Search

EP-4055569-B1 - MOBILE DIGITAL LOCKING TECHNOLOGY

EP4055569B1EP 4055569 B1EP4055569 B1EP 4055569B1EP-4055569-B1

Inventors

  • PUKARI, MIKA

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20200923

Claims (16)

  1. A Digital Locking system, comprising a mobile station (200, 500, 800), a mobile station app (300, 600, 900), a cloud server (216, 816), and a self-powered lock (224, 524) configured to open and lock a door, characterized in that, - the mobile station app (300, 600, 900) is configured to authenticate the user of the mobile station (200, 500, 800) when the screen lock is unlocked and to remember the authentication of the user to the mobile station (200, 500, 800) for longer than the time it takes to activate the screen lock, - the mobile station app (300, 600, 900) is configured to submit a digital key of the user via NFC to the lock, without the user having to unlock the mobile station screen by reauthentication, thereby opening the lock.
  2. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that, the door and its lock is replaced by a padlock or a bicycle lock.
  3. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that, the operating power of the lock (224, 524) is transmitted to the lock (224, 524) by the mobile station's wireless power transmission device (206, 506) that may include any of NFC or Qi, and when the lock (224, 524) is powered, the short range wireless communication is established between the lock (224, 524) and the mobile station (200, 500, 800).
  4. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that, the user may send the digital key or a copy of the digital key to another person via electronic messaging, thereby authorizing the opening of the lock (224, 524) to this person.
  5. A system as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that, the electronic message is sent via the cellular communication network or via a short-range wireless communication connection.
  6. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that, an authentication time period is configured to extend to the time after the mobile station screen becomes locked.
  7. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that, the mobile station app (300, 600, 900) is configured to store multiple keys and keep security copies of the keys on the cloud account of the user on at least one cloud server (216, 810) or generate new keys.
  8. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that, the mobile station app (300, 600, 900) is configured to determine the location of the mobile station (200, 500, 800), and store the screen lock authentication at the stored location, and inside a pre-defined distance of the stored location permit multiple lock (224, 524) openings and closures from the same or multiple different locks without requesting the screen lock authentication.
  9. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that, the lock (224, 524) is touched with the mobile station (200, 500, 800) or the mobile station is brought within the operating range of NFC, which is below 5 centimeters, of the lock (224, 524) in order to open or close the lock.
  10. A system as claimed in claim 9, characterized in that, during the said single touch the mobile station app (300, 600, 900) uses the NFC power transmission device (206, 506) and communication connection to open the lock (224, 524) without a need for the user to retouch or provide a further approval for opening the lock, beyond the turning of the handle or the knob to open the latch in order to open the door.
  11. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that, the mobile station app (300, 600, 900) is configured to activate power transmission device (206, 506) to scan for nearby locks during said predefined period when the motion of the mobile station (200, 500, 800) is determined to stop based upon the gyroscope- or accelerometer readings of the mobile station.
  12. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that, the mobile station app (300, 600, 900) is configured to periodically activate the power transmission device (206, 506) to scan for nearby locks during said predefined period.
  13. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that, after a pre-defined time the lock (224, 524) is automatically locked using the electric power received from the mobile station (200, 500, 800) during the opening procedure and/or touch.
  14. The system of claim 1, wherein the user is authenticated with a screen lock authentication mechanism which may optionally use biometric identification.
  15. A Digital Locking software program product stored in a non-transient memory medium, configured to operate in system comprising a mobile station (200, 500, 800), a mobile station app (300, 600, 900), a cloud server (216, 810), and a self-powered lock (224, 524) configured to open and lock a door, characterized in that, - the mobile station app (300, 600, 900) is configured to authenticate the user of the mobile station (200, 500, 800) when the screen lock is unlocked and to remember the authentication of the user to the mobile station for longer than the time it takes to activate the screen lock, - the mobile station app (300, 600, 900) is configured to submit a digital key of the user via NFC to the lock, without the user having to unlock the mobile station screen by reauthentication, thereby opening the lock.
  16. The Digital Locking software program product of claim 15, wherein the user is authenticated with the screen lock authentication mechanism which may optionally use biometric identification.

Description

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The presently disclosed embodiments are generally related to digital locking technologies used in controlling the access of people into buildings and vehicles. More particularly the invention relates to methods and systems where a mobile phone is used to open doors of buildings and vehicles instead of a dedicated physical key. BACKGROUND Modern smartphones carry numerous software applications for performing different specialized tasks. It is known in the art that the lock of a door can be opened by using a smartphone as the key. US 2019/0066415 Al provides a method for opening a lock with the biometric authentication used in the mobile phone, and then using Bluetooth to open the lock based upon the biometric authentication. This has the disadvantage that multiple approvals are required from the user, the lock will consume a lot of power, and the Bluetooth signal can be eavesdropped. US 10,237,259 B2 provides systems and methods for distributed identity verification in a decentralized and asynchronous fashion. It is applicable to a networked environment such as the Internet. US 9,894,471 B1 provides wireless coded communication (WCC) devices with power harvesting power sources for processing biometric identified functions. It is applicable for example to Internet of Things (IoT). WO 2019/069129 Al provides methods and devices for managing access to a vehicle. This technology allows multiple people to own and operate a single vehicle, while some embodiments of this technology function without cellular network access. US 2019/0159026 Al provides hybrid authentication of vehicle devices and/or mobile user devices. This is useful for the interplay of the mobile phone and the connected car. US 2019/0130686 Al provides a Wireless access control system and methods for intelligent door lock system. As intelligence is grown at the lock, this requires larger memory, power and bandwidth footprints. This all increases the maintenance cost, power consumption, and procurement cost of the lock. US 10,304,273 B2 provides an intelligent door lock system with third party secured access to a dwelling. This is useful when the dwelling is listed for example on Airbnb, or the like accommodation sharing service. However, the lock consumes a lot of power. US patent US 10343650 B1 is further background art. Thus, the prior art features a number of simplistic digital substitution attempts for the physical key for a physical lock. These substitution attempts are difficult for the consumer to use, lead to unauthorized and accidental door openings and/or require too much hardware at the lock making the lock power hungry and prohibitively expensive to install, maintain and update. SUMMARY The invention is defined by the appended claims. It is an object of the invention to address and improve aforementioned deficiencies in above discussed prior art(s). The object of the invention is to provide an electronic software-based key and lock system that is cheaper and easier to use than the physical key. The central philosophy of the invention is to replace the physical key with a digital key while reducing the administrative burden both for the consumers in opening and closing the locks and for the property owners in maintaining the locks of the doors. It is an object of the invention to allow the user to open a lock by simply opening the screen lock of his smartphone, and thus authenticating himself to the smartphone. It is an object of the invention to have self-powered locks that can be opened and powered with said smartphone, which locks are easy to install and maintain as they do not require a power chord or a battery. A Digital Locking system in accordance with the invention comprises a mobile station, a mobile station app, a cloud server, and a self-powered lock configured to open and lock a door and/or a padlock, and is characterized in that, the mobile station app is installed in the mobile station and is configured to be updated and maintained by software updates from the cloud server,the mobile station is configured to provide the operating power to the lock without a power chord,the mobile station app is configured to communicate with the lock via a short-range wireless communication connection, andthe mobile station app is configured authenticate the user of the mobile station when the screen lock is unlocked and to remember the authentication of the user to the mobile station for a predefined time period that is longer than the time it takes for the mobile station screen lock to activate,during the pre-defined time period the mobile station app is configured to submit a digital key of the user via the short-range wireless communication connection to the lock, thereby opening the lock. While the invention is described here for opening and/or closing locked doors, the invention is equally applicable to locking and opening padlocks, bicycle locks, and other mechanic or electromagnetic -locks that control human