Temporal proximity to verify physical proximity

• US 8,352,582 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2001
• Issued: 01/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Media Content Protection LLC
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Epstein, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): TRUONG, LAN DAI T
• Application Number:
  US09/894,391
• Publication Number:
  US 20030005324A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,212 Days
• Field of Search: 380/200, 380/201, 369/47.12, 705/51, 705/59, 705/55, 705/52, 713/200, 709/223, 709/245, 709/201, 709/227
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• 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 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3271 using challenge-response

Abstract

A security system assesses the response time to requests for information to determine whether the responding system is in physical proximity to the requesting system. Generally, physical proximity corresponds to temporal proximity. If the response time indicates a substantial or abnormal lag between request and response, the system assumes that the lag is caused by the request and response having to travel a substantial or abnormal physical distance, or caused by the request being processed to generate a response, rather than being answered by an existing response in the physical possession of a user. If a substantial or abnormal lag is detected, the system is configured to limit subsequent access to protected material by the current user, and/or to notify security personnel of the abnormal response lag.

Claims

1. A security apparatus system comprising:

a verifier apparatus configured to determine an authorization to process protected material to facilitate an assessment of physical proximity of a source of a response based on an assessment of response times associated with one or more responses received from an unknown second source to one or more requests issued from a first source to the unknown second source;

a timer apparatus, operably coupled to the verifier apparatus, configured to measure response times between a request for content from a first source and a response from the unknown second source;

a memory to store the response times for limiting subsequent access of unauthorized users or notifying an external source of the unauthorized users;

wherein each of the one or more requests issued from the first source comprise a request for access to randomly selected source information from the unknown second source;

wherein the assessment of the response times forms an assessment of whether the one or more responses were communicated locally to the verifier apparatus or via a network connection; and

wherein the assessment of the one or more responses performed by the verifier apparatus comprises;

continuously requesting randomly selected source information from the unknown second source unit until a statistically observable difference from an expected response time of a local source is detected; and

wherein the one or more responses are stored for limiting subsequent access of the unauthorized users or notifying an external source of the unauthorized users.

2. The security apparatus system of claim 1, further comprising a renderer for receiving a plurality of data items corresponding to a data set, and for producing therefrom a rendering corresponding to a select data item.

3. The security apparatus system of claim 2, wherein the renderer is configured to preclude the rendering corresponding to the select data item in dependence upon whether other data items of the plurality of data items are available to the renderer.

4. The security apparatus system of claim 1, wherein the verifier apparatus precludes a rendering based at least in part on an assessment of the response times.

5. The security apparatus system of claim 1, wherein the assessment of the response times corresponds to a determination of whether the other data items are located in physical proximity to a renderer.

6. The security apparatus system of claim 1, wherein the verifier apparatus is configured to randomly select the other data items.

7. The security apparatus system of claim 1, wherein the verifier apparatus is configured to form the assessment based on at least one of:

an average of the response times, a comparison of the response times to one or more threshold times, and a statistical test based on the response times.

8. A method of verifying the authenticity of requested data, the method comprising:

transmitting one or more requests for randomly selected source content from a first source to an unknown second source;

recording, at the first source, response times associated with one or more responses received from the unknown second source to one or more requests issued from the first source to the unknown second source;

storing the assessment of the response times at the first source for limiting subsequent access of unauthorized users or notifying an external source of unauthorized users;

verifying by the first source, physical proximity of the unknown second source to determine whether the one or more responses were communicated locally to the first source based on an assessment of the response times associated with the one or more responses received from the unknown second source to determine an authorization to process protected material;

authorizing receipt of content from the unknown second source in the case where the physical proximity of the unknown second source is determined to be local to the first source;

denying receipt of content from the unknown second source when the physical proximity of the unknown second source is determined not to be local to the first source;

wherein the assessment of the one or more responses comprises;

continuously requesting said randomly selected content from the unknown second source until a statistically observable difference from an expected response time of a local source is detected.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the verifying step further comprises:

directing a renderer by a verifier module to request different data; and

determining by the verifier module that the different data is not available from the unknown second source.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the verifying step further comprises:

measuring response times from requests made by a rendering device to the unknown second source, wherein the response time is between a request from the rendering device and a response from the unknown second source;

assessing the response times to form an assessment of whether one or more responses were communicated locally to a verifier module or via a network connection.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more requests are for randomly selected source information from the unknown second source.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more requests are made until a statistically observable difference from an expected response time of a local source is detected.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising a step of storing the response times to either limit subsequent access by unauthorized users or notifying an external source of unauthorized users.