JP7565831B2 - Authentication System - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an authentication system that authorizes the use of home appliances based on an authentication code.

In recent years, with the increase in tourists, private lodgings, which use ordinary residences as accommodations, have become popular. In addition, the use of room sharing, where multiple people other than family members live in one residence, is also increasing. In such private lodgings and room sharing (hereinafter referred to as "private lodgings, etc."), the representative (for example, the property owner in the case of private lodgings, and for example, one of the residents in the case of room sharing) contracts for gas and water for the use of hot water from the water heater and the gas stove. For example, in the case of private lodgings, the reality is that only a fixed amount can be charged as the accommodation fee, regardless of the amount of gas and water used by the private lodging user. Also, in room sharing, it is not possible to determine the amount of gas and water used by each person, so it is not possible to calculate the usage fee for each person. Also, for example, if a private lodging user leaves the hot water running or leaves the gas stove on, it is not easy to determine who is responsible.

As a result, technology has been considered that incorporates a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) module or a BLUETOOTH (registered trademark) module into the remote control of a home appliance or the body of a gas stove, as described in Patent Document 1, and obtains information indicating operation and usage status from a mobile terminal such as a smartphone.

JP 2015-132947 A

However, in a technology that pairs a mobile terminal with a home appliance using communication such as wireless LAN or BLUETOOTH, and then operates or obtains information about the home appliance from the mobile terminal, a connection can be easily established simply by the mobile terminal being within the communication range of the wireless LAN or BLUETOOTH of the home appliance, meaning that an unspecified person may be able to operate the remote control or gas stove of the home appliance. For this reason, the technology described in Patent Document 1 requires that the authentication code that enables pairing of the mobile terminal with the home appliance be handled in a way that does not leak to third parties, leaving room for improvement.

Therefore, there is a demand for an authentication system that can easily handle the authentication codes used when using home appliances.

The characteristic configuration of the authentication system according to the present invention is an authentication system that permits the use of a home equipment device based on an authentication code, and includes a first authentication code transmission unit provided in a server that transmits the authentication code to the home equipment device and an administrator terminal owned by an administrator of the home equipment device, a first authentication code storage unit provided in the home equipment device that stores the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit in a state in which the authentication code is not displayed to a user who uses the home equipment device, a second authentication code storage unit provided in the administrator terminal that stores the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit, and a second authentication code storage unit provided in the administrator terminal that stores the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit. The device is provided with a second authentication code transmission unit that transmits the second authentication code to a user terminal owned by the user, an authentication code acquisition unit that is provided in the home equipment and acquires the authentication code from the user terminal, a determination unit that is provided in the home equipment and determines whether the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit, and a usage permission unit that is provided in the home equipment and permits the user to use the home equipment when the determination unit determines that the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit.

With this type of characteristic configuration, if the authentication code received from the server in the household equipment does not match the authentication code acquired by the user terminal, the household equipment cannot be used. Furthermore, since the authentication code is managed in the household equipment so that it cannot be seen by third parties, it is possible to prevent, for example, unauthorized acquisition and use of the authentication code from the household equipment. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the household equipment from being used unless the authentication code is acquired in an appropriate manner. In this way, this authentication system makes it easy to handle authentication codes and makes it easier for users to give permission to use the household equipment.

It is also preferable that the authentication code is issued by the server in response to an instruction from the administrator terminal.

With this configuration, the administrator of the home appliance can issue the authentication code at the time of their choice. Also, because the authentication code is issued by the server, the administrator can avoid the trouble of having to consider the authentication code.

Alternatively, the authentication code may be issued by the server in response to an instruction from the home appliance.

With this configuration, for example, an authentication code can be issued at a time desired by a user of a home appliance (for example, when the user wants to start using the appliance). In addition, because the authentication code is issued by the server, the user can avoid the trouble of having to consider the authentication code.

The characteristic configuration of the authentication system according to the present invention is an authentication system that permits the use of a home equipment device based on an authentication code, comprising: a first authentication code storage unit provided in the home equipment device that stores the authentication code in a state in which the authentication code is not displayed to a user who uses the home equipment device; a home equipment side authentication code transmission unit provided in the home equipment device that transmits the authentication code to a server; a first authentication code transmission unit provided in the server that transmits the authentication code from the home equipment side authentication code transmission unit to an administrator terminal owned by an administrator of the home equipment device; a second authentication code storage unit provided in the administrator terminal that stores the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit; and a second authentication code storage unit provided in the administrator terminal that stores the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit. The device is provided with a second authentication code transmission unit that transmits the authentication code stored in a code storage unit to a user terminal held by the user, an authentication code acquisition unit that is provided in the home equipment and acquires the authentication code from the user terminal, a determination unit that is provided in the home equipment and determines whether the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit, and a usage permission unit that is provided in the home equipment and permits the user to use the home equipment when the determination unit determines that the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit.

With this type of characteristic configuration, the home appliance can issue an authentication code. Even in this case, as with the authentication system described above, the authentication code can be easily handled, and it is also possible to easily grant permission for the user to use the home appliance.

It is also preferable that the authentication code is issued by the home appliance in response to an instruction received by the home appliance.

With this configuration, it becomes possible for a user to issue an authentication code by operating a home appliance.

It is also preferable that a plurality of the home appliances are provided, and the authentication code is set for each of the plurality of home appliances.

With this configuration, even if there are multiple home appliances, it is possible to grant permission for use for each home appliance.

The authentication system preferably includes a measurement unit provided in the home appliance that measures the usage status of the home appliance according to the authentication code, and a usage fee calculation unit that calculates the usage fee for the home appliance according to the usage status measured by the measurement unit.

With this configuration, the authentication code and the usage fee for the home appliance can be managed in association with each other, so that the usage fee for the home appliance by the user can be calculated and billed. Also, by configuring the system to be able to issue multiple authentication codes for one home appliance, for example, it becomes possible to issue an authentication code for each user and calculate and bill the usage fee for each user.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an authentication system according to a first embodiment. FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an authentication system according to a second embodiment.

1. First embodiment The authentication system according to the present invention has a function of permitting the use of household equipment based on an authentication code. An authentication system 1 according to the present embodiment will be described below.

1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an authentication system 1 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the authentication system 1 includes an administrator terminal 2, a server 3, a home equipment device 4, and a user terminal 5. The administrator terminal 2 is a terminal owned by an administrator who manages the home equipment device 4, and specifically corresponds to a computer owned by the home equipment device 4 or the owner of the building in which the home equipment device 4 is installed. The server 3 corresponds to a computer that issues an authentication code used to license the home equipment device 4 to the user. The home equipment device 4 corresponds to equipment installed in a building (in the example of FIG. 1, an "accommodation facility") such as gas equipment, water equipment, and electrical appliances. In this embodiment, the gas equipment installed in the accommodation facility will be described as an example of the home equipment device 4. The user terminal 5 corresponds to a computer or smartphone owned by the user. The administrator terminal 2, the server 3, the home equipment device 4, and the user terminal 5 are configured to be able to communicate with each other via a network. For this reason, the administrator terminal 2, the server 3, and the home equipment device 4 may be installed separately from each other.

In this embodiment, the administrator terminal 2 is provided with an issuance instruction unit 21, a second authentication code storage unit 22, and a second authentication code transmission unit 23, and the server 3 is provided with an issuance unit 31 and a first authentication code transmission unit 32. The home equipment 4 is provided with a first authentication code storage unit 41, an authentication code acquisition unit 42, a determination unit 43, and a usage permission unit 44, and the user terminal 5 is provided with a third authentication code storage unit 51.

In this embodiment, the authentication code is issued by the server 3 in response to an instruction from the administrator terminal 2. The authentication code is used to determine whether or not a person attempting to use the home equipment 4 is authorized to use the home equipment 4, and corresponds, for example, to an electronic key. Such an authentication code can be composed of, for example, alphanumeric characters and symbols. When the administrator of the home equipment 4 intends to issue an authentication code, the issuance instruction unit 21 instructs the server 3 to issue an authentication code. Therefore, the issuance instruction unit 21 instructs the server 3 to issue an authentication code in response to an instruction from the administrator of the home equipment 4 (#1).

The issuing unit 31 issues an authentication code based on instructions from the issuing instruction unit 21 (#2). As described above, this authentication code can be composed of, for example, alphanumeric characters and symbols, and can be composed of multiple randomly arranged characters. The authentication code issued by the issuing unit 31 is transmitted to the first authentication code transmitting unit 32.

The first authentication code transmission unit 32 transmits an authentication code to the home equipment 4 and the manager terminal 2. The first authentication code transmission unit 32 may be configured to transmit the authentication code as is, or may encrypt it with a specified encryption key before transmitting it. When encrypting it with an encryption key before transmitting it, the home equipment 4 and the manager terminal 2 that have acquired the authentication code from the first authentication code transmission unit 32 may decrypt the authentication code with the specified encryption key. In FIG. 1, the process in which the first authentication code transmission unit 32 transmits the authentication code to the manager terminal 2 is indicated with #3, and the process in which the first authentication code transmission unit 32 transmits the authentication code to the home equipment 4 is indicated with #4, but the respective processes (#3 and #4) may or may not be performed simultaneously.

The second authentication code storage unit 22 stores the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit 32 (#5). At this time, the authentication code may be configured to be displayed on the display device of the administrator terminal 2 so that the administrator can check it, or may be configured not to be displayed on the display device of the administrator terminal 2 so that the administrator cannot check it. Also, as described above, when the authentication code is encrypted with a specific encryption key and transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit 32, it is preferable to decrypt the authentication code with the specific encryption key and then store it in the second authentication code storage unit 22.

The first authentication code storage unit 41 stores the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit 32 in a state in which it is not displayed to the user who uses the home equipment 4 (#6). A state in which it is not displayed to the user means a state in which the user of the home equipment 4 cannot see the authentication code. It is also preferable to prevent the user from seeing the authentication code during the time from the first authentication code transmission unit 32 until it is stored in the first authentication code storage unit 41. Note that, when the authentication code is encrypted with a specified encryption key and transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit 32 to the first authentication code storage unit 41, it is preferable to configure the authentication code to be decrypted with the specified encryption key and then stored in the first authentication code storage unit 41.

The second authentication code transmission unit 23 transmits the authentication code stored in the second authentication code storage unit 22 to the user terminal 5 held by the user (#7). The second authentication code transmission unit 23 acquires the authentication code from the second authentication code storage unit 22 and transmits the acquired authentication code to the user terminal 5. At this time, the second authentication code transmission unit 23 may be configured to transmit the authentication code to the user terminal 5 in response to a request instruction for the authentication code from the user terminal 5, or may be configured to transmit the authentication code to the user terminal 5 when the authentication code is stored in the second authentication code storage unit 22, regardless of whether or not there is a request instruction for the authentication code from the user terminal 5.

The third authentication code storage unit 51 stores the authentication code transmitted from the second authentication code transmission unit 23 (#8). The authentication code stored in the third authentication code storage unit 51 may be configured to be displayed on the display device of the user terminal 5 so that the user can see it.

When the authentication code is stored in the third authentication code storage unit 51, pairing is performed between the user terminal 5 and the home equipment 4. Pairing is a process for enabling the user terminal 5 and the home equipment 4 to communicate with each other, and in this embodiment, is performed in response to the user's operation of the user terminal 5. In addition, pairing can be performed using, for example, a wireless or wired LAN (Local Area Network) or short-range wireless communication such as BLUETOOTH (registered trademark). Note that pairing may be performed in advance before the authentication code is stored in the third authentication code storage unit 51.

When the above-mentioned pairing is completed and the user wishes to use the household equipment 4, the user operates the user terminal 5 to send an authentication code from the user terminal 5 to the household equipment 4 (#9). This authentication code may be sent by the user referring to the authentication code stored in the third authentication code storage unit 51 and inputting it into a specified sending screen, or the authentication code stored in the third authentication code storage unit 51 may be automatically sent when the user presses a send button.

The authentication code acquisition unit 42 acquires an authentication code from the user terminal 5. As described above, the authentication code stored in the third authentication code storage unit 51 is transmitted from the user terminal 5 to the home appliance 4. The authentication code acquisition unit 42 acquires the authentication code transmitted from the user terminal 5. The authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit 42 is transmitted to the determination unit 43.

The determination unit 43 determines whether the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit 42 matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit 41 (#10). The authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit 42 is the authentication code transmitted from the user terminal 5, and this authentication code is the authentication code transmitted from the administrator terminal 2 to the user terminal 5. The authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit 41 is the authentication code transmitted from the server 3 to the home equipment 4 in response to the instruction of the issuance instruction unit 21. Therefore, the determination unit 43 determines whether the authentication code transmitted from the user terminal 5 matches the authentication code transmitted from the server 3 to the home equipment 4 in response to the instruction of the issuance instruction unit 21. The determination result of the determination unit 43 is transmitted to the usage permission unit 44.

The usage permission unit 44 permits the user to use the home equipment 4 when the judgment unit 43 judges that the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit 42 matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit 41 (#11). As described above, the judgment unit 43 judges whether the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit 42 matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit 41, and this judgment result is transmitted to the usage permission unit 44. When the judgment result indicates that the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit 42 matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit 41, the usage permission unit 44 permits the user to use the home equipment 4, and when the judgment result indicates that the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit 42 does not match the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit 41, the usage permission unit 44 does not permit the user to use the home equipment 4. If the usage permission unit 44 permits the user to use the home equipment 4, the user can use the home equipment 4, and if the usage permission unit 44 does not permit the user to use the home equipment 4, the user will continue to be unable to use the home equipment 4.

By configuring it as described above, the authentication system 1 makes it possible to limit the users of the home equipment 4 to specific people by using the authentication code, even if there are an unspecified number of people around the home equipment 4. It is also possible to restrict the use of the home equipment 4 to people who do not have the authentication code.

2. Second embodiment In the above embodiment, the authentication system 1 has been described as being configured to limit users of the household equipment 4 to specific people according to the authentication code by permitting the user to use the household equipment 4 when it is determined that the authentication code acquired from the user terminal 5 matches the authentication code transmitted from the server 3. The authentication system 1 can also be configured to calculate a usage fee for the household equipment 4 by the permitted user.

Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an authentication system 1 according to the second embodiment. As shown in Figure 2, the authentication system 1 according to the second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that the home appliance 4 is provided with a measurement unit 45 and a usage fee calculation unit 46, in comparison with the block diagram according to the first embodiment described above. The following describes the differences from the authentication system 1 according to the first embodiment, and will omit descriptions of the same points as those in the first embodiment.

The measurement unit 45 measures the usage status of the home equipment 4 according to the authentication code. "According to the authentication code" means "in a state associated with the authentication code." Therefore, when a user with a single authentication code uses the home equipment 4, the measurement unit 45 measures the usage status of the home equipment 4 by that user, and when a plurality of users with different authentication codes use the home equipment 4, the measurement unit 45 measures the usage status of the home equipment 4 for each user. That is, the measurement unit 45 measures the usage status of the home equipment 4 for each authentication code. Therefore, in this case, the authentication code may be configured to issue a plurality of different authentication codes for one home equipment 4. The usage status of the home equipment 4 corresponds to the usage time of the gas equipment and the amount of gas used when the home equipment 4 is a gas equipment. Also, when the home equipment 4 is a water supply, the usage time and amount of water used corresponds. Furthermore, when the home equipment 4 is an electrical appliance, the usage time and amount of power used corresponds to the electrical appliance. The measurement unit 45 measures the usage of the home appliances 4 by the user and transmits the measurement results to the usage fee calculation unit 46.

The usage fee calculation unit 46 calculates the usage fee for the home equipment 4 according to the usage status measured by the measurement unit 45. The usage status measured by the measurement unit 45 is the usage status of the home equipment 4 measured by the measurement unit 45 in association with each authentication code. The usage fee calculation unit 46 calculates the usage fee for the home equipment 4 for each authentication code according to such usage status. This allows the administrator of the home equipment 4 to understand the usage fee for the home equipment 4 by the user. Therefore, it becomes possible to easily charge a fee according to the usage fee, for example.

3. Other embodiments In the above embodiment, the authentication code is described as being issued by the server 3 in response to an instruction from the administrator terminal 2, but it is also possible to configure the authentication code to be issued by the server 3 in response to an instruction from the household equipment 4. In this case, it is possible to configure the authentication code to be issued by, for example, pressing an issue button provided on the household equipment 4 when the user uses the household equipment 4. Also in this case, it is preferable to configure the issuing unit 31 to issue the authentication code and the first authentication code sending unit 32 to send the authentication code to the administrator terminal 2 and the household equipment 4.

In the above embodiment, an example in which there is one home appliance 4 has been described, but there may be multiple home appliances 4. In this case, it is preferable to set an authentication code for each of the multiple home appliances 4.

In the above embodiment, an example was given of a case where the authentication code is issued by the server 3. The authentication code can also be configured to be issued by the household equipment 4. In this case, for example, when a user issues an issuance instruction to the household equipment 4 (for example, when the "authentication code issue button" is pressed), the household equipment 4 can be configured to issue the authentication code in response to the instruction, assuming that the instruction has been accepted. Such an authentication system 1 can be configured as follows.

The authentication system 1 includes a first authentication code storage unit 41 that is provided in the home equipment 4 when an authentication code is issued and stores the authentication code without displaying it to a user who uses the home equipment 4, a home equipment side authentication code transmission unit that is provided in the home equipment 4 and transmits the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit 41 to a server 3, a first authentication code transmission unit 32 that is provided in the server 3 and transmits the authentication code from the home equipment side authentication code transmission unit to an administrator terminal 2 owned by an administrator of the home equipment 4, a second authentication code storage unit 22 that is provided in the administrator terminal 2 and stores the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit 32, and a second authentication code storage unit 22 that is provided in the administrator terminal 2 and stores the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit 32. The home appliance can be configured to include a second authentication code transmission unit 23 that transmits the authentication code stored in the memory unit 22 to the user terminal 5 held by the user, an authentication code acquisition unit 42 that is provided in the home appliance 4 and acquires the authentication code from the user terminal 5, a determination unit 43 that is provided in the home appliance 4 and determines whether the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit 42 matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit 41, and a usage permission unit 44 that is provided in the home appliance 4 and permits the user to use the home appliance 4 when the determination unit 43 determines that the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit 42 matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit 41.

Even with this type of authentication system 1, it is possible to easily handle the authentication code used when using the home equipment 4, just like the authentication system 1 of the above embodiment.

The configurations disclosed in the above embodiment (including other embodiments, the same applies below) can be applied in combination with configurations disclosed in other embodiments, so long as no contradiction arises. Furthermore, the embodiments disclosed in this specification are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. They can be modified as appropriate within the scope of the purpose of the present invention.

The present invention can be used in an authentication system that authorizes the use of home appliances based on an authentication code.

1: Authentication system 2: Administrator terminal 3: Server 4: Housing equipment 5: User terminal 22: Second authentication code storage unit 23: Second authentication code transmission unit 32: First authentication code transmission unit 41: First authentication code storage unit 42: Authentication code acquisition unit 43: Determination unit 44: Usage permission unit 45: Measurement unit 46: Usage fee calculation unit

Claims (7)

An authentication system for authorizing the use of a home equipment device based on an authentication code, comprising:
a first authentication code transmission unit provided in a server and configured to transmit the authentication code to the household equipment and an administrator terminal of an administrator of the household equipment;
a first authentication code storage unit provided in the household equipment and configured to store the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit in a state in which the authentication code is not displayed to a user who uses the household equipment;
a second authentication code storage unit provided in the administrator terminal and configured to store the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit;
a second authentication code transmission unit provided in the administrator terminal and configured to transmit the authentication code stored in the second authentication code storage unit to a user terminal of the user;
an authentication code acquisition unit provided in the household equipment and configured to acquire the authentication code from the user terminal;
a determination unit provided in the household equipment and determining whether the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit;
a usage permission unit provided in the household equipment, which permits the user to use the household equipment when the determination unit determines that the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit;
An authentication system comprising: The authentication system according to claim 1, wherein the authentication code is issued by the server in response to an instruction from the administrator terminal. The authentication system according to claim 1, wherein the authentication code is issued by the server in response to an instruction from the home appliance. An authentication system for authorizing the use of a home equipment device based on an authentication code, comprising:
a first authentication code storage unit provided in the household equipment and configured to store the authentication code in a state in which the authentication code is not displayed to a user who uses the household equipment;
a home equipment side authentication code transmission unit provided in the home equipment and transmitting the authentication code to a server;
a first authentication code transmission unit provided in the server and configured to transmit the authentication code from the home equipment side authentication code transmission unit to an administrator terminal of an administrator of the home equipment;
a second authentication code storage unit provided in the administrator terminal and configured to store the authentication code transmitted from the first authentication code transmission unit;
a second authentication code transmission unit provided in the administrator terminal and configured to transmit the authentication code stored in the second authentication code storage unit to a user terminal of the user;
an authentication code acquisition unit provided in the household equipment and configured to acquire the authentication code from the user terminal;
a determination unit provided in the household equipment and determining whether the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit;
a usage permission unit provided in the household equipment, which permits the user to use the household equipment when the determination unit determines that the authentication code acquired by the authentication code acquisition unit matches the authentication code stored in the first authentication code storage unit;
An authentication system comprising: The authentication system according to claim 4, wherein the authentication code is issued by the home appliance in response to an instruction received by the home appliance. A plurality of the housing equipment is provided,
6. The authentication system according to claim 1, wherein the authentication code is set for each of the plurality of household equipment devices. a measurement unit provided in the household equipment and configured to measure a usage status of the household equipment in response to the authentication code;
The authentication system according to claim 1 , further comprising: a usage fee calculation unit that calculates a usage fee for the household equipment device in accordance with the usage status measured by the measurement unit.

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