Contactless data transfer systems and methods

• US 9,960,820 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2013
• Issued: 05/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Molex LLC (KOCH Industries Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Keyssa, Inc.
• Inventors: McCormack, Gary D., Isaac, Roger D
• Primary Examiner(s): Jia, Xin
• Application Number:
  US13/848,735
• Publication Number:
  US 20130217336A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,866 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/00 Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field H04B10/00, H04B15/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/085 involving hierarchical organized mobility servers, e.g. hierarchical mobile IP [HMIP]

Abstract

Data may be transferred from a communication subsystem of a first device to a communication subsystem of a second device contactlessly, at high speed, and without intervention by host processors of either device. Devices may be programmed or personalized at the factory or warehouse, and may personalized at a warehouse or at a point of sale while in the box. Various modes of operation and use scenarios are described. Portions of the devices themselves, or a transmission path between the devices may be shielded against snooping by a material which degrades an EHF signal passing therethrough.

Claims

1. A method of data transfer, the method comprising:

while a host processor of a second device is in a powered-off or low-power state, the second device performs;

detecting a beacon sent by a first device;

establishing an extremely high frequency (EHF) contactless link between the second device and the first device in response to detecting the beacon;

receiving data from the first device via the contactless link;

storing the data in an exchange storage of the second device, the exchange storage separate from a primary storage of the second device;

powering up the host processor from the powered-off or low-power state to a powered-on state;

validating, by the host processor in the powered-on state, the data in the exchange storage; and

transferring the data from the exchange storage to the primary storage after the data is validated.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying the host processor upon completion of the data transfer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the data being transferred is selected from the group consisting of a media file, DRM protected content, an OS update, customer specific code, OEM specific code, retail specific code, a firmware image for the second device, user data, static data, encryption/decryption keys, and electronic funds transfer (EFT) data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the second device is enclosed inside of packaging.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the contactless communication between the first and second devices occurs through the packaging.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

providing a dielectric coupler in the packaging to facilitate the contactless link between the first and second devices.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a dielectric coupler extending from at least one of the first and second devices to facilitate the contactless link between the first and second devices.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the first device, pausing transmission of the data stream at periodic intervals; and

during the intervals, from the second device transmitting data to the first device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

covering at least one of portions of the devices or a transmission path between the devices with a material selected for its ability to degrade an EHF signal passing through the material.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the contactless link is the only contactless link established between a first communication subsystem of the first device and a second communication subsystem of the second device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting an encryption code from the second device to the first device during a pause in the receiving of the data from the first device.