Patent Issued for Systems and methods for secure display of data on computing devices (USPTO 11227060): Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company

2022 FEB 03 (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 inventors Cook, Jason (Westfield, MA, US), Depaolo, Damon Ryan (Barkhamsted, CT, US), John, Jiby (Suffield, CT, US), Knas, Michal (Monson, MA, US), Shubrick, Payton A. (Springfield, MA, US), filed on September 12, 2018, was published online on January 18, 2022.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11227060, is Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Springfield, Massachusetts, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Most businesses and enterprise organizations are apprehensive about protection and secure display of their sensitive data. In order to protect and secure their sensitive data, various organizations typically have a “cleanroom,” which is essentially a working room within the organization that is protected such that only authorized users are allowed to enter the cleanroom to access electronic devices and servers within the cleanroom. For instance, when the authorized user enters the cleanroom, the authorized person immediately connects to a network, and is able to access sensitive data and perform computing functions on the various electronic devices and the servers within the cleanroom. On the other hand, there are frequent circumstances when some users may want to access sensitive data when the cleanroom is not readily available. For instance, a user may be working remotely and may access the sensitive data on his/her personal or work-issued computing device. Such viewing of sensitive data in public usually raises security implications regarding unauthorized viewing of the sensitive data by others. Moreover, tracking the release of the sensitive data to such unauthorized viewers can be difficult since the unauthorized viewers do not get direct access to the sensitive data through any electronic device, and thus do not leave a digital fingerprint from which the unauthorized viewers could later be identified.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “For the aforementioned reasons, there is a need for a method and system for preventing the unauthorized users from viewing and accessing sensitive data. Disclosed herein are systems and methods capable of addressing the above-described shortcomings and may provide any number of additional or alternative benefits and advantages corresponding to scrambling techniques that will allow sensitive data displayed on a computer screen to only be viewed by authorized users and will render the computer screen unreadable to unauthorized users. For instance, the systems and the methods are capable of automatically scrambling and unscrambling display screen of the computing device in which only an intended viewer is able to view data on the display screen using deciphering glasses.

“Systems, methods, and computer program products for security of content on a display screen of a computing device in which only an authenticated user is able to view the content on the display screen may automatically scramble and unscramble the screen depending on authentication results of the user looking at the screen. For instance, the computing device may utilize facial recognition or head movement detection techniques to authenticate the user looking at the screen, and upon the execution of the facial recognition or the head movement detection techniques, when it is determined that the authenticated user is no longer looking at the screen of the computing device, the screen becomes scrambled or locked.

“Systems, methods, and computer program products for security of content on a display screen of a computing device in which a first user is able to view the content on the display screen may automatically scramble and unscramble the screen depending on authentication results of the first user looking at the screen. For instance, the computing device may utilize facial recognition or head movement detection apparatus to authenticate the first user looking at the screen, and upon the implementation of the facial recognition or the head movement detection apparatus, when a second user’s face is detected by the computing device, the screen becomes scrambled or locked, even if the first user is authenticated (e.g., the second user looking over the shoulder of the authenticated first user).

“Systems, methods, and computer program products disclosed herein automatically scrambles and unscrambles data on a display screen of a computing device in which an authenticated user is able to view the data on the display screen using deciphering glasses upon electro-biometric identification and verification of user’s identity by bioelectric signal processing and analysis. A biometric pulse signature generation technique is executed to produce a biometric signature of the authenticated user that identifies the user by forming a representation of a pulse pattern of the authenticated user when the deciphering glasses are on the authenticated user. The computing device may perform the bioelectric signal processing and analysis to compare a biometric signature of an individual wanting to view the screen with the biometric signature of the authenticated user to determine whether the individual is the authenticated user, and the data becomes unscrambled when the individual is the authenticated user to allow the individual to view the data on the screen using the deciphering glasses.

“Systems, methods, and computer program products disclosed herein automatically scrambles and unscrambles data on a graphical user interface (GUI) of a computing device in which an authenticated user is able to view the unscrambled data on the display screen using deciphering glasses. The display of the data on the GUI is automatically moved from a first display screen (showing unscrambled data) to a second display screen (showing scrambled data) on the GUI and vice-versa depending on a distance between the GUI and authenticated user wearing the deciphering glasses. For instance, a first display screen is presented on the GUI showing the unscrambled data when the GUI is in viewable Bluetooth range of a user authorized to view the data. A second display screen is presented on the GUI showing the scrambled data when the GUI is not in the Bluetooth viewable range of the user authorized to view the data.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system, comprising: a system database hosted on one or more servers comprising a non-transitory machine readable storage medium, the system database configured to store a record of credentials associated with one or more users and one or more wearable devices; a user computing device comprising a screen configured to display an image comprising first encrypted data that corresponds to a first type of scrambled content and second encrypted data that corresponds to displaying a plurality of segments of the image in a rearranged order such that the display of the second encrypted data in the image is unreadable to a human; and a wearable device comprising one or more lenses, an imaging sensor, and a processor configured to: wirelessly connect with the user computing device responsive to the user computing device determining that a set of purported credentials received from the wearable device matches a set of credentials authenticating the wearable device that are stored in the system database; capture, via the imaging sensor integrated with the wearable device, the first encrypted data and the second encrypted data in the rearranged order; determine, responsive to capturing the first encrypted data and the second encrypted data using the imaging sensor, a first decryption technique to decrypt the first encrypted data and a second decryption technique to decrypt the second encrypted data based on the capture of the first and second encrypted data; and execute the first decryption technique and the second decryption technique to display decrypted data on the one or more lenses of the wearable device, such that the plurality of segments are readable to a user of the wearable device.

“2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the user computing device is further configured to generate a graphical user interface (GUI) on the user computing device containing a credentials prompt requesting the user of the wearable device to input a set of user credentials.

“3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the user computing device is further configured to transmit the GUI containing the credentials prompt to the wearable device.

“4. The system according to claim 2, wherein the wearable device is further configured to transmit the set of user credentials to the user computing device in response to the credentials prompt.

“5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the user computing device is further configured to divide the image into the plurality of segments that are rearranged such that the second encrypted data in the image is unreadable to the human.

“6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the user computing device is further configured to divide the image into the plurality of segments that are compressed such that the second encrypted data in the image is unreadable to the human.

“7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the user computing device is further configured to divide the image into the plurality of segments that are overturned such that the second encrypted data in the image is unreadable to the human.

“8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the user computing device is further configured to transmit the first encrypted data and the second encrypted data to the wearable device and arrangement information of the plurality of segments of the second encrypted data, in response to the user computing device determining that the set of purported credentials associated with the wearable device received from the wearable device matches the set of credentials authenticating the wearable device that are stored in the system database.

“9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the processor of the wearable device, in response to receipt of the arrangement information of the plurality of segments of the second encrypted data, causes an arrangement of the plurality of segments to be changed such that the plurality of segments of the image are rearranged and the decrypted data in the image is readable.

“10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit the decrypted data to the user computing device for display on the screen of the user computing device.

“11. A method, comprising: wirelessly connecting, by a wearable device comprising one or more lenses, an image capture device, and a processor, to a user computing device displaying an image comprising first encrypted data that corresponds to a first type of scrambled content and second encrypted data that corresponds to displaying a plurality of segments of the image in a rearranged order such that the display of the second encrypted data in the image is unreadable to a human, responsive to the user computing device determining that a set of purported credentials received from the wearable device matches a set of credentials authenticating the wearable device that are stored in a system database; capturing, by the wearable device, via the image sensor integrated with the wearable device, the first encrypted data and the second encrypted data in the rearranged order; determining, by the wearable device, responsive to capturing the first encrypted data and the second encrypted data using the imaging sensor, a first decryption technique to decrypt the first encrypted data and a second decryption technique to decrypt the second encrypted data based on the capture of the first and second encrypted data; and executing, by the wearable device, the first decryption technique and the second decryption technique to display decrypted data on the one or more lenses of the wearable device, such that the plurality of segments are readable to a user of the wearable device.

“12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising receiving, by the wearable device, a graphical user interface (GUI) generated on the user computing device, the GUI comprising a credentials prompt requesting a user of the wearable device to input a set of user credentials.

“13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising transmitting, by the wearable device, to the user computing device, an identification of the decryption technique.

“14. The method according to claim 12, further comprising transmitting, by the wearable device, to the user computing device, the set of user credentials in response to the credentials prompt.

“15. The method according to claim 11, wherein the image is divided by the user computing device into the plurality of segments that are oriented such that the second encrypted data in the image is unreadable to the human.

“16. The method according to claim 11, wherein the image is divided by the user computing device into the plurality of segments that are compressed such that the second encrypted data in the image is unreadable to the human.

“17. The method according to claim 11, wherein the image is divided by the user computing device into the plurality of segments that are overturned such that the second encrypted data in the image is unreadable to the human.

“18. The method according to claim 11, further comprising receiving, by the wearable device from the user computing device, the first encrypted data and the second encrypted data and arrangement information of the plurality of segments of the second encrypted data, in response to the user computing device determining that the set of purported credentials associated with the wearable device received from the wearable device matches the set of credentials authenticating the wearable device that are stored in the system database.

“19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising causing, by the wearable device, an arrangement of the plurality of segments to be changed such that the plurality of segments of the image are rearranged and the decrypted data in the image is readable, responsive to receiving the arrangement information of the plurality of segments of the second encrypted data.

“20. The method according to claim 11, further comprising transmitting, by the wearable device, the decrypted data to the user computing device for display on a screen of the user computing device.”

For more information, see this patent: Cook, Jason. Systems and methods for secure display of data on computing devices. U.S. Patent Number 11227060, filed September 12, 2018, and published online on January 18, 2022. 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=11227060.PN.&OS=PN/11227060RS=PN/11227060

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