Personal assistance safety systems and methods

• US 9,112,700 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2014
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: HTI IP LLC (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Link, Charles M. II
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, MAHENDRA R
• Application Number:
  US14/306,130
• Publication Number:
  US 20140294180A1
• Time in Patent Office: 428 Days
• Field of Search: 455/575.9, 455/407, 455/456.3, 455/411, 455/410, 455/41.2, 370/338, 713/156, 380/575.9, 380/407, 380/456.3, 380/411, 380/410, 380/41.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/30 Public key, i.e. encryption algorithm being computationally infeasible to invert or user's encryption keys not requiring secrecy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3297 involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/61 Time-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

Disclosed are methods and systems related to a Personal Assistance Safety System. In one aspect, disclosed are methods and systems for vehicle communications comprising an antenna selecting unit configured to select an antenna according to an antenna selection strategy and a first antenna switch coupled to the antenna selecting unit configured to direct communications through the selected antenna.

Claims

1. A method for one-way authentication of a first communication device with a second communication device comprising:

a. receiving at the first communication device a real-time time based value from a device remote from the first and second communication devices;

b. combining into a composite message the time based value and message content;

c. applying a cryptographic algorithm to the composite message to produce a message signature of the message content and the time based value;

d. transmitting the message content, the time based value, and the message signature with the first communication device;

wherein the time based value indicates an approximate time the first communication device transmits the message content such that the message signature is unique for separate transmissions of the same message content;

wherein the cryptographic algorithm is a hash function; and

wherein the time based value is to be used by the second communication device for determining whether the time-based value precedes a current time of the second communication device more than a predetermined increment of time and wherein the second communication device is intended to discard the received message if the first communication device transmitted the message more than the predetermined increment of time before the current time of the second communication device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating a time based value comprises determining the time based value at a predetermined time interval.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the predetermined time interval is fifteen minutes.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the time based value is obtained from a GPS signal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the time based value is rounded to a predetermined increment of time.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising repeating steps a-b once per predetermined increment of time.

7. The method claim 5, wherein the predetermined increment of time is fifteen minutes.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the second communication device is a telematics device.

8. An apparatus for communication authentication comprising:

a clock source;

a memory;

a processor, coupled to the clock source, configured for;

a. generating a real-time time based value from the clock source,

b. combining into a composite message the time based value and message content;

c. applying a cryptographic algorithm to the composite message to produce a message signature of the message content and the time based value;

d. transmitting the message content, the time based value, and the message signature with the apparatus;

wherein the time based value indicates an approximate time the first apparatus transmits the message content such that the message signature is unique for separate transmissions of the same message content;

a wireless transceiver, coupled to the processor, configured for transmitting a message that includes the message content, message signature, and the time based value;

wherein the cryptographic algorithm is a hash function; and

wherein the time based value is to be used by the second communication device for determining whether the time-based value precedes a current time of the second communication device more than a predetermined increment of time and wherein the second communication device is intended to discard the received message if the first communication device transmitted the message more than the predetermined increment of time before the current time of the second communication device.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to determine the time based value at a predetermined time interval.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the predetermined time interval is fifteen minutes.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the clock source comprises a GPS signal generated by a device remote from the apparatus.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the time based value is rounded to a predetermined increment of time.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, the processor is configured to repeat steps a-b once per predetermined increment of time.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the predetermined increment of time is fifteen minutes.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the wireless transceiver is configured for transmitting a SMS message with the signature.

16. A method for one-way authentication of a first communication device with a second communication device comprising:

receiving a message with a second communication device, wherein a first communication device;

a. generated a real-time time based value from a signal generated by a device remote from the first and second communication devices;

b. combined into a composite message the time based value and message content;

c. applied a cryptographic algorithm to the composite message to produce a message signature of the message content and the time based value;

d. transmitted the message content, message signature, and the time-based value in the message; and

wherein the time based value indicates an approximate time the first communication device transmitted the message content and also ensures that the message signature is unique for separate transmissions of the same message content

comparing, with the second communication device, the time-based value from the message with a current time of the second communication device;

determining, with the second communication device, whether the time-based value extracted from the message precedes the current time of the second communication device more than a predetermined increment of time; and

discarding, with the second communication device, the message if the first communication device transmitted the message more than the predetermined increment of time before the current time of the second communication device;

applying the cryptographic algorithm to the composite message;

comparing a result of applying the cryptographic algorithm to the composite message with the message signature,

discarding the message if the result of the cryptographic algorithm does not match the message signature; and

wherein the cryptographic algorithm is a hash function.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising authenticating the message received from the first communication device if the result of the step of applying the cryptographic algorithm to the composite message matches the message signature of the message.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the second communication device is a telematics device.