Secure system for programming electronically controlled locking devices by means of encrypted acoustic accreditations

1. A secured system for controlling the opening of lock devices, comprising:

at least one lock device provided with electronic circuits for the conditional control of locking/unlocking mechanical members based on previously defined access rights;

a mobile phone at the disposal of a master-user; and

a remote management site;

the system being characterized in that:

the remote management site comprises:

a database of lock devices and authorized users with, for each lock device, an associated unique identifier and a list of authorized users with corresponding access right data; and

a generator of accreditation data, the accreditations being encrypted acoustic accreditations in the form of single-use audio signals, adapted for allowing the programming of the lock devices with the access rights indexed in the database;

the system comprises means for secured transmission of said accreditation data from the remote management site to the mobile phone of the master-user;

the phone comprises an electroacoustic transducer capable of reproducing said acoustic accreditations;

the lock device comprises:

electroacoustic transducer capable of picking up the acoustic accreditations reproduced by the phone's transducer previously placed in the vicinity of the lock device; and

means for recognizing, analyzing and authenticating the acoustic accreditations picked up by the transducer, and updating the access rights upon recognizing a compliant accreditation.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the means for secured transmission of the accreditation data from the management site to the mobile phone of the master-user comprise means for coupling this mobile phone with a computer terminal connected to the management site.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the means for secured transmission of the accreditation data from the management site to the mobile phone of the master-user comprise a mobile network operator coupled to the management site and to the phone of the master-user.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein, for the generation of accreditation data to be transmitted to the phone, the management site is capable of combining the access right data peculiar to the authorized users with additional data peculiar to the lock and obtained with the management site, and of generating an acoustic accreditation that is a function of both said access right data and said additional data.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the phone is capable of combining the accreditation data transmitted by the management site with additional data inherent to the phone and obtained locally, and of generating an acoustic accreditation that is a function of both said accreditation data and said additional data.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein said additional data further comprise information of geographic location of the phone at the time of the programming operation, and the lock device further comprises accordingly means for memorizing the information of geographic location at the time of programming, and subsequently comparing such information with information of geographic location of a user's phone at the time of an attempted opening of the lock device by this user.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the phone is capable of:

previously to the reproduction of the access right programming acoustic accreditations, reproducing a specific session initiation accreditation adapted to switch the lock device into a programming mode; and

possibly, after the reproduction of said programming acoustic accreditations, reproducing a specific session closing accreditation adapted to switch the lock device out of said programming mode.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the lock device comprises an electroacoustic transducer capable of reproducing return acoustic signals, generated by the lock device and coded with data peculiar to the lock device, and

the phone comprises an electroacoustic transducer capable of picking-up said return signals.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the phone further comprises means for decoding said return signals and displaying, if need be, to the user, a message based on said data peculiar to the lock device.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the phone further comprises means for transmitting to the management site said return signals coded with said data peculiar to the lock device.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the phone further comprises means for memorizing and updating a list of lock devices already programmed and of lock devices not yet programmed.

12. The system of claim 1 , further comprising means for conditioning the reproduction of the acoustic accreditation by the phone's transducer to the previous presentation of a personal validation data delivered by the master-user to the phone.

13. The system of claim 1 , comprising means capable of:

checking the authorization of the master-user to perform a programming of the lock device;

generating an acoustic accreditation by the generator of the management site; and

transmitting said accreditation to the phone, for direct reproduction by the transducer of the latter previously placed in the vicinity of the lock device's transducer.

14. The system of claim 1 , comprising means capable of:

checking the authorization of the master-user to perform a programming of the lock device;

generating an acoustic accreditation by the generator of the management site; and

activating an internal applet of the phone to download said accreditation and memorize the latter in a memory of the phone;

and, in a second time,

activating the internal applet for reproducing the accreditation by the phone's transducer previously placed in the vicinity of the lock device's transducer.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the phone contains an internal applet forming, in combination with a cryptographic key, a cryptographic generator;

the accreditation data transmitted by the remote management site to the phone is said cryptographic key,

so as to allow, upon a request from the master-user, the generation of the acoustic accreditation by the internal applet and the reproduction thereof by the phone's transducer previously placed in the vicinity of the lock device's transducer.

16. The system of claim 1 , comprising means capable of:

checking the authorization of the master-user to perform a programming of the lock device;

generating an acoustic accreditation by the generator of the management site and converting said accreditation into an audio file;

transmitting said audio file to the phone for download and memorization into a memory of the phone;

and, in a second time,

reproducing the audio file by the phone's transducer previously placed in the vicinity of the lock device's transducer.