System for managing a digest of biographical information stored in a radio frequency identity chip coupled to a mobile communication device

• US 9,171,243 B1
• Filed: 04/04/2013
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Cordes, Kevin R., Paczkowski, Lyle W., Steele, Kenneth R., Loman, Clinton H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehmood, Jennifer
• Assistant Examiner(s): Terrell, Emily C
• Application Number:
  US13/857,138
• Time in Patent Office: 936 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.51, 340/5.8, 340/13.24, 340/854.8, 455/41.1, 455/41.2, 455/418, 455/419, 455/435.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07309 Means for preventing undesired reading or writing from or onto record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/30 Administration of product recycling or disposal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/00 Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers subscriber services or facilities provided at exchanges H04M3/00; prepayment telephone coin boxes H04M17/00; current supply arrangements H04M19/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/04 including near field communication means, e.g. RFID
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/065 Continuous authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/068 using credential vaults, e.g. password manager applications or one time password [OTP] applications
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 90/00 Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation

Abstract

A method of maintaining a biographical digest of information stored in a radio frequency identity chip communicatively coupled to a motherboard of a mobile communication device. The method comprises determining and writing inception information to the radio frequency identity chip once and preventing later modification of the inception information by a biographical digest software layer stored in a memory of the mobile communication device and executed by a processor of the device. The method further comprises determining and writing current information to the radio frequency identity chip by the biographical digest software layer in response to triggering events.

Claims

1. A method of maintaining a biographical digest of information stored in a radio frequency identity chip communicatively coupled to a motherboard of a mobile communication device, comprising:

determining, prior to activation of a wireless communication service for the mobile communication device, inception information about the inception of the mobile communication device by reading at least some information stored on a non-transitory memory of the mobile communication device;

encoding the inception information prior to writing to the radio frequency identity chip of the mobile communication device, wherein encoding the inception information is performed at least partly by executing the biographical digest software layer stored in a non-transitory memory of the mobile communication device and executed by at least one processor of the mobile communication device;

responsive to encoding the inception information, writing, by the biographical digest software layer, the inception information permanently into a static portion of the biographical digest of the radio frequency identity chip that is communicatively coupled to the motherboard of the mobile communication device, wherein writing the encoded inception information into the static portion is performed prior to permanently disabling write access by the biographical digest software layer;

after the writing of the inception information into the static portion of the biographical digest, permanently disabling, by the biographical digest software layer, write access to the static portion of the biographical digest;

in response to a triggering event, determining current information about the configuration of the mobile communication device by reading information stored inside the mobile communication device;

in response to the triggering event, determining, on the mobile communication device, a lifecycle event of the mobile communication device that is associated with the current information, wherein the lifecycle event comprises at least one of;

device inception, device activation, device branding, device rebranding, device return, device refurbish, or device termination;

encoding the current information about the configuration of the mobile communication device and the lifecycle event to log into a dynamic portion of the biographical digest, wherein encoding the current information and lifecycle event is performed by the biographical digest software layer; and

based on the encoding, writing the current information and the lifecycle event into the dynamic portion of the biographical digest of the radio frequency identity chip while write access to the static portion of the biographical digest is permanently disabled, wherein writing the encoded current information and lifecycle event into the dynamic portion is performed by the biographical digest software layer,

wherein the inception information comprises at least three of;

a federal communications commission (FCC) identity, a device model identity, an initial hardware version identity, a manufacturer identity, a country of manufacturing identity, a date of manufacture, an identity of a location of manufacture, an initial software version identity, an initial preferred roaming list (PRL) identity, an original stock keeping unit (SKU) number or identity, or an original universal product code (UPC), and

wherein the current information comprises at least three of;

a current software version identity, a current preferred roaming list identity, a current stock keeping unit identity or number, a current universal product code, a current device status, a communication subscription service activation date, a phone number, a current mobile equipment identity (MEID), a current international mobile station equipment identity, a current communication service provider identity, or a current communication service brand identity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the radio frequency identity chip is electrically connected to at least one of a data bus, an address bus, or a memory bus of the motherboard of the mobile communication device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering event is associated with shipping the mobile communication device out of an order fulfillment center.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a triggering event is generated periodically by one of the processor of the mobile communication device or the biographical digest software layer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a triggering event is generated by the processor in association with an update of a configuration of the mobile communication device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile communication device is one of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, or a tablet computer.

7. A method of performing a confidential transaction initiated from a mobile communication device coupled to a radio frequency identity (RFID) chip that stores a biographical digest of information, comprising:

receiving, by a near field communication (NFC) scanner coupling to the RFID chip, the biographical digest of information read from a static portion of the biographical digest of the RFID chip coupled to the mobile communication device;

receiving, from a server at a wireless communication service provider, a security key for at least the static portion, wherein the receiving is based on the mobile communication device being configured to establish a wireless link between the mobile communication device and a base transceiver station for use with the wireless communication service provider;

decrypting at least a part of the biographical digest based on using the security key to at least access the static portion;

determining that at least the decrypted part of the biographical digest of information correlates to identifying information associated with the mobile communication device;

responsive to the determining that the identifying information correlates, completing the confidential transaction initiated using the mobile communication device, wherein information about the confidential transaction and current information associated with a lifecycle event of the mobile communication device are written into a biographical digest in a dynamic portion of the RFID chip responsive to the confidential transaction,

wherein the biographical digest of information comprises inception information and current information, wherein the inception information is permanently preserved within the static portion that is maintained in a static state by a biographical digest software layer of the RFID chip associated with the mobile communication device, and wherein the current information is stored outside of the static portion and updateable by the biographical digest software layer of the mobile communication device,

wherein the inception information comprises at least three of;

a federal communications commission (FCC) identity, a device model identity, an initial hardware version identity, a manufacturer identity, a country of manufacturing identity (e.g., the identity of the country in which the device was manufactured), a date of manufacture, an identity of a location of manufacture, an initial software version identity, an initial preferred roaming list (PRL) identity, an original stock keeping unit (SKU) number or identity, or an original universal product code (UPC), and

wherein the current information comprises at least three of;

a current software version identity, a current preferred roaming list identity, a current stock keeping unit identity or number, a current universal product code, a current device status, a communication subscription service activation date, a phone number, a current mobile equipment identity (MEID), a current international mobile station equipment identity, a current communication service provider identity, or a current communication service brand identity.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the completing the confidential transaction is performed by a transaction server computer coupled to the server at the wireless communication service provider.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the confidential transaction is one of a credit card payment transaction, a debit card payment transaction, a gas card payment transaction, a cash withdrawal transaction, an account information access transaction, or a medical record access transaction.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the mobile communication device is one of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, or a tablet computer.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the security key is one of a checksum value, or a software security key.

12. A method of managing a lifecycle of a mobile communication device based on a biographical digest of information stored in a radio frequency identity chip communicatively coupled to a motherboard of the mobile communication device, comprising:

encoding current information about the configuration of the mobile communication device and a lifecycle event of the mobile communication device that is associated with the current information into the biographical digest, wherein encoding the current information and the lifecycle event is performed by a biographical digest software layer stored in a non-transitory memory of the mobile communication device and executed by at least one processor of the mobile communication device, wherein the current information comprises a current device status and at least two of a current software version identity, a current preferred roaming list identity, a current stock keeping unit identity or number, a current universal product code, a communication subscription service activation date, a phone number, a current mobile equipment identity (MEID), a current international mobile station equipment identity, a current communication service provider identity, and a current communication service brand identity;

based on the encoding, writing, by executing the biographical digest software layer that configures at least one processor of the mobile communication device, the current information and the lifecycle event only into a dynamic portion of the biographical digest of the radio frequency identity chip, wherein the current information is permanently prevented from being written into a static portion of the biographical digest of the radio frequency identity chip, and wherein the static portion comprises inception information written into the static portion only once prior to activation of wireless communication service;

detecting, on the mobile communication device, an end of lifecycle event by the biographical digest software layer;

in response to detecting the end of lifecycle event, setting the current device status in the dynamic portion of the biographical digest to a terminated status by the biographical digest software layer; and

based on the terminated status of the current device status, blocking access to a cellular radio transceiver of the mobile communication device to activate wireless communication service while the dynamic portion is set to the terminated status.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein blocking access prevents activation of wireless communication service with a provider while permitting access to the cellular radio transceiver of the mobile communication device for emergency services, wherein emergency services comprises at least in the case of a 911 call.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising

determining inception information about the inception of the mobile communication device by reading information stored inside the mobile communication device;

encoding the inception information, wherein encoding the inception information is performed by the biographical digest software layer;

writing the encoded inception information into the static portion of the biographical digest of the radio frequency identity chip that is communicatively coupled to the motherboard of the mobile communication device, wherein writing the encoded inception information into the static portion is performed by the biographical digest software layer;

wherein the inception information comprises at least three of;

a federal communications commission (FCC) identity, a device model identity, an initial hardware version identity, a manufacturer identity, a country of manufacturing identity (e.g., the identity of the country in which the device was manufactured), a date of manufacture, an identity of a location of manufacture, an initial software version identity, an initial preferred roaming list (PRL) identity, an original stock keeping unit (SKU) number or identity, or an original universal product code (UPC).

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the radio frequency identity chip is electrically connected to at least one of a data bus, an address bus, or a memory bus of the motherboard of the mobile communication device.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the mobile communication device is one of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, or a tablet computer.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the biographical digest software layer is configured to be unable to write to the current device status of the dynamic portion of the biographical digest responsive to the dynamic portion being set to the terminated status, wherein the terminated status is set at least by a value associated with termination.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein all write access to the radio frequency identity chip is mediated by the biographical software layer.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein all write access to the biographical digest information of the radio frequency identity chip is mediated by the biographical software layer.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein write access to the radio frequency identity chip exclusive of the biographical digest information is allowed to near field communication transceivers.