Method and device for recognizing a communicating mobile terminal

• US 9,088,347 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2013
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mobi Rider
• Original Assignee: Mobi Rider
• Inventors: Phan, Nghia
• Primary Examiner(s): FILE, ERIN M
• Application Number:
  US14/379,506
• Publication Number:
  US 20150055687A1
• Time in Patent Office: 873 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/707 using direct sequence modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 using certificates or pre-shared keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

Apparatus for identifying a communicating mobile terminal comprises an electromagnetic coupling device, an ultra-wide-band radio subsystem and a monitoring subsystem. The electromagnetic coupling device defines an exclusive zone for electromagnetic coupling between the device and the communicating mobile terminal, The ultra-wide-band radiofrequency subsystem simulates the availability to communicate with the mobile terminal of at least one base station of a telecommunication network. The monitoring subsystem recognizes a unique digital signature of the communicating mobile terminal implementing samples of an electromagnetic trace of a message sent by the mobile terminal in attempt to connect to a simulated base station.

Claims

1. Apparatus for identifying a communicating mobile terminal, comprising:

an electromagnetic coupling device defining an exclusive zone of electromagnetic coupling between the apparatus and the communicating mobile terminal;

an ultra-wide-band radio subsystem for simulating an availability to communicate with the mobile terminal of at least one base station of a telecommunication network; and

a monitoring subsystem for recognizing a unique digital signature of the communicating mobile terminal implementing samples of an electromagnetic trace of a message dispatched by the communicating mobile terminal in attempt to connect to a simulated base station.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the monitoring subsystem is configured to recognize the unique digital signature of the communicating mobile terminal which is independent of a subscriber identification card or data contained in the subscriber identification card.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic coupling device comprises a box for attenuating electromagnetic radiations, the ultra-wide-band radio subsystem communicating with the communicating mobile terminal situated in the box.

4. The device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a transmitter for transmitting minimessages to the communicating mobile terminal without using the telephone number of the communicating mobile terminal.

5. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the monitoring subsystem is configured to launch a software application previously installed on the communicating mobile terminal without using the telephone number of the communicating mobile terminal.

6. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the ultra-wide-band radio subsystem is configured to emit an ultra-wide signal which can be seen through various bandpass filters as a multitude of, predominantly identical, GSM beacon channels.

7. The device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an external antenna;

and

wherein the ultra-wide-band radio subsystem is configured to emit an ultra-wide signal in accordance with signals received by the external antenna to minimize an interference with an electromagnetic environment outside the device.

8. The device as claimed in claim 7, further comprising a receiver for identifying GSM beacon-pathways situated outside the device implementing a signal received by the antenna.

9. The device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a transmitter for broadcasting a random ultra-wide-band signal around 2100 Mhz, in the exclusive zone.

10. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a largest dimension of the exclusive zone is less than half a wavelength of electromagnetic signals implemented by the ultra-wide-band radio subsystem.

11. The device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a receiver for receiving a reference clock signal from a cellular telephone network; and

a transmitter for emitting an electromagnetic signal inside the exclusive zone, the signal being synchronized with the reference clock signal.

12. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein ultra-wide-band radio subsystem is configured to simultaneously emit signals having carriers simulating a plurality of base stations.

13. The device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a radio-electric subsystem for allocating a communication channel to the mobile terminal;

a receiver for receiving, on the allocated channel, a signal or message representative of a positioning update request in respect of the mobile terminal, the request being representative of at least one identifier of the mobile terminal; and

a supervision subsystem for extracting samples of the positioning update request signal to define a signature of the mobile terminal.

14. The device as claimed in claim 13, further comprising a transmitter for emitting a message on the communication channel to cause an item of information to be stored in the mobile terminal.

15. The device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the item of information stored in the mobile terminal depends on the identifier of the mobile terminal.

16. The device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the message emitted by the transmitter on the communication channel comprises an instruction to launch an application previously loaded on the mobile terminal.

17. The device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the transmitter for emitting the message on the communication channel is configured transmit a short message.

18. The device as claimed in claim 13, wherein the supervision subsystem is configured to extract samples representative of the positioning update request at predetermined instants at which the positioning update request represents an identifier of the mobile terminal.

19. The device as claimed in claim 1, which comprises:

a radio-electric subsystem for allocating a communication channel to the mobile terminal; and

a transmitter for emitting a message on the communication channel without decoding any positioning update message emitted by the mobile terminal.

20. A method for identifying a communicating mobile terminal, comprising the steps of:

electromagnetic coupling between an identifying apparatus and the communicating mobile terminal in an exclusive zone of electromagnetic coupling defined an electromagnetic coupling device of the identifying apparatus;

simulating an availability to communicate with the communicating mobile terminal of at least one base station of a telecommunication network by an ultra-wide-band subsystem of the identifying apparatus; and

recognizing, by a monitoring subsystem of the identifying apparatus, a unique digital signature of the communicating mobile terminal implementing samples of an electromagnetic trace of a message dispatched by the communicating mobile terminal in attempt to connect to a simulated base station.