Contact-less tag with signature, and applications thereof

• US 20090160649A1
• Filed: 12/11/2008
• Published: 06/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BCE Incorporated
• Original Assignee: BCE Incorporated
• Inventors: O'Brien, William G., Yeap, Tet Hin, Murray, Sean MacLean
• Granted Patent: US 9,305,282 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/572.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/43 wireless channels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/79 in semiconductor storage media, e.g. directly-addressable memories
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3825 Use of electronic signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3829 involving key management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/401 Transaction verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40975 using encryption therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/425 using two different networks, one for transaction and one for security confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/84 Vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0846 using time-dependent-passwords, e.g. periodically changing passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 : involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 : Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/10 : Integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/47 : using near field communication [NFC] or radio frequency identification [RFID] modules

Abstract

An arrangement of goods, comprising: a plurality of units of an article, the units equipped with respective contactlessly readable tags; each of said tags comprising a respective memory configured to store a respective signature; the signatures stored in the memories of said tags appearing scrambled relative to one another when read by a reader. Also, a method, comprising: contactlessly reading a first signature from a first tag affixed to a first unit of an article; contactlessly reading a second signature from a second tag affixed to a second unit of the same article, the second signature appearing scrambled relative to the first signature; decrypting the first signature with a key to reveal (I) an identifier associated with the article and (II) a first scrambling code; and decrypting the second signature with the same key to reveal the same identifier and a second scrambling code different from the first scrambling code.

Claims

1. An arrangement of goods, comprising:

a plurality of units of an article, the units equipped with respective contactlessly readable tags;

each of said tags comprising a respective memory configured to store a respective signature;

the signatures stored in the memories of said tags appearing scrambled relative to one another when read by a reader.

2. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 1, wherein application of a decryption function to the signatures using a common key reveals a common identifier.

3. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 2, wherein the common identifier is associated with the article.

4. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 3, wherein application of said decryption function to the signatures using said common key further reveals a respective scrambling code.

5. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 4, the scrambling codes being different for each of said tags.

6. The arrangement defined in claim 4, wherein the scrambling code associated with a first one of the signatures differs from the scrambling code associated with a second one of the signatures in a first number of digits, wherein the second one of the signatures differs from the first one of the signatures in a second number of digits, the second number of digits being greater than the first number of digits.

7. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 2, wherein the signature stored in the memory of a particular one of said tags changes over time.

8. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 7, wherein the signature changes over time in dependence upon an output of a pseudo-random number generator.

9. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 8, wherein the signature changes over time in dependence upon an output of a clock function.

10. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 9, wherein the signature changes over time in dependence upon an output of a counter.

11. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 7, wherein the signature stored in the memory of a particular one of said tags continues to encode the common identifier despite changing over time.

12. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 2, wherein the memory of each of said tags is further configured to store an index associated with the key

13. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 12, wherein the index comprises generic information regarding the article.

14. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 12, wherein each of said tags is further configured to accompany the respective signature with the index when issuing the respective signature to the reader.

15. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 1, wherein each of said tags is configured to issue the respective signature to the reader in an autonomous manner.

16. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 1, wherein each of said tags is configured to issue the respective signature to the reader in response to receipt of a read request received from the reader.

17. The arrangement of goods defined in claim 1, disposed on a pallet.

18. A method, comprising:

contactlessly reading a first signature from a first tag affixed to a first unit of an article;

contactlessly reading a second signature from a second tag affixed to a second unit of the same article, the second signature appearing scrambled relative to the first signature;

decrypting the first signature with a key to reveal (I) an identifier associated with the article and (II) a first scrambling code; and

decrypting the second signature with the same key to reveal the same identifier and a second scrambling code different from the first scrambling code.

19. The method defined in claim 18, wherein said contactlessly reading is effected in response to issuance of a read request to the first and second tags.

20. The method defined in claim 18, wherein the first scrambling code is an output of a first pseudo-random number generator implemented by the first tag and wherein the second scrambling code is an output of a second pseudo-random number generator implemented by the second tag, wherein the first and second pseudo-random number generators have different seeds.

21. The method defined in claim 18, wherein the first scrambling code is an output of a first clock module implemented by the first tag and wherein the second scrambling code is an output of a second clock module implemented by the second tag, wherein the first and second clock modules have different oscillation characteristics.

22. The method defined in claim 18, wherein the second scrambling code differs from the first scrambling code in a first number of digits, wherein the second signature differs from the first signature in a second number of digits, the second number of digits being greater than the first number of digits.

23. The method defined in claim 18, further comprising performing an action related to identification of the first or second units of the article, based on the identifier.

24. A method, comprising:

generating a plurality of signatures, each of the signatures generated by encrypting a common identifier and a respective scrambling code using a common key; and

loading the signatures onto respective ones of a plurality of contactlessly readable tags for identification of respective units of an article identified by the common identifier.