Establishing secure communication between an implantable medical device and an external device
View Patent ↗Establishing secure communication between an implantable medical device and an external device includes: accessing, at the implantable medical device, biological data; utilizing the biological data, at the implantable medical device, to generate a public cryptographic key; and utilizing the public cryptographic key, at the implantable medical device, to generate a private cryptographic key.
1. A medical device, comprising:
a sensor configured to sense a biometric activity;
a converting module configured to convert the sensed biometric activity to a digital representation of the biometric activity, to compute a metric based on the digital representation of the biometric activity, and to obtain a digital representation of the metric; and
a cryptographic key generator configured to generate a cryptographic key, wherein the cryptographic key corresponds to a portion of a random number culled directly from the digital representation of the metric.
2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the cryptographic key is a public cryptographic key, and wherein the cryptographic key generator comprises:
a public cryptographic key generator configured to generate the public cryptographic key utilizing the digital representation of the metric.
3. The device of claim 2 , wherein the cryptographic key is a private cryptographic key, and wherein the cryptographic key generator further comprises:
a private cryptographic key generator configured to generate the private cryptographic key utilizing the public cryptographic key and a predetermined cryptographic key generation protocol.
4. The device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a communication subsystem configured to provide a communication interface with a second device.
5. The device of claim 4 , further comprising:
a decrypting module configured to decrypt a message received from the external device, thereby achieving a decrypted message.
6. The device of claim 5 , further comprising:
an authentication module configured to determine an authentication status of the second device, based on the decrypted message.
7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the authentication module comprises:
a comparer configured to:
compare a stored pass-code with the decrypted message;
indicate a positive verification of the authentication status if the decrypted message matches the stored pass-code; and
indicate a negative verification of the authentication status if the decrypted message differs from the stored passcode.
8. The device of claim 7 , wherein the authentication module is further configured to allow session access to the medical device by the second device if a positive verification is indicated.
9. The device of claim 7 , wherein the authentication module is further configured to disallow session access to the medical device by the second device if a negative verification is indicated.
10. The device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a data storage configured to store the sensed dynamic biometric activity.
11. The device of claim 1 , wherein the sensed biometric activity corresponds to an electrographic signal and the metric corresponds to a line length of the electrographic signal.
12. A method of communication by a medical device that senses biometric activity, comprising:
sensing a biometric activity;
converting the sensed biometric activity to a digital representation of the biometric activity, computing a metric based on the digital representation of the biometric activity, and obtaining a digital representation of the metric; and
generating a cryptographic key, wherein the cryptographic key corresponds to a portion of a random number culled directly from the digital representation of the metric.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the cryptographic key is a public cryptographic key, and generating comprises generating the public cryptographic key utilizing the digital representation of the metric.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the cryptographic key is a private cryptographic key, and generating comprises generating the private cryptographic key utilizing the public cryptographic key and a predetermined cryptographic key generation protocol.
15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
providing a communication interface with a second device.
16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
decrypting a message received from the second device, thereby achieving a decrypted message.
17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
determining an authentication status of the second device based on the decrypted message.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein determining an authentication status comprises:
comparing a stored pass-code with the decrypted message;
indicating a positive verification of the authentication status if the decrypted message matches the stored pass-code; and
indicating a negative verification of the authentication status if the decrypted message differs from the stored passcode.
19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising allowing session access to the medical device by the second device if a positive verification is indicated.
20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising disallowing session access to the medical device by the second device if a negative verification is indicated.