Authenticating a user of a system using near field communication

• US 8,321,922 B1
• Filed: 09/26/2011
• Issued: 11/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lo, Yung-Chieh, Wu, Vincent, Hsieh, Cheng-Hsueh Andrew, Chen, Chinyue
• Primary Examiner(s): Gergiso, Techane
• Application Number:
  US13/245,764
• Time in Patent Office: 428 Days
• Field of Search: 726/7, 713/168, 455/411
• US Class Current: 726/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/35 communicating wirelessly
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/43 wireless channels
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/327 Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/36 using electronic wallets or electronic money safes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• 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 9/3226 using a predetermined code, e.g. password, passphrase or PIN network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using passwords in a packet data network H04L63/083
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/04 including near field communication means, e.g. RFID
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 using certificates or pre-shared keys
• 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

Abstract

A system and machine-implemented method for providing a username and password to a system using a device, via establishing a near field communication link with the system; retrieving a username and password from storage on the device; and transmitting the username and password to the system via the near field communication link, wherein the username and password are configured to be used by the system to authenticate the user on the system.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for providing a username and password to a system apparatus using a personal device, the method comprising:

receiving, at a near field communication (NFC) interface of the personal device, a message from the system apparatus;

providing, in response to receiving the message, for the NFC interface of the personal device to awaken;

establishing, in response to awakening the NFC interface, an NFC link with the system apparatus via the NFC interface of the personal device, wherein the establishing comprises performing an initiation handshake with the system apparatus, exchanging device profile information with the system apparatus following the initiation handshake, and authenticating the system apparatus based on the exchanged device profile information;

receiving, at the personal device, an indication of a request for manual input for a username and password on the system apparatus;

retrieving, in response to the received indication of the request and instead of manual input from a user, the username and password from storage on the personal device;

encrypting the username and password; and

transmitting, by the personal device, the encrypted username and password to the system apparatus via the NFC link,

wherein the username and password are used for logging the user into the system apparatus.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

terminating the NFC link with the system apparatus.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the username and password are configured to be used by the system apparatus to log the user into the system apparatus for at least one of a network connected to the system apparatus, a web page session on the system apparatus, and a credit card transaction on the system apparatus.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the username and password are configured to be used by the system apparatus to log the user into a library system, the library system being associated with books embedded with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags for identification by the library system, with each RFID tag being configured to communicate identification information for a respective book to the personal device.

5. A personal device for providing a username and password for user login on a system apparatus, the personal device comprising:

one or more processors; and

a machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, at a near field communication (NFC) interface of the personal device, a message from the system apparatus;

providing, in response to receiving the message, for the NFC interface of the personal device to awaken;

establishing, in response to awakening the NFC interface, an NFC link with the system apparatus via the NFC interface of the personal device, wherein the establishing comprises performing an initiation handshake with the system apparatus, exchanging device profile information with the system apparatus following the initiation handshake, and authenticating the system apparatus based on the exchanged device profile information;

receiving, at the personal device, an indication of a request for manual input for a username and password on the system apparatus;

retrieving, in response to the received indication of the request and instead of manual input from a user, the username and password from storage on the personal device;

encrypting the username and password; and

transmitting, by the personal device, the encrypted username and password to the system apparatus via the NFC link,

wherein the username and password are used for logging the user into the system apparatus.

6. The personal device of claim 5, wherein the username and password are configured to be used by the system apparatus to log the user into the system apparatus for at least one of a network connected to the system apparatus, a web page session on the system apparatus, and a credit card transaction on the system apparatus.

7. The personal device of claim 5, wherein the username and password are configured to be used by the system apparatus to log the user into a library system, the library system being associated with books embedded with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags for identification by the library system, with each RFID tag being configured to communicate identification information for a respective book to the personal device.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a personal device, cause the personal device to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a near field communication (NFC) interface of the personal device, a message from the system apparatus;

providing, in response to receiving the message, for the NFC interface of the personal device to awaken;

establishing, in response to awakening the NFC interface, an NFC link with the system apparatus via the NFC interface of the personal device, wherein the establishing comprises performing an initiation handshake with the system apparatus, exchanging device profile information with the system apparatus following the initiation handshake, and authenticating the system apparatus based on the exchanged device profile information;

receiving, at the personal device, an indication of a request for manual input for a username and password on the system apparatus;

retrieving, in response to the received indication of the request and instead of manual input from a user, the username and password from storage on the personal device;

encrypting the username and password; and

transmitting, by the personal device, the encrypted username and password to the system apparatus via the NFC link,

wherein the username and password are used for logging the user into the system apparatus.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the username and password are configured to be used by the system apparatus to log the user into the system apparatus for at least one of a network connected to the system apparatus, a web page session on the system apparatus, and a credit card transaction on the system apparatus.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the username and password are configured to be used by the system apparatus to log the user into a library system, the library system being associated with books embedded with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags for identification by the library system, with each RFID tag being configured to communicate identification information for a respective book to the personal device.

11. A machine-implemented method for performing user login on a system apparatus, the method comprising:

transmitting a message to a personal device, to awaken a near field communication (NFC) interface of the personal device;

establishing, in response to awakening the NFC interface of the personal device, an NFC link with the personal device via the NFC interface of the personal device, wherein the establishing comprises performing an initiation handshake with the personal device, exchanging device profile information with the personal device following the initiation handshake, and authenticating the personal device based on the exchanged device profile information;

transmitting, by the system apparatus, an indication of a request for manual input for a username and password to the personal device;

receiving, by the system apparatus and instead of manual input from a user, a stored version of the username and password from the personal device via the NFC link, wherein the received username and password are encrypted; and

performing user login on the system apparatus using the stored version of the username and password received via the NFC link.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

terminating the NFC link with the personal device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the performing step performs user login on the system apparatus for at least one of a network connected to the system apparatus, a web page session on the system apparatus, and a credit card transaction on the system apparatus.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the performing step performs user login on a library system, the library system being associated with books embedded with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags for identification by the library system, with each RFID tag being configured to communicate identification information for a respective book to the personal device.