Devices and methods for transferring data through a human body

• US 8,908,894 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2011
• Issued: 12/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Amento, Brian, Li, Kevin Ansia, Purdy, Kermit Hal, Stead, Larry
• Primary Examiner(s): Ni, Suhan
• Application Number:
  US13/309,124
• Publication Number:
  US 20130142363A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,104 Days
• Field of Search: 381/312, 381315-316, 381/326, 381/151, 381/380, 455 40- 41, 455/95, 455/100, 455/106, 340/333, 379/55.1, 341/33
• US Class Current: 381/326
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 13/005 Transmission systems in which the medium consists of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 1/00 Secret communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• 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: H04R 2460/13 Hearing devices using bone conduction transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/554 using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/00 Circuits for transducers , loudspeakers or microphones

Abstract

An illustrative method for transferring data to a device includes identifying the data that is to be transferred to the device, modulating the data with a signal, providing the signal to a contact microphone that is in physical contact with an individual, and transmitting the signal through a body of the individual to the device using the contact microphone. An illustrative method for authenticating the individual includes transmitting a signal through a body of the individual in response to the individual physically contacting an authentication device, receiving a modified signal including the signal as modified by the body of the individual, removing the signal from the modified signal to identify a unique body signature of the individual, comparing the unique body signature to a database to determine if the database includes the unique body signature, and selectively authenticating the individual based upon whether the database includes the unique body signature.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

modulating, by a first device, an authentication credential with a signal;

providing, by the first device, the signal to an electro-acoustic transducer that is in physical contact with an individual; and

causing, by the first device, the electro-acoustic transducer to transmit the signal through a bone of a body of the individual to a second device with which the individual is also in physical contact, so that the second device can authenticate the individual for access to the second device based upon the authentication credential.

2. The method of claim 1, the second device comprises a door entry mechanism, the door entry mechanism requiring the authentication credential for access thereto.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein causing, by the first device, the electro-acoustic transducer to transmit the signal through the body of the individual to the second device comprises causing, by the first device, the electro-acoustic transducer to transmit the signal along a skin of the body of the individual to the second device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein causing, by the first device, the electro-acoustic transducer to transmit the signal through the bone of the body of the individual to the second device comprises causing, by the first device, the electro-acoustic transducer to transmit a first portion of the signal through the bone of the body of the individual to the second device and a second portion of the signal along a skin of the body of the individual to the second device, and wherein the electro-acoustic transducer is a contact microphone.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second device comprises a computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein providing, by the first device, the signal to the electro-acoustic transducer comprises providing, by the first device, the signal to the electro-acoustic transducer that is in physical contact with the individual automatically in response to the physical contact without additional input.

7. A method comprising:

in response to an individual touching a sensor associated with an authentication device, transmitting, by the sensor associated with the authentication device, a signal through a body of the individual;

receiving, by the sensor associated with the authentication device, a modified signal from the body of the individual, the modified signal comprising the signal as modified by the body of the individual;

identifying, by the authentication device, a unique body signature of the individual by removing the signal from the modified signal;

comparing, by the authentication device, the unique body signature of the individual to a plurality of unique body signatures stored in a database to determine if the database comprises the unique body signature;

if the authentication device determines that the database comprises the unique body signature, authenticating, by the authentication device, the individual; and

if the authentication device determines that the database does not comprise the unique body signature, denying authentication of the individual.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the sensor comprises a contact microphone.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein transmitting, by the contact microphone associated with authentication device, the signal through the body of the individual comprises transmitting, by the contact microphone associated with the authentication device, the signal through a bone of the individual.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein transmitting, by the contact microphone of the authentication device, the signal through the bone of the individual comprises transmitting, by the contact microphone of the authentication device, a first portion of the signal through the bone of the individual, and further comprising transmitting, by a skin conductance sensor, a second portion of the signal along a surface of a skin of the body of the individual.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising, prior to transmitting the signal through the body of the individual:

transmitting, by the sensor of the authentication device, a unique body signature creation signal through the body of the individual;

retrieving, by the sensor of the authentication device, the unique body signature from the unique body signature creation signal after the unique body signature creation signal is transmitted through the body of the individual; and

storing the unique body signature of the individual in the database.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the database is stored in one of the following:

a local memory of the authentication device and a remote memory accessible by the authentication device.

13. An authentication device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising

in response to an individual touching a sensor associated with the authentication device, causing the sensor associated with the authentication device to transmit a signal through a body of the individual,

receiving a modified signal from the body of the individual, the modified signal comprising the signal as modified by the body of the individual,

identifying a unique body signature of the individual by removing the signal from the modified signal,

comparing the unique body signature of the individual to a plurality of unique body signatures stored in a database to determine if the database comprises the unique body signature,

if the database comprises the unique body signature, authenticating the individual, and

if the database does not comprise the unique body signature, denying authentication of the individual.

14. The authentication device of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises the database storing the plurality of unique body signatures.

15. The authentication device of claim 13, wherein the sensor comprises a contact microphone that transmits the signal through a bone of the body of the individual in response to physical contact from the individual.

16. The authentication device of claim 13, wherein the sensor comprises a contact microphone that transmits the signal through a bone of the body of the individual and along a skin of the body of the individual in response to physical contact from the individual.

17. The authentication device of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise, prior to transmitting the signal through the body of the individual:

transmitting a unique body signature creation signal through the body of the individual;

retrieving the unique body signature from the unique body signature creation signal after the unique body signature creation signal is transmitted through the body of the individual; and

storing the unique body signature of the individual in the database.

18. The authentication device of claim 13, wherein the authentication device is built-in to a door entry mechanism.

19. The authentication device of claim 13, wherein the authentication device is built-in to an entry point.