System and method for the display of restricted information on private displays

• US 9,536,106 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2014
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: DR Systems Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Fram, Evan K.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHEN, SHIN HON
• Application Number:
  US14/509,721
• Publication Number:
  US 20150101066A1
• Time in Patent Office: 818 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/032 Protect output to user by software means
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a system and method for restricting data, or portions thereof, to specific display devices when accessed by a user. Furthermore, the system and method of the invention are directed, in part, to evaluating in real time, the access level of a device and restricting the availability of sensitive information on the device according to the access level as determined by device location and hardware configuration.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for selectively displaying a dataset having an access restriction level on a display device, the method comprising:

by a computing system comprising one or more computer processors configured to execute software instructions;

receiving, from a remote display device, a request for a dataset, wherein the dataset is associated with an access restriction level;

receiving data indicative of a hardware configuration of the remote display device, wherein the hardware configuration includes one or more display characteristics of the remote display device;

determining, based at least in part on the hardware configuration of the remote display device, an access restriction level of the remote display device;

making a comparison of the access restriction level of the remote display device and the access restriction level of the dataset;

in response to the comparison, communicating the dataset to the remote display device;

causing the remote display device to display the dataset;

monitoring the hardware configuration of the remote display device;

dynamically updating the access restriction level of the remote display device in response to a change in the hardware configuration; and

in response to the dynamically updating and further in response to a second comparison indicating that the updated access restriction level of the remote display device is less than the access restriction level associated with the dataset, not communicating dataset to the remote display device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the computing system comprising one or more computer processors configured to execute software instructions;

authenticating a user of the remote display device; and

updating the access restriction level of the remote display device in response to authenticating the user.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the access restriction level of the remote display device comprises:

by the computing system comprising one or more computer processors configured to execute software instructions;

determining the access restriction level of the remote display device based at least in part on a display screen size of the remote display device.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the access restriction level of the remote display device comprises:

by the computing system comprising one or more computer processors configured to execute software instructions;

determining, based at least in part on a location of the remote display device, the access restriction level of the remote display device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the dataset comprises an audio feature and a visual feature, and wherein the computer-implemented method further comprises:

by the computing system comprising one or more computer processors configured to execute software instructions;

monitoring an audio configuration of the remote display device; and

in response to determining that the audio configuration of the remote display device indicates that the remote display device is not configured to output the audio feature through a private audio device, not communicating the audio feature to the remote display device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the dataset comprises a first visual feature and second visual feature, wherein the first visual feature has a different access restriction level from the second visual feature.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the communicating further comprises:

by the computing system comprising one or more computer processors configured to execute software instructions;

transmitting, to the remote display device, only features of the dataset which have an access restriction level that satisfy the access restriction level of the remote display device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

by the computing system comprising one or more computer processors configured to execute software instructions;

transmitting the first visual feature to a first display device having first access restriction level; and

transmitting the second visual feature to a second display device having a second access restriction level.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the computing system comprising one or more computer processors configured to execute software instructions comprising;

receiving input data from the remote display device when the access restriction level of the remote display device satisfies a threshold; and

updating the dataset to include the input data.

10. A computer-implemented method for selectively displaying information having a specified privacy level on a display device, the method comprising, by one or more processors configured to execute software instructions:

receiving, from the display device, a request to access a data object from a database, the data object comprising a visual feature and an audio feature;

determining an access restriction status for the visual feature of the data object;

determining an access restriction status for the audio feature of the data object;

determining a display restriction level for the display device;

determining an audio restriction level for the display device based on the display device having an audio hardware configuration to output audio through a private audio device;

causing display of the visual feature on the display device when the display restriction level of the device satisfies requirements of the access restriction status for the visual feature;

causing playback of the audio feature through the private audio device when the audio restriction level satisfies requirements of the access restriction status for the audio feature;

determining that the audio hardware configuration of display device has changed to no longer output audio through the private audio listening device; and

in response to the determining that the audio hardware configuration of the display device has changed, denying the display device from accessing the audio feature.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising, by the one or more processors configured to execute software instructions:

monitoring the hardware configuration of the display device;

dynamically updating the display restriction level in response to a change in a size of a display of the display device; and

updating display of the visual feature on the display device in response to the change in the size of the display.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising, by the one or more processors configured to execute software instructions:

denying the display device from access to a second visual feature based on the display restriction level of the display device not satisfying a required access restriction status for the second visual feature; and

causing the display of the first visual feature and the second visual feature on a second display device based on the a display restriction level of the second display device satisfying the access restriction status for the first visual feature and also satisfying the access restriction status for the second visual feature, wherein the second display device has a smaller display size than the display device.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising, by the one or more processors configured to execute software instructions, registering the display device and the second display device to a user.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising, by the one or more processors configured to execute software instructions:

receiving user input data from the display device when the display restriction level of the display device is satisfies a pre-set threshold; and

causing the input data to update a dataset stored on the memory of the computer system.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations for affecting action in response to a determination that data in a digital file is restricted from being displayed on a display device based on the display device configuration, the operations comprising:

accessing a digital file having at least one display data component;

applying an algorithm that calculates a restriction value of the data component of the digital file;

accessing a first display device configuration of a first display device and assigning a first display value to the first display device based on display characteristics of the first display device;

authenticating a user'"'"'s access of the first display device;

restricting a display of at least one data component through the first display device based on a comparison of the restriction value and first display value;

accessing a second display device configuration of a second display device and assigning a second display value to the second display device based on display characteristics of the second display device;

authenticating the user'"'"'s access of the second display device; and

providing the at least one data component to a second display device based on a comparison of the restriction value and second display value.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the algorithm for calculating the restriction value includes accessing, from a data restriction database, values corresponding to data restriction categories.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

writing data into the digital file, wherein ability to write data is restricted to devices satisfying a preset threshold minimum display value.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the first display device configuration includes a display screen size of the first display device, and wherein the second display device configuration includes a display screen size of the second display device.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the display screen size of the second display device is smaller than the display screen size of the first display device.