LOW-LATENCY APPROXIMATION OF COMBINATORIAL OPTIMIZATION OF RESIDUAL AMOUNTS WHEN ALLOCATING LARGE COLLECTIONS OF STORED VALUE CARDS

摘要

Provided is a process including: obtaining a repository of stored value card records; receiving a request for a stored value card from a remote client computing device; inferring based on the request, a transaction balance of a transaction in which the requested stored value card is to be used; inferring based on the request, a merchant to participate in the transaction; identifying a subset of the stored value card records in response; selecting one or more stored value cards from among the identified subset based on a comparison between the inferred transaction balance and the value remaining on the selected one or more stored value cards; and sending balance-access information by which the selected one or more stored value card balance or balances can be spent at a point of sale terminal.

主权项

1. A method, comprising:
obtaining, with one or more computers, a repository of stored value card records, each record corresponding to a stored value card, and each record including an identifier of a merchant accepting the respective stored value card and a balance of value remaining on the respective stored value card, each stored value card having at least one previous user possessor; receiving, with one or more computers, a request for a stored value card from a remote client computing device; inferring, with one or more computers, based on the request, a transaction balance of a transaction in which the requested stored value card is to be used; inferring, with one or more computers, based on the request, a merchant to participate in the transaction; identifying, with one or more computers, a subset of the stored value card records in response to determining that the subset of stored value cards are accepted by the inferred merchant, the subset having more than 20 stored value cards with more than 15 different balances; selecting, with one or more computers, one or more stored value cards from among the identified subset based on a comparison between the inferred transaction balance and the value remaining on the selected one or more stored value cards; and sending, with one or more computers, balance-access information by which the selected one or more stored value card balance or balances can be spent at a point of sale terminal.