to purchase. When the user has reached a state where he has decided to purchase one or more goods or services, he may be presented with a screen such as that shown in Figure 2, which illustrates a series of items selected for purchase and a button 24, The user may, for example, initiate a purchase by clicking (or touching on a touch screen) the button. At this stage, the data receiving application executed by the processor 8 can recognize that online charging is about to start, and can issue a notification to the GPS 14 to initiate its lookup process. At this stage, a billing page for the user is initiated on the display 10, as shown in FIG. 3 . The billing page 26 includes a series of fields including, for example, a field 28 for the user's name, a field 30 for credit or debit card details, expiration date, etc., and an address field 32 for the receiving billing address.

）而不是邮政地址。需要进行转换，这可以由GPS 14、处理器8或由地址服务15来完成。 According to an embodiment of the present invention, after the GPS 14 has made its lookup and provided location data identifying the geographic location of the device using information from the satellite network 16, the address field 32 is filled with an address based on the location data received from the GPS 14. Data is automatically populated. It will be appreciated that positioning data from GPS is in the form of map coordinates (e.g.,

) instead of a postal address. A conversion is required, which can be done by the GPS 14 , the processor 8 or by the address service 15 .

Many existing mobile devices operating as user terminals are already equipped with fast but inaccurate location systems that operate in addition to GPS. In such cases, the address field should be populated with data from the "less accurate" location system, while the GPS searches for a response signal from its network of satellites to provide location data from which the address can be identified and identified. to more accurately populate the address field.

For this purpose, an address service (identified by reference numeral 15 in FIG. 1 ) can be connected to the GPS 14 via a data connection and can be used to supply the exact address of the location coordinates obtained by the GPS 14 . The GPS 14 on the device can supply coordinate data, which will be turned into a "real" address by the address service 15 . Service 15 has a mapping between an address and a location, similar to services like Google ^™ Maps used to convert addresses to geographic locations, but which in turn is used to supply addresses from location coordinates.

The address data is supplied to memory 12, which acts as a data store from which a data receiving application can retrieve the address data.

In any event, the resulting address is suggested to the user as a billing and/or delivery address by presenting the resulting address to the user in an address field on the display 10 . The user can confirm that the address is accurate via the user interface (eg, by clicking on it to select it). Alternatively, the user can correct the captured address should the details be imprecise or inaccurate.

The billing address can be used for purchases after the user has confirmed it. In case the purchasing service provider does not provide reusability of the billing data (which is often the case for security reasons), the user terminal can cache it by linking it to the location coordinates obtained by the GPS device. That is, the address may be stored at the device in a cache with the location coordinates, so the next time the location coordinates are retrieved, the same address is provided.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a simplified user flow for implementing an embodiment of the present invention. According to step 101, the purchase process is started by the user. According to step 102 , a billing address acquisition requirement occurs and this is notified to the GPS device 14 . In step 103 the GPS device obtains a position fix and provides the location data to the address device 15 as indicated by step 103b. The exact address is returned to the user terminal and displayed to the user in the address field 32, whereby at step 104 the user checks and confirms this data. At step 105, the user may end the purchase.

The invention can be implemented by any suitable combination of hardware and software. The data receiving application is embodied as a computer program executable on a processor and may be responsible for implementing the purchase process or may be a component associated with the purchase process or other online service acquisition process. A data receiving application may be stored in memory 12 .

Claims (11)

1. computer system that be used for to receive user data comprises:

User's access component, it has processor and the display that is arranged to receive with executing data application, and wherein said data receiver is applied at least one address field is provided on the display; And

Geographic location device, itself and location network communicate and are arranged to identify from the information of position network the geographic position of described equipment, described geographic location device is positioned at the station address place, described geographic location device can operate and be used to provide position data, and the address date of described station address is derived and is supplied to data receiver from this position data and uses automatically to fill address field on display.

2. according to the computer system of claim 1, it comprises whole portable terminal.

3. according to the computer system of claim 1 or 2, wherein said geographic location device comprises can operate the geo-positioning system that position data is provided for the use satellite network.

4. according to the computer system of arbitrary aforementioned claim, it comprises that described address service use location data are provided for filling the described address date of address field for connecting to the data of address service supply from the position data of described geographic location device.

5. according to the computer system of arbitrary aforementioned claim, wherein when the data input stream journey that will comprise station address began, described data receiver is used can operate to make an announcement to geographic location device.

6. according to the computer system of arbitrary aforementioned claim, it also comprises approximate location equipment, described approximate location equipment can feeds location data to fill address field, until described geographic location device has been supplied the geographic position.

7. according to the computer system of arbitrary aforementioned claim, comprise the storer for the described address date that keeps being associated with position data from described geographic location device.

8. the method for the data storage supply address data in the computer system, described method comprises:

Executing data receives and uses on the processor of described computer system, and described data receiver is applied on the display and provides address data field for the user;

The notice geographic location device is used from the position of the information identification computer system of location network and to described data storage and is supplied the address date of deriving from described geographic position data; And

Described data receiver is used and is automatically filled address field from described search data memory address date and with described address date.

9. according to the method for claim 8, comprising:

To the position data of address service supply from described geographic location device, wherein said address service will be forwarded to described data receiver for the address date of filling address field based on described position data and use.

10. method may further comprise the steps:

On display, provide address data field for the user;

The notice geographic location device is used the position of coming identification of geographic location equipment from the information of location network; And

Based on the position receiver address data by the identification of described geographic location device, and automatically fill address field with described address date.

11. one or more computer-readable recording mediums comprise instruction stored thereon, finish when these instructions are carried out by computing machine such as each described method among the claim 8-10.

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