Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Visa International Service Association

Robert B Seidensticker

Vinay Deo

Michael J O'Leary

Matthew W Thomlinson

Jeffrey F Spelman

Barbara Lynch Fox

Lester L Waters

Daniel Ron Simon

Neil Scott Fishman

William E Kim

The wireless environment includes an object processing module to process objects obtained from a wireless receiver on the mobile device. The object processing module processes the object to alter data stored in memory on the mobile device.

Wireless database environment for a small device

The wireless environment includes an object processing module to process objects obtained from a wireless receiver on the mobile device. The object processing module processes the object to alter data stored in memory on the mobile device. The data comprises at least one in the group of a dataset, an applet and a systems parameters list.

Wireless database environment

An electronic commerce system facilitates secure electronic commerce transactions among multiple participants. Each electronic commerce transaction involves at least one commerce document defining the transaction and at least one commerce instrument defining a payment for the transaction. The electronic commerce system has a credential binding server at a trusted credential authority, multiple computing units at associated participants, and a communication system interconnecting the credential binding server and the multiple computing units. The electronic commerce system operates in two phases: a registration phase and a transaction phase. During the registration phase, each of the computing units generate and send a registration packet over the communication system to the credential binding server. Unique credentials are produced by the credential binding server based upon the registration packets sent back to the computing units. During the transaction phase, an originating computing unit initially requests, receives, and verifies the credentials of expected recipient computing units to ensure communication between authenticate participants. Thereafter, the originating computing unit signs and encrypts the commerce document(s) and the commerce instrument(s) in a manner which ensures that only the intended recipients can decrypt them. The originating computing unit then sends both the commerce document(s) and instrument(s) over the communication system to a first recipient computing unit. The first recipient computing unit decrypts and verifies the commerce document (s) and/or instruments intended for it. The first recipient computing unit then passes the balance of the encrypted commerce document(s) and/or instrument(s) over the communication system to a second recipient computing unit, which decrypts and verifies the commerce document(s) and/or instrument(s) intended for it. This process is continued until all commerce documents and commerce instruments are distributed, decrypted, and verified by their intended recipients.

System and method for secure electronic commerce transaction

The invention includes a time-triggered data object that is formulated at a host computer and transmitted to a PDA such as a personal electronic information manager that has data reception capabilities. The data object includes a specification of an action to be performed as well as a specification of an initiation time for initiating the specified action. The action can consist of a simple reminder or alarm, or can specify the execution of an application program on the PDA. When a data object is received by the PDA, its action and initiation time are stored in a local database. The PDA monitors the time and the database, and initiates the specified action at the specified time.

Time-triggered portable data objects

Small application programs called &ldquo;applets&rdquo; are defined by pseudo-code (p-code) instructions. Each applet is divided into software components that are executed by a processor, operating as a state machine. The applets are originally written in a high level programming language and then converted into the p-code, for downloading into a non-volatile read/write memory of a portable combination pager and personal information manager (PIM) device that includes the processor. In this device only 1-2 Kbytes of static random access memory (RAM) are available to load the p-code of applets for execution by the processor. The software components include variables and event handlers that respond to events such as key presses of buttons disposed on a control panel of the device. The variables include persistent variables that are stored in memory between invocations of an applet, invocation variables that are store in RAM during execution of an applet, and state variables that are only stored in RAM during a specific state of the applet. Event variables are available for processing of a specific event, but are replaced by different event variables when a different event must be processed. A kernel comprising a portion of the operating system for the device serves as a p-code interpreter, producing machine instructions from the p-code loaded into RAM, for execution by the processor. Accordingly, applets, which comprise only a few kilobytes of p-code, are executed by loading only a few of the software components into RAM at a time.

Application execution environment for a small device with partial program loading by a resident operating system

A user interface for a combination pager and personal information management (PIM) data device provides considerable versatility in accessing the data and in controlling how the data are displayed to the user. The user interface includes a display screen having only a few rows oil which lines of data are displayed, and four control buttons, including an Up button, a Down button, an Action button, and a Back button. Since the device maintains data in a hierarchical directory structure and starts at the highest (root) level, the Action button is used to move to a lower level in the directory hierarchy, while the Back button is used to move back up to a higher level. In addition, the Action button is employed to initiate a selected function. If a line (or entry) of a list is above the top line displayed on the screen, an upwardly pointing arrowhead is displayed to the user adjacent the top line. Similarly, a downwardly pointing arrowhead is displayed if a line in the list is below the last line on the screen currently displayed. The user can select an application to execute in the root node of the hierarchy when the device is initially turned on, reset, or after a predefined time interval has elapsed. In addition, the user can selectively actuate a faster scroll rate to move up or down through a list that is relatively long. The format applied to data presented to the user in the display screen is user selectable.

User interface for a portable data management device with limited size

A software application is modified in a defined manner to prevent it being executable by a processor until the modified software application is decoded. Preferably, a sum of all of the bytes comprising a header of the software application (sufficiently small in size to be referred to as an 'applet') is determined. In this embodiment, applet includes pseudo-code (p-code). Only the least most significant byte of the sum is used as a variable for modifying the p-code of the applet. Preferably, the variable is added to each byte of the p-code, except that only the first byte of a multi-byte p-code is thus modified. Alternatively, a different logical operator can be employed such as a subtract, AND, XOR, etc. for modifying the p-code. The modified program is then transferred to a portable pager that is also capable of maintaining personal information and executing small software applications. A processor in the pager device decodes p-code from the modified applet when needed during execution of the applet, by determining the variable that was used to modify the p-code and then subtracting the variable from p-code. The resulting p-code is then executable by the pager device. Modifying software code in this manner helps to insure that only software applets from an approved source that are written in an approved manner are executed by the portable paging device. This same approach can be used for encoding/decoding software transferred for execution on other types of small devices, such as cell phones and PIM devices.

Encryption of applications to ensure authenticity

Alternative notification methods for a portable wireless receiver that is able to receive paging objects (i.e., data objects) in addition to conventional alphanumeric page messages. When a paging object is received, the user may be notified of the receipt of the paging object using a visual alert or an audible alert. The user can selectively determine whether the sender of the page object will be allowed to determine the type of audible and/or visual notification provided the user. Various parameters associated with each type of directory in which page objects are stored and with the page objects indicate the preferences of the user and the sender for notifying the user of the receipt of the page object. The invention is also applicable to other types of portable wireless data receivers, such as a cell phone.

Flexible object notification

A relatively large set of image data (e.g. 640.times.480) is mapped onto a relative smaller physical display device (e.g. 320.times.240) by one of a variety of techniques, usually characterized by display of a subset of the data at full resolution (i.e. 1:1). In some embodiments, the entire physical display is dedicated to display of the subset of data at 1:1 resolution; data beyond this subset is not displayed. In other embodiments, only a portion of the physical display is dedicated to 1:1 resolution, with the remainder of the physical display being used to represent some fraction of the remaining data at a lower resolution. In one embodiment, the resolution decreases with distance from the 1:1 resolution area, resulting in a fisheye lens-like geometrical distortion. A variety of other alternatives are possible. Data displayed in these lower resolution portions of the display device are geometrically compressed or distorted, but provide useful context information for the user. Desirably, user-responsive control means are provided by which the user can move the 1:1 resolution window to show different portions of the data set.

Multiple resolution data display

A data transmission system includes a programmable portable information device, a frame-scanning graphics display device (e.g., a CRT monitor), and a display device controller (e.g., a personal computer). The display device controller supplies pixel data to the frame-scanning graphics display device which causes the display device to depict a particular changing optical pattern. To display the particular pattern, the frame-scanning graphics display device inherently fluctuates in energy output as different pixel intensities require different degrees of power. As a result, the frame-scanning graphics display device effectively emits an RF carrier signal. The programmable portable information device is equipped with an RF receiver that can receive the RF signal from the display device when the programmable portable information device is within a transmission range. The RF carrier signal is modulated to carry programming data to the portable information device. The portable information device demodulates the RF signal to obtain the digital data stream.

System and method for transmitting data from a computer to a portable

An electronic commerce system facilitates secure electronic commerce transactions among multiple participants. Each electronic commerce transaction involves at least one commerce document defining the transaction and at least one commerce instrument defining a payment for the transaction. The electronic commerce system has a credential binding server at a trusted credential authority, multiple computing units at associated participants, and a communication system interconnecting the credential binding server and the multiple computing units. The electronic commerce system operates in two phases: a registration phase and a transaction phase. During the registration phase, each of the computing units generate and send a registration packet over the communication system to the credential binding server. Unique credentials are produced by the credential binding server based upon the registration packets sent back to the computing units. During the transaction phase, an originating computing unit initially requests, receives, and verifies the credentials of expected recipient computing units to ensure communication between authenticate participants. Thereafter, the originating computing unit signs and encrypts the commerce document(s) and the commerce instrument(s) in a manner which ensures that only the intended recipients can decrypt them. The originating computing unit then sends both the commerce document(s) and instrument(s) over the communication system to a first recipient computing unit. The first recipient computing unit decrypts and verifies the commerce document(s) and/or instruments intended for it. The first recipient computing unit then passes the balance of the encrypted commerce document(s) and/or instrument(s) over the communication system to a second recipient computing unit, which decrypts and verifies the commerce document(s) and/or instrument(s) intended for it. This process is continued until all commerce documents and commerce instruments are distributed, decrypted, and verified by their intended recipients.

System and method for secure electronic commerce transactions

An authentication system includes a portable information device, such as a smart card, that is configured to store and process multiple different applications. The smart card is assigned its own digital certificate which contains a digital signature from a trusted certifying authority and a unique public key. Each of the applications stored on the smart card is also assigned an associated certificate having the digital signature of the certifying authority. The system further includes a terminal that is capable of accessing the smart card. The terminal has at least one compatible application which operates in conjunction with an application on the smart card. The terminal is assigned its own certificate which also contains the digital signature from the trusted certifying authority and a unique public key. Similarly, the application on the terminal is given an associated digital certificate. During a transactional session, the smart card and terminal exchange their certificates to authenticate one another. Thereafter, a smart card application is selected and the related certificates for both the smart card application and the terminal application are exchanged between the smart card and terminal to authenticate the applications. Additionally, the cardholder enters a unique PIN into the terminal. The PIN is passed to the smart card for use in authenticating the cardholder. The three-tiered authentication system promotes security in smart card transactions.

Authentication system and method for smart card transactions

Disclosed herein is a system and method of serially transferring a sequence of data bits between a computer and a portable information device such as the Timex Data Link.TM. watch, using the CRT of the computer as a transmission medium. The computer is programmed to display sequential display frames on a frame-scanning graphics display device and to illuminate line segments within the display frames to represent individual data bits. Each line segment has a continuous length on the display device which produces an optical pulse of a corresponding duration. Each data bit is encoded as a different line segment length to produce an optical pulse for each data bit having a duration which is dependent on the value of the data bit. For example, a pulse representing a binary value of 0 has a duration which is relatively longer than that of a pulse representing a binary 1. A receiving device monitors the optical signal created by the CRT and detects rising signal edges. It interprets each rising edge as the beginning of a single bit. After detecting a rising edge, the receiving device waits for a pre-determined time and then samples the optical signal. If the pulse from the CRT is still present, the receiving device interprets the data bit as a binary 0. Otherwise, the receiving device interprets the data bit as a binary 1.

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Woodinville, WA, United States of America

Robert B Seidensticker