Provided is a virtual money balance bypass inquiry method, comprising: receiving a purchase demand submitted by a client, wherein the purchase demand contains the sum to be paid; receiving a balance inquiry request which is transmitted by the client in asynchronous mode, wherein the balance inquiry request contains the sum to be paid; inquiring the balance of a user account according to the balance inquiry request, and obtaining a result flag by comparing the balance of the user account with the sum to be paid; returning the result flag to the client in asynchronous mode.

A method, system and device are provided that collect and provide information related to goods at retail sales locations. The goods may be or include consumer products, commodities, equipment, food, food products, agricultural supplies and agricultural products. A good may be associated with an identifier represented by a bar code or a quick response code, or recorded within an RFID chip and/or a radio frequency or photonic communications device. An observer may transmit the perceived or received identifier to a remote database server and optionally receive a credit for the transmission of this information to the database server. The observer may optionally use a cellular telephone or portable communications device to transmit the identifier, digitized photographic data, GPS data, other geolocational data, time-date stamps, textual data, and/or audio data.

A method, system and device are provided that collect and provide information related to goods at retail sales locations. The goods may be or include consumer products, commodities, equipment, food, food products, agricultural supplies and agricultural products. A good may be associated with an identifier represented by a bar code or a quick response code, or recorded within an RFID chip and/or a radio frequency or photonic communications device. An observer may transmit the perceived or received identifier to a remote database server and optionally receive a credit for the transmission of this information to the database server. The observer may optionally use a cellular telephone or portable communications device to transmit the identifier, digitized photographic data, GPS data, other geolocational data, time-date stamps, textual data, and/or audio data.

Devices, systems, and methods facilitate enrollment of authenticating biometric data for authenticating an authorized user via a biometric sensor. A data input device and a power source are operatively coupled to a smart card including a fingerprint sensor. An activation code input by the user interacting with the data input device is compared with a predefined activation code, and if the detected activation code matches the predefined activation code, a fingerprint template is enrolled from fingerprint data received from the fingerprint sensor, all without transmitting data from either the power source or the data input device to any device other than the smart card.

Provided is a power plant operation history device. The power plant operation history device includes: a communication unit configured to detect RFID of a wearable device and communicate with a signal conversion device; and a control unit configured to determine a power plant control authority of a user based on user identification information obtained through the communication unit, transmit an operation permission signal allowing operation of an input device of a power plant control facility control device to the signal conversion device when it is determined that the user's power plant control authority exists, and normally process a user input from the input device through the signal conversion device.

A method of accessing an element in a process control environment using a portable communicator includes defining a plurality of control areas within the process control environment, determining a position of a user operating a portable communicator with respect to one or more of the control areas, establishing an identity of the user, and selectively allowing the user to access an element within the process control environment via the portable communicator depending on the determined position of the user with respect to the one or more control areas and on the identity of the user.

The W-CONNECTOR (“W-CONNECTOR”) facilitates the enrollment of payment accounts in a consumer's virtual wallet. The consumer may be logged into their payment account issuer's web site and designate one or more payment accounts for enrollment in a virtual wallet. The issuer may then share account, billing and/or other relevant information with the virtual wallet provider to facilitate the enrollment of the designated payment accounts in the virtual wallet. The W-CONNECTOR may also be configured to facilitate the creation and funding of pre-paid accounts in a consumer's virtual wallet.

Access systems in accordance with various embodiments include techniques for mutual authentication between a passenger that has requested a transportation service and a dispatched vehicle for providing the requested transportation service. Passengers will present a two-dimensional (2D) code to a transaction client associated with the vehicle. The dispatched vehicle uses the 2D code to authenticate the passenger and grant access to the transportation service vehicle.

Techniques for characterizing an optical system (for example, a printer verifier) are provided. In this regard, the optical system may be characterized for scanning a printed image. The characterization of the optical system includes determining an effective aperture size of the optical system, and correspondingly an effective resolution at which the optical system can be configured to scan a portion of the printed image according to verification requirements.

Techniques for characterizing an optical system (for example, a printer verifier) are provided. In this regard, the optical system may be characterized for scanning a printed image. The characterization of the optical system includes determining an effective aperture size of the optical system, and correspondingly an effective resolution at which the optical system can be configured to scan a portion of the printed image according to verification requirements.