Ultrasonic-wave communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9529071-B2
Application number	US-201314648295-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 27, 2013
Priority date	Dec 28, 2012
Publication date	Dec 27, 2016
Grant date	Dec 27, 2016

Abstract

Provided is an ultrasonic-wave communication system where the influence of ambient noise and the Doppler effect are suppressed and where a user of a portable terminal is prevented from hearing unwanted sound. After performing encryption processing of store information, a beacon 5 placed in a salesroom 3 sends out store-information-containing beacon information of one channel as ultrasonic waves into the salesroom 3 by combining a control carrier, a first carrier, and a second carrier in such a way that a first carrier signal and a second carrier signal are output between control carrier signals a number of times according to the store information and that a state where the first carrier signal and/or the second carrier signal is output is maintained.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An ultrasonic-wave communication system performing communication using ultrasonic waves, the ultrasonic-wave communication system comprising:
a beacon configured to emit ultrasonic waves;
a portable terminal configured to receive the ultrasonic waves; and
a server configured to communicate with the portable terminal, wherein:
the beacon is further configured to:
emit three or more signal carriers predetermined as frequencies different from each other;
output a data signal formed by the three or more signal carriers according to predetermined information; and
emit a dummy signal to supplement changes in sound pressure during outputting the data signal so that the sound pressure output from the beacon is within a predetermined range;

the portable terminal comprises:
a microphone;
a demodulation processing unit configured to perform demodulation processing to demodulate the three or more signal carriers by analyzing frequencies or wavelengths of the ultrasonic waves transmitted from the beacon upon the reception of the ultrasonic waves; and
a decryption processing unit configured to perform decryption processing to decrypt the predetermined information based on the data signal recognized by the demodulation processing;

the beacon comprises:
a first clock unit;
a first storage unit configured to hold data of a first encryption key random number table by which an encryption key according to clock time of the first clock unit is determined by a predetermined logic;
an encryption processing unit configured to encrypt the predetermined information by a first encryption key determined according to the first encryption key random number table; and
an encryption key access prohibiting unit configured to prohibit access to the first encryption key random number table from units other than the encryption processing unit;

the beacon is further configured to generate the data signal by using the encrypted predetermined information;
the server comprises:
a second clock unit configured to have clock time to be same as the clock time of the first clock unit; and
a second storage unit configured to hold data of a second encryption key random number table having a same configuration as the first encryption random number table; and

the server is configured to recognize the predetermined information by decrypting an encrypted data, when receiving the encrypted data encrypted by the first encryption key from the portable terminal, by using a second encryption key obtained by applying the clock time of the second clock unit at receiving the encrypted data to the second encryption key random number table.

2. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein the beacon is further configured to output the data signal formed by the signal carriers a predetermined number of times between predetermined control signals that is formed by one or more of the three or more signal carriers.

3. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein, in a case where n is a number of signal carriers set in the beacon, the number of signal carriers simultaneously output from the beacon is one or more and less than n.

4. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the ultrasonic-wave communication system comprises a plurality of the beacons;
a combination of the three or more signal carriers is individually assigned to each beacon with frequency settings being different from each other;
each beacon is configured to generate beacon information of one channel based on the assigned combination, and send out the beacon information as an ultrasonic wave; and
the demodulation processing unit of the portable terminal is further configured to receive the beacon information suitable for frequency characteristics of the microphone among the beacon information of the ultrasonic wave sent from the respective beacons, and perform demodulation processing for the received beacon information.

5. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the beacon is further configured to generate the beacon information of one channel made by combining the three or more signal carriers by a plurality of channels with the frequencies thereof different from each other, and send out the beacon information of the plurality of channels by ultrasonic waves; and
the demodulation processing unit of the portable terminal is further configured to receive the beacon information of a channel suitable for the frequency characteristics of the microphone of the portable terminal among the beacon information of the ultrasonic waves of the plurality of channels sent from the beacon, and perform the demodulation processing for the received beacon information.

6. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the portable terminal comprises a unit configured to acquire Internet information from a server through the Internet, and a unit configured to output the acquired Internet information as ultrasonic waves from a speaker; and
the beacon comprises a microphone and a unit configured to acquire the Internet information provided from the server via the portable terminal by receiving the Internet information of the ultrasonic waves output from the speaker of the portable terminal via the microphone.

7. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 6 , wherein:
the plurality of beacons are arranged in specific zones;
the beacon that acquired the Internet information from the server via the portable terminal is configured to output the Internet information by ultrasonic waves from the speaker; and
other beacons are configured to receive the Internet information by the ultrasonic waves through the microphones, by which the Internet information is transmitted between the plurality of beacons.

8. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , further comprising a third storage unit configured to store a predetermined number of data of the predetermined information with contents of the data different from each other,
wherein the beacon is further configured to acquire the data of the predetermined information with the contents different from each other from the third storage unit, and update the predetermined information used to generate the data signal when the number of times the data signal is sent out exceeds a predetermined number of times or when a period in which the data signal is sent out exceeds a predetermined period.

9. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein the beacon is further configured to generate the three or more signal carriers by performing amplitude modulation using signals indicating the predetermined information with respect to three or more carrier signals having frequencies outside an audible range.

10. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein a number of carrier signals simultaneously output from the three or more signal carriers is constant in the data signal.

11. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the beacon is further configured to generate the data signal by using encrypted predetermined information; and
the portable terminal is further configured to recognize the predetermined information by decrypting the encrypted predetermined information demodulated from the data signal received from the beacon.

12. A beacon used in an ultrasonic-wave communication system performing communication using ultrasonic waves between the beacon emitting ultrasonic waves and a portable terminal, wherein:
the beacon is configured to:
e

Assignees

• Rakuten Inc

Inventors

• Shibata Yo
• Takahashi Misato
• Sato Yuki

Classifications

• G01S1/75

  Transmitters · CPC title

• G01S1/725 Primary

  Marker, boundary, call-sign or like beacons transmitting signals not carrying directional information · CPC title

• H04L9/00

  {Cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic} arrangements for secret or secure communications; Network security protocols · CPC title

• H04L67/04

  specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability · CPC title

• H04B11/00

  Transmission systems employing ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves · CPC title