Method of establishing connection between mobile device and image forming apparatus, and image forming apparatus and mobile device for performing the method

• US 10,075,615 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2015
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HP Printing Korea Co., Ltd. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: S-Printing Solution Co., Ltd. (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Eum, Ju-ho
• Primary Examiner(s): PACHOL, NICHOLAS C
• Application Number:
  US14/979,281
• Publication Number:
  US 20160182762A1
• Time in Patent Office: 994 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/608 Secure printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1222 Increasing security of the print job
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1236 Connection management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1238 Secure printing, e.g. user identification, user rights for device usage, unallowed content, blanking portions or fields of a page, releasing held jobs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1292 Mobile client, e.g. wireless printing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00411 the display also being used for user input, e.g. touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4413 involving the use of passwords, ID codes or the like, e.g. PIN
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0094 Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/37 Managing security policies for mobile devices or for controlling mobile applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 Secure pairing of devices

Abstract

Provided is a method of establishing, by an image forming apparatus, a connection to a mobile device, the method including transmitting temporary credential information to the mobile device in response to receiving a pairing request from the mobile device, receiving an encrypted personal identification number (PIN) code from the mobile device, determining whether a PIN code is valid by decrypting the encrypted PIN code using the temporary credential information to extract the PIN code, and transmitting permanent credential information to the mobile device when it is determined that the PIN code is valid.

Claims

1. A method of establishing, by an image forming apparatus, a connection to a mobile device, the method comprising:

transmitting temporary credential information to the mobile device in response to receiving a pairing request from the mobile device;

receiving an encrypted personal identification number (PIN) code from the mobile device, wherein a PIN code input by a user of the mobile device was encrypted by the mobile device to produce the encrypted PIN code using the temporary credential information;

determining, by the image forming apparatus, whether the PIN code is valid by decrypting the encrypted PIN code using the temporary credential information to extract the PIN code; and

transmitting permanent credential information to the mobile device when it is determined that the PIN code is valid.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the permanent credential information is information for assigning authority to the mobile device to control functions of the image forming apparatus.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating a pairing session with the mobile device that has the permanent credential information; and

receiving a control command from the mobile device to control a function of the image forming apparatus, wherein the image forming apparatus executes the control command while the pairing session is maintained if the control command is accompanied by the permanent credential information.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising discarding the control command when the control command is not accompanied by the permanent credential information.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, when it is determined that the PIN code is valid, transmitting authority information, which is assigned according to the PIN code, allowing the mobile device to access the image forming apparatus.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus comprises a management table in which different types of authority information are assigned according to values of the PIN code.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a discovery request broadcasted by the mobile device;

transmitting identification (ID) information of the image forming apparatus to the mobile device in response to the discovery request; and

receiving the pairing request from the mobile device that received the ID information.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the mobile device a registration request of a list of events the mobile device is to receive from among events generable in the image forming apparatus; and

when an event included in the list is generated in the image forming apparatus, transmitting a notification about the generated event to the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the transmitting of the notification comprises transmitting the notification according to a data push method using WebSocket.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device provides a bring your own device (BYOD) service.

11. A method of establishing, by a mobile device, a connection to an image forming apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving temporary credential information issued by the image forming apparatus in response to transmitting a pairing request to the image forming apparatus;

generating an encrypted personal identification number (PIN) code by encrypting, using the temporary credential information, a PIN code input by a user;

transmitting the encrypted PIN code to the image forming apparatus; and

receiving permanent credential information from the image forming apparatus when the image forming apparatus determines that the PIN code is valid, wherein the image forming apparatus extracts the PIN code from the encrypted PIN code.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the permanent credential information is information for assigning authority to the mobile device to control functions of the image forming apparatus.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

initiating a pairing session with the image forming apparatus that issued the permanent credential information; and

transmitting a control command, for controlling a function of the image forming apparatus, with the permanent credential information to the image forming apparatus, while the pairing session is maintained.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising, when the image forming apparatus determines that the PIN code is valid, receiving from the image forming apparatus authority information allowing the mobile device to access the image forming apparatus, which is assigned to the PIN code.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

broadcasting a discovery request to search for image forming apparatuses that are to provide a bring your own device (BYOD) service;

receiving identification (ID) information of image forming apparatuses that respond to the discovery request; and

displaying a list and the ID information of the image forming apparatuses that respond to the discovery request.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

selecting at least one of the image forming apparatuses that responds to the discovery request as a selected image forming apparatus;

transmitting to the selected image forming apparatus a registration request of a list of events the mobile device is to receive from among events generable in the image forming apparatus; and

when an event included in the list is generated in the image forming apparatus, receiving a notification about the generated event.

17. An image forming apparatus for establishing a connection with a mobile device, the image forming apparatus comprising:

a communicator configured to transmit to the mobile device temporary credential information issued in response to receiving a pairing request from the mobile device, and to receive an encrypted personal identification number (PIN) code from the mobile device; and

a main controller configured to determine whether a PIN code is valid by decrypting the encrypted PIN code using the temporary credential information, the PIN code having been input by a user of the mobile device and encrypted by the mobile device to produce the encrypted PIN code using the temporary credential information,

wherein the main controller is configured to issue permanent credential information when it is determined that the PIN code is valid, and the communicator is configured to transmit the permanent credential information to the mobile device.

18. The image forming apparatus of claim 17, wherein

the temporary credential information includes at least one of a temporary token and a temporary secret, and the temporary credential information is transmitted to the mobile device in an unencrypted state, and

in response to the determination that the PIN code is valid, the main controller discards the temporary credential information.

19. The image forming apparatus of claim 17, wherein in response to a selection of the image forming apparatus by the mobile device to perform a pairing process, the communicator is configured to transmit first authority information of the image forming apparatus to the mobile device in an unencrypted state, the first authority information including at least one of functions of the image forming apparatus, options related to the functions of the image forming apparatus, and notifications related to a status of the image forming apparatus.

20. The image forming apparatus of claim 19, wherein in response to the determination that the PIN code is valid, the communicator is configured to transmit second authority information of the image forming apparatus to the mobile device corresponding to a user associated with the PIN code, the second authority information including at least one of functions of the image forming apparatus that are specifically providable to the user based on the PIN code, options related to the functions of the image forming apparatus that are specifically providable to the user based on the PIN code, and notifications related to a status of the image forming apparatus that are specifically providable to the user based on the PIN code.