Privacy preserving monitoring

• US 10,863,139 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2015
• Issued: 12/08/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Mate, Sujeet Shyamsundar, Eronen, Antti
• Primary Examiner(s): Nawaz, Talha M
• Application Number:
  US15/754,791
• Publication Number:
  US 20180249125A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,919 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0476 Cameras to detect unsafe condition, e.g. video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

According to an example aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus (160, 170) comprising a receiver configured to receive anonymized sensor information, at least one processing core configured to convert the anonymized sensor information into personal sensor information based at least partly on personal information, and a memory interface configured to, under control of the at least one processing core, access the personal information.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a receiver configured to receive anonymized sensor information comprising an obfuscated skeletal model;

at least one processing core configured to convert the anonymized sensor information into personal sensor information by undoing obfuscation of the skeletal model to obtain a representation of a skeletal model of a person and by associating personal information with the anonymized sensor information based on a mapping, the mapping being based on at least one of;

a network address the anonymized sensor information is received from, a code received with the anonymized sensor information and a resolution of the anonymized sensor information, and wherein the personal information comprises at least one limb length information element, and converting the anonymized sensor information into personal sensor information comprises adjusting at least one limb length comprised in the anonymized sensor information into a limb length corresponding to the limb length information element, and/or the personal information comprises an encryption key, and converting the anonymized sensor information into personal sensor information comprises applying the encryption key to the anonymized sensor information to obtain information defining at least one joint position; and

a memory interface configured to, under control of the at least one processing core, access the personal information.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the personal information comprises at least one of the following:

metadata, a name of a natural person, an identifier of a natural person, a street address and an object identifier.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the object identifier comprises an identifier of a personal emergency alarm device.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resolution of the anonymized sensor information comprises at least one of a temporal resolution and an image resolution.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further configured to provide the personal sensor information to a user device.

6. An apparatus comprising:

a sensor interface configured to receive sensor information comprising a skeletal model of a person;

at least one processing core configured to convert the sensor information into anonymized sensor information by obfuscating the skeletal model of a person, at least in part, by replacing at least one limb length comprised in the skeletal model with another limb length, and/or by replacing at least one joint position comprised in the skeletal model with another joint position, wherein the anonymized sensor information comprises an obfuscated skeletal model, and by removing at least part of personal information from the sensor information, and

a transmitter configured to, under control of the at least one processing core, transmit the anonymized sensor information comprising the obfuscated skeletal model.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the at least one processing core is configured to furnish the anonymized sensor information with a set of joint positions in encrypted form.

8. A method comprising:

receiving sensor information comprising a skeletal model of a person;

converting the sensor information into anonymized sensor information by obfuscating the skeletal model of a person, at least in part, by replacing at least one limb length comprised in the skeletal model with another limb length, and/or by replacing at least one joint position comprised in the skeletal model with another joint position, wherein the anonymized sensor information comprises an obfuscated skeletal model, and by removing at least part of personal information from the sensor information, and

transmitting the anonymized sensor information.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the at least one processing core is configured to furnish the anonymized sensor information with a set of joint positions in encrypted form.