Sensor-Based NFC Authentication for Low-Power Computing Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional techniques for unlocking computing devices often require keeping components active or waking them unnecessarily, leading to increased power consumption and reduced battery life, as they drain power even in sleep states and prevent deeper power-saving states due to hardware and software interdependencies.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of sensor-based NFC authentication allows computing devices to detect the proximity of NFC-enabled devices while in a low-power state, enabling components to remain in sleep states until authentication is initiated, using a low-power processor to monitor sensors and wake the application processor only when necessary for authentication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If components are kept active or woken unnecessarily for authentication, then authentication functionality is maintained, but power consumption increases and battery life is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the authentication process into two distinct phases: a low-power detection phase handled by a separate coprocessor that monitors for NFC tags, and a full-power authentication phase handled by the main application processor. This segmentation allows the main processor to remain in sleep mode while authentication capability is preserved through the coprocessor's tag detection functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The coprocessor performs preliminary detection of NFC tags in proximity to the device while the main processor remains asleep. This preliminary action filters out non-authentication scenarios before waking the main processor, ensuring that full authentication resources are only activated when actually needed.
2Use of energy by moving object
If components remain in sleep states to conserve power, then power consumption is reduced, but authentication response time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The coprocessor continuously performs preliminary detection of NFC tags in proximity to the device while the main processor remains asleep. When a tag is detected, the coprocessor immediately wakes the application processor, ensuring minimal delay between tag presentation and full authentication initiation.
Solution Approach 2:
The coprocessor acts as an intermediary between the NFC hardware and the main application processor. It monitors the NFC interface for tag presence and conditionally wakes the main processor only when authentication is actually required, bridging the gap between low-power state and full authentication capability.
3Use of energy by moving object
If a low-power processor monitors sensors instead of keeping the main processor active, then deeper sleep states are enabled, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system architecture is segmented into a low-power coprocessor domain and a full-power application processor domain. The coprocessor handles sensor monitoring and NFC tag detection, while the application processor handles full authentication. This segmentation enables deeper sleep states for the main processor while distributing functionality across multiple specialized components.
Solution Approach 2:
The coprocessor serves as an intermediary layer between the NFC hardware interface and the main application processor. It abstracts the complexity of continuous NFC monitoring and sensor detection from the main processor, providing a simplified wake-up interface while enabling the main processor to remain in deep sleep mode.
Data Source
AI summary
This document describes techniques (400, 500, 600) and apparatuses (100, 700) for implementing sensor-based near-field communication (NFC) authentication. These techniques (400, 500, 600) and apparatuses (100, 700) enable a computing device (102) to detect, in a low-power state, environmental variances indicating proximity with an NFC-enabled device (104) with which to authenticate. In some embodiments, various components of a computing device (102) in a sleep state are activated to process environmental variance(s), perform authentication operations, and/or an indicate initiation of authentication operations to a user.