Safe communication

• US 20030158888A1
• Filed: 12/19/2002
• Published: 08/21/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Anoto Group AB
• Original Assignee: Anoto Group AB
• Inventors: Ericson, Petter, Sandstrom, Martin, Lindstrom, Marianne, Bjorklund, Magnus
• Application Number:
  US10/322,446
• Publication Number:
  US 20030158888A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0321 by optically sensing the absolute position with respect to a regularly patterned surface forming a passive digitiser, e.g. pen optically detecting position indicative tags printed on a paper sheet constructional details of pen-shaped pointing devices G06F3/03545, G06F3/03542, G06F3/037
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3213 using tickets or tokens, e.g. Kerberos network architectures or network communication protocols for entities authentication using tickets in a packet data network H04L63/0807
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3297 involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method in connection with transfer of information, a system and a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable components for transfer of information. The invention is based on the idea that a user telecommunication address is associated with a temporary telecommunication address. The temporary address, designating the server, is then sent to a service handler. The service handler sends information to said temporary telecommunication address. The server knows the coupling between the temporary address and the user address, and forwards the service handler information to the user address. By employing this concept, it is not possible for a service handler to send information directly to the user telecommunication address, since the service handler does not know said user address, but must send its information to the user address via the server, which knows the coupling between the temporary telecommunication address and the user telecommunication address.

Claims

1. A method in connection with transfer of information, including the steps of:

associating a user telecommunication address with a temporary telecommunication address;

sending, to a service handler, following a marking, by means of a user unit, of an activation icon on a position coded surface, user unit information data and, based on said user unit information data, accompanying said user unit information data with the temporary telecommunication address, wherein said user unit information data comprise data resulting from what is written on the position coded surface and recorded by the user unit or data associated with a certain area of the position coded surface;

receiving, at a server, information from said service handler addressed to said temporary telecommunication address; and

forwarding, from said server, said service handler information to said user telecommunication address.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of associating is performed at said server.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the step of sending said temporary telecommunication address is performed by a user unit.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the step of sending said temporary telecommunication address is performed by said server.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of associating is performed at a user unit by encrypting said user telecommunication address, thereby providing the temporary telecommunication address.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the step of sending said temporary telecommunication address is performed by a user unit, and includes providing said temporary telecommunication address with a user unit identifier.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the temporary telecommunication address is provided with a timestamp.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein said server checks said timestamp to determine whether said server is allowed to forward the received service handler information to the user telecommunication address.

9. The method according to any of claims 6-8, wherein the temporary telecommunication address is provided with a unique identifier.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said server checks said unique identifier to determine whether said server is allowed to forward the received service handler information to the user telecommunication address.

11. The method according to any of claims 5-10, wherein the user telecommunication address is derived from the temporary telecommunication address by decrypting the temporary address.

12. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the association of said user telecommunication address with said temporary telecommunication address is valid for a limited number of occasions of forwarding information from said server to said user telecommunication address.

13. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said user unit is capable of sending a command to said server, which command deactivates the association of said user telecommunication address with said temporary telecommunication address, making the association invalid.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, including the step of automatically associating said user telecommunication address with a new temporary telecommunication address when the previous association of said user telecommunication address with said temporary telecommunication address is invalid.

15. The method according to any of the previous claims, wherein said user unit information data comprises data resulting from what is written on a position coded surface, or where this is written on a position coded surface, and recorded by the user unit, or prestored data including e-mail addresses, credit card numbers, different user unit properties or data associated with a certain area of the position coded surface.

28. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable components for causing a unit to perform the steps recited in any one of claims 1-15 when the computer-executable components are run on microprocessor included by the unit.

16. A system for transfer of information, including

at least one server;

and

at least one user unit, wherein

associating means arranged to associate a user telecommunication address with a temporary telecommunication address are included in the server or the user unit;

transmitting means arranged to send, following a marking, by means of said user unit, of an activation icon on a position coded surface, user unit information data to a service handler and, based on said user unit information data accompanying said user unit information data with the temporary telecommunication address which designates said server, are included in the server or the user unit, wherein said user unit information data comprise data resulting from what is written on the position coded surface and recorded by the user unit or data associated with a certain area of the position coded surface;

receiving means arranged to receive information from said service handler are included in said server; and

transmitting means arranged to forward said service handler information to said user telecommunication address are included in said server.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the association means at said user unit include encryption means arranged to encrypt said user telecommunication address, thereby providing the temporary telecommunication address, and wherein said association means are arranged to provide the temporary telecommunication address with a user unit identifier.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein means arranged to provide the temporary telecommunication address with a timestamp are included in said user unit.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein means arranged to check said timestamp, to determine whether said server is allowed to forward the received service handler information to the user telecommunication address, are included in said server.

20. The system according to any of claims 17-19, wherein means arranged to provide the temporary telecommunication address with a unique identifier are included in said user unit.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein means arranged to check said unique identifier, to determine whether said server is allowed to forward the received service handler information to the user telecommunication address, are included in said server.

22. The system according to any of claims 17-21, wherein decryption means arranged to derive said user telecommunication address from the temporary telecommunication address, by decrypting the temporary telecommunication address, are included in said server.

23. The system according to any of claims 16-22, wherein the associating means included in said server are arranged to associate said user telecommunication address with said temporary telecommunication address for a limited number of occasions of forwarding information to said user telecommunication address.

24. The system according to any of claims 16-23, wherein the receiving means included in said server are arranged to receive a command, which command deactivates the association of said user telecommunication address with said temporary telecommunication address, making the association invalid.

25. The system according to claim 24, wherein the transmitting means included in said user unit are arranged to send said command, which deactivates the association of said user telecommunication address with said temporary telecommunication address, making the association invalid.

26. The system according to any of claims 23-25, wherein the associating means included in said server or in said user unit are arranged to automatically associate said user telecommunication address with a new temporary telecommunication address, when the previous association of said user telecommunication address with said temporary telecommunication address is invalid.

27. The system according to any of claims 16-26, wherein said user unit information data comprises data resulting from what is written on a position coded surface, or where this is written on a position coded surface, and recorded by the user unit, or prestored data including e-mail addresses, credit card numbers, different user unit properties or data associated with a certain area of the position coded surface.