Multiplex communications – Pathfinding or routing – Switching a message which includes an address header
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-17
2003-02-04
Ton, Dang (Department: 2661)
Multiplex communications
Pathfinding or routing
Switching a message which includes an address header
C709S217000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06515988
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to data processing, and more particularly relates to the transfer between computing devices, and the retrieval by such devices, of document related information. Even more particularly, the invention concerns such information retrieval, transfer and processing using tokens.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
While the use of portable computing devices is becoming more widespread, transfer of information between such devices is often limited due to inadequate storage capacity or communication channel bandwidth. One possible system for overcoming as these limitations is disclosed in European patent application EP-A-691,619, published Jan. 10, 1996 (hereafter “EP'619”), which discloses a system for transferring document identifiers representing a particular document between computers, rather than the document itself. This system can include any number workstations, file servers, printers and other fixed devices (including multifunction devices) coupled in a network, and a number of portable devices (e.g. handheld or wristwatch computer) carried by users and coupled to the network by infrared (IR) link. Each portable device is in effect a user's personal satchel for documents, with the devices being programmed to receive, transmit, and store document identifiers (e.g. World Wide Web URLs), each of which is associated with an electronic document stored in an electronic repository at a site on the web. Documents are effectively distributed between devices by transmission of document URLs, rather than the lengthy document itself. For example, a document can be sent to an IR transceiver equipped network printer by “beaming” that document's URL from a handheld portable computer to the network printer. The network printer retrieves the complete document referenced by the URL, and immediately prints a copy.
While useful, the foregoing system may not always support operations, security measures, or parameters required by mobile workers interacting with various computational devices in the workplace. For example, a network printer beamed a document identifier might print the document as single sided using its default settings, even though the mobile worker may actually desire double sided printing. Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for supporting a wide range of digital applications that can be carried out in a data processing device that includes a processor, memory, and a user interface. In response to user input, the data processing device can generate a token comprising an operation component designating a document related operation (e.g. single sided or double sided print command), an address component designating the electronic address of a document or system providing a document related service, one or more parameter components, each parameter component defining a property of a document or a property of a service to be applied to a document, and a security parameter dependent upon the identity of a user associated with a document or with a document related service. This token is transmitted to another device (e.g. the network printer), which can check security, parameters, and modify its default operations in response to user input to the data processing device.
The invention employs “Satchel Document Tokens”—a special form of reference to a document or to a document service in portable devices, systems and methods for supporting mobile worker's document activities. These Satchel Document Tokens are henceforth simply referred to as “tokens”. In accordance with the invention, tokens can be stored in small personal portable electronic devices and can be transmitted between holders of such devices. They can also be transmitted to appropriately equipped document devices (printers, scanners, copiers, faxes). Tokens contain the information necessary to access documents, to invoke a document services with appropriate parameter settings, or to initiate the actions of a document device with appropriate parameter settings. In addition, the token contains the security information which provides safeguards to ensure that unauthorized use of the documents or document services that are referenced in the token is precluded.
In preferred embodiments, a token contains at least the following components.
Basic Operation. The token specifies the particular operation that is to be performed, e.g. getting the document or performing a service (printing, scanning, faxing, converting). The action may be identified very generically here, with parameter settings used to identify the exact operation more specifically.
Address of document or document service. The token contains the information necessary to find the document or service. The address could consist of the network address of a server and the file path name of a document. A WWW Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is an example of a document address, and is used in the current Satchel prototype.
Parameters. The token contains a set of parameter settings that may be needed by subsequent services that are triggered by transmitting the token to a device. Parameters are used to further specify the document or document service (e.g. Number of copies to print). Some parameters may themselves be tokens. The specific types parameters required depends on the particular service.
Visible Name. The token contains a string or icon which can be displayed to identify the document or service to which the token refers for the benefit of the user.
Security Information. The security component of a token contains information to support ensuring that only the intended use of the token is possible.
The security information includes a digital signature of the information in the token. The digital signature is a digest of information in the token and its encryption with the document owner's private key. This follows well known prior cryptographic art relating to public/private key cryptography (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,829). These signatures can only be generated by the personal portable device since only it has the private key. The signature ensures the integrity of the token and attests that the token did originate from a known portable device.
The security information can also include specified conditions that will restrict access to a document. For example, it may include (1) an expiry date beyond which access to the document is no longer granted, (2) the condition that a payment or certificate for release must be associated with the token, and/or (3) a requirement that only a given device be used to print the document.
The security information can include a recipient's public key or name to indicate that the returned document be encrypted with the given public key or the known public key associated with the recipient's name. This ensures that only the intended recipient of the document can make use of the returned document and that an intercepted copy of either the encrypted document or the token is of no use to anyone other than the intended recipient. More generally, information for supporting fees and usage rights such as can be expressed in more complex fees and usage rights languages (such as described in Stefik, M., “Letting Loose the Light: Igniting Commerce in Electronic Publication. In
Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors
. Edited by Mark Stefik. MIT Press, 1996), may be associated with the token.
Tokens which include security information are presented to “secure documents servers”. A secure server contains a “gatekeeper” which verifies signatures on tokens and examines the specified conditions associated with the token and then acts accordingly (e.g. encrypting the document with the appropriate key). The public key for verifying the signature is obtained through a parameter in the security information which identifies the owner of the document or from a server which stores users' public keys.
As compared to conventional technology for document transfer and processing, token-based techniques in accordance with the present invention have v
Eldridge Marge
Flynn Michael J.
Jones Chris
Kleyn Michael
Lamming Michael G.
Nguyen Brian
Ton Dang
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