System of non-intrusive access control and method thereof

• US 20050116822A1
• Filed: 04/19/2004
• Published: 06/02/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Institute For Information Industry
• Original Assignee: Institute For Information Industry
• Inventors: Wang, Chung-Ren, Yang, Chih-Wei, Liu, Jiann-Tsuen
• Granted Patent: US 7,061,376 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.130
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence

Abstract

A non-intrusive access control method. First, identification of a tag and real-time circumstance information both related to a detection area are acquired. Next, whether the tag is permitted is determined based on circumstance identification corresponding to the detection area, the tag and the real-time circumstance information.

Claims

1. A non-intrusive access control method, comprising the steps of:

acquiring identification of a first tag and real-time circumstance information both related to a detection area; and

determining whether the first tag is permitted based on circumstance identification corresponding to the detection area, the identification of the first tag and the real-time circumstance information.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the real-time circumstance information comprises user information indicating existence of any other tag in the detection area.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the real-time circumstance information comprises time information comprising at least current time or total time.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the real-time circumstance information comprises physical information indicating status of an object.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, when a plurality of tags exist in the detection area, a tag thereof corresponding to the highest level user role among the user roles of the tags is identified as the first tag representing the tags.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the identification of the first tag corresponds to a user role, as one of a plurality of user roles corresponding to a plurality of levels.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, further comprising determining that the first tag is permitted, when a plurality of tags exist in the detection area, and a tag thereof corresponding to a user role with higher rank than the user role of the first tag.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the corresponding circumstance identification of the detection area corresponds to a circumstance role, as one of a plurality of circumstance roles with hierarchical relationship, each comprising at least one circumstance attribute.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising defining the hierarchical relationship based on the circumstance attribute before the determining step.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determining step is based on one or more policies each recording the relationship of user role, circumstance role, real-time circumstance information and permission.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the policies is presented in extensible markup language (XML) format.

12. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

searching for policies related to the circumstance identification corresponding to the detection area, the identification of the first tag and the real-time circumstance information;

determining the first tag is not permitted when no policy allowing permission is located; and

determining the first tag is permitted when at least one related policy with permission and no related policy denying permission is located.

13. An non-intrusive access control system, comprising:

a sensor for acquiring identification of a first tag and real-time circumstance information both related to a detection area; and

a computing device for determining whether the first tag is permitted based on circumstance identification corresponding to the detection area, the identification of the first tag and real-time circumstance information.

14. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the real-time circumstance information comprises user information indicating whether another tag exists in the detection area.

15. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the real-time circumstance information comprises time information comprising at least current time or total time.

16. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the real-time circumstance information comprises physical information indicating status of an object.

17. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein, when a plurality of tags exist in the detection area, the computing device treats a tag corresponding to the highest ranked user role among the user roles of the tags as the first tag representing the tags.

18. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the identification of the first tag corresponds to a user role, as one of a plurality of user roles corresponding to a plurality of levels.

19. The system as claimed in claim 18, wherein the computing device further determines that the first tag is permitted, when a plurality of tags exist in the detection area, and a tag thereof corresponding to a user role with higher rank than the user role of the first tag.

20. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the computing device performs the determination step based on one or more policies each comprising the relationship of user role, circumstance role, real-time circumstance information and permission.

21. The system as claimed in claim 20, wherein the computing device further searches for policies related to the circumstance identification corresponding to the detection area, the identification of the first tag and the real-time circumstance information, and determines the first tag is not permitted when no related policy allowing access is located or determines the first tag is permitted when at least one policy with permission and no related policy denying access is located.

22. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the non-intrusive access control system comprises a radio frequency identification (RFID) system.