Secure NFC forwarding from a mobile terminal through an electronic accessory

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10740746-B2
Application number	US-201414515811-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 16, 2014
Priority date	Sep 9, 2014
Publication date	Aug 11, 2020
Grant date	Aug 11, 2020

Abstract

A mobile terminal that includes a processor, a NFC circuit, a wireless network circuit. The processor executes a payment application in a memory to generate transaction data relating to a financial transaction. The NFC circuit receives the transaction data and encrypts the transaction data to output NFC encrypted transaction data. The wireless network circuit establishes a wireless network link with an accessory device that is separate from the mobile terminal, encrypts the NFC encrypted transaction data to output combined wireless network+NFC encrypted transaction data, and transmits the combined wireless network+NFC encrypted transaction data through the Bluetooth link to the accessory device for relay to a financial transaction terminal. Related accessory devices are disclosed for proxy encrypted data between the mobile terminal and a financial transaction terminal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A mobile terminal comprising:
a processor configured to execute an application in a memory to generate transaction data;
a NFC circuit configured to:
receive the transaction data responsive to the processor executing the application; and
encrypt the transaction data to output NFC encrypted transaction data;

a wireless network circuit configured to:
establish a wireless network link with an accessory device, wherein the accessory device is separate from the mobile terminal;
encrypt the NFC encrypted transaction data to output combined wireless network+NFC encrypted transaction data; and
transmit the combined wireless network+NFC encrypted transaction data through the wireless network link to the accessory device for relay to another NFC enabled communication device,

wherein the NFC circuit comprises a first NFC circuit, wherein the wireless network link comprises a Bluetooth link, and wherein the wireless network circuit comprises a Bluetooth circuit configured to:
receive encrypted transaction response data via the Bluetooth link from the accessory device that is encrypted by a second NFC circuit of the another NFC enabled communication device with a NFC encryption and is further encrypted by a Bluetooth circuit of the accessory device with a Bluetooth encryption; and
decrypt the encrypted transaction response data to remove the Bluetooth encryption while leaving the NFC encryption to output NFC encrypted transaction response data; and

wherein the first NFC circuit is further configured to:
decrypt the NFC encrypted transaction response data to remove the NFC encryption to generate transaction response data; and
output the transaction response data for use by the application.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1 , wherein the wireless network link comprises a Bluetooth link, and wherein the wireless network circuit comprises a Bluetooth circuit configured to:
establish the Bluetooth link to the accessory device;
encrypt the NFC encrypted transaction data to output combined Bluetooth+NFC encrypted transaction data; and
transmit the combined Bluetooth+NFC encrypted transaction data through the Bluetooth link to the accessory device for relay to the another NFC enabled communication device.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to command the accessory device to proxy communications between the mobile terminal and the another NFC enabled communication device.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 3 ,
wherein the wireless network link comprises a Bluetooth link, and
wherein the processor is further configured to command the accessory device to forward a first data received via the Bluetooth link from the mobile terminal to the another NFC enabled communication device via a NFC link between the accessory device and the another NFC enabled communication device, and to forward a second data received via the NFC link from the another NFC enabled communication device to the mobile terminal via the Bluetooth link.

5. The mobile terminal of claim 4 , wherein the processor is further configured to command the accessory device to not perform NFC encryption of the first data received via the Bluetooth link from the mobile terminal before transmission via the NFC link to the another NFC enabled communication device.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 1 , wherein the wireless network link comprises a Bluetooth link, and wherein the wireless network circuit comprises a Bluetooth circuit configured to transmit combined Bluetooth+NFC encrypted transaction data by performing operations comprising:
converting the combined Bluetooth+NFC encrypted transaction data to a Bluetooth analog signal;
modulating the Bluetooth analog signal with a Bluetooth carrier signal to generate a Bluetooth output signal; and
transmitting the Bluetooth output signal via a Bluetooth antenna through the Bluetooth link to the accessory device.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 6 , wherein
the NFC circuit is further configured to:
convert the NFC encrypted transaction data to an NFC analog signal;
modulate the NFC analog signal with an NFC carrier signal to generate an NFC output signal; and
transmit the NFC output signal via an NFC antenna through a NFC link while the Bluetooth output signal is being transmitted by the Bluetooth circuit through the Bluetooth link to the accessory device.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 1 , wherein the wireless network circuit comprises a Bluetooth circuit, and wherein:
the NFC circuit is further configured to output the NFC encrypted transaction data as a digital serial stream to the Bluetooth circuit.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 1 , wherein the NFC circuit is configured to be selectively disabled from transmitting the NFC encrypted transaction data through an NFC antenna.

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Boivie Victor

Classifications

• H04L9/50

  using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees · CPC title

• G06Q20/321

  using wearable devices · CPC title

• G06Q20/326

  Payment applications installed on the mobile devices · CPC title

• G06Q20/327

  Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices · CPC title

• G06Q20/20

  Point-of-sale [POS] network systems · CPC title