The present disclosure generally relates to document banking, and more particularly to methods and systems for facilitating document banking on mobile devices.
People often need to possess different types of documents, such as proofs of identity, address or membership, such as to access services or for various other purposes. For example, users need to provide a medical insurance card to access medical services, such as at a medical care provider (e.g., hospital). In another example, users often need to provide a driver's license to law enforcement officials, such as in the context of traffic incidents. Thus, users need to carry either an original document or a copy of the document, which may sometimes create a number of challenges for the user. For example, if the user carries the original document, then there is a risk that the document may become lost or damaged. However, if the user carries a copy of the document but that copy may not be verified/trusted or otherwise determined to be ineffective. It may therefore be beneficial to provide improved methods and systems to overcome these challenges.
The disclosure discloses a method facilitating transfer of one or more documents from a document bank account to a mobile device, the method includes authenticating a user to login into the document bank account; upon successful authentication, retrieving and displaying a list having one or more documents associated with the document bank account, the list of one or more documents is stored in a storage repository; receiving one or more documents selected by the user for transfer and corresponding transfer type for each of the one or more documents, wherein the transfer type for each of the one or more documents includes transferring a document in the form of a document, or transferring a document in the form of a pre-defined code; and based on the transfer type, transferring the one or more documents from the document bank account to the mobile device.
In another embodiment, a method of enabling a user to transfer one or more documents from a document bank account to mobile device is disclosed. The method includes providing one or more user interfaces, the one or more user interfaces are configured for: allowing the user to login into the document bank account; displaying a list of one or more documents associated with the document bank account; allowing the user to select one or more documents from the list along with transfer type for each of the one or more documents; and upon selection, allowing the user to transfer the selected documents from the document bank account to the mobile device.
In further embodiment, a method for enabling a user to securely handle one or more documents via an application on a mobile device is disclosed. The method includes: authenticating the user to access the application, the application maintains a list of one or more documents, wherein each of the one or more documents is maintained in the form of a document or in the form of a pre-defined code; receiving a request from the user to access at least one of the maintained documents; for each of the documents maintained as a document, allowing the user to access or transact the document; and for each of the documents maintained as a pre-defined code: authenticating the user to login to the document bank account; upon authentication, retrieving the document and subsequently allowing the user to perform at least one of downloading or transacting the document; upon receiving a request from the user to download the document, allowing the user to download the document; and upon receiving a request from the user to transact the document, allowing the user to transact the document from the document bank account to a document bank account of a receiver.
In furthermore embodiment, an application for enabling a user to handle one or more documents is disclosed. The application being installed on a mobile device and configured for: authenticating the user to access the application, the application maintains a list of documents, wherein each of the documents is maintained as a document or as a pre-defined code; receiving a request from the user to access at least one of the maintained documents; determining a type of the at least one requested document; if the type of the at least one requested document is determined as a document, allowing the user to access or transact the at least one requested document; if the type of the at least one requested document is determined as a pre-defined code, authenticating the user to login into the document bank account; upon authentication, retrieving and displaying the at least one requested document to the user; and enabling the user to download the at least one requested document on the mobile device or to transact the at least one requested document to a document bank account of a receiver.
In additional embodiment, a system is disclosed. The system includes a document banking system including a document manager for transferring one or more documents from a document bank account to an application on a mobile device, the document manager being configured for: authenticating the user to login into the document bank account; upon successful authentication, retrieving and displaying a list of one or more documents associated with the document bank account; receiving one or more documents selected by the user for transfer and corresponding transfer type for each of the one or more documents; and based on the transfer type for each of the one or more documents, transferring the one or more documents from the document bank account to the application; and the application being installed on the mobile device and configured for: receiving a request from the user to access the application; authenticating the user to access the application, wherein the application maintains a list of one or more documents, wherein each of the one or more documents is maintained as a document or as a pre-defined code; receiving a request from the user to access at least one of the maintained documents; determining the type of the at least one requested document; if the at least one requested document is maintained as a document, allowing the user to access or transact the document; and if the at least one requested document is maintained as a pre-defined code: authenticating the user to login to the document bank account; and upon authentication, retrieving the document from the document bank account and subsequently allowing the user to perform at least one of downloading or transacting the at least one requested document.
The following detailed description is provided with reference to the figures. Exemplary, and in some cases preferred, embodiments are described to illustrate the disclosure, not to limit its scope, which is defined by the claims. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize a number of equivalent variations in the description that follows.
Definitions of one or more terms that will be used in this disclosure are described below without limitations. For a person skilled in the art, it is understood that the definitions are provided just for the sake of clarity, and are intended to include more examples than just provided below. The term “document banking” deals with handling of one or more documents such as storing documents, transferring documents, sharing documents, downloading documents or the like, without any limitations. The term, “document” refers to any document such as an electronic document without limitations. Further, the “document” may be a document having a single page or multiple pages, each page including text, images, or a combination thereof. The phrase “document banking system” refers to any system capable of handling activities related to documents such as storing documents, transferring documents, receiving documents, billing and payment related activities, verifying documents, or the like. Significant to the present disclosure, the “document banking system” includes a module, for example, a “document manager” for facilitating transfer of documents associated with a document bank account to a “mobile device”. A “document bank account” is a document account between a user, and the document banking system. The “document bank account” maintains one or more documents related to the user. The “user” may be any individual or an entity that has a “document bank account” with the “document banking system”. For example, the entity can be any organization such as visa organization, passport organization, banking organization or any organization that deals with documents.
The term “mobile device” is intended to include any hand-held device capable of handling documents such as maintaining documents in any desired format. Various examples of such devices can be, but not limited to, smart phones, tablets, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), laptops, or any hand-held devices. An “application” running on the “mobile device” can be any application which is configured for enabling a user to handle documents on the “mobile device”, by enabling the user to access, download, or transfer or transact the documents or the like. The application may also be referred to as “document wallet”. Additionally, the phrase “transfer” is intended to include transferring a copy of the document from the “document banking system” to the “mobile device”, while maintaining the document with the “document banking system”, without limitations. The phrase “transact” is intended to include transacting a copy of the document from the mobile device of a user to a document account of another user, without limitations.
Typically, a user carries or requires one or more documents in day-to-day life for various purposes. For example, the user carries a driving license when travelling, or requires a passport for submitting a loan application, and so on. Sometimes, these documents may not be in place and the user has to manually gather all the required documents (may be in the form of a physical copy or an electronic copy). This process may be cumbersome, time-consuming or may also cause human stress as well as productivity loss. Further, carrying a physical copy may expose to risk of damage, loss or theft, while carrying an electronic copy may be ineffective due to lack of trust. In other words, the electronic copy may not be a verified copy, thus, determined to be ineffective. To improve convenience, and reduce hassles for the user, the present disclosure provides such methods and systems that enable users to securely carry documents, which are verified, and further enables the users to access those documents when required. The present disclosure focuses on methods and systems for enabling document banking on mobile devices. Specifically, the methods and systems enable a user to securely carry documents as well as enable the user to access documents, download documents, transfer documents or the like. Moreover, the methods and systems facilitate transfers of documents associated with a document bank account to the mobile device.
The user profile module 102 stores information associated with a user. Examples of such user information include, but not limited to, login credentials (i.e., username, user id, password, etc.), preferences of the user, residential details, contact number(s), email id(s), etc. The storage repository 104 maintains or stores documents deposited by the user, such as a driving license, PAN card, utility bills, passport, etc. The documents can be stored in any desired format, such as printable document format (PDF), image format, or any other suitable electronic format(s).
The transaction engine 106 performs any transaction related to documents, such as sending documents, receiving documents, or the like. The billing and payment module 108 manages billing and payment related activities related to the document transaction(s) performed by the transaction engine 106. The verification module 112 facilitates verification of the documents deposited by the user at the time of opening a document bank account, or a subsequent receipt of a user's request. In some embodiments, the verification can be performed manually or via third party interfaces. Additionally, the document banking system 100 can include a Secure Data Technologies (SDT) module (although not shown) that uses one or more known technologies in art, for example, encryption, to authenticate documents and store them in an encrypted form. Each of these modules and associated functionalities are merely exemplary in nature, and one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the document banking system 100 can include more or less modules to perform the intended operation.
In context of the present disclosure, the document banking system 100 includes the document manager 110. The document manager 110 is configured for facilitating transfer of one or more documents associated with the document bank account of the user to a mobile device such as user's mobile device (see
In some embodiments, the document banking system 100 can be hosted on a server. In other embodiments, the document banking system 100 can be implemented in form of hardware, software, or a combination of these.
Although, the invention has been explained using QR code as example, but for a person skilled in the art, it is understood that the disclosure (i.e., disclosed systems and methods) is applicable for any types of codes known in the art or developed later. Such codes can be machine readable code, and/or human visible code.
As shown, the document manager 204 facilitates transfer of one or more documents from a document bank account such as a user's document bank account, to the application 208. To facilitate this, the document manager 204 authenticates the user to login into the document bank account. Upon authentication, the document manager 204 retrieves a list of one or more documents maintained with the document bank account and displays those documents to the user. From the displayed list, the user selects one or more document(s), and selects the transfer type for each of the documents. The document manager 204 receives the selected documents and corresponding transfer type. Upon receiving these details, the document manager 204 transfers these documents to the application through the network. Each of the documents is transferred as a document, or as a QR code. In at least some embodiments, at least one of the documents is a verified document.
Further, the document manager 204 provides one or more user interfaces to the user that allows the user to transfer the documents. For example, the document manager 204 provides a user interface for allowing the user to login into the document bank account maintained with the document banking system 202. In another example, the document manager 204 provides a user interface displaying the list of one or more documents associated with the document bank account. In further example, the document manager 204 provides a user interface allowing the user to select one or more documents from the list along with transfer type for each of the one or more documents. In additional example, the document manager 204 provides a user interface allowing the user to transfer the selected documents to the mobile device 206. In yet another example, the document manager 204 provides a user interface allowing the user to input details of a receiver. The receiver is the one to whom the user wishes to transact the documents. For example, the receiver may be an individual or an entity.
The application 208 on the mobile device 206 enables the user to handle documents, wherein handling documents include, but not limited to, accessing documents, downloading documents, or transacting/sharing documents. The application 208 maintains a list of one or more documents in any desired format. For example, the documents may be maintained in the form of documents such as PDF, image format or the like, or may be maintained in the form of QR codes. In some embodiments, the documents maintained with the application 208 are the ones that are transferred from the document banking system 202.
Initially, the user launches the application 208 on the mobile device 206. Upon launching, the application 208 first authenticates the user to access the application 208, and based on the authentication, the application 208 synchronizes the list with the list of documents associated with the document bank account. Here, the application 208 communicates with the document manager 204. The document manager 204 checks the list of documents maintained with the document banking system 202, particularly, the document manager 204 checks the list of documents including information related to the transfer of documents. The document manager 204 communicates this information to the application 208. The application 208 updates the list of documents maintained with the application 208.
The application 208 receives a request from the user to access at least one of the documents maintained on the mobile device 206. For each of the documents maintained as a document, the application 208 allows the user to access or transact the document. For each of the documents maintained as a QR code, the application 208 first authenticates the user to log into the document bank account maintained with the document banking system 202 and then allows the user to access that document and subsequently, allows the user to perform at least one of downloading or transacting the document.
In additional embodiments, the application 208 allows the user to edit details of each of the documents, for example documents name.
Similar to the document manager 204, the application 208 provides one or more user interfaces for enabling the user to handle the documents. For example, the application 208 provides a user interface displaying the list of documents maintained with the application 208.
Thereafter, at 304 the document manager retrieves a list of one or more documents stored in the document repository for the document bank account. The document manager displays the retrieved list along with various details, such as name of document, type of document, date of deposit, etc., for each of the displayed documents.
From the displayed list, the user selects one or more documents to transfer from the document banking system to the mobile device. When selecting the documents, the user selects the type of transfer for each of the selected documents. Here, the transfer type is selected or defined based on a preference of the user. At 306, the document manager receives the selected documents and transfer type for each of the documents. Transfer type refers to whether the user prefers to transfer the document in the same electronic format in which the document is stored in the document repository, or as a QR code. For example, if the user selects two documents such as a utility bill, and a driving license, then the user may choose the utility bill to be transferred as it is, whereas the driving license to be transferred as a QR code. Here, the QR code includes a web link to the driving license stored in the document repository.
In some embodiments, the document manager can be configured to recommend the type of transfer for each of the selected documents. Here, the document manager may recommend the transfer type based on the type of the document. For example, the document that includes critical/private information can be recommended to be transferred as a QR code. One such example can be passport, PAN card or the like. For each document to be transferred as a QR code, the document manager generates a QR code and links the QR code to the corresponding document associated with the document bank account. In particular, the document manager links the QR code with the document stored in the document repository.
Upon receiving the documents and corresponding transfer type, at 308, the document manager transfers these documents from the document banking system to the mobile device and notifies the user about the transfer of these documents via one or more modes. Various examples of modes may include, but are not limited to, email, messages, phone calls, or the like. Additionally, the document manager maintains a log associated with transferring the documents. For example, the document manager maintains or stores a log of all documents that are transferred and also stores the corresponding transfer type.
In some embodiments, the document manager can be configured for transferring at least a portion of the document, based on a request from the user by using known related art or later developed techniques, such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR). For example, if the document includes 15 pages and the user wishes to transfer only page 1 and page 5, then in such cases, the user provides the input via a user interface, and then the document manager retrieves those pages and transfers only those pages to the mobile device.
In some embodiments, the QR code can be transferred to other devices connecting to the document banking system via a network.
The user launches the application on the mobile device. Upon launching, the user is authenticated to access the application at 402. For this, the user requires to enter login credentials that are specific to the application, and are different from the login credentials discussed above for the document bank account. Once the application successfully authenticates the entered login credentials, the application displays a list of documents maintained with the application to the user. Simultaneously, the application automatically synchronizes with the document manager via a network to update the list of documents based on those documents that may be transferred from the document banking system to the mobile device. The network may be a collection of individual networks, interconnected with each other and functioning as a single large network (for example, the Internet or an intranet). Examples of the network include, but are not limited to, Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), and so on.
Upon synchronization, if the application determines that there are no documents received from the document banking system, then the list of the documents remains the unchanged. However, the application updates the list of documents displayed to the user based on the documents and associated details that are received from the document banking system.
Then, the user sends the request to access at least one of maintained documents, and the application receives the request to access the at least one of maintained documents, at 404. The application determines whether the type of document requested by the user is maintained as a document or as a QR code. In case the at least one document is maintained as a document, then the application allows the user to access or transact the at least one document at 406 and displays document to the user.
In case the document is maintained as a pre-defined code such as a QR code, at 408, the user is authenticated to login into the document bank account. Here the application communicates with the document manager and the document manager authenticates the user using the user profile module. This prevents any fraudulent user from bypassing the document banking system to directly access documents containing critical/private information through the application on the mobile device. To access each of the QR coded documents, the user is authenticated to login into the document bank account. For example, if the user wishes to access three QR coded documents, the user is authenticated three times to login into the document banking system.
Embodiments are intended to include the QR code with a link to the corresponding document that is stored in the document banking system and can be accessed by the document manager. The document manager displays a login screen on the mobile device to allow the user log into the document banking system. On the login screen, login credentials relevant to a corresponding document bank account may be entered to authenticate the user before providing access to the document maintained as a QR code on the mobile device. Upon successful authentication, at 410, the document manager retrieves the document associated with the document account from the storage repository, and displays the document or content of the document on the mobile device. The document manager also allows the user either to download the displayed document on the mobile device or to transact the document to another user's device. If the user wishes to download the displayed document, at 412, upon receiving such request, the document manager allows the user to download the document on the user's mobile device.
If the user wishes to transact the document, at 414, upon receiving such request, the document manager allows the user to transact the document from the document account to a document account of a receiver. For this, the document manager communicates with the transaction engine that requests for details of an intended receiver. The details of the receiver may include receiver's account name, document name, etc., which are entered on a screen displayed on the mobile device by the document manager. Upon receiving the details, the transaction engine transfers or shares the documents from the document banking system to the receiver's document bank account. Once the document is successfully transacted, the user and the receiver are notified.
In cases where the user wishes to transact the document, then the document manager communicates with a billing and payment module. The billing and payment module handles billing and payment related activities associated with the transaction.
For the sake of understanding, a use case scenario has been explained with the help of screenshots as shown in
Once notified, the user accesses a mobile application installed on the mobile device. Upon opening the application, the application first authenticates the user and upon successful authentication, documents maintained are displayed to the user via a user interface 512 as shown in
The present disclosure allows users to carry documents and allows users to transact documents as the need arises. The present disclosure discloses methods and systems for enabling a user to carry trusted documents. Moreover, the present disclosure provides a secure and convenient way for carrying documents, and performing transactions. For example, if the user loses the mobile device, the documents are still considered safe because the user still needs to obtain access to those documents through the document banking system. Thus, the user needs to login into the document bank account. Each of the transactions performed by the user is atomic in nature, i.e., the user needs to login into the document bank account each time the user wishes to access the document maintained as a QR code or to synchronize the documents maintained in the application with those in the document banking system, thereby ensuring security.
It will be appreciated that several of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations, or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art, which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
The present disclosure relates to U.S. application Ser. No. 13/969,635, filed Aug. 19, 2013.