Patent Application
20080020733
a is a diagram representing an overview of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
b is a diagram representing an overview of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
a is a diagram representing exemplary placement of a reference marker on exemplary devices in accordance with the present invention;
b is a diagram representing exemplary placement of a reference marker on exemplary devices in accordance with the present invention;
The term “electronic equipment” as referred to herein includes portable radio communication equipment. The term “portable radio communication equipment”, also referred to herein as a “mobile radio terminal”, includes all equipment such as mobile phones, pagers, communicators, e.g., electronic organizers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart phones or the like.
It should also be appreciated that many of the elements discussed in this specification, whether referred to as a “system” a “module” a “circuit” or similar, may be implemented in hardware circuit(s), a processor executing software code, or a combination of a hardware circuit and a processor executing code. As such, the term circuit as used throughout this specification is intended to encompass a hardware circuit (whether discrete elements or an integrated circuit block), a processor executing code, or a combination of a hardware circuit and a processor executing code, or other combinations of the above known to those skilled in the art.
With reference to
Turning to
Returning to
The acceleration signals are integrated to determine velocity of the integrated acceleration detection system and displacement of the integrated acceleration detection system within the two dimensional plane or three dimensional space. Executable processes compare both the displacement (e.g. shape within the two dimensional plane or the three dimensional space) and velocity (e.g. velocity model within the two dimensional plane or three dimensional space) with reference displacement data and reference velocity data to determine whether the user drawing the symbol 84 is the same user who drew the symbol that was used for generating the reference data. The velocity model reflects the speed used by the user in drawing the symbol 84. Use of the velocity model as part of the authentication system reduces the ability of a person to authenticate by perfectly match the shape of a symbol by tracing or drawing it very carefully and slowly. An indication of authentication and/or unlocking of the mobile radio device 10 occurs if both the shape and velocity model match the reference data.
With reference to
In this embodiment, the symbol 84 is not necessarily a signature but a sequence of motions that includes two counter clock wise circles of the mobile radio device 10 within the plane defined by the X coordinate and Y coordinate (represented by 84a), one clock wise circle of the mobile radio device 10 within the plane defined by the X coordinate and Y coordinate (represented by 84b), and displacement of the mobile radio device 10 within the direction of the Z coordinate—for example lifting the mobile radio device 10 up from a surface defined by he X coordinate and Y coordinate and then returning the mobile radio device to such surface (represented by 84c).
It should be appreciated that with this type of symbol 84, use of the reference marker 82 for drawing is not critical so long as the mobile radio device 10 is generally positioned in the same manner as when reference data was captured.
In one exemplary embodiment, RF systems 26 communicate with tower transmission equipment of a wide area network 21 by implementing a compatible multiple access protocol 27 (e.g. CDMA, CSMA, GSM, etc). In another exemplary embodiment, the RF systems 26 communicate with access point equipment of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) 17 by implementing a compatible ISPP client protocol 28 such as WiFi. In yet another exemplary embodiment, the RF systems 26 communicate with a host computer 15 using a point to point protocol such as blue tooth. It should be appreciate that these exemplary embodiments are for illustrative purposes only. It is envisioned that the mobile electronic device of the present invention may include multiple RF circuits for implementing any combination of the above protocols or similar protocols.
A key switch system 22 and display 24, in combination, provide a user interface to enable user control and use of the mobile electronic device 10. As shown in
An audio system 16 drives operation of a speaker 18 and a microphone 20 for interfacing audio content with a user. In the exemplary embodiment, the audio content represents media session content of a wireless telephone call driven by the service provider system 11. In such embodiment, the audio system 16 receives digital data from the RF system 26, decompresses the digital data to recover audio media initiated by a remote endpoint, and drives the output of such audio media through the speaker 18. The audio system 16 also receives audio media from the microphone 20, digitizes and compresses such audio media, and provides the compressed audio media to the RF system 26 for transmission to the service provider system 11.
A lock/authentication circuit 14 provides security by enabling operation of the mobile electronic device 10 only upon authentication of a user. When in a locked mode, any combination of the keyboard 22, display 24, RF systems 26, and audio system 16 may be disabled to prevent unauthorized use of the mobile electronic device 10. A lock/authentication circuit 14 enables a user to authenticate and drive the lock/authentication circuit 14 to enable operation of the mobile electronic device 10.
The lock/authentication circuit 14 comprises an acceleration module 42 which includes at least two acceleration detectors 43a, 43b (a third acceleration detector 43c is preferred if the symbol 84 is to be drawn within a three dimensional space) which are positioned in the portion of the housing 80 of the mobile electronic device 10 marked for drawing use. The acceleration detectors 43 may be known combinations of accelerometers and solid state gyros for detecting acceleration of such portion of the housing 80 as the user draws the symbol. The acceleration detectors 43a, 43b, and 43c are positioned in an orthogonal relationship for detecting acceleration in both the X direction and the Y direction of the two dimensional plane or the X direction, the Y direction, and the Z direction of the three dimensional space. The acceleration module 42 may also include applicable circuits for digitizing output of the acceleration detectors 43 and controlling gain and dynamic range to produce an acceleration signal(s) 41 for output to an integration module 40.
The integration module 40 integrates the acceleration signal(s) 41 with respect to time to generate a velocity signal 39 and a displacement signal 38. Referring briefly to
The displacement signal 38 and the velocity signal 39 are output to executable authentication processes 34 which populate an authentication data buffer table 36. In more detail, each record 44 of the table 36 includes fields for time 47, displacement values 46 (including the X coordinate 46x, the Y coordinate 46y, and the Z coordinate 46z within the two dimensional plane or three dimensional space), and velocity vector values 48 (including speed 48s and direction 48d). The executable authentication process 34 writes a sequence of records to the table 36 with each record including the displacement values 46 and velocity vector values 48 at a fixed point in time t1, t2, t3 . . . tn.
A reference data table 37 includes a plurality of records 45 each of which includes reference displacement values 52 (including X coordinate values 52x, Y coordinate values 52y, and Z coordinate values 52z) and reference velocity vector values 54 (including reference speed 54s and reference direction 54d) which represents the reference symbol to which the user drawn symbol will be compared. In aggregate the records represent sequential values captured at fixed time increments 50.
Step 62 represent initiating acceleration detection by the acceleration module 42 and step 63 represents initiating operation of the integration module 40 such that a displacement signal 38 and a velocity signal 39 commence.
Step 64 represents populating records 44 of the authentication data buffer 36. More specifically, at fixed time increments displacement values 46 and velocity vector values 48 are written to the buffer 36.
Step 65 represents comparing a representation of the displacement signal 38 and the velocity signal 39 to the reference displacement values 52 and the reference velocity vector values 54 and, at step 67, generating an indication of user authentication and/or unlocking the mobile electronic device 10 if the displacement signal 38 and the velocity signal 39 deviate from the reference displacement values 52 and the reference velocity vector values 54 by no more than a predetermined threshold.
More specifically, step 65a represents truncating data which is captured prior to the user commencing drawing of the symbol 84. In one embodiment the lock/authentication circuit 14 commences collection of displacement and velocity data after prompting the user to draw the symbol 84. Truncation may be by deleting data prior to the displacement signal 38 matching a shape of the symbol. In this embodiment truncation is independent of any switch or other device for detecting contact with a planar surface. In an alternative embodiment, such truncation may be by deleting data prior to a contact switch or other device indicating that the user has commenced drawing the shape on a planar surface.
Step 65b represents comparing a sequential set of X,Y,Z coordinates (displacement values 46) from the authentication data buffer 36 to reference displacement values 52 from the reference data table 37 and determining that a symbol shape matches if the sequential set of X,Y,Z coordinates from the buffer 36 deviate from the coordinates of the reference displacement values 52 by nor more than a predetermined threshold.
More specifically referring to
Step 65c represents comparing a sequential set of velocity vector values 48 from the authentication data buffer 36 to reference velocity vector values 54 from the reference data table and determining that a velocity model matches if the sequential set of velocity vector values 48 from the buffer 36 deviates from the reference velocity vector values 54 by no more than a predetermined threshold.
More specifically referring to
For each velocity vector value 48, the reference velocity vector value 54 used for comparison is the particular reference velocity vector value 54 that is stored in association with displacement values 52 that are most closely aligned with the displacement values 46 associated with the velocity vector values 48 (e.g. stored in the same record in the authentication data buffer 36).
Returning to
The flow chart of
Step 69 represents prompting the user to draw the symbol 84 (the symbol applicable to the remote service provider system 11) using the portion of the housing 80 that includes the reference marker 82.
Step 70 represent initiating acceleration detection by the acceleration module 42 and step 71 represents initiating operation of the integration module 40 such that a displacement signal 38 and a velocity signal 39 commence.
Step 72 represents populating records 44 of the authentication data buffer 36. More specifically, at fixed time increments displacement values 46 and velocity vector values 48 are written to the buffer 36.
Step 73 represents returning, in response to the remote authentication call, the contents of the records 44 of the buffer 36 (collectively authentication data 44) to the remote service provider system 11 via wireless transmission via the WAN network 21, to the ISP 17 (e.g. wi-fi), or to the host computer 15 (e.g. blue tooth).
Referring again to
