WO2009057871A1

WO2009057871A1 - Antitheft system of digital apparatus and digital apparatus therefor

Info

Publication number: WO2009057871A1
Application number: PCT/KR2008/002952
Authority: WO
Inventors: Byung Soo Kim; Joon Woo Pakr
Original assignee: Finedigital Inc.
Priority date: 2007-10-29
Filing date: 2008-05-27
Publication date: 2009-05-07
Also published as: KR100799250B1

Abstract

Disclosed are an antitheft system of a digital apparatus that has a function of receiving digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) and a digital apparatus therefor. An antitheft system according to an embodiment of the invention is an antitheft system of a digital apparatus that has a DMB receiving function. The antitheft system includes a stolen apparatus registration server that receives a serial number (SN) of a stolen digital apparatus from a user terminal and stores the SN, and transmits the SN to a DMB broadcasting station server and requests the DMB broadcasting station server to transmit a broadcasting message including the SN. As a result, since the operation of the stolen digital apparatus can be prohibited, it is possible to minimize theft acts for digital apparatuses.

Description

ANTITHEFT SYSTEM OF DIGITAL APPARATUS AND DIGITAL APPARATUS

THEREFOR

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Technical Field

The present invention relates to an antitheft system, and more particularly, to an antitheft system of a digital apparatus that has a function of receiving digital multimedia broadcasting and a digital apparatus therefor.

Related Art

In recent years, digital apparatuses, such as cellular phones, navigators, and digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) receivers, have come into wide use. In addition to the DMB receivers, DMB receiving chips are mounted in the cellular phones and the navigators, and users can use broadcasting services without depending on times and places. The digital apparatuses are advantageous in that they may be easily used in vehicles or at outdoors because portability is excellent, but are disadvantageous in that they may be easily stolen due to a small size and light weight.

At the present time, high-priced digital apparatuses, each of which has various functions including, for example, a DMB receiving function, a navigator function, and a cellular phone function, have come into wide use. For this reason, when the high-priced digital apparatuses are stolen, users are materially and mentally damaged.

In order to resolve these problems, in recent years, there is suggested an antitheft method based on a utilization place of a digital apparatus.

That is, a user previously registers his or her digital apparatus utilization region range. When the digital apparatus is driven, the digital apparatus checks whether its current location is out of the digital apparatus utilization region range. When it is determined that the current location is out of the digital apparatus utilization region range, it is required for the user to input a secret access number. According to this method, when the stolen digital apparatus is driven out of the previously registered digital apparatus utilization region range, it is possible to prevent the digital apparatus from being illegally used. However, when the stolen digital apparatus is driven within the digital apparatus utilization region range previously registered by the user, the digital apparatus normally operates. Accordingly, in the methods according to the related art, there is a technical limitation in that it is not possible to securely prevent the stolen digital apparatus from being illegally used, which makes it impossible to root out that the digital apparatuses are stolen.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention has been finalized in order to solve the above-described problems.

An embodiment of the invention provides an antitheft system of a digital apparatus that is capable of determining whether the digital apparatus is a stolen digital apparatus when the digital apparatus is provided with power, and, when it is determined that the digital apparatus is the stolen digital apparatus, preventing the digital apparatus from operating. Another embodiment of the invention provides a digital apparatus that is capable of, when the digital apparatus is supplied with power, determining whether the digital apparatus is a stolen digital apparatus on the basis of a message transmitted from a DMB broadcasting station server, and, when it is determined that the digital apparatus is the stolen digital apparatus, stopping providing services. According to an embodiment of the invention, there is provided an antitheft system of a digital apparatus that has a function of receiving digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB). The antitheft system includes a stolen apparatus registration server that receives a serial number (SN) of a stolen digital apparatus from a user terminal and stores the SN₁, and transmits the SN to a DMB broadcasting station server and requests the DMB broadcasting station server to transmit a broadcasting message including the SN.

According to another embodiment of the invention, there is provided a digital apparatus that accesses a DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) broadcasting station that transmits a broadcasting message including a serial number (SN) of a stolen digital apparatus. The digital apparatus includes a control unit that controls the whole operation; a memory that stores an SN of the digital apparatus; an SN comparing unit that receives, when the digital apparatus is supplied with power, the broadcasting message from a DMB broadcasting station server to extract a list of SNs, extracts an SN of the digital apparatus from the memory, and confirms whether the SN extracted from the memory is included in the list of SNs; and an operation control unit that determines whether the digital apparatus is a stolen digital apparatus according to a confirmed result by the SN comparing unit and determines whether or not to operate the digital apparatus.

According to the embodiments of the invention, since the operation of a stolen digital apparatus can be prohibited, it is possible to rninirnize theft actions for digital apparatuses.

Further, since the operation of a lost digital apparatus can be prohibited, it is possible to prevent that a larcenist uses the digital apparatus to cause a communication fare to be charged. BRIEF DESCRPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a structure of an antitheft system according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a detailed structure of a stolen apparatus registration server shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a detailed structure of a digital apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an SDI message that is used in an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an antitheft method according to an embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT Embodiments of the invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a structure of an antitheft system according to an embodiment of the invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, an antitheft system according to an embodiment of the invention includes a stolen apparatus registration server 30. When a user terminal 10 accesses the antitheft system through a communication network 20 and transmits a serial number (SN) of a stolen (lost) digital apparatus, the stolen apparatus registration server 30 stores stolen apparatus information.

The antitheft system may include a DMB broadcasting station server 40 and a digital apparatus 50. Whenever stolen apparatus information is registered in the stolen apparatus registration server 30, the DMB broadcasting station server 40 receives an SN of a stolen apparatus from the stolen apparatus registration server 30 and updates a broadcasting message. The digital apparatus 50 receives the broadcasting message from the DMB broadcasting station server 40 at the time of being supplied with power, extracts a list of SNs from the received broadcasting message, and compares an SN of the digital apparatus with the extracted list of SNs to determine whether the digital apparatus operates or not.

Specifically, when a user loses his or her digital apparatus (for example, a DMB receiver, a navigator, a cellular phone, or the- like), the user registers an SN of the corresponding digital apparatus in the stolen apparatus registration server 30. To do so, the user can use a personal computer, a cellular phone, and a notebook computer to access the stolen apparatus registration server 30 through the communication network 20.

The stolen apparatus registration server 30 provides one of a Web service, a WAP service, and an automatic response service (ARS) according to a type of the user terminal

10. The stolen apparatus registration server 30 receives user's personal information (a name, an ID number, a contact address, or the like) and the SN of the stolen digital apparatus from the user terminal 10, and stores them as stolen apparatus information.

When new stolen apparatus information is registered and stored in the stolen apparatus registration server 30, the stolen apparatus registration server 30 transmits the SN of the corresponding stolen apparatus to the DMB broadcasting station server 40.

The DMB broadcasting station server 40 includes a list of SNs of the stolen apparatuses in a broadcasting message that is broadcast to the digital apparatus 50 having a DMB receiving function. The DMB broadcasting station server 40 broadcasts the broadcasting message to the digital apparatus 50 through a DMB broadcasting base station (not shown). Then, when the DMB broadcasting station server 40 receives new stolen apparatus information, the DMB broadcasting station server 40 updates the broadcasting message. If the digital apparatus 50 is supplied with power, the digital apparatus 50 accesses the DMB broadcasting station server 40, and extracts the list of SNs included in the broadcasting message that is received from the DMB broadcasting station server 40. Then, when the SN of the digital apparatus 50 is included in the extracted list of SNs, the digital apparatus 50 stops the operation. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a detailed structure of a stolen apparatus registration server shown in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the stolen apparatus registration server 30 includes a control unit 310, a service server 320, an SN registration unit 330, an interface 340, and a database 350. The control unit 310 controls the whole operation of the stolen apparatus registration server 30, and the service server 320 may be composed of a Web server, a WAP server or an ARS server according to a type of the user terminal 10. The interface 340 performs a protocol conversion to exchange a control signal and data with the user terminal 10 and the DMB broadcasting station server 40. The SN registration unit 330 receives stolen apparatus information including user information and an SN of a lost digital apparatus from the user terminal 10 that has accessed the stolen apparatus registration server 30 through the communication network 20, stores the received stolen apparatus information in the database 350, and provides the stolen apparatus information to the DMB broadcasting station server 40. As such, in this embodiment, when a digital apparatus is stolen or lost, a user registers an SN of the corresponding digital apparatus in a specific server. When a person who has stolen or pick up the corresponding digital apparatus tries to use the digital apparatus, it is possible to prohibit the utilization of the digital apparatus through an SN comparison process.

Although not shown in the drawings, the stolen apparatus registration server 30 may further include a user authentication unit. When a user who has accessed the stolen apparatus registration server 30 through the user terminal 10 tries to register an SN of the stolen digital apparatus or delete the previously registered SN, the user authentication unit confirms whether the user who has requested for the corresponding service is a qualified user.

When the user who has been confirmed as the qualified user by the user authentication unit requests to delete the previously registered SN, the SN registration unit

330 deletes the corresponding SN from the database 350, and requests the DMB broadcasting station server 40 to delete the corresponding SN from a broadcasting message.

As shown in FIG. 3, the digital apparatus 50 includes a control unit 510 that controls the whole operation, a DMB receiving unit 520, a memory 530, a service providing unit 540, an SN comparing unit 550, and an operation control unit 560.

The memory 530 stores an SN of the corresponding digital apparatus 50 and various applications used to provide various services.

The service providing unit 540 provides at least one of a navigation service, a DMB broadcasting output service, and a cellular phone service according to a production purpose of the corresponding digital apparatus 50.

When the digital apparatus 50 is supplied with power, the SN comparing unit 550 receives a broadcasting message from the DMB broadcasting station server 40, and extracts a list of SNs included in the broadcasting message. The SN comparing unit 550 extracts an SN of the digital apparatus 50 from the memory 530 and confirms whether the extracted SN is included in the list of SNs extracted from the broadcasting message broadcast received from the DMB broadcasting station server 40.

As the confirmed result by the SN comparing unit 550, when the SN of the digital apparatus 50 is included in the list of SNs extracted from the broadcasting message transmitted from the DMB broadcasting station server 40, the operation control unit 560 locks the digital apparatus 50 such that the digital apparatus 50 cannot operate. The operation control unit 560 authenticates the user of the digital apparatus 50, and releases the locking state of the digital apparatus 50 when it is determined that the user is a qualified user. In this case, at the time of authenticating the user, it is possible to use the

SN of the digital apparatus 50 and a secret access number that is set in advance.

The digital apparatus 50 according to this embodiment refers to the list of SNs included in the broadcasting message received from the DMB broadcasting station server

40 to determine whether the digital apparatus is stolen or not. For this purpose, the DMB broadcasting station server 40 needs to transmit a broadcasting message that includes a list of SNs.

In an embodiment of the invention, a list of SNs may be transmitted using an SDI message, which will be described below with reference to FIG. 4.

In recent years, a technology that provides traffic and travel information (TTI) services using DMB broadcasting signals became commercialized. This information can be transmitted using a TPEG (Transport Protocol Expert Group) protocol. According to the TPEG standard, a road traffic message (RTM), public transport information (PTI), and the like are standardized. As a result, a navigation terminal user can previously know traffic situations of traveling scheduled roads or moving speeds of vehicles on the traveling scheduled roads through a map of a navigation terminal.

Further, the navigation terminal user can be provided with danger section information, such as roadwork or accident news, in advance.

The invention uses an SDI (Safety-Driving-Information) message included in the

TPEG message to transmit a list of SNs from the DMB broadcasting station server 40 to the digital apparatus 50, such as the navigator, thereby allowing the digital apparatus 50 to confirm whether the digital apparatus 50 is a stolen apparatus. The TPEG messages that are related to the TPEG application services have the same container structure, as shown in FIG. 4. One of the TPEG messages is an SDI message.

The SDI message includes a message management container, an SDI event container, and a TTI location container. The message management container includes the following items.

- message identifier: identifier for a message that is related to each of events

- version information: sequential numbers to discriminate consecutive messages having the same contents

- message generation time: a date and time stamp records a date and time when a message is actually generated, and the message generation time is used for the purpose of massage management

- start time: time when an event enters a certain state. The start time may indicate a date and time when the event already entered the certain state or is scheduled to enter the certain state in the future

- end time: time when an event gets out of a certain state. The end time may indicate a data and time when the event already got out of the certain state or is scheduled to get out of the certain state in the future

- message effective time: a data and time when a message loses effectiveness, that is, the message is deleted.

Meanwhile, the SDI event container includes a point safety-driving item, a section safety-driving item, an RSF (Roadside Service Facility Component), an effectiveness item, and a preliminary region.

Here, the point safety-driving item describes information that is related to safety-driving, such as frequent accident points and danger points on roads, and the section safety-driving item describes information that is related to safety-driving, such as frequent accident sections and danger sections on roads. The RSF describes information on traffic convenient facilities required for safety-driving on roads, and the effective item describes information on the total number of messages that constitute the SDI message. The TTI location container includes positional information according to the ground-wave or satellite DMB traffic and travel information service matched standard.

In this invention, the SDI message is transmitted in a state where the list of SNs is included in the preliminary region of the SDI event container that is allocated to a maker of the digital apparatus 50. The digital apparatus 50 extracts a list of SNs from the SDI message, and compares its SN with the list of SNs.

In this structure, even though a digital apparatus that has a DMB receiving function does not mount separate hardware therein, the digital apparatus recognizes at a high speed whether the corresponding digital apparatus is a stolen or lost digital apparatus. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an antitheft method according to an embodiment of the invention.

First, a user whose digital apparatus 50 has been stolen uses the user terminal 10 to access the stolen apparatus registration server 30, and transmits his or her personal information (a name, an ID number, a contact address, or the like) and the SN of the stolen (lost) digital apparatus to the stolen apparatus registration server 30 (Step SlOl).

Therefore, the SN registration unit 330 of the stolen apparatus registration server 30 registers the user's personal information and the SN as the stolen apparatus information in the database 350 (Step S 103) and transmits the SN of the stolen digital apparatus to the DMB broadcasting station server 40 (Step S 105). Then, the DMB broadcasting station server 40 that has received the stolen apparatus information includes the SN of the stolen digital apparatus in a broadcasting message, for example, an SDI message, and generates a message (Step S 107).

In this state, when the stolen digital apparatus 50 is supplied with power (Step S109), the DMB receiving unit 520 runes in the DMB broadcasting station server 40 to receive the broadcasting message (Step Si l l).

The SN comparing unit 550 extracts a list of SNs from the broadcasting message received by the DMB receiving unit 520 (Step Sl 13), and confirms whether the list of SNs includes an SN matched to the SN of the digital apparatus 50 stored in the memory 530 (Step Sl 15). According to the confirmed result by the SN comparing unit 550, the operation control unit 560 determines whether or not to operate the corresponding digital apparatus 50 (Step Sl 17). For example, as the confirmed result in Step Sl 15, when the list of SNs includes the SN matched to the SN of the digital apparatus 50, that is, the digital apparatus 50 is determined as the stolen digital apparatus, the operation control unit 560 locks the digital apparatus 50 to prohibit the utilization of the digital apparatus, and may output a message, which informs that the digital apparatus 50 is a stolen digital apparatus.

After Step Sl 17, when it is determined that the digital apparatus 50 is the stolen digital apparatus, the operation control unit 560 performs user authentication. As the authenticated result, when it is determined that the user is a qualified user, the operation control unit 560 releases a locking state to allow the digital apparatus 50 to normally

&psrate.

In general, it is difficult to reduce the frequency of the theft accidents of the digital apparatuses, because there is the black market on which the stolen digital apparatuses can be sold and purchased and many users purchase the digital apparatuses through the black market and use the digital apparatuses.

Hoλvever, the stolen digital apparatuses are useless, if the stolen digital apparatuses cannot operate. Therefore, if using the antitheft system according to the embodiments of the invention, it is possible to minimize the theft accidents of the digital apparatuses, which results in decreasing financial and mental damages to the users.

In particular, it is most likely for a navigation terminal mounted in a vehicle to be stolen when an owner of the vehicle leaves from the vehicle. Among the navigation terminals, if the invention is applied to a terminal having a DMB receiving function, it is possible to considerably reduce the theft accidents. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Therefore, it should be understood that the above embodiments are not limitative, but illustrative in all aspects. The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the description preceding them, and therefore all changes and modifications that fall within metes and bounds of the claims, or equivalents of such metes and bounds are therefore intended to be embraced by the claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. An antitheft system of a digital apparatus that has a function of receiving digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB)₅ the antitheft system comprising: a stolen apparatus registration server that receives a serial number (SN) of a stolen digital apparatus from a user terminal and stores the SN₅ and transmits the SN to a DMB broadcasting station server and requests the DMB broadcasting station server to transmit a broadcasting message including the SN.

2. The antitheft system of claim I₅ wherein the stolen apparatus registration server receives user information and the

SN of the stolen digital apparatus from the user terminal and stores the user information and the SN as stolen apparatus information.

3. The antitheft system of claim 1 , wherein the stolen apparatus registration server includes: a control unit that controls the whole operation; a service server that provides at least one of a Web service, a WAP service, and an automatic response service (ARS) according to a type of the user terminal; and an SN registration unit that receives stolen apparatus information including user information and the SN of the stolen digital apparatus from the user terminal and stores the stolen apparatus information in a database, and transmits the SN to the DMB broadcasting station server and requests the DMB broadcasting station server to transmit the broadcasting message including the SN.

4. The antitheft system of claim 1 or 3, wherein the broadcasting message is an SDI (Safery-Driving-Information) message.

5. The antitheft system of claim 3, wherein the stolen apparatus registration server further includes a user authentication unit that confirms whether a user who has accessed the stolen apparatus registration server through the user terminal is a qualified user.

6. The antitheft system of claim 3, wherein the stolen apparatus registration server further includes a user authentication unit that confirms whether a user who has accessed the stolen apparatus registration server through the user terminal is a qualified user, and when the user, who has been determined as the qualified user by the user authentication unit, requests to delete a previously registered SN, the SN registration unit deletes the deletion requested SN from the database, and requests the DMB broadcasting station server to delete the deletion requested SN from the broadcasting message.

7. A digital apparatus that accesses a DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) broadcasting station that transmits a broadcasting message including a serial number (SN) of a stolen digital apparatus, the digital apparatus comprising: a control unit that controls the whole operation; a memory that stores an SN of the digital apparatus; an SN comparing unit that receives, when the digital apparatus is supplied with power, the broadcasting message from a DMB broadcasting station server to extract a list of SNs, extracts an SN of the digital apparatus from the memory, and confirms whether the SN extracted from the memory is included in the list of SNs; and an operation control unit that determines whether the digital apparatus is a stolen digital apparatus according to a confirmed result by the SN comparing unit and determines whether or not to operate the digital apparatus.

8. The digital apparatus of claim 7, wherein the operation control unit locks the digital apparatus, when it is determined that the digital apparatus is the stolen digital apparatus.

9. The digital apparatus of claim 7 or 8, wherein the operation control unit performs user authentication, when it is determined that the digital apparatus is the stolen digital apparatus.