High-speed application for installation on mobile devices for permitting remote configuration of such mobile devices

• US 9,848,277 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2015
• Issued: 12/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Britton, Douglas, Wesie, Andrew Michael, Pak, Brian Sejoon
• Primary Examiner(s): DEAN, JR, JOSEPH E
• Application Number:
  US14/729,927
• Publication Number:
  US 20150350806A1
• Time in Patent Office: 930 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/10 Integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/35 Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/205 Transfer to or from user equipment or user record carrier

Abstract

The system and method include a high-speed application for installation on mobile devices to enable the configuration of an abstract number of devices simultaneously. The application includes the capability to configure smart devices remotely or via secure local connections. The system and method include a mechanism for creating desired configuration states, an interactive portal through which these configurations may be selected and modified, and an application for installation on each target device that retrieves the desired configuration and applies it to the mobile device before returning verification reports for confirmation and auditing purposes.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system for mobile device configuration comprising:

a mobile device that is capable of being configured and reconfigured that has downloaded thereon an application that permits the mobile device to be configured or reconfigured in an automated way through a wireless or wired connection to at least a portal device and a system server;

a computer-based configuration menu that is capable of being displayed on the portal device for creating configurations for at least one version of the mobile device, with the configuration menu including one or more configurations that a system user may associate with the at least one version of the mobile device;

a computer-based setting module menu that is accessed from the configuration menu that is capable of being displayed on the portal device for creating and editing settings for modules that are associated with at least one configuration being created on the configuration menu, with the setting module menu including at least an active module section and an available module section, and with the setting module menu being capable of adding modules from the available menu section to the active module section so such added modules will be included as part of the at least one configuration being created on the configuration menu and being capable of deleting modules from the active module section so that the deleted modules are not included as part of the at least one configuration being created on the configuration menu;

a computer-based individual setting module menu that is accessed from the setting module menu that is capable of being displayed on the portal device, with the individual setting module menu for editing settings for at least modules that are located in the active module section of the setting module;

a computer-based user menu that is accessed from at least the configuration menu that is capable of being displayed on the portal device, with the user menu for at least adding and deleting users from the system, with the user menu including at least a name of each user and a configuration status of the mobile devices associated with each user;

a computer-based mobile device menu that is accessed from at least the configuration menu that is capable of being displayed on the portal device, with the mobile device menu for at least editing device information for devices associated with each user indicated on the user menu; and

the system server that is accessed from at least the portal device, configuration menu, setting module menu, individual setting module menu, user menu, mobile device menu, and mobile device for storing the at least one configuration that was created and communicating the configuration that was created to the mobile device for configuring or reconfiguring the mobile device.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the mobile device includes a smart mobile device.

3. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the smart mobile device includes a smart phones, tablet devices, and personal digital assistants (“

PDAs”

).

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the configuration menu is capable of accessing the mobile device menu and the user menu.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the settings module menu is capable of accessing the configurations menu, the mobile device menu, and the user menu.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the individual settings module menu is capable of accessing the configurations menu, the mobile device menu, and the user menu.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein adding and deleting users includes adding and deleting users individually or adding and deleting two or more users simultaneously.

8. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein adding and deleting mobile device settings includes adding and deleting device settings individually or adding and deleting two more device settings simultaneously.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the portal device includes a computer-based device.

10. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein the portal device includes a computer including at least a processor, an input/output system, memory, and bus system interconnecting as the computer elements.

11. A computer-implemented method for verifying a configuration of a mobile device, comprising the steps of:

(A) a mobile device downloading from a remote storage location an

application for conducting configurations and reconfigurations of the mobile device;

(B) the mobile device receiving from a system server a configuration for the mobile device that has been created and stored on the system sever, with the mobile device checking at least a cryptographic signature of the configuration to determine a validity of the configuration, and if the cryptographic signature is valid, then step (C);

(C) the mobile device running the application downloaded at step (A) with the configuration, and running the application with configuration including the substeps of,

(1) parsing the configuration to provide setting modules of the configuration and the personalized data associated with each setting module, and

(2) executing each setting module and storing results of the execution of each setting module in a predetermined storage location;

(D) the application constructing configuration results from the results stored in the predetermined storage location, with the configuration results indicating if each of the setting modules has been applied correctly to the mobile device;

(E) the mobile device transmitting the configuration results constructed at step (D) to the system server;

(F) the system server validating an authenticity of the configuration results, and if valid, the system server storing the configuration results for reporting to a remote computing system and transmitting the configuration results to a portal device for use in verifying the configuration of the mobile device.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the configuration includes at least bundled and cryptographically signed instructions and personalized data.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein if the cryptographic signature is invalid at step (B), then the mobile device displaying on its display screen at least that no configuration is available and deleting the downloaded setting modules of the configuration and the personalized data associated with each setting module.

14. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein executing the setting modules in substep (C)(2) includes executing the setting modules in a predetermined order.

15. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the predetermined storage location at substep (C)(2) includes an artifact store.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein setting modules that use an application programming interface (“

API”

) to apply setting to the mobile device store the results directly to the artifact store.

17. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein setting modules that apply setting to the mobile device through at least touch events applies the setting using simulated human interaction with the mobile device and logs such changes through a screenshot that is saved in system server as well as the results in the artifact store.