Patent Issued for Distributed ledger for device management (USPTO 11763305): United Services Automobile Association

2023 OCT 09 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States) has been issued patent number 11763305, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Buckingham, Thomas Bret (Fair Oaks Ranch, TX, US), Liang, Minya (Redmond, WA, US), Lyle, Ruthie D. (Durham, NC, US), Prasad, Bharat (San Antonio, TX, US).

This patent was filed on June 29, 2022 and was published online on September 19, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “There has been a dramatic increase in the number of appliances, devices, utility devices, mechanisms, lighting fixtures, security devices, and/or other types of devices that are available for the home or other environments, and that include data collection, computing, sensing, and/or network communication capabilities in addition to their normal functionality. These devices may be described as smart appliances, smart vehicles, smart building components, smart infrastructure components, and so forth, and may also be described as Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The various devices may generate data, such as sensor data, status information, and so forth, and the data may be shared among the devices over one or more wired or wireless networks using a variety of communication protocols to provide an IoT platform. In some instances, the devices may be sensed and controlled remotely over one or more networks, and the data generated by the devices may be collected, analyzed, or otherwise processed by computing devices, analytic cloud based IoT platforms and/or individuals.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Identity management generally involves identifying individuals in a system (such as a country, a network, or an enterprise) and controlling access to resources within that system by associating user rights and restrictions with the established identity. In addition, reputation management is the practice of attempting to shape public perception of a person or organization by influencing online information about that entity. In blockchain environments, such as BitCoin, anyone can claim ownership of an address by signing a message that includes the address. For example, a person can register an address with BitCoin and use that address for sending or receiving money. The address can also be used to sign messages. Thus, the “identity verification” currently performed in blockchain environments may only prove that an individual has access to an address, and may not actually verify the identity of the individual using the address. BitCoin and other blockchain environments currently do not have any trusted method of associating an identity with an address

“Embodiments of the present disclosure are generally directed to secure device management. More particularly, embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to managing a network of IoT devices using information and/or computer programming code on a distributed ledger system such as a blockchain. The computer programming code may include smart contracts, which may also be described as self-executing contracts, blockchain contracts, digital contracts, and/or chain code. As used herein, a smart contract refers to computer programming code executed by a distributed ledger system.

“In general, certain embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in a method that includes the following actions: receiving, by a smart contract, a request for a user device to issue a command to an IoT device; accessing, by the smart contract, permission information stored on a distributed ledger, the permission information indicating at least one user authorized to interact with the IoT device; and determining, by the smart contract, that the user device is permitted to issue the command to the IoT device, based at least in part on the permission information indicating that an authenticated user of the user device is authorized to interact with the IoT device and, in response, sending the command from the user device to the IoT device through the smart contract.

“In addition, certain embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in methods that include acts providing access to a decentralized identity management system to a user. In certain embodiments, the methods include the act of storing user identity information on the decentralized identity management system. The methods also include the act of enabling one or more other users to store reputation information associated with the user identity. The methods also include the act of using the reputation information in a transaction with the user.

“Certain embodiments of the present disclosure include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs that are configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices. The present disclosure also provides a computer-readable storage medium coupled to one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations in accordance with embodiments of the methods provided herein. The present disclosure further provides a system for implementing the methods provided herein. The system includes one or more processors, and a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the one or more processors having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations in accordance with embodiments of the methods provided herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: receiving, by a decentralized device management system, a request from an Internet of Things (IoT) device to transmit a message to an external service, wherein the IoT device and the external service utilize different communication protocols; accessing, by the decentralized device management system, permission information stored on a distributed ledger of the decentralized device management system, the permission information indicating that the IoT device is authorized to transmit a type of the message to the external service, wherein the type of the message indicates a content type of the message; determining, by the decentralized device management system, whether the IoT device is permitted to transmit the message to the external service based at least in part on the permission information; and transmitting, by the decentralized device management system, a command to the IoT device to enable the IoT device to transmit the message from the IoT device to the external service across the different communication protocols upon determination that the IoT device is authorized to transmit the type of the message to the external service.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content type of the message is one of a plurality of content types including a content type relating to a status of a service provided to the IoT device.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the content type of the message is one of a plurality of content types including a content type relating to payment for a service provided to the IoT device.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the content type of the message is one of a plurality of content types including a content type relating to an order for a replacement component for the IoT device.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the content type of the message is one of a plurality of content types including a content type relating to enabling communications with the external service to a user of the IoT device.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the external service comprises a utility service, a financial service, or an e-commerce service.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the permission information indicates at least one constraint on interaction with the IoT device.

“8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one constraint comprises a time period constraint indicating a time period within which interaction with the IoTd device is allowed.

“9. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one constraint comprises an interaction count constraint indicating a number of permitted interactions with the IoT device.

“10. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one constraint comprises a distance constraint indicating a threshold distance within which interaction with the IoT device is allowed.

“11. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one constraint includes a command type constraint indicating a particular command or particular type of command permitted.

“12. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one constraint includes a biometric authentication constraint indicating at least one biometric authentication mode employed to enable interaction with the IoT device.

“13. The method of claim 1, wherein the distributed ledger is a blockchain.

“14. A system comprising: at least one processor; and a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions which, when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: receiving, by a decentralized device management system, a request from an Internet of Things (IoT) device to transmit a message to an external service, wherein the IoT device and the external service utilize different communication protocols; accessing, by the decentralized device management system, permission information stored on a distributed ledger of the decentralized device management system, the permission information indicating that the IoT device is authorized to transmit a type of the message to the external service, wherein the type of the message indicates a content type of the message; determining, by the decentralized device management system, whether the IoT device is permitted to transmit the message to the external service based at least in part on the permission information; and transmitting, by the decentralized device management system, a command to the IoT device to enable the IoT device to transmit the message from the IoT device to the external service across the different communication protocols upon determination that the IoT device is authorized to transmit the type of the message to the external service.

“15. The system of claim 14, wherein the content type of the message is one of a plurality of content types including a content type relating to a status of a service provided to the IoT device.

“16. The system of claim 14, wherein the content type of the message is one of a plurality of content types including a content type relating to payment for a service provided to the IoT device.

“17. The system of claim 14, wherein the content type of the message is one of a plurality of content types including a content type relating to an order for a replacement component for the IoT device.

“18. The system of claim 14, wherein the content type of the message is one of a plurality of content types including a content type relating to enabling communications with the external service to a user of the IoT device.

“19. The system of claim 14, wherein the external service comprises a utility service, a financial service, or an e-commerce service.

“20. One or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions which, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform operations comprising: receiving, by a decentralized device management system, a request from an Internet of Things (IoT) device to transmit a message to an external service, wherein the IoT device and the external service utilize different communication protocols; accessing, by the decentralized device management system, permission information stored on a distributed ledger of the decentralized device management system, the permission information indicating that the IoT device is authorized to transmit a type of the message to the external service, wherein the type of the message indicates a content type of the message; determining, by the decentralized device management system, whether the IoT device is permitted to transmit the message to the external service based at least in part on the permission information; and transmitting, by the decentralized device management system, a command to the IoT device to enable the IoT device to transmit the message from the IoT device to the external service across the different communication protocols upon determination that the IoT device is authorized to transmit the type of the message to the external service.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Buckingham, Thomas Bret. Distributed ledger for device management. U.S. Patent Number 11763305, filed June 29, 2022, and published online on September 19, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11763305)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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