Security token, control system and control method

• US 9,396,593 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2014
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: Suwald, Thomas, Burghardt, Arne
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehmood, Jennifer
• Assistant Examiner(s): Casillashernandez, Omar
• Application Number:
  US14/187,283
• Publication Number:
  US 20150137942A1
• Time in Patent Office: 877 Days
• Field of Search: 340 51- 583, 70/46, 257/679, 726/20
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0718 the sensor being of the biometric kind, e.g. fingerprint sensors fingerprint sensors in general G06V40/13; biometric access-control systems in general, see G07C9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/072 the record carrier comprising a plurality of integrated circuit chips
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0723 the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07703 the interface being visual
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07707 the visual interface being a display, e.g. LCD or electronic ink
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/20 involving the use of a pass
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/247 electronically, e.g. by comparing signal of hand-writing with a reference signal from the pass
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0833 Card having specific functional components
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system

Abstract

According to an aspect of the invention, a security token is conceived, in particular a smart card, comprising a tactile sensing user interface, wherein said tactile sensing user interface is adapted to capture a stream of authentication data corresponding to a sequence of positions of a finger engaging with said tactile sensing user interface and representing a user-specific credential for accessing at least one function of a controllable object, said security token being adapted to transmit said stream of authentication data to the controllable object in order to access said function.

Claims

1. A smart card comprising:

a two-dimensional tactile sensing user interface; and

a near-field communication (NFC) interface;

wherein said two-dimensional tactile sensing user interface is adapted to capture a stream of authentication data corresponding to a first sequence of positions of a finger engaging with said two-dimensional tactile sensing user interface and representing a user-specific credential for accessing a function of a controllable object, said smart card being adapted to transmit said stream of authentication data to the controllable object via said NFC interface in order to access said function; and

wherein said two-dimensional tactile sensing user interface is further adapted to capture a stream of control data corresponding to a second sequence of positions of the finger engaging with said two-dimensional tactile sensing user interface after said function is accessed and representing input data for controlling said function of the controllable object, said smart card being adapted to transmit said stream of control data to the controllable object via said NFC interface in order to control said function.

2. The smart card as claimed in claim 1, further being adapted to support multi-factor user authentication.

3. The smart card as claimed in claim 1, the smart card further comprising a storage unit, wherein said storage unit is adapted to store access rights for accessing said function and/or control rights for controlling said function.

4. The smart card as claimed in claim 3, wherein the access rights and/or control rights are written to the smart card via the NFC interface by an NFC-enabled mobile device.

5. The smart card as claimed in claim 3, wherein the access rights and/or control rights are written to the smart card by a contactless reader or a contact-bound reader.

6. The smart card as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user-specific credential is a personal identification number.

7. The smart card as claimed in claim 1, further being adapted to generate user feedback about control operations performed on said function.

8. The smart card as claimed in claim 1, further being adapted to transmit display data to an external display device, the display data representing a log of control operations performed on said function.

9. The smart card as claimed in claim 1, further being adapted to facilitate epidemic data transport between a plurality of controllable objects.

10. A control system comprising the smart card as claimed in claim 1 and the controllable object, wherein the controllable object is adapted to receive the stream of authentication data, to verify the user-specific credential represented by said stream of authentication data, and to grant the smart card access to said function upon or after successful verification of the user-specific credential.

11. The control system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the controllable object is further adapted to send configuration data to the smart card upon or after successful verification of the user-specific credential, and wherein the smart card is further adapted to configure the two-dimensional tactile sensing user interface using said configuration data.

12. The control system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the controllable object is further adapted to send a log of control operations performed on said function to the smart card.

13. The control system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the controllable object is one of the group of:

a room entrance, a building entrance, a machine, a device, a vehicle, a vessel, a software application.

14. A control method, wherein a two-dimensional tactile sensing user interface comprised in a smart card captures a stream of authentication data corresponding to a first sequence of positions of a finger engaging with said two-dimensional tactile sensing user interface and representing a user-specific credential for accessing a function of a controllable object, and wherein the smart card transmits said stream of authentication data to the controllable object via a near-field communication (NFC) interface in order to access said function, and wherein said smart card captures a stream of control data corresponding to a second sequence of positions of the finger engaging with said two-dimensional tactile sensing user interface after said function is accessed and representing input data for controlling said function of the controllable object, wherein the smart card transmits said stream of control data to the controllable object via said NFC interface in order to control said function.