Abstract: Offers are provided to consumers by a service on behalf of merchants in response to purchases by the consumer at the merchant, a collaborating merchant, or self-issued from a web site. Offers may be cloned by a consumer and provided to another user. Points may be assigned to consumers and used to purchase offers. Offers are generated with custom parameters for each customer. Offer parameters (e.g., duration, price, benefit) may be varied over time to determine successful parameters that are likely to result in offer redemption. Merchants may collaborate such that issuance of an offer for a first merchant results in issuance by the service of an offer for a second merchant. A fee may be charged by the service to the first merchant with at least a portion of the fee being paid to the second merchant.

Abstract: Transaction parameters for a transaction between a customer and a merchant are provided to a reward service executing on a server system. The reward service assigns zero or more punches to the customer according to the transaction parameters based on legibility rules received from the merchant. The reward service further assigns a cash or points reward to the customer if punches assigned to the customer meet a threshold condition received by the reward service from the merchant. The reward may be assigned according to a tier of the customer, where the tier of the customer increases with a number of times the customer has met previously met the threshold condition. Punches may be provided to the customer as token including a token. The customer may then claim the token in order to associate the punch with the customer.

Abstract: Transaction parameters for a transaction between a customer and a merchant are provided to a reward service executing on a server system. The reward service assigns zero or more punches to the customer according to the transaction parameters based on legibility rules received from the merchant. The reward service further assigns a cash or points reward to the customer if punches assigned to the customer meet a threshold condition received by the reward service from the merchant. The reward may be assigned according to a tier of the customer, where the tier of the customer increases with a number of times the customer has met previously met the threshold condition. Punches may be provided to the customer as token including a token. The customer may then claim the token in order to associate the punch with the customer.

Abstract: Example communication systems and methods are described. In one implementation, a method receives a first message from a user and extracts a user identity and a transaction request. An alias identity is assigned to the user identity. A second message is transmitted to a merchant device in which the second message includes the alias identity and the transaction request. The method receives a third message from the merchant device and extracts the alias identity and a transaction completion confirmation from the third message. A fourth message, which includes the transaction completion confirmation, is communicated to the user based on the user identity.

Abstract: Example customer reward systems and methods are described. In one implementation, a method receives, through a merchant device, data associated with a purchase transaction by a customer such that the data is entered into the merchant device by a user with knowledge of the transaction. The method determines a customer reward associated with the purchase transaction based on the received data entered by the user with knowledge of the transaction. The customer reward is communicated to a server that maintains a customer reward account associated with the customer. The server is instructed to apply the customer reward to the customer reward account associated with the customer.

Abstract: A system and methods are provided for displaying and processing communications via a variety of communications media using a personal computer. Messages received either wirelessly, for example, wireless e-mail, or over telephone wireline, such as voice mail or facsimile, are segregated and presented for review by the subscriber according to whether the originator is within a select group of routinely contacted individuals and also by type of media. The system includes a graphical user interface to provide an intuitive and efficient message processing capability. In alternative embodiments the apparatus and methods are self-documenting and facilitate communication to the system manufacturer.

Abstract: A system for finding and reading a bar code, arbitrarily located on a document, working from an electronic image of the document represented by a pixel array such as generated by a document scanner. A one-dimensional texture analysis is performed in the scanning direction by defining a pattern of test segments and searching for characteristic ranges of transistions within those test segments. If a horizontal test segment pattern fails to locate a bar code region, a test segment pattern skewed with respect to the horizontal is applied. If test patterns skewed with respect to the horizontal fail to locate a bar code region, then a state-transition analysis is applied in the direction perpendicular to the scan direction and in directions skewed with respect to that perpendicular to search for a terminal symbol characterizing the bar code.