METHOD OF ELECTRONIC VOTING, DECODER FOR IMPLEMENTING THIS METHOD, AND NETWORK COMPRISING A VOTING SERVER FOR IMPLEMENTING THE METHOD

• US 20110113439A1
• Filed: 04/06/2009
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Martinot, Olivier, Delegue, Gérard
• Application Number:
  US12/988,060
• Publication Number:
  US 20110113439A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 13/00 Voting apparatus

Abstract

Method of electronic voting in a questionnaire, comprising:

• • a step of broadcasting an offer of electronic voting service to a plurality of communications terminals;
  • a step of sending, from a voter'"'"'s communication terminal, a request to a remote server, this request containing information for authenticating a voter;
  • a step of authenticating the voter by comparing the authentication information received with recorded information associated with the voter;
  • when the voter has been authenticated, a step of dispatching to the communication terminal of the voter ticket to participate in the vote;
  • a step of dispatching the vote to the server, the former containing a response to the questionnaire and the ticket to participate in the vote,
    this method is characterized in that it comprises two steps of anonymization, a first step ensuring anonymization to the ticket to participate sent to the voter by the server, and a second step ensuring anonymization of the communication terminal sending the response to the vote to the server, the participation ticket containing at least one piece of data associated with the voter'"'"'s profile.

Claims

1. A method for electronically voting in a questionnaire, comprising:

a step of distributing an electronic voting service offer to a plurality of communications terminals;

a step of sending, from a voter'"'"'s communication terminal, a request to a remote server, this request containing the voter'"'"'s authentication information;

a step of authenticating the voter by comparing the authentication information received and saved information associated with the voter;

when the voter has been authenticated, a step of sending the voter'"'"'s communication terminal a vote participation ticket;

a step of sending to the voting server, containing a response to the questionnaire and the vote participation ticket,

which method is characterized in that it comprises two steps of anonymization, a first step ensuring the anonymization of the participation ticket sent to the voter by the server, and a second step ensuring the anonymization of the communication terminal sending the response to the vote to the server, the participation ticket containing at least one piece of data associated with the voter'"'"'s profile.

2. An electronic voting method according to claim 1, wherein the participation ticket contains at least one piece of encrypted voter profile data.

3. An electronic voting method according to claim 1, wherein it comprises a step of creating a questionnaire identification key, which key is sent by the server to the voter'"'"'s terminal.

4. An electronic voting method according to claim 1, wherein it comprises a step of selecting, among the requests, the ones which come from voters meeting a predefined criterion, which selection takes the form of conditional access or digital rights management.

5. A decoder adapted to implement the method as described in claim 1, which decoder is characterized in that it comprises means for receiving a digital television program by cable or over radio waves, which decoder further comprises:

means for connecting to a software platform,

means for identifying an interactive electronic voting application adapted to the television program being broadcast,

means for synchronizing that interactive application to said digital program,

means for distributing a signal comprising the digital program and the data specific to the interactive electronic voting application that was identified.

6. A television broadcast network, which network comprises a plurality of reception terminals each equipped with a decoder, and an electronic voting server, the decoder comprising an electronic voting service selection module (5) and a management module (9), the server comprising:

a first module, called the creation module, ensuring the generation of the questionnaire,

an electronic services guide generator (4), adding the electronic voting services to the other interactive television services,

a subscription module (6) performing a comparison between the authentication information received from the selection module (5) with the information saved in the profile databases, the subscription module sending said participation ticket to the management module (9), when the voter has been identified,

an anonymization module (11) receiving the response to the questionnaire and the vote participation ticket.

7. A broadcast network according to claim 6, wherein the server further comprises a billing module (14), the vote participation being recorded and associated with a commercial offer.