Patent ID: 11968305
Assignee: SONY GROUP CORPORATION
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC H

Claim 6:
7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, the computer program comprising executable instructions that cause a computer to:
calculate a challenge and an answer that is a function of the challenge,
wherein the challenge is a nonce and the function is non-reversible;
generate and store in a blockchain, a commitment including an identity of a user, an identity of a device, a pre-specified location associated with the user, a start time of usage of the device, an end time of usage of the device, and the calculated challenge,
wherein the commitment is generated to verify that the user is committed to using the device as specified;
generate a visual code of the device to carry the answer;
encrypt the generated visual code with a public key of the device, wherein the encrypted visual code may only be decrypted with a private key of the device;
store the encrypted visual code in the blockchain;
transfer the encrypted visual code to the device; decrypt the encrypted visual code using the private key of the device;
display an image of the visual code on a display;
capture the image of the visual code using a camera device;
extract the visual code that carries the answer corresponding to the challenge;
generate a message including the commitment with a location of the camera device, the identity of the device obtained from the extracted visual code, and a current time;
transmit, by the camera device, the message; and
verify, using the message including the commitment, that the user is using the device at the pre-specified location between the start time and the end time.