Method and system to check an electronic metrological measurement instrument

• US 7,974,734 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2003
• Issued: 07/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wayne Fueling Systems LLC (Dover Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Dresser Incorporated (Nagano Keiki Company Limited)
• Inventors: Spagnolatti, Mirko, Della Fonte, Giorgio, Pera, Raffaele
• Primary Examiner(s): Korzuch; William
• Assistant Examiner(s): WRIGHT, BRYAN F
• Application Number:
  US10/534,679
• Publication Number:
  US 20060266245A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,791 Days
• Field of Search: 713/175
• US Class Current: 700/231
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 15/007 comprising means to prevent fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 25/10 of flowmeters
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0855 involving a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3821 Electronic credentials
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 13/02 by volume
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty

Abstract

Control system of an electronic instrument for metrological measurements, comprising an electronic local processing unit including a handling application of said instrument. The system includes a control application for said handling application, which can be associated with said local processing unit, said control application being suitable for generating a univocal certification code for the application.

Claims

1. A control system of an electronic instrument device for metrological measurements, comprising:

a handling application operable to control the electronic instrument device;

at least one dynamic library associated with the handling application, the handling application operable to identify, through the dynamic library, one or more remote electronic instrument devices in a network of electronic instrument devices including the electronic instrument device through corresponding certification codes uniquely associated with each of the one or more remote electronic instrument devices; and

a control application activated through the dynamic library and operable to verify integrity of said handling application, said control application operable to generate a certification code for the handling application in response to verifying that the integrity of the handling application is maintained;

wherein the control application is operable to acquire through a network information associated with one or more remote electronic instrument devices having corresponding handling applications, generate corresponding dynamic libraries on the one or more remote electronic instrument devices comprising the information, and authenticate the one or more remote electronic instrument devices using the corresponding certification codes by the corresponding handling applications of the units through the corresponding dynamic libraries.

2. The control system according to claim 1, wherein said code is associated with a stamp comprising an issuing date of said stamp, a reference code of the electronic instrument device for metrological measurements, and a barcode corresponding to said code.

3. The control system according to claim 1, wherein said control application and said handling application are communicably coupled via the network.

4. The control system according to claim 1, wherein said dynamic library is locally stored.

5. The control system according to claim 1, wherein said dynamic library is situated in said central processing unit.

6. The control system according to claim 1, wherein said certification code is obtained using a cryptography algorithm.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further operable to generate an alert in response to determining a violation of the integrity of the handling application.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the violation comprises an unregistered modification of the handling application.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further operable to prevent the handling application from operating in response to determining the violation.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further operable to verify whether a certification associated with the handling application is valid.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the certification is verified using a digital signature.

7. A method for monitoring an electronic instrument device for metrological measurements, comprising:

a processor operable for receiving information associated with a handling application for the electronic instrument device and locally stored, the handling application operable to control the instrument;

issuing a certification code associated with the handling application based on the information and operable to indicate that integrity of the handling application has been maintained;

identifying, by the handling application through one or more dynamic libraries associated with the handling application, one or more remote electronic instrument devices in a network of a plurality of electronic instrument devices including the instrument through corresponding certification codes uniquely associated with each of the one or more remote electronic instrument devices;

acquiring through a network, data associated with one or more remote electronic instrument devices having corresponding handling applications, generating corresponding dynamic libraries on the one or more remote electronic instrument devices comprising the data, and authenticating the one or more remote electronic instrument devices using the corresponding certification codes by the corresponding handling applications of the units through the corresponding dynamic libraries.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein producing a code includes processing said information using a cryptography algorithm.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the received information comprises an authenticity certificate of the handling application.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the received information comprises an acknowledgment code of said electronic instrument device.

16. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining a violation of the integrity of the handling application; and

generating an alert in response to the violation.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising preventing the handling application from operating in response to determining the violation.

18. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining that a certification associated with the handling application is invalid; and

generating an alert in response to the determining the invalidity.

19. The method of claim 7, further comprising generating a stamp indicating that the integrity of the handling application is verified.

20. The method of claim 7, wherein the information is received at the start of the handling application.

21. The method of claim 7, wherein the cryptography algorithm comprises one of a Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) hashing algorithm or an RSA hashing algorithm.