Mobile terminal and information reading preventing method

• US 9,237,508 B2
• Filed: 02/18/2013
• Issued: 01/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamaguchi, Kumiko, Tanno, Tetsuhiro, Yoshikawa, Kunio, Akiyama, Tomohiro, Sasagawa, Tetsuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Simon
• Application Number:
  US14/129,842
• Publication Number:
  US 20140206283A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: 455 411- 413, 455410-411, 455/558
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/082 using revocation of authorisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/65 Environment-dependent, e.g. using captured environmental data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/02 Access restriction performed under specific conditions

Abstract

A mobile terminal capable of determining whether a near field communication source is a mobile terminal or not, and capable of appropriately restricting information reading in near field communication. The mobile terminal includes an antenna for near field communication and an RF part. The RF part includes an electromotive force measuring part which measures the electromotive force of a carrier wave received by the antenna, a communication permission/prohibition determining part which, when the measured electromotive force is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value, determines that the sender of the carrier wave is a mobile terminal and outputs a communication prohibition signal, and an RF controller which acquires the communication prohibition signal and locks the RF part.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising an antenna for near field communication and an RF part,

wherein the RF part comprises:

a communication type identifying part identifying, on a received packet-by-packet basis, a communication type of a carrier wave received by the antenna;

a communication permission/prohibition determining part that, when results of the packet-by-packet communication type identification are not the same for consecutive packets, determines that a sender of the carrier wave is a remote mobile terminal, and outputs a communication prohibition signal; and

an RF controller acquiring the communication prohibition signal and locking the RF part.

2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1,

wherein the RF part further comprises a flag, and

the flag stores a value of 1 when a user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to permit near field communication, and stores a value of 0 when the user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to prohibit near field communication;

and

when the flag is 0, the communication permission/prohibition determining part outputs a communication prohibition signal without making determination as to whether the sender of the carrier wave is the remote mobile terminal or not.

3. A mobile terminal comprising an antenna for near field communication and an RF part,

wherein the RF part comprises:

an electromotive force measuring part measuring an electromotive force of a carrier wave received by the antenna;

a communication type identifying part identifying, on a received packet-by-packet basis, a communication type of a carrier wave received by the antenna;

a communication permission/prohibition determining part that, when the measured electromotive force is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value and results of the packet-by-packet communication type identification are not the same for consecutive packets, determines that a sender of the carrier wave is a remote mobile terminal, and outputs a communication prohibition signal; and

an RF controller acquiring the communication prohibition signal and locking the RF part.

4. The mobile terminal according to claim 3,

wherein the RF part further comprises a flag, and

the flag stores a value of 1 when a user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to permit near field communication, and stores a value of 0 when the user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to prohibit near field communication;

and

when the flag is 0, the communication permission/prohibition determining part outputs a communication prohibition signal without making determination as to whether the sender of the carrier wave is the remote mobile terminal or not.

5. A mobile terminal comprising an antenna for near field communication and an RF part,

wherein the RF part comprises:

an electromotive force measuring part measuring an electromotive force of a carrier wave received by the antenna;

a communication permission/prohibition determining part that, when the measured electromotive force is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value, determines that a sender of the carrier wave is a remote mobile terminal, and outputs a communication prohibition signal;

an RF controller acquiring the communication prohibition signal and locking the RF part;

a flag that stores a value of 1 when a user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to permit near field communication, and stores a value of 0 when the user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to prohibit near field communication;

when the flag is 0, the communication permission/prohibition determining part outputs a communication prohibition signal without making determination as to whether the sender of the carrier wave is the remote mobile terminal or not;

the mobile terminal further comprising a terminal status management part, a table storage and a flag deciding part,

wherein the flag stores any one of values 2, 1 and 0 according to a user setting or to a flag decided on by the flag deciding part;

the terminal status management part acquires a state of the mobile terminal;

the table storage stores a table in which correspondence between a state of the mobile terminal and the flag is defined;

the flag deciding part refers to the table to decide between 1 and 2 as the flag corresponding to the acquired state of the mobile terminal when the flag is not 0, and changes the flag to the decided flag; and

the communication permission/prohibition determining part does not output a communication prohibition signal when the flag is 2.

6. An information reading preventing method using a mobile terminal comprising an antenna for near field communication and an RF part, the method comprising:

a communication type identifying step of identifying, on a received packet-by-packet basis, a communication type of a carrier wave received by the antenna;

a communication permission/prohibition determining step of, when results of the packet-by-packet communication type identification are not the same for consecutive packets, determining that a sender of the carrier wave is a remote mobile terminal and outputting a communication prohibition signal; and

an RF controlling step of acquiring the communication prohibition signal and locking the RF part.

7. The information reading preventing method according to claim 6, further comprising a flagging step of storing a value of 1 when a user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to permit near field communication, and storing a value of 0 when the user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to prohibit near field communication;

wherein, when the flag is 0, the communication permission/prohibition determining step outputs a communication prohibition signal without making determination as to whether the sender of the carrier wave is the remote mobile terminal or not.

8. An information reading preventing method using a mobile terminal comprising an antenna for near field communication and an RF part, the method comprising:

an electromotive force measuring step of measuring an electromotive force of a carrier wave received by the antenna;

a communication type identifying step of identifying, on a received packet-by-packet basis, a communication type of a carrier wave received by the antenna;

a communication permission/prohibition determining step of, when the measured electromotive force is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value and results of the packet-by-packet communication type identification are not the same for consecutive packets, determining that a sender of the carrier wave is a remote mobile terminal and outputting a communication prohibition signal; and

an RF controlling step of acquiring the communication prohibition signal and locking the RF part.

9. The information reading preventing method according to claim 8, further comprising a flagging step of storing a value of 1 when a user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to permit near field communication, and storing a value of 0 when the user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to prohibit near field communication;

wherein, when the flag is 0, the communication permission/prohibition determining step outputs a communication prohibition signal without making determination as to whether the sender of the carrier wave is the remote mobile terminal or not.

10. An information reading preventing method using a mobile terminal comprising an antenna for near field communication and an RF part, the method comprising:

an electromotive force measuring step of measuring an electromotive force of a carrier wave received by the antenna;

a communication permission/prohibition determining step of, when the measured electromotive force is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value, determining that a sender of the carrier wave is a remote mobile terminal and outputting a communication prohibition signal;

an RF controlling step of acquiring the communication prohibition signal and locking the RF part;

a flagging step of storing a value of 1 when a user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to permit near field communication, and storing a value of 0 when the user of the mobile terminal makes a setting to prohibit near field communication, wherein, when the flag is 0, the communication permission/prohibition determining step outputs a communication prohibition signal without making determination as to whether the sender of the carrier wave is the remote mobile terminal or not;

a terminal status managing step;

a table storing step;

a flag deciding step;

the flagging step stores any one of values 2, 1 and 0 according to a user setting or to a flag decided on by the flag deciding step;

the terminal status managing step acquires an a state of the mobile terminal;

the table storing step stores a table in which correspondence between a state of the mobile terminal and the flag is defined;

the flag deciding step refers to the table to decide between 1 and 2 as the flag corresponding to the acquired state of the mobile terminal when the flagging step stores a value that is not 0 and changing the flag to the decided flag; and

the communication permission/prohibition determining step does not output a communication prohibition signal when the flag is 2.