EP3050271A1

EP3050271A1 - Connecting a household appliance to wlan using a temporary network

Info

Publication number: EP3050271A1
Application number: EP13770898.8A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Fatih KURT; Deniz KAYA; Ihsan Mert OZCELIK
Original assignee: Arcelik AS
Current assignee: Arcelik AS
Priority date: 2013-09-27
Filing date: 2013-09-27
Publication date: 2016-08-03
Also published as: WO2015043649A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for remotely connecting a household appliance to a wireless local area network (WLAN) in a secure manner, said method comprising the steps of creating a soft Access Point (AP) by said household appliance so as to establish a temporary wireless network, generating a random password for the Access Point (AP) and displaying on the household appliance's display, processing reception of a connection request from an external terminal for a predefined time duration, accepting connection of a user to a web server run on the appliance, receiving network specific authentication information in respect of said wireless local area network (WLAN), disabling the Access Point and connecting to the specified local area network using the network specific authentication information in respect of said wireless local area network (WLAN).

Description

[Title established by the ISA under Rule 37.2] CONNECTING A HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE TO WLAN USING A TEMPORARY NETWORK

The present invention relates to a household appliance having no textual input means and which can be remotely controlled in a more intuitive manner from a remote location by way of remotely connecting the same to a secure wireless communication network.
It is well-known that household appliances are also required to execute remotely programmed functions. For example, a rotary electrical machine can be programmed remotely through a network connection to fulfill certain tasks, such programming involving an improved computer interface for example as in the case of a special personal computer control interface or a smart phone application.
Among others, a prior art publication in the technical field of the invention may be referred to as US 2005 136892, which discloses a system and method providing secure authentication of a wireless communication channel for a vehicle telematics device that includes detecting a wireless Access Point (AP) within radio range of a telematics device, requesting authentication information for the Access Point through a first secure communication channel to a call center, receiving authentication information for the wireless Access Point from the call center through the first secure communication channel, and providing authentication information for the telematics device to the wireless Access Point through a second secure communication channel.
As described in US 2005 136892, the secure authentication of the wireless communication is provided by using a first secure communication channel to a call center and a second secure communication for providing received authentication information for the telematics device to the wireless Access Point of the wireless communication network.
The problem associated with the network connection procedures of household appliances such as for instance rotary machines, i.e. laundry treatment machines, refrigerators and so on is that these machines do conventionally have control interfaces with buttons and knobs having limited specific functions. These machines are therefore less intuitive to allow users enter textual inputs compared to TV sets or other appliances which may have remote controls capable of simulating such functions with physical keys or at least navigation arrows to select on-screen letters. In other words, it is more difficult for household appliances such as washing and/or drying machines, dishwasher and to some extent for refrigerators to fulfill these tasks, particularly if those are in the category of relatively low-budget products.
In sum, the present invention provides a wireless communication network secure authentication method for a household appliance that has no textual input means in the form of a physical medium or a software interface. More particularly, the present invention provides that a conventional user interface household appliance can be controlled more intuitively from a remote location by way of remotely connecting the same to a secure wireless communication network.
Further, the simplistic yet advantageous method of the invention affords a very effective and quick solution for users to securely connect a household appliance to a wireless local area network, compared to procedurally more complex network security solutions.
The present invention provides a wireless communication network secure authentication method for a household appliance that has no textual input means in the form of a physical medium or a software interface as provided by the characterizing features defined in Claim 1.
Primary object of the present invention is to provide a wireless communication network secure authentication method for a household appliance that has no textual input means.
The present invention proposes a method for remotely connecting a household appliance to a wireless home network. The user uses a temporary wireless network to submit the home network’s authentication information to the household appliance. The temporary wireless network is established by creating a soft Access Point (AP), for instance by a network adapter of said household appliance. The household appliance listens for connections for a predefined period and upon receiving a connection request from an external device such as a smart phone, it accepts connection of the user to an internal web server and receives network specific authentication information in respect of said wireless home network. This information is used to connect to the specified network after disabling the Access Point radio.
Accompanying drawing is given solely for the purpose of exemplifying a wireless communication network secure authentication method for a household appliance whose advantages over prior art were outlined above and will be explained in brief hereinafter.
The drawing is not meant to delimit the scope of protection as identified in the claims nor should it be referred to alone in an effort to interpret the scope identified in said claims without recourse to the technical disclosure in the description of the present invention.
Fig. 1 demonstrates a flow diagram representation of the secure authentication method for allowing access of a household appliance to a wireless communication network according to the present invention.
The present invention proposes a secure network connection for a household appliance which might not have a special user input medium such as a user panel for entering textual information. More specifically, a household appliance that is primarily designed to fulfill its own principal functions and which might be defined as a relatively low-budget appliance is provided with secure wireless network connectivity function according to the present invention. For instance a refrigerator or a rotary electrical machine such as a laundry treatment machine may have a relatively basic user interface on which users set several operational parameters by means of buttons and knobs but such interfaces may not involve a more advanced user input panel with textual information inputting means such as a keyboard.
The household appliance according to the present invention may be additionally equipped with a network board, or a network interface board, which is commonly referred to as a network adapter. It is preferably built into the main circuit board of the appliance as conventionally practiced, or may be built separately.
The present invention primarily aims at providing a method by which a household appliance can connect to a wireless (Wi-Fi) network by way of establishing a secure connection link with a wireless communication device, said network typically being a home network made up of several components such as computers, an Internet connection, and a wireless router. The wireless router conventionally acts as the center of the network as it shares the remote connection and other access to all connected devices
The household appliance according to the present invention is first configured by a staff member to create a soft Access Point (AP), i.e. software enabled Access Point to act as a Wi-Fi Access Point. The household appliance may also be configured with its factory default settings to create a soft Access Point upon pressing a key by selecting a menu item. Therefore, a home user can also initiate the procedure by pressing a menu key.
The soft Access Point will only be available for a certain short time period, i.e. 90 seconds, during which a network connection request is receivable. This is a temporary wireless network to which the user will connect through an external terminal such as a computer or smart phone. The temporary wireless network authentication information including the network name, IP address and password can be provided in the user manual or as a sticker on the appliance. The password can be generated by the appliance randomly and displayed on the appliance’s display.
Alternatively, the model name of the appliance can be used as the name of the temporary network and the model number thereof can be assigned as the password to log into the temporary wireless network. The name of the temporary network can also be randomly generated with a known prefix –a part of the model name- each time the Access Point is enabled. In this case, the user will have to make a guess on the correct name of the temporary network and log into the same with the password provided to him/her within the specified time duration.
In order for remotely connecting the household appliance to a secure wireless communication network such as a home network, the user then needs to connect to the web server that preferably runs on the network board of the household appliance. While doing this, the user submits network specific information including the network name, IP address and password. This operation can be implemented by means of a web browser of the external terminal. The web server running on the household appliance is accessed by browsing to the IP address of the access point. The user logging into the temporary wireless network then provides network specific authentication information for the home network. The user therefore uses the temporary wireless network to provide the home network’s authentication information to the household appliance. The household appliance, i.e. preferably the network adapter of the appliance then saves the inputted information and disables the Access Point radio.
Alternatively, instead of using a web browser for accessing the web server, the user can be provided with a specific piece of software or mobile application. In this case, the software or mobile application having a special interface dedicated both to provide access to the web server and to control various functions by performing a specific set of system operation functions of the appliance is more appealing for users.
In a nutshell, the present invention relates to a method for remotely connecting a household appliance to a wireless local area network (WLAN) in a secure manner, said method comprising the steps of creating a soft Access Point (AP) by said household appliance so as to establish a temporary wireless network, processing reception of a connection request from an external terminal for a predefined time duration, accepting connection of a user to a web server run on the household appliance, receiving network specific authentication information in respect of said wireless local area network (WLAN), disabling the Access Point and connecting to the specified local area network using the network specific authentication information in respect of said wireless local area network (WLAN).
It is to be noted that the simplistic yet efficient approach adopted by the present invention provides a practical and secure way of connecting a household appliance such as a refrigerator, dishwasher or washing/drying machine to a local wireless network. This procedure, which would normally require providing authentication information on a control panel/interface of the household appliance, as is usually the case for more expansive high-end products, is therefore securely simplified in budget products. The present invention requires no special textual inputting means on the household appliance desired to be connected to the local area network and as such provides an alternative and equally secure wireless connection method.

Claims

A method for remotely connecting a household appliance to a wireless local area network (WLAN) in a secure manner, said method comprising the steps of

- creating a soft Access Point (AP) by said household appliance so as to establish a temporary wireless network,

- processing reception of a connection request from an external terminal by said household appliance for a predefined time duration,

- accepting connection of a user to a web server run on the household appliance,

- receiving network specific authentication information in respect of said wireless local area network (WLAN),

- disabling the Access Point and connecting to the specified local area network using the network specific authentication information in respect of said wireless local area network (WLAN).
A method for connecting a household appliance to a wireless local area network (WLAN) in a secure manner as in Claim 1, characterized in that the name of the temporary network created by enabling an Access Point (AP) is randomly generated with a known prefix.
A method for connecting a household appliance to a wireless local area network (WLAN) in a secure manner as in Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the step of accepting connection of a user to said web server run on said household appliance is implemented by means of a web browser of said external terminal accessing said web server by browsing to the IP address of the Access Point.
A method for connecting a household appliance to a wireless local area network (WLAN) in a secure manner as in Claim 1 or 3, characterized in that the network specific authentication information in respect of said wireless local area network (WLAN) is received from a user logging into said the temporary wireless network.
A method for connecting a household appliance to a wireless local area network (WLAN) in a secure manner as in Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a piece of software or mobile application runs on said external terminal for accessing said web server.
A method for connecting a household appliance to a wireless local area network (WLAN) in a secure manner as in any previous Claims characterized in that said method is implemented on a refrigerator or a rotary electrical machine such as a laundry treatment machine.
A method for connecting a household appliance to a wireless local area network (WLAN) in a secure manner as in Claim 1, characterized in that the step of creating a soft Access Point (AP) by said household appliance so as to establish a temporary wireless network comprises the step of displaying the randomly generated password for said soft AP on said household appliance’s display.