US 12,293,380 B1
Physical coupon redemption system and related methods
Lisa Smitherman, Lewisville, NC (US)
Assigned to INMAR CLEARING, INC., Winston-Salem, NC (US)
Filed by Inmar Clearing, Inc., Winston-Salem, NC (US)
Filed on Jan. 27, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/102,551.
Int. Cl. G06Q 30/02 (2023.01); G06Q 20/38 (2012.01); G06Q 30/0207 (2023.01)
CPC G06Q 30/0207 (2013.01) [G06Q 20/387 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0225 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A physical coupon redemption system comprising:
a mobile wireless communications device associated with a given retailer; and
a coupon redemption server configured to
obtain a first physical coupon image from the mobile wireless communications device for a corresponding first physical coupon,
generate a first validation code based upon the first physical coupon image and the given retailer,
communicate the first validation code to the mobile wireless communications device for display thereat for the given retailer to add the first validation code to the first physical coupon,
obtain a second physical coupon image from the mobile wireless communications device for a corresponding second physical coupon and having a second validation code therein,
determine whether the first and second validation codes match,
determine whether the first and second physical coupon images indicate a match between the corresponding first and second physical coupons by at least
performing an optical character recognition (OCR) of text, without the second validation code, from the first and second physical coupon images,
extracting at least one of an image and machine readable code from the first and second physical coupon images,
mapping the OCR text and at least one of the image and machine readable code from the first and second physical coupon images to a relative coordinate system,
matching the OCR text and at least one of the image and machine readable code from the first and second physical coupon images based upon a comparison,
matching a relative position of the OCR text and at least one of the image and machine readable code from the first and second physical coupon images based upon the relative coordinate system, and
matching a threshold amount of pixels between the first and second physical coupon images based upon a pixel-by-pixel comparison, and
when the first and second validation codes match and the first and second physical coupons indicate a match, redeem the first physical coupon.