Remote Authorization for Consumable Units in Franking Machines
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for ensuring authorized consumable units in franking machines are costly and offer limited protection against unauthorized or refilled consumable units, as they require high effort and expense to verify authenticity, with limited effectiveness in preventing the use of pirate products.
Innovation Solution
A method where the accounting for consumable units occurs only after verification at a data center, determining if the unit is unused, allowing payment at the time of first use, and maintaining a list for plausibility checks to detect manipulations, using unique identification and cryptographic means to ensure authenticity and prevent unauthorized use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If local verification methods are used in the franking machine, then authorization can be verified quickly, but the protection against unauthorized consumable units is limited and costs are high
Solution Approach 1:
A data center is introduced as an intermediary between the franking machine and the consumable units. The data center stores authorization information and performs verification remotely, reducing the complexity and cost of verification in the franking machine while maintaining high reliability of authorization checks
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of storing complete authorization verification systems in each franking machine, only essential verification data is kept locally while the complete authorization information is copied and stored in the centralized data center, reducing device complexity while maintaining verification reliability
2Loss of energy
If accounting is performed before first use, then revenue is secured early, but the selling price of authorized consumable units must be high
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary registration and verification of consumable units in the data center before they are activated for use. Accounting is triggered only after successful verification and first use, rather than requiring pre-payment, which reduces the initial selling price while still securing revenue
Solution Approach 2:
The accounting model changes from pre-payment to post-verification payment. The system monitors the usage status and triggers accounting only when the consumable unit is first successfully verified and used, altering the economic parameters to reduce initial costs while maintaining revenue security
3Reliability
If verification is performed only at the data center, then protection against pirate products is improved, but communication overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
Authorization information is pre-loaded into consumable units during manufacturing. This preliminary action allows the data center to perform verification by simply checking against the pre-stored information, reducing communication overhead and time while maintaining high detection capability for unauthorized units
Solution Approach 2:
The data center performs complete verification of authorization information, while the franking machine only needs to verify a hash or summary of the authorization data. This partial verification approach reduces communication time while the data center maintains comprehensive detection capability
Data Source
AI summary
In a method for enabling the use of a consumable unit in a consumption device of a consumption arrangement, a first item of authorization information assigned to the consumable unit is transmitted from the consumption arrangement to a remote data center. The data center implements a first verification of the first item of authorization information and, as a function of this verification, a second item of authorization information assigned to the consumable unit is generated. The second item of authorization information is transmitted to the consumption arrangement, which implements a second verification of the second item of authorization information, dependent on which use of the consumable unit in the consumption device is enabled. The outcome of either the first or second verification is also used for an accounting for use of the consumable unit when, the first verification indicates that the consumable unit was previously unused.