Apparatus and method for secure transport using internet of things (IoT) devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11694149-B2
Application number	US-201916663180-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2019
Priority date	Oct 24, 2019
Publication date	Jul 4, 2023
Grant date	Jul 4, 2023

Abstract

A system and method are described for ensuring that a product has been transported in acceptable environmental conditions. For example, one embodiment of the invention comprises: one or more sensors to measure environmental conditions during transport of the IoT device from an origin location to a destination location; a sensor interface coupled to the one or more sensors to communicate environmental values associated with the environmental conditions; a storage device to store monitor application program code; a processor coupled to the sensor interface and storage device, the processor to process the monitor application program code to perform operations based on the environmental values including storing the environmental values on the storage device; and a wireless communication interface to connect to an Internet of Things (IoT) service at one or more intermediate locations between the origin location and the destination location and/or at the destination location, the wireless communication interface to transmit the environmental values and/or event data associated with the environmental values to the IoT service; wherein the IoT service is to provide the environmental values and/or event data associated with the environmental values to one or more apps running on one or more client devices, the one or more apps associated with one or more accounts on the IoT service.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An Internet of Things (IoT) device comprising:
one or more sensors to measure environmental conditions during transport of the IoT device from an origin location to a destination location;
a sensor interface coupled to the one or more sensors to convert environmental values associated with the environmental conditions from a first measurement unit in which the environmental values are measured by the one or more sensors to a second measurement unit used by a monitoring application, and to communicate the environmental values in the second measurement unit to the monitoring application;
a storage device to store monitor application program code;
a processor coupled to the sensor interface and storage device, the processor to process the monitor application program code to perform operations of the monitoring application based on the environmental values, the operations including determining whether one or more of the environmental values are outside of one or more corresponding value ranges for at least a specified period of time and responsively recording one or more events as event data on the storage device to indicate that the one or more of the environmental values are outside of the one or more corresponding value ranges for at least the specified period of time, and determining that a first plurality of environmental values is outside of a first corresponding value range and responsively calculating and recording an average differential between the first plurality of the environmental values and the first corresponding value range in the storage device as additional event data, wherein the environmental values, the event data, and the additional event data are securely stored in the storage device to prevent tampering; and
a wireless communication interface to connect to an Internet of Things (IoT) service at one or more intermediate locations between the origin location and the destination location and/or at the destination location, the wireless communication interface to transmit the environmental values, the event data associated with the environmental values, and/or the additional event data to the IoT service;
wherein the IoT service is to provide the environmental values and event data associated with the environmental values to one or more apps running on one or more client devices, the one or more apps associated with one or more accounts on the IoT service.

2. The IoT device of claim 1 wherein the event data is to further include temporal data indicating an amount of time that the one or more environmental values are outside of the corresponding value ranges.

3. The IoT device of claim 1 wherein the environmental values comprise one or more of: temperature values provided by temperature sensors, humidity values provided by humidity sensors, vibration or mechanical shock values provided by accelerometers, and radio-frequency (RF) values provided by RF detectors.

4. The IoT device of claim 1 wherein the one or more apps comprise program code to evaluate the environmental values and/or event data associated with the environmental values to determine whether a product shipped with the IoT device has been exposed to harmful environmental conditions during transport.

5. The IoT device of claim 4 wherein determining whether the product shipped with the IoT device has been exposed to harmful environmental conditions comprises determining whether one or more of the environmental values are outside of one or more corresponding value ranges for a period of time.

6. The IoT device of claim 1 wherein the wireless communication interface is to connect to the IoT service by establishing a local wireless connection to the one or more client devices connected to the IoT service.

7. A method comprising:
including an IoT device with a product to be transported;
measuring environmental values via sensors coupled to the IoT device during transport of the product;
converting, via a sensor interface coupled to the sensors, environmental values associated with the environmental conditions from a first measurement unit in which the environmental values are measured by the sensors to a second measurement unit used by a monitoring application;
communicating the environmental values in the second measurement unit to the monitoring application;
executing monitoring application program code by a processor of the IoT device to perform operations of the monitoring application, the operations comprising:
evaluating the environmental values based on specified environmental value ranges associated with product and responsively generating event data indicating that the one or more of the environmental values are outside of the one or more specified environmental value ranges for at least a specified period of time;
determining that a first plurality of environmental values is outside of a first corresponding value range and responsively calculating an average differential between the first plurality of the environmental values and the first corresponding value range as additional event data;

securely storing the environmental values, the event data, and the additional event data on a storage device of the IoT device to prevent tampering;
transmitting, via a wireless communication interface of the IoT device, the environmental values, the event data, and/or the additional event data from the IoT device to an IoT service; and
generating a notification that the product has been compromised on one or more apps running on one or more client devices if one or more of the environmental values are determined to be outside of the specified environmental value ranges for at least the specified period of time during transport of the product, the one or more apps associated with one or more accounts on the IoT service.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the event data is to further include temporal data indicating an amount of time that the one or more environmental values are outside of the corresponding value ranges.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the environmental values comprise one or more of: temperature values provided by temperature sensors, humidity values provided by humidity sensors, vibration or mechanical shock values provided by accelerometers, and radio-frequency (RF) values provided by RF detectors.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the one or more apps comprise program code to evaluate the environmental values and/or event data associated with the environmental values to determine whether the product shipped with the IoT device has been compromised.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein determining whether the product shipped with the IoT device has been compromised comprises determining whether one or more of the environmental values are outside of one or more corresponding environmental ranges for a period of time.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the IoT device is to connect to the IoT service by establishing a local wireless connection to the one or more client devices connected to the IoT service.

13. A system comprising:
an Internet of Things (IoT) device comprising:
one or more sensors to measure environmental conditions during transport of the IoT device from an origin location to a destination location,
a sensor interface coupled to the one or more sensors to convert environmental values associated with the environmental conditions from a first measurement unit in which the environmental values are measured by the one or more sensors to a second measurement unit used by a monitoring application, and to communicate the environmental values in the second measurement unit to the monitoring application,
a storage device to store

Assignees

• Afero Inc

Inventors

• Bartlett Scott

Classifications

• G06Q10/087

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06Q10/0833

  Tracking · CPC title

• G06Q10/0832 Primary

  Special goods or special handling procedures, e.g. handling of hazardous or fragile goods · CPC title

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• G06Q10/083

  Shipping · CPC title