Information home electric appliance

Abstract

By performing initial user registration via an SSL-compliant browser in an information home electric appliance 100, user's private key, digital certificate, and member information are downloaded (b 2 ) into the storage device in the information home electric appliance. At card use time, when the user selects products on a merchant's SSL-compliant server and issues a purchase instruction (c 1 ), the user is identified locally in the information home electric appliance based on a personal identification number. Subsequently, the information home electric appliance accesses an SSL-compliant settlement server 220 (C 4 ) and sends a digital certificate and member information stored in the appliance. Then, mutual authentication is performed between the user and the settlement server and, based on the member information, an authorization gateway 241 authorizes the account settlement (c 5 ). This allows even an information home electric appliance with a relatively small capacity memory device to conduct relatively secure transactions over the Internet using a credit card.

1 - 7 . (canceled) 
     
     
         8 . A recording medium storing therein a computer program that is executed in an information home electric appliance for use in an electronic account settlement of products purchased via a credit card at a virtual store on a communication medium, said information home electric appliance having an Internet accessing capability, said computer program comprising:
 for use in initial user registration for shopping at a virtual store by a card member who is a user of the information home electric appliance, a function that allows the information home electric appliance to communicate with a card issuer's server, which is compliant with the encryption communication protocol, in response to an instruction from the user to input to the server a card number, personal information for identifying the card member, and password information for electronic account settlement decided by the card member;   a function that receives, from the card issuer's server, information for authenticating the card member in accordance with the encryption communication protocol and personal information on the card member and stores the received information into a storage device in said information home electric appliance;   and, for use in purchasing products at the virtual store, a function that allows the information home electric appliance to communicate with a site of the virtual store in response to an instruction from the user;   a function that requests the user to input said password information for electronic account settlement and compares the entered password information with password information stored in said appliance to confirm that the user is the card member who requested the initial user registration via said information home electric appliance;   a function that sends order information to a server of the virtual store in response to an instruction from the user;   a function that accesses a settlement server of said card issuer via the Internet in response to an instruction from the server of the virtual store that received the order information; and   a function that authenticates the card member with the settlement server using the information for authenticating the card member and then sends the personal information stored in the storage device to the settlement server.   
     
     
         9 . The recording medium according to  claim 8 , wherein the information for authenticating the card member includes a private key in a public key cryptosystem and a digital certificate of the card member sent from the card issuer's server and wherein said authentication of the card member with the settlement server is performed using the private key and the digital certificate of the card member. 
     
     
         10 . The recording medium according to  claim 8 , further comprising a function that causes the user to input password information for the card member decided by a host computer of the card issuer instead of the function that causes the user to input the password information for electronic account settlement decided by the card member. 
     
     
         11 . The recording medium according to  claim 8 , further comprising:
 a function that receives secret information from the card issuer's server during the initial user registration; and   a function that causes the user to input said secret information and said password information in response to an instruction from the server before receiving from the card issuer's server the information for authenticating the card member in accordance with the encryption communication protocol and the personal information on the card member.   
     
     
         12 . A computer program that is executed in an information home electric appliance for use in an electronic account settlement of products purchased via a credit card at a virtual store on a communication medium, said information home electric appliance having an Internet accessing capability, said computer program comprising:
 for use in initial user registration for shopping at a virtual store by a card member who is a user of the information home electric appliance, a function that allows the information home electric appliance to communicate with a card issuer's server, which is compliant with an encryption communication protocol, in response to an instruction from the user to input to the server a card number, personal information for identifying the card member, and password information for electronic account settlement decided by the card member;   a function that receives, from the card issuer's server, information for authenticating the card member in accordance with the encryption communication protocol and personal information on the card member and stores the received information into a storage device in said information home electric appliance;   and, for use in purchasing products at the virtual store, a function that allows the information home electric appliance to communicate with a site of the virtual store in response to an instruction from the user;   a function that requests the user to input said password information for electronic account settlement and compares the entered password information with password information stored in said appliance to confirm that the user is the card member who requested the initial user registration via said information home electric appliance;   a function that sends order information to a server of the virtual store in response to an instruction from the user;   a function that accesses a settlement server of said card issuer via the Internet in response to an instruction from the server of the virtual store that received the order information; and   a function that authenticates the card member with the settlement server using a private key and a digital certificate of the card member and then sends the personal information stored in the storage device to the settlement server.   
     
     
         13 . The computer program according to  claim 12 , wherein the information for authenticating the card member includes the private key in a public key cryptosystem and the digital certificate of the card member sent from the card issuer's server and wherein said authentication of the card member with the settlement server is performed using the private key and the digital certificate of the card member. 
     
     
         14 . The computer program according to  claim 12 , further comprising a function that causes the user to input password information for the card member decided by a host computer of the card issuer instead of the function that causes the user to input the password information for electronic account settlement decided by the card member. 
     
     
         15 . The computer program according to  claim 12 , further comprising:
 a function, for use in the initial user registration, that inputs said secret information and said password information in response to an instruction from the server before receiving from the card issuer's server the information for authenticating the card member in accordance with the encryption communication protocol and the personal information on the card member.