SENSOR-BASED NEAR-FIELD COMMUNICATION AUTHENTICATION

• US 20150121108A1
• Filed: 06/24/2014
• Published: 04/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Agrawal, Jagadish Kumar, Chandra, Deepak, Gorsica, John J., Shah, Jagatkumar V.
• Granted Patent: US 10,591,969 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/323
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3293 by switching to a less power-consuming processor, e.g. sub-CPU
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/35 communicating wirelessly
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0492 by using a location-limited connection, e.g. near-field communication or limited proximity of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0853 using an additional device, e.g. smartcard, SIM or a different communication terminal cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving additional secure or trusted devices H04L9/3234
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/65 Environment-dependent, e.g. using captured environmental data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0293 having a sub-controller with a low clock frequency switching on and off a main controller with a high clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

This document describes techniques (400, 500, 600) and apparatuses (100, 700) for implementing sensor-based near-field communication (NFC) authentication. These techniques (400, 500, 600) and apparatuses (100, 700) enable a computing device (102) to detect, in a low-power state, environmental variances indicating proximity with an NFC-enabled device (104) with which to authenticate. In some embodiments, various components of a computing device (102) in a sleep state are activated to process environmental variance(s), perform authentication operations, and/or an indicate initiation of authentication operations to a user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

sensing, via a lower-power processor of a device that is in a sleep state, an environmental variance indicating proximity with a near-field communication-enabled (NFC-enabled) entity, the lower-power processor not capable of authenticating the NFC-enabled entity;

activating, responsive to detecting the environmental variance via the lower-power processor, a higher-power processor of the device that is capable of authenticating the NFC-enabled entity, the higher-power processor different than the lower-power processor;

receiving, via a near-field communication (NFC) interface of the device, authentication information from the NFC-enabled entity; and

authenticating, via the higher-power processor and based on authentication information, the NFC-enabled entity effective to wake the device from the sleep state.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the environmental variance is one of motion, light, sound, or a change in magnetic field strength.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the lower-power processor is not capable of communicating via the NFC interface of the device.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein, prior to detecting the environmental variance, the NFC interface is in a sleep state, and further comprising, prior to receiving the authentication information, activating the NFC interface to enable communication with the NFC-enabled entity.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising, responsive to detecting the environmental variance, indicating an initiation of the acts of activating, receiving, or authenticating to a user of the device.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the device includes a display that is powered-down while in the sleep state, and indicating the initiation of the acts of activating, receiving, or authenticating includes powering the display of the device.

7. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the device includes a light-emitting diode (LED) indicator, speaker, or vibrator, and indicating the initiation of the acts of activating, receiving, or authenticating includes altering a state of the LED indicator, emitting an audio alert via the speaker, or causing actuation of the vibrator.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the device is locked while in the sleep state, and further comprising, responsive to authenticating the NFC-enabled entity, unlocking the device.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the environmental variance is detected via a motion sensor, light sensor, acoustic sensor, or magnetic sensor monitored by the low-power processor when the device is in a sleep state.

10. A device comprising:

a near-field communication (NFC) transceiver configured to enable wireless communication of data;

a sensor configured to detect environmental variances;

a low-power processor unable to perform authentication operations and configured to monitor the sensor for a particular environmental variance indicative of prospective proximity with an NFC-enabled entity; and

an application processor having a sleep state in which power of the device is conserved, an active state in which authentication operations and other functionalities of the device are implemented, and configured to;

receive, while in the sleep state, a signal from the low-power processor indicating the prospective proximity with an NFC-enabled entity;

wake, responsive to the signal, from the sleep state to the active state to implement the authentication operations;

receive, via the NFC transceiver, authentication information from the NFC-enabled entity;

attempt to authenticate with the NFC-enabled entity based on the authentication information received via the NFC transceiver; and

enable access to the other functionalities of the device responsive to successfully authenticating with the NFC-enabled entity.

11. The device as recited in claim 10, wherein the environmental variance is one of motion, light, sound, or a change in magnetic field strength.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein:

the motion is associated with a gesture performable the user of the device;

the light is associated with a light-emitting accessory associated with the user;

the sound is a voice-command received from the user of the device;

or

the change is magnetic field strength is caused by a magnetic accessory associated with the user or the NFC-enabled entity.

13. The device as recited in claim 10, wherein the device includes a locked state and an unlocked state, the application processor resides in the sleep state when the device is in the locked state, and enabling access to the other functionalities of the device is effective to transition the device from the locked state to the unlocked state.

14. The device as recited in claim 13, further comprising a display and wherein the application processor is further configured to indicate, via the display, an initiation of the authentication operations, the locked state of the device, or the unlocked state of the device.

15. A method, comprising:

monitoring, via a low-power processor of a device in a locked state, a sensor configured to sense variances in an environment of a device;

detecting, responsive to a particular environmental variance, a near-field communication-enabled (NFC-enabled) entity with which to authenticate;

waking, responsive to the proximity of the NFC-enabled entity, another processor of the device from a sleep state to authenticate with the NFC-enabled entity;

receiving, via a near-field communication (NFC) interface of the device, authentication information from the NFC-enabled entity;

attempting, via the other processor and based on the authentication information, to authenticate with the NFC-enabled entity; and

unlocking the device responsive to authenticating with the NFC-enabled entity;

or

returning the other processor to the sleep state responsive to not authenticating with the NFC-enabled entity.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising activating, while the device is in the locked state, a display of the device to indicate an initiation of the attempt to authenticate with the NFC-enabled entity.

17. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising indicating, via the display of the device, the unlocking of the device in response to authenticating with the NFC-enabled entity.

18. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the sensor configured to sense variances in the environment is a motion sensor, light sensor, acoustic sensor, or magnetic sensor.

19. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising indicating, via a light-emitting diode (LED) indicator, speaker, or vibrator of the device, an initiation of the attempt to authenticate with the NFC-enabled entity.

20. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the other processor is an application processor or a digital-signal processor of the device.