CHECKING VALIDITY OF BARCODES IN MOBILE DEVICES THAT DISPLAY THE BARCODES FOR READING BY BARCODE READERS

摘要

Technique for ensuring that a mobile device that contains coupons with barcodes will not provide a barcode belonging to an invalid coupon to a barcode reading system. The technique avoids validation of the coupon at the time the barcode is provided to the barcode reading system. In the technique, the mobile device responds to a validity event that may affect the validity of a given coupon by inhibiting the provision of the given coupon's barcode to the barcode reading system until the coupon has been validated, and then again permitting the provision of the given coupon's barcode to the barcode reading system. In one application of the technique, the coupon may be used n times, the validity event is the provision of the barcode to the barcode reading system, and the validation of the coupon