PayPal files patent for augmented reality payments

PayPal’s proposed system identifies the product through image processing and enables users to get relevant information. The product includes various modules like imaging module, fingerprinting module, computer vision module, augmented reality module and recommendation engine.

The patent contains multiple mentions of a user flow that would direct the user to purchase objects they have identified with the system through “an online marketplace,” including auction sites like eBay. Other companies like Amazon have come up with a shopping app that can pull up the product information by using a smartphone’s camera to scan either the barcode or general outline of an item in a store.

The product process flow follows the below steps:

• Receive the image from client device
• Convert the image data into fingerprints
• Compare the fingerprints with stored fingerprints
• Generate augmented reality view of item based on identified fingerprints
• Provide augmented reality view of item to client device for overlay