Patent Issued for System And Method For Disabling And/Or Enabling A Device (USPTO 10,425,394)

2019 OCT 09 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventor Smith, Arthur Quentin (Fredericksburg, TX), filed on November 22, 2016, was published online on October 7, 2019.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,425,394, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Many machines, such as cars, are equipped with a form of ‘kill switch.’ The kill switch allows some or all of the functionality of the machine to be disabled. For example, a car may have a hidden switch (e.g., under the dashboard, in the glove compartment, etc.), that disables the car by shutting off the fuel supply, the ignition, or some other aspect of the car’s operation. Kill switches may be used to disable a variety of machines. A car is an example of a machine that could have a kill switch, although other machines could also have such switches.

“There are a small number of places where kill switches may be hidden, so most thieves know where to look for them. Moreover, the switch may be turned on or off, so once a thief finds the switch, he or she may turn the switch on and re-enable the car (or other type of machine that the kill switch is used for). Additionally, the fact that the switch is typically located on the machine to be disabled means that activating the kill switch involves being in physical proximity to the machine, so it is difficult for the owner to enable or disable the machine unless the owner is physically in the same place as the machine.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent: “Instructions to disable and/or enable a device may be given in a variety of ways. The instructions may be given from a location that is remote to the device-possibly through a communication network. There may be various restrictions placed on the nature of the instructions in order to prevent the instructions from being given by unauthorized parties and/or in inappropriate circumstances.

“In one example, a wireless communications device (e.g., a wireless telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc.), may be used as a remote kill switch. The owner of a device (e.g., the owner of a car) uses the wireless communication device to issue an instruction to disable (‘kill’) the device. The device to be ‘killed’ may receive the instruction through the communication network. For the device to follow the instruction may involve various forms of authentication. For example, the device may determine whether to follow the kill instruction based on the identity (e.g., electronic serial number, etc.) of the wireless communication device from which the instruction was issued. Or, the device may attempt to authenticate the kill instruction based a password, biometric identification, the location from which the instruction is given, or on some other criteria.

“An instruction tore-enable (‘unkill’) the device may also be given. In some examples, the unkill instruction may be given and/or authenticated in the same manner as the kill instruction. In other examples, there may be different restrictions on the kill and unkill instructions, so that the kill and unkill instructions (in such examples) would have to be given in different manners or with different types of authentication. For example, a car owner may be able to issue a kill instruction through his or her wireless telephone, but may arrange to have the car honor unkill instructions only when received from the owner’s insurance company or car-alarm service company. Thus, for example, a car owner could leave his or her car at the airport for an extended trip and could issue the instruction to ‘kill’ the car from his or her wireless telephone when he or she walks away from the car. Then, upon the owner’s return, he or she could call the insurance company or other service company and request that the company issue an unkill instruction when the owner returns. The car might be instructed not to honor unkill instructions from any location other than the insurance company or service company. That way, if the owner’s wireless telephone is stolen while he or she is away, the person who steals the telephone would not also be able to use the telephone to unkill, and steal, the car.

“This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described in the detailed description section. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“The invention claimed is:

“1. An apparatus comprising: a processor; and memory coupled with the processor, the memory storing instructions that cause the processor executing the instructions to effectuate operations comprising: receiving a first instruction, from a smart device, to disable at least a portion of a functionality of a vehicle; disabling, based on the first instruction, the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; receiving a second instruction, from the smart device, to enable the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; determining that the smart device is not authorized to request the enablement; determining not to enable, based on the lack of authorization, the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; receiving a third instruction, from a provider of a service associated with the vehicle, to enable the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; determining that the provider is authorized to enable the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; and enabling, based on the determination of authorization of the provider, the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle, wherein the portion of the functionality of the vehicle comprises starting of an engine of the vehicle.

“2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the determining that the source of the third instruction comprises the provider of the service is based at least on verifying the location of the source of the second instruction at the time of transmission of the second instruction.

“3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the smart device is preapproved to disable the functionality of the vehicle.

“4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the source of the third instruction is pre-approved to at least one of disable and enable the functionality of the vehicle.

“5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the functionality of the vehicle further comprises at least one of a fuel component or an ignition component of the vehicle.

“6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the provider of the service comprises a provider of insurance of the vehicle.

“7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle further comprises a communication component of the vehicle.

“8. A method, implemented by a computing device, comprising: receiving a first instruction, from a smart device, to disable at least a portion of a functionality of a vehicle; disabling, based on the first instruction, the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; receiving, from the smart device, a second instruction to enable the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; determining that the smart device is not authorized to request the enablement; determining not to enable, based on the lack of authorization, the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; receiving a third instruction, from a provider of a service associated with the vehicle, to enable the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; determining that the provider is authorized to enable the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; and enabling, based on the determination of authorization of the provider, the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle, wherein the portion of the functionality of the vehicle comprises starting of an engine of the vehicle.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the smart device is preapproved to disable the functionality of the vehicle.

“10. The method of claim 8, wherein the first instruction comprises a first identifier and the third instruction comprises a second identifier; and wherein the disabling and enabling the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle is further based the first identifier and the second identifier.

“11. The method of claim 8, wherein the disabling the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle comprises disabling the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle while maintaining another portion of the functionality of the vehicle.

“12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed, cause operations comprising: receiving a first instruction to, from a smart device, disable at least a portion of functionality of a vehicle; determining that a source of the first instruction is authorized to control the vehicle; disabling, based on the first instruction, the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; receiving a second instruction, from the smart device, to enable the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; determining that the smart device is not authorized to request the enablement; determining not to enable, based on the lack of authorization, the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; receiving a third instruction, from a provider of a service associated with the vehicle, to enable the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; determining that the provider is authorized to enable the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle; and enabling, based at least on the determination of authorization of the provider the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle, wherein the portion of the functionality of the vehicle comprises starting of an engine of the vehicle.

“13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the enabling the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle is based at least on the operations further comprising determining a location of the source of the third instruction at a time of transmission of the third instruction.

“14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, the operations further comprising causing an indication of the determination that the source of the first instruction to be transmitted to the vehicle.

“15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the source of the third instruction is pre-approved to at least one of enable and disable the functionality of the vehicle.

“16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the enabling the at least the portion of the functionality of the vehicle is further based on a location of the vehicle.”

For more information, see this patent: Smith, Arthur Quentin. System And Method For Disabling And/Or Enabling A Device. U.S. Patent Number 10,425,394, filed November 22, 2016, and published online on October 7, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,425,394.PN.&OS=PN/10,425,394RS=PN/10,425,394

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