The invention relates to a pairing device for establishing a secure wireless communication between a first device and a second device, said first device comprising a body-coupling communication interface, said second device screen, especially a touch-screen; to a secure communication method and to a secure communication system.
Contactless devices are widely used for authentication. Individuals have a need for a unique contactless device comprising as much authentication information as possible for executing secure electronic transactions, logins on mobile device etc. . . . , without having to remember all of them.
The applicant has thus developed personal contactless devices allowing an individual to have in the same device a lot of authentication information, said device being wearable by individuals and having a body-coupling communication interface. The contactless device can be on a bracelet, an ankle, a belt, a garment, in a pocket etc. . . . .
The authentication is easy to perform for the user. Indeed, when a user, wearing said contactless device, touches (or is close enough) to a device to which the user has to be authenticated, the authentication is performed by the contactless device without any further action than the touching action to be performed by the user wearing the contactless device.
For example, when a user wearing said kind of contactless devices touches the doorknob of a door, said doorknob being able to communicate with the contactless device, it opens said door.
The contactless device communicates through the skin of the user with the device to which the user wants to authenticate. This kind of communication is named body-coupling communication (BCC). The BCC is based on the principle that modulated electric field may carry a signal on a user body according to a capacitive coupling mode, thus the human body, and more particularly the skin, is used as a wire between the contactless device and a device with which it communicates with to ensure authentication of the user.
Once the user has authenticated himself to a second device through the BCC link, a wireless communication is established between the contactless device and the second device to exchange authentication information in a secure way. The wireless communication can use various wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, zigbee etc. . . . .
One particularity of the contactless device developed by the applicant is an interface adapted to establish BCC link. This kind of contactless device aims to perform authentication with mobile devices. However, mobile devices are not BCC compliant and it is not possible to ask constructors of all kind of mobile devices to add a BCC interface to their mobile devices.
The meaning of mobile device is to be understood as any device allowing people to access data and information from wherever they are. These terms include mobile phone and portable devices, such as handset, tablets, PDAs, laptop computers, mobile computers, mobile phone, smartphone, etc. . . . .
It is an object of the invention to provide a device allowing a user, wearing a contactless device comprising an interface for establishing BCC link, to authenticate to a non BCC compliant mobile device, said mobile device having a touch screen, without modifying the structure of said mobile device and contactless device.
To this end, the invention provides a pairing device for establishing a secure wireless communication path between a first device comprising a first body-coupling communication interface and a second device comprising a screen, said pairing device comprising:
According to not limited embodiments, the apparatus can comprise one or more of the following additional characteristics:
The invention also provides a secure communication method between a first device and a second device, said first device comprising a first body-coupling communication interface, said second device comprising a screen, wherein the secure communication method comprises:
In order to establish a secure communication session between two devices, it is necessary to establish a pairing between those two devices. Here, the pairing between the first device, BCC compliant, and the second device, non BCC compliant but having a touch screen is ensured through the pairing device which is both BCC compliant and touch screen compliant. This pairing is a double step pairing. Indeed, firstly the pairing is established between the second device and the pairing device via a light-based communication. And secondly, the pairing is established between the pairing device and the first device via a BCC communication. Thus, a secure communication session can be established between those two devices without modifying the structure of the second device.
According to not limited embodiments, the method can comprise one or more of the following additional characteristics:
The invention also provides a secure communication system comprising:
The pairing device is adapted to establish an indirect communication between the first device and the pairing device as the pairing device is both BCC compliant, like the first device, and touch screen compliant, like the second device. The definition of the first area and of the second area depends on the sizing of the respective first and second body-coupling communication interface. The size and power of the antennas of these body-coupling communication interfaces determines the sizing of the first and second areas. The BBC path is not necessarily maintained once the wireless communication session is established.
According to not limited embodiments, the system can comprise one or more of the following additional characteristics:
Some embodiments of apparatus, method and system in accordance with embodiments of the present invention are now described, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring now to the drawings,
The first device D1 is a wearable device and is aimed to contain personal authentication information of a user to authenticate a user to a second device D2 or to a software of said second device D2, said software being, for example an application for performing epayment.
The first device D1 comprises a first body-coupling communication (BCC) interface BCCI1 for establishing a body-coupling communication with a pairing device PD. A body-coupling communication is based on the principle that a modulation of electric field can carry a signal on human skin using a technique called capacitive coupling, the human body behaving as a capacitor. Thus, in use, the first device D1 is to be in a first area sufficiently close to a human body so that the human body can be used as a conductor for the BCC. By touching the pairing device PD, thus when the pairing device PD is located in a second area sufficiently closed to the human body of the user to establish BCC, a user, wearing the first device D1, allows the creation of a body-coupling communication path between the first device D1 and the pairing device PD. The first device can be, for example, integrated into an anklet, a bracelet, a necklace, a garment, a belt etc. . . . .
The first device D1 also comprises a biometric sensor BS, such as a finger print sensor for allowing the authentication of a user to said first device D1. Thus, as the first device D1 is aimed to contain personal authentication information, adding a biometric sensor increases the security of the communication system.
The first device also comprises a fourth wireless communication interface WCI1. The wireless communication can use various wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, zigbee.
The second device D2 comprises a touch screen TS. The second device D2 is a mobile device such as a smartphone, a tablet. The touch screen TS is preferably a capacitive touch screen. The second device D2 also comprises a fifth wireless communication interface WCI2. The user wearing the first device D1 aims to perform authentication action with said second device D2 which is not BCC compliant. In order to exchange authentication information between the fourth wireless communication interface and the fifth wireless communication interface, there is a need to pair in a secure way the first and the second device.
The pairing device PD comprises a second body-coupling communication interface BCCI2 for communicating with the first body-coupling communication interface BCCI1 of the first device D1. The second body-coupling communication interface BCCI2 has to be compliant with the first body-coupling communication interface BCCI1. The pairing device PD could be a stylus or a key holder for example. The pairing device could be of any kind as long as it is a device that can interact with both a screen and the skin of a user.
The pairing device PD also comprises a screen communication interface SCI. Said screen communication interface SCI is able to establish two kind of screen communication path depending on the way of the screen communication:
Thus, the pairing device PD allows making indirectly the second device BCC compliant without modifying the design and the structure of the second device.
Once pairing the first device D1 and the second device D2 through the pairing device has been performed, the pairing device PD, when being a stylus can be used as a normal stylus to write on the touch screen TS of the second device D2 for example.
Usually, the pairing is performed by entering manually a password via the touch screen TS of the second device. However, this operation has the drawback of necessitating for the user to memorize a huge amount of authentication information.
The communication method, thus, comprises a first step (step illustrated COD_PI1 on
The secure communication method also comprises a second step (step illustrated PD— RECEIV_PI1 on
Once the first pairing information is received by the pairing device, the method comprises a third step (step illustrated PD_GENER_PI2 on
Once the first device has received the second pairing information, the method comprises a fourth step (step illustrated ESTABL_SECU_WCS on
The secure communication session is preferably a wireless communication session using Wi-Fi protocol or Zigbee protocol or Bluetooth.
The method could comprise a seventh step (step illustrated BIO_ID on
In order to wake up the second device having a touch screen, the method could comprise a sixth step (step illustrated PD_TOUCH_TSD2 on
The steps of the communication method could be performed in any order a man skilled in the art would judge pertinent.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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13305772 | Jun 2013 | EP | regional |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2014/061908 | 6/6/2014 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2014/195499 | 12/11/2014 | WO | A |
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