Patent ID: 8571471

Claim:
An electromechanical lock assembly, comprising: a mechanical lock; and an actuator capable of locking and unlocking the mechanical lock; and an electronic lock controller for controlling the actuator, the lock controller comprising: a trusted time provider for supplying a trusted time value; a near field communication transceiver capable of communicating with and inductively receiving power from an operator-side interface device; and a logic processor capable of producing an open command for the actuator based on the trusted time value and a digital credential sent by an operator; wherein— the electronic lock controller is primarily powered by the near field communication transceiver, and not by a battery or wired grid connection; and wherein— the digital credential is time-stamped and valid only during a bounded time window, and the operator receives the digital credential from a central server during the bounded time window, and the trusted time provider comprises a register which updates a date/time reference based on each digital credential received, thereby providing a trusted “high water mark” time which increases monotonically with each operator interaction with the electromechanical lock assembly.