Retrieving/authorizing content on user equipment based on information from connectable accessory with NFC circuit

• US 9,312,921 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2014
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nambord, Magnus, Hansson, Emil
• Primary Examiner(s): Sobutka, Philip
• Application Number:
  US14/461,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20150244421A1
• Time in Patent Office: 603 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 7/00 Loop antennas with a substantially uniform current distribution around the loop and having a directional radiation pattern in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the loop
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/70 involving the reduction of electric, magnetic or electromagnetic leakage fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/70 specially adapted for specific purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication

Abstract

An accessory for a user equipment (UE) is disclosed that includes a housing configured to be connected to the UE and accessory near field communication (NFC) circuit attached to the housing. The accessory NFC circuit includes an antenna, a charging circuit, and a transceiver circuit. The antenna is configured to inductively couple to signals emitted by a UE NFC circuit within the UE. The charging circuit is configured to output power provided by the inductive coupling through the antenna to the signals emitted by the UE NFC circuit. The transceiver circuit is configured to be powered by the charging circuit to transmit information to the UE NFC circuit that will be used by the UE to retrieve content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE. Related UEs and methods are disclosed.

Claims

1. An accessory for a user equipment (UE), the accessory comprising:

a housing configured to connect to the UE; and

an accessory near field communication (NFC) circuit attached to the housing and comprising;

an antenna configured to inductively couple to signals emitted by a UE NFC circuit within the UE;

a charging circuit configured to output power provided by the inductive coupling through the antenna to the signals emitted by the UE NFC circuit;

a transceiver circuit configured to be powered by the charging circuit to transmit information to the UE NFC circuit that will be used by the UE to retrieve content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE; and

a counter configured to count power-on cycles of the accessory NFC circuit,

wherein the transceiver circuit is configured to select a universal resource locator (URL) address from among a group of URL addresses defined in the accessory NFC circuit based on the count and/or to select an activation code from among a group of activation codes defined in the accessory NFC circuit based on the count, and to transmit the selected URL address and/or the selected activation code to the UE NFC circuit for use by the UE to retrieve content stored on the content server and/or authorize use of content stored on the UE.

2. An accessory for a user equipment (UE), the accessory comprising:

a housing configured to connect to the UE; and

an accessory near field communication (NFC) circuit attached to the housing and comprising;

an antenna configured to inductively couple to signals emitted by a UE NFC circuit within the UE;

a charging circuit configured to output power provided by the inductive coupling through the antenna to the signals emitted by the UE NFC circuit;

a transceiver circuit configured to be powered by the charging circuit to transmit information to the UE NFC circuit that will be used by the UE to retrieve content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE; and

a counter configured to count power-on cycles of the accessory NFC circuit; and

wherein the transceiver circuit is configured to transmit a first universal resource locator (URL) address and/or to transmit a first activation code when the count satisfies a defined relationship to a threshold value, and to transmit a second URL address different from the first URL address and/or transmit a second activation code different from the first activation code when the count does not satisfy the defined relationship to the threshold value.

3. The accessory of claim 2, wherein:

the housing displays visible branding relating to an online retailer or business partner thereof; and

the transceiver circuit is configured to transmit the information to the UE NFC circuit which the UE can use to retrieve a discount coupon from the content server and/or to authorize use of a discount coupon stored on the UE for use during an online purchase from the online retailer.

4. An accessory for a user equipment (UE), the accessory comprising:

a housing configured to connect to the UE; and

an accessory near field communication (NFC) circuit attached to the housing and comprising;

an antenna configured to inductively couple to signals emitted by a UE NFC circuit within the UE;

a charging circuit configured to output power provided by the inductive coupling through the antenna to the signals emitted by the UE NFC circuit;

a transceiver circuit configured to be powered by the charging circuit to transmit information to the UE NFC circuit that will be used by the UE to retrieve content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE; and

a counter configured to count power-on cycles of the accessory NFC circuit; and

wherein the transceiver circuit is configured to transmit the information when the count satisfies a defined relationship to a threshold value and to prevent transmission of the information when the count does not satisfy the defined relationship to the threshold value.

5. The accessory of claim 4, wherein the housing forms a cover configured to protect a surface of the UE and/or forms a stand that supports and holds the UE in a defined orientation.

6. The accessory of claim 4, wherein:

the transceiver circuit is configured to transmit the information to the UE NFC circuit which contains a universal resource locator (URL) address that will be used by the UE to retrieve content stored on the content server at a location defined by the URL address.

7. The accessory of claim 6, wherein:

the accessory transceiver circuit is configured to transmit authorization information to the UE NFC circuit that can be relayed by the UE to the content server to confirm that the UE is authorized to obtain the content.

8. The accessory of claim 7, wherein:

the authorization information comprises an accessory specific identifier (ID) that is unique from other accessory NFC circuits and can be relayed by the UE to the content server to confirm that the UE is authorized to obtain the content.

9. The accessory of claim 4, wherein:

the transceiver circuit is configured to transmit the information which contains an accessory specific identifier (ID) to the UE NFC circuit to authorize use of content stored on the UE.

10. The accessory of claim 4, wherein:

the antenna is configured to inductively couple to signals emitted by a point-of-sale NFC circuit within a point-of-sale terminal; and

the transceiver circuit is configured to receive and store the information from the point-of-sale NFC circuit for subsequent transmittal to the UE.

11. An accessory for a user equipment (UE), the accessory comprising:

a housing configured to connect to the UE; and

an accessory near field communication (NFC) circuit attached to the housing and comprising;

an antenna configured to inductively couple to signals emitted by a UE NFC circuit within the UE;

a charging circuit configured to output power provided by the inductive coupling through the antenna to the signals emitted by the UE NFC circuit;

a transceiver circuit configured to be powered by the charging circuit to transmit information to the UE NFC circuit that will be used by the UE to retrieve content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE; and

a counter configured to count a number of different UEs that have powered the accessory NFC circuit to obtain information transmitted by the transmitter; and

wherein the transceiver circuit is configured to select a universal resource locator (URL) address from among a group of URL addresses based on the count and/or to select an activation code from among a group of activation codes based on the count, and to transmit the selected URL address and/or the selected activation code to the UE NFC circuit that will be used by the UE to retrieve content stored on the content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE.

12. An accessory for a user equipment (UE), the accessory comprising:

a housing configured to connect to the UE; and

an accessory near field communication (NFC) circuit attached to the housing and comprising;

an antenna configured to inductively couple to signals emitted by a UE NFC circuit within the UE;

a charging circuit configured to output power provided by the inductive coupling through the antenna to the signals emitted by the UE NFC circuit;

a transceiver circuit configured to be powered by the charging circuit to transmit information to the UE NFC circuit that will be used by the UE to retrieve content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE; and

a counter configured to count a number of different UEs that have powered the accessory UE to obtain information transmitted by the transmitter,

wherein the transceiver circuit is configured to transmit a first universal resource locator (URL) address and/or to transmit a first activation code when the count satisfies a defined relationship to a threshold value, and to transmit a second URL address different from the first URL address and/or to transmit a second activation code different from the first activation code when the count does not satisfy the defined relationship to the threshold value.

13. An accessory for a user equipment (UE), the accessory comprising:

a housing configured to connect to the UE; and

an accessory near field communication (NFC) circuit attached to the housing and comprising;

an antenna configured to inductively couple to signals emitted by a UE NFC circuit within the UE;

a charging circuit configured to output power provided by the inductive coupling through the antenna to the signals emitted by the UE NFC circuit;

a transceiver circuit configured to be powered by the charging circuit to transmit information to the UE NFC circuit that will be used by the UE to retrieve content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE; and

a counter configured to count a number of different UEs that have powered the accessory UE to obtain information transmitted by the transmitter,

wherein the transceiver circuit is configured to selectively transmit the information depending upon the count satisfying a defined relationship to a threshold value.

14. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

a UE near field communication (NFC) circuit configured to receive information from an accessory NFC circuit while providing power to the accessory NFC circuit through inductive coupling;

a network interface configured to communicate with a network node; and

a processor configured to use the information to receive through the network interface content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE, and to control operation of the UE responsive to the content,

wherein the processor is configured to count a number of different accessory NFC circuits that it has received information from, to select a universal resource locator (URL) address from among a group of URL addresses available in the UE based on the count, and to use the selected URL address to retrieve through the network interface content stored on the content server at a location defined by the URL address.

15. The UE of claim 14, wherein:

the information received by the UE NFC circuit from the accessory NFC circuit contains a universal resource locator (URL) address; and

the processor uses the URL address to retrieve content stored on the content server at a location defined by the URL address.

16. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

a UE near field communication (NFC) circuit configured to receive information from an accessory NFC circuit while providing power to the accessory NFC circuit through inductive coupling;

a network interface configured to communicate with a network node; and

a processor configured to use the information to retrieve through the network interface content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE, and to control operation of the UE responsive to the content,

wherein the processor is configured to count a number of different accessory NFC circuits that it has received information from, to select an activation code from among a group of activation codes available in the UE based on the count, and to use the selected activation code to authorize use of content stored on the UE.

17. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

a UE near field communication (NFC) circuit configured to receive information from an accessory NFC circuit while providing power to the accessory NFC circuit through inductive coupling;

a network interface configured to communicate with a network node; and

a processor configured to use the information to retrieve through the network interface content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE, and to control operation of the UE responsive to the content,

wherein the UE NFC circuit receives information from a plurality of different accessory NFC circuits; and

wherein the processor is configured to generate a URL address based on a combination of the information received from the plurality of different accessory NFC circuits, and to use the URL address to retrieve content stored on the content server at a location defined by the URL address.

18. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

a UE near field communication (NFC) circuit configured to receive information from an accessory NFC circuit while providing power to the accessory NFC circuit through inductive coupling;

a network interface configured to communicate with a network node; and

a processor configured to use the information to retrieve through the network interface content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE, and to control operation of the UE responsive to the content,

wherein the UE NFC circuit receives information from a plurality of different accessory NFC circuits; and

wherein the processor is configured to generate an activation code based on a combination of the information received from the plurality of different accessory NFC circuits, and to use the activation code to authorize use of content stored on the UE.

19. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

a UE near field communication (NFC) circuit configured to receive information from an accessory NFC circuit while providing power to the accessory NFC circuit through inductive coupling;

a network interface configured to communicate with a network node; and

a processor configured to use the information to retrieve through the network interface content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE, and to control operation of the UE responsive to the content,

wherein the processor is configured to count a number of different accessory NFC circuits that it has received information from, to prevent use of content stored on the UE responsive to the count not satisfying a defined relationship to a threshold value and to allow use of content stored on the UE responsive to the count satisfying the defined relationship to the threshold value.

20. The UE of claim 19, wherein:

the information received by the UE NFC circuit from the accessory NFC circuit contains an accessory specific identifier (ID); and

the processor uses the accessory specific ID to authorize use of content stored on the UE.

21. The UE of claim 20, wherein:

the processor revokes authorization of use of the content responsive to detecting an inability of the UE NFC circuit to communicate with the accessory NFC circuit.