EXTENDING USER AUTHENTICATION ACROSS A TRUST GROUP OF SMART DEVICES

• US 20150186636A1
• Filed: 12/28/2013
• Published: 07/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Tharappel, Francis M., Krishnamurthy, Lakshman, Dadu, Saurabh, Shah, Saurin S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,684,778 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/35 communicating wirelessly
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/41 where a single sign-on provides access to a plurality of computers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2117 User registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3231 Biological data, e.g. fingerprint, voice or retina network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using biometrical features in a packet data network H04L63/0861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/065 Continuous authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security

Abstract

Particular embodiments described herein provide for a wearable electronic device with a biometric sensor and logic. At least a portion of the logic is implemented in hardware. The logic is configured to receive input data indicative of biometric input and attempt to authenticate the input data based, at least in part, on at least one biometric credential of an authorized user. The logic is configured to establish a wireless connection to a smart device, determine whether the smart device is included in a trust group of one or more smart devices, and send a communication to unlock the smart device when the input data is successfully authenticated and when the trust group includes the smart device.

Claims

1. A wearable electronic device, comprising:

a biometric sensor; and

logic, at least a portion of which is implemented in hardware, the logic configured to;

receive input data indicative of biometric input;

attempt to authenticate the input data based, at least in part, on at least one biometric credential of an authorized user;

establish a wireless connection to a smart device;

determine whether the smart device is included in a trust group of one or more smart devices; and

send a communication to unlock the smart device when the input data is successfully authenticated and the trust group includes the smart device.

2. The wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the logic is configured to receive the at least one biometric credential of the authorized user from one of the smart device and the cloud.

3. The wearable electronic device of claim 2, further comprising:

one or more memory elements, wherein the logic is configured to store the at least one biometric credential in the one or more memory elements.

4. The wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the logic is configured to determine the smart device is included in the trust group when information uniquely identifying the smart device is stored in a memory element associated with the trust group.

5. The wearable electronic device of claim 4, wherein the memory element includes a mapping between a device identifier of the smart device and a shared secret used to secure the wireless connection.

6. The wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the logic is configured to:

receive other input data indicative of other biometric input, wherein the communication includes the other input data.

7. The wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the logic is configured to:

not send the communication to unlock the smart device when the input data is not successfully authenticated.

8. The wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the logic is further configured to:

send an authentication result to the smart device, wherein the authentication result indicates whether the input data was successfully authenticated.

9. The wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the biometric sensor includes a voice sensor, wherein the logic is configured to authenticate the input data based on verifying a voice trigger in the input data and verifying a voice represented by the input data corresponds to a voice of the authorized user.

10. The wearable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the biometric sensor includes one of a voice sensor, a fingerprint sensor, an eye sensor, and a hand sensor.

11. At least one computer readable storage medium comprising instructions for a wearable electronic device that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

receive input data indicative of biometric input;

attempt to authenticate the input data based, at least in part, on at least one biometric credential of an authorized user;

establish a wireless connection to a smart device;

determine whether the smart device is included in a trust group of one or more smart devices; and

send a communication to unlock the smart device when the input data is successfully authenticated and when the trust group includes the smart device.

12. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 11, comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

receive the at least one biometric credential of the authorized user from one of the smart device and a cloud.

13. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

receive other input data indicative of user input to access an application or service on the smart device; and

send the other input data to the smart device.

14. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein a type of the user input is distinct from a type of the biometric input.

15. A method for a wearable electronic device, comprising:

receiving input data indicative of biometric input;

attempting to authenticate the input data based, at least in part, on at least one biometric credential of an authorized user;

establishing a wireless connection to a smart device;

determining whether the smart device is included in a trust group of one or more smart devices; and

sending a communication to unlock the smart device when the input data is successfully authenticated and when the trust group includes the smart device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving the at least one biometric credential of the authorized user from one of the smart device and a cloud.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the smart device is determined to be included in the trust group when information uniquely identifying the smart device is stored in a memory element associated with the trust group.

18. At least one computer readable storage medium comprising instructions for a smart device that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

generate at least one biometric credential of a user;

send the at least one biometric credential to a wearable electronic device;

receive, on the smart device, a communication;

determine identity information of a sender of the communication; and

unlock the smart device when the identity information indicates the sender is the wearable electronic device.

19. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the identity information includes a device identifier corresponding to the sender and a shared secret associated with a wireless connection between the smart device and the sender.

20. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

determine, prior to receiving the communication, identity information of the wearable electronic device; and

store the identity information of the wearable electronic device.

21. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

compare the identity information of the sender to the stored identity information of the wearable electronic device to determine whether the sender is the wearable electronic device.

22. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the at least one biometric credential is based on a biometric characteristic of the user, the biometric characteristic including one of a voice, a fingerprint, an eye, facial features, and hand features.

23. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the communication includes a command to enable voice recognition by the smart device, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

receive a subsequent communication from the wearable electronic device that includes voice input data.

24. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to provide the voice input data to a personal assistant application on the smart device.

25. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

receive an authentication result indicating whether an authentication of input data indicative of biometric input by a user was successful; and

allow selective access to applications and services on the smart device based on the authentication result.