US-20260127929-A1 - PROXIMITY CARD ADDON

US20260127929A1US 20260127929 A1US20260127929 A1US 20260127929A1US-20260127929-A1

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a proximity card arrangement, comprising: a proximity card comprising electronic means for communication with a card reader to provide authorization data of a user of said card to a restricted area; and said card arrangement further comprising: a proximity card addon, comprising electronic communication means, arranged for communicating with said proximity card to obtain said authorization data to identify said user, and for communicating with a mobile user equipment for providing personal facility management services to said user of said mobile user equipment.

Inventors

Johannes Hermanus Petrus Maria Oonk
Petrus Joannes Wilhelmus Van Herp

Assignees

BOEKIT B.V.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20231013
Priority Date: 20221014

Claims (8)

1 . A proximity card addon having a ISO/IEC7810 type ID-1 formfactor, and arranged to be attached to a proximity card, said proximity card comprising: a chargeable battery; primary communication means, arranged for communication with a proximity card, wherein said proximity card comprising communication means arranged for Near Field Communication, NFC, with a card reader to exchange authorization data of a user of said card to a restricted area; secondary communication means, arranged for communication with a mobile user equipment such as a mobile phone and devices within said restricted area through Wireless Personal Area Network, WPAN, communication with said mobile user equipment and said devices in said restricted area; a controller, arranged for control of said primary and said secondary communication means, and to operate said secondary communication means in an active scanning mode, for transmitting inquiry message and receiving response messages from said devices in said restricted area, wherein said controller is further arranged for transmitting to said mobile user equipment said response messages from said devices in said restricted area.
2 . The proximity card addon according to claim 1 , wherein said controller is arranged for Out-Of-Band communication.
3 . The proximity card addon according to claim 1 , wherein said controller is arranged for Out-Of-Band communication wherein controller establishes a first communication channel over said primary communication means, initiating establishing a second communication channel over said secondary communication means, to exchange data between said mobile user equipment and said devices in said restricted area.
4 . The proximity card addon according to claim 3 , wherein said first communication channel is established as an NFC channel, by said proximity card addon to be in close proximity with said mobile user equipment.
5 . The proximity card addon according to claim 1 , wherein said controller is further arranged for transmitting to said mobile user equipment said received authorization data from said proximity card.
6 . The proximity card addon according to claim 1 , further comprising: a charging unit, in electronic communication with said chargeable battery and said controller, and arranged for wireless charging of said chargeable battery.
7 . The proximity card addon according to claim 1 , wherein said controller is further arranged for transmitting to said mobile user equipment said authorization data of said user of said card to said restricted area, received through said primary communication means.
8 . The proximity card addon according to claim 1 , wherein said primary and secondary communication means are integrated into a single communication unit arranged for establishing a primary communication channel with said proximity card, and a secondary communication channel with said mobile user equipment and with said devices in said restricted area.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates in general to a smart proximity card to provide physical access to a restricted area. More in particular relates the present invention to a method of and device for providing such physical access to a restricted area in which the proximity card is a conventional type of proximity card which is upgradable to a smart type of proximity card. BACKGROUND In offices but also in many other facilities such as schools, access may be restricted for certain areas. Only authorized persons may enter such restricted areas. These persons are provided with access authorizations means such as a key or typically a proximity card. In accordance with the present invention, a proximity card is to be interpreted as a chip card or integrated circuit card, ICC or IC card, or any physical electronic authorization device which is used to control access to a resource, typically a room or area. Typically, the proximity card is a plastic card, having a certain standardized size, e.g. a credit card size or ID-1 ISO/IEC7810 dimension. Such proximity cards control authorization, which is not the same as authentication as the authorization may be provided on an anonymous basis. Persons may be given access to a certain area through a proximity card having a certain code which might either be unique for each card and thus each person, or may be general, comparable with a conventional key in which any person may have a dedicated unique key to allow access to an area, or may all have copies of the same key to gain access. Proximity cards may be fully passive and may be active, and may comprise simple electronic authentication means such as a magnetic strip comprising authorization data or an integrated circuit comprising such authorization data or having a (distinct) memory which can be accessed to comprise the authorization data. Proximity cards are widespread and widely used as the most common type of authorization means for gaining access to restricted areas. In most office buildings each employee has a general or personal proximity card to gain access to the building and/or to specific areas, floors, or rooms of the building based on the level of clearance the person has. With an authorized proximity card the employee may gain access but this is only one aspect of the facilities that he or she may need within the building or even in the close proximity of the building. Access to a parking garage may for example be arranged through a separate system which requires a separate type of authorization. Throughout the building further facilities may require additional and separate systems. Coffee may for example be provided free of charge for (some) employees but not for visitors or for everybody, which may require some sort of token-based system on the coffee-machine. Having separate systems for all available facilities including the access authorization is considered cumbersome and inefficient. Most of these facility services may be provided through a more user-friendly application on a mobile phone, but mobile phones are not considered suitable for providing access to a building, as they may require more complex and expensive readers, and due to hardware incompatibility as not all mobile phones have the same hardware, access cannot be guaranteed. Hence, there is a need to provide an access authorization system which is simple and backwards compatible with typical access authorization systems but which is more convenient and intuitive for other facility services. Moreover, the there is tendency to collect data from all wireless devices within the restricted access area. Typically, such restricted areas have a large number of connected devices like coffee machines, printers, smart lighting systems, computers, desk phones, time attendance systems, Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, smart lockers, network storage systems, servers, etc. etc. All or at least many of these devices may be arranged for wireless communication, and al lot for wireless communication of a wireless personal area network, WPAN such as Bluetooth or the like. There can be many different advantages in collecting data by a mobile user equipment such as a smartphone from any one or more of these devices, for example for inventory management, POS systems, asset tracking, employee time and attendance systems, customer tracking, customer analytics, climate control, facility management, conference room booking, or more in general location based services. Before a smartphone or the like can establish a connection with any of these devices over a WPAN connection such as Bluetooth, typically, there needs to be a pairing between both devices firstly. Pairing however requires the smartphone to be in an active scanning mode. Such scanning modes draw relatively large amounts of power from the battery of the smartphone and thus may drain the smartphone. To this end, most smartphones limit such scanning and typically require user actions to initiate suc