Techniques for checking into a retail establishment

摘要

Techniques for checking into a retail establishment are provided. A retailer provides a substrate having a magnetic-field encoded tag. A consumer waves the consumer's device over the tag to electronically capture the magnetic-field encoded tag. The consumer's device is used to communicate the tag to a retailer to validate that the consumer is physically present and now checked into the retail establishment of the retailer.

主权项

1. A processor-implemented method programmed in memory or a non-transitory processor-readable medium and to execute on one or more processors of a handheld device configured to execute the method, comprising:
reading, by a magnetometer or compass of the handheld device, a series of North/South magnetic orientations and strengths as a magnetic-field encoded tag obtained from strips of tape situated at a retail location as the handheld device is waived over the strips of tape; converting, by the handheld device, the magnetic-field encoded tag into a tag identifier linked to the retail location; sending, by the handheld device, the tag identifier and a handheld device identifier for the handheld device to a check-in manager associated with the tag identifier to automatically check-in a consumer at the retail location, and causing, by providing the tag identifier and the handheld device identifier from the handheld device, the check-in manager to identify at least one registered preference of the consumer and provide information with regard to the at least one registered preference to a data processing device located at the retail location that identifies the consumer at the retail location and causing, by the check-in manager providing the at least one registered preference to the data processing device, the data processing device to check the consumer in at the retail location.