A MOBILE EVIDENCE PRODUCTION METHOD

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method for producing a mobile evidence, and a system for applying this method.

PRIOR ART

In the present art, recording of images and sounds by means of mobile devices has become substantially easy. These sound or image files can be easily stored in digital media, can be processed, shared and distributed by pluralities of people. However, in the same manner, it is probable that these sound or image files are manipulated in digital media. A sound or image file can be easily changed by realizing processes thereon. Moreover, the data except the sound or image data of the sound or image files can also be manipulated. For instance, information like the information of the device where the sound or image file is generated, the date or time information, position information can also be manipulated.

Sound or image files recorded by means of mobile devices are used as evidence in various fields like law or trade. An evidence is hints used for confirming an item in a procedure. These hints determine the proofs which shall be taken or which shall not be taken into attention while giving a decision. However, manipulation of these sound or image files decreases the evidence qualification of these files taken by means of mobile devices. For instance, it is probable that a sound record, of which the content is changed, can mislead a judge in a legal procedure. In another example, manipulations like changing the image or changing the date where the image is taken, can be used for proving a commercial activity in a misleading manner. In the same manner, position information where a sound or image file is recorded may be manipulated and may be used as a misleading evidence. These and similar misleading evidence files are used in various fields and particularly in legal procedures and lead to giving wrong decisions or taking wrong actions. Within this context, a method is needed for confirming the integrity of documents produced in digital medium, multimedia data or the generated files.

As a result, because of the abovementioned problems, an improvement is required in the related technical field. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and system, for eliminating the abovementioned disadvantages and for bringing new advantages to the related technical field.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a mobile evidence.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for enhancing evidence qualification of files generated by means of a mobile device.

In order to realize the abovementioned objects and the objects which are to be deducted from the detailed description below, the present invention relates to a method for producing a mobile evidence realized by means of a processor unit of a mobile device having at least one sound sensor for generating a sound file, at least one image sensor for generating an image file, and a positioning unit for determining the position on the planet. Accordingly, the subject matter method is characterized by comprising the process steps of:

- accessing to at least one of sound or image sensors of said mobile device for taking sound or image,

- generating at least one sound or image file by means of at least one of sound or image sensor of the mobile device,

- generating a descriptive file comprising the information of the generated sound or image file, the descriptive information of the sound or image sensor where the file is generated, the descriptive information of the mobile device and the position information of the mobile device taken from said positioning unit,

- transferring said descriptive file to a system server by means of a network,

- generating a mixed information of the descriptive file by means of a mixed generating algorithm together with a descriptive password by said system server and adding the generated mixed information to the descriptive file,

- transferring the descriptive file, where the mixed information is added, to a time stamp server,

- generating a time stamp information of the descriptive file, which describes the date and time where the descriptive file is transferred to the time stamp server, in said time stamp server and transferring said time stamp information to the system server,

- recording the descriptive file and the time stamp information, related to said descriptive file, to an evidence database.

Thus, a sound or image file is obtained, where the evidence qualification is enhanced, by means of the mobile device. It is guaranteed that there is no manipulation on the file. By means of this, the sound or images taken by means of the mobile device can be used as evidence. By means of generation of a descriptive file of the file taken by means of mobile device, the size of the file, which is to be transferred to the file system server and/or to the time stamp server, is decreased. Thus, time losses which may occur during loading files are prevented. By means of the descriptive password stored in the system server side, the file is provided to have evidence qualification.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, after the process step of generating the descriptive file, the following process steps are provided: generating a first mixed information of said descriptive file by means of a mixed generating algorithm and adding the generated first mixed information to the descriptive file, and transferring the descriptive file, to which the first mixed information is added, to the system server. Thus, the mixed information of the sound or image file is added to the descriptive file, and the related file is confirmed. By means of this, the evidence qualification of the sound or image file, produced by means of the mobile device, is enhanced.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the process step of reaching at least one of the sound or image sensor of the mobile device for taking sound or image is realized by means of an application executed in the processor unit for producing a mobile evidence. Thus, access to the sound or image sensor is provided through the application, and the manipulations which shall be realized at the mobile device side are prevented.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the process steps of determining a unique file heading to the generated sound or image file by means of the processor unit and adding said file heading to the descriptive file are provided. Thus, the evidence qualification of the sound or image file is enhanced.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, said file heading is unique identity value generated particularly for the file and which is in GUID format.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, said file heading is unique identity value generated particularly for the file and which is in UUID format.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the process step of recording the generated sound or image file to a file database is provided. Thus, by generating an alternative copy to the memory unit of the mobile device, the file is protected against deletion Moreover, recording of the file to the file database provides meeting of the needs of enterprise applications like cataloging, organizational memory, etc.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, said descriptive file is in exchangeable file format. Thus, pluralities of data can be added to the descriptive file.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, said descriptive file is in EXIF file format.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, said descriptive file is in TIFF file format.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, said mixed generating algorithm is a HASH algorithm. Thus, the evidence qualification of the file produced by means of the mobile device is enhanced.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the generated sound or image file information comprises readable byte information of at least sound or image in the digital medium.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the descriptive information of said sound or image sensor comprises the brand, model information of the image sensor. Thus, the evidence qualification of the file produced by means of the mobile device is enhanced.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the descriptive information of said sound or image sensor comprises snapshot, diaphragm and posing information.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the descriptive information of said mobile device comprises the brand, model, operating system information of the mobile device.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the descriptive information of the mobile device also comprises the serial number of the mobile device.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the processor unit is configured to determine a mobile device identity information in a manner defining the mobile device and to add the determined mobile device identity information to the descriptive file. By means of this, the application generates a separate identity information for each mobile device. Thus, the accuracy of identification of the mobile device is increased through the information obtained by means of the descriptive file. Manipulation of the mobile device information is prevented.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, in the process step of generation of said descriptive file, the process step of adding the instantaneous date and time information of the mobile device to the descriptive file is provided.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the position information taken by means of the positioning unit comprises latitude, longitude and height information.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the position information taken by means of the positioning unit comprises the date and time information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

In Figure 1 , a representative view of the system is given.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this detailed description, the subject matter method and a system (10) for applying said method, is explained with references to examples without forming any restrictive effect only in order to make the subject more understandable.

The present invention relates to a method for producing a mobile evidence, and a system (10) for applying this method. Said method provides enhancing of the evidence qualification of the sound or image files taken by means of a mobile device (100). Here, said evidence qualification describes the correctness of the information of the generated file. Said mobile device (100) can be an electronic device like telephone, tablet, computer, etc. known in the art.

The mobile device has at least one sound sensor (103) for generating a sound file, at least one image sensor (104) for generating an image file, and a positioning unit (105) for determining the position on the planet. Said sound sensor (103) can be a microphone known in the art and which transforms analog sound signals into digital signals. Said image sensor (104) can be a camera known in the art and which transforms analog image signals into digital signals. Said positioning unit (105) can be a module like GPS, GNSS modules known in the art and which determines a position of the mobile device (100) by means of at least one satellite communication. The mobile device (100) also comprises a processor unit (101) which processes data and which realizes software commands. Said processor unit (101 ) is associated with a memory unit (102) for processing or recording the data. Said memory unit (102) can be a data storage unit known in the art and which has temporary and/or permanent memory.

Said method is a method for producing a mobile evidence and which is realized by means of the processor unit (101) of the mobile device (100). The method provides enhancing of the evidence qualification of the sound or image file taken by means of at least one of the sound or image sensor (103, 104) of the mobile device (100). Accordingly, the processor unit (101) provides accessing to at least one of the sound or image sensor (103, 104) of said mobile device (100) for taking sound or image. At least one sound or image file is generated by means of at least one of the sound or image sensor (103, 104). Said sound or image file can be a file like a sound record, photograph, video. The format of the sound or image file may be one of aiff, au, mid, midi, mp3, m4a, mp4, wav, wma, asf, avi, m4v, mov, mpg, mpeg, wmv, jpg, png, bmp, gif, tiff, eps, psd, pict, pdf, raw formats.

The processor unit (101) provides generation of a descriptive file comprising the information of the generated sound or image file, the descriptive information of the sound or image sensor (103, 104) where the file is generated, the descriptive information of the mobile device (100) and the position information of the mobile device (100) taken from said positioning unit (105). In a possible embodiment, the processor unit (101 ) is configured to add also the instantaneous date and time information of the mobile device (100) to the descriptive file in the process step of generating said descriptive file. Said descriptive file is in exchangeable file format. In a possible embodiment, the descriptive file is in TIFF format. TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is an image file format. TIFF file is a flexible image file format which can include meta data added in the form of tags in addition to image pixel data. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the descriptive file is a file which is in EXIF format. EXIF (Exchangeable image file format) format is known as a data defining standard in the art, which provides embedding of technical information like snapshot, diaphragm, camera brand, model, time, position (latitude and longitude) into the images captured by digital cameras. It is apparent that said descriptive file is not limited with data identification formats like EXIF or TIFF and any one of the data identification formats can be used which have the same technical effect for a person skilled in the art. The processor unit (101 ) provides transfer of said descriptive file to a system server (110) by means of a network (130). Said network (130) is preferably internet. Said system server (110) is a server connected by means of an application operated in the mobile device (100) for realization of the subject matter method. Said application is an application executed by the processor unit (101) for producing a mobile evidence. This application can be a mobile application and/or web application known in the art.

The system server (110) provides generating of a mixed information of the descriptive file by means of a mixed generating algorithm together with a descriptive password and adding the generated mixed information to the descriptive file. Here, said mixed generating algorithm is known as SHA (Secure hash algorithm) in the art. In other words, Safe Mixed Algorithms are encryption mixed function family published as US Federal Information Processing Standard by the National Standards and Technology Institute. By means of said mixed generating algorithm, the mixed information is generated together with a descriptive password information, provided in a password database of the system server (110), and the content of the descriptive file. In fact, this method is known as “hashing” in the art. By means of this, the descriptive password information is added into the descriptive file in a secret manner. Said descriptive password exists in the password database of the system server (110) and is not open to access by third parties. By means of this, the third parties cannot obtain the mixed information without accessing to the descriptive password. Thus, the correctness of the descriptive file, where mixed information is added, can be guaranteed.

The system server (110) transfers the descriptive file, where the mixed information is added, to a time stamp server (120). Said time stamp server (120) approves the integrity of data and the presence of data at a specific date, by using open key technology for signing time stamps in order to prove that a specific data exists at a specific date. In the time stamp server (120), a time stamp information, which describes the date and time where the descriptive file is transferred to the time stamp server (120), is generated and is transferred to the system server (110).

The system server (110) provides recording of the descriptive file and the time stamp information of said descriptive file to an evidence database (111). In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the evidence database (111) is a database which exists in a data storage unit of the system server (110). Thus, the produced evidences are reached by accessing to the data storage unit of the system server (110) by means of the application operated on the mobile device (100). In a possible embodiment of the invention, the processor unit (101 ) is configured to provide generating of a first mixed information by means of a mixed generating algorithm of said descriptive file, and to provide adding of the generated first mixed information to the descriptive file. The descriptive file, comprising the information of the sound or image filed generated by means of this and the descriptive information of the sound or image sensor (103, 104) where the file is generated and the descriptive information of the mobile device (100) and the position information of the mobile device (100) taken from said positioning unit (105), is provided to include also the first mixed information by means of the mixed generating algorithm. Thus, a mixed information of the sound or image file generated by means of mobile device (100) is generated. In this embodiment, the processor unit (101) transfers the file, where the first mixed information is added, to the system server (110). By means of this, it is confirmed that the file, obtained from the information included by the descriptive file transferred to the system server (110), is generated by means of the related mobile device (100).

In a possible embodiment of the invention, the process step of accessing to at least one of sound or image sensor (103, 104) of the mobile device (100) for taking sound or image is realized by means of an application executed in the processor unit (101 ) for producing a mobile evidence. By means of this, the sound or image sensor (103, 104) can be accessed through the application. Thus, any type of manipulations which can be realized at the mobile device (100) side are prevented.

In a possible embodiment of the invention, a unique file heading is determined for the generated sound or image file by means of the processor unit (101). Said file heading is added to the descriptive file. In a possible embodiment, the file heading is generated in GUID format. GUID format is a unique reference number used as descriptive in computer software. GUID term is essentially one of various applications of UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) standard. In another embodiment of the invention, the file heading is generated in UUID format. By means of this, the file heading generated by means of the processor unit (101 ) is also added to the descriptive file. Thus, the evidence qualification of the file generated by means of the mobile device (100) is enhanced.

In a possible embodiment of the invention, the process step of recording of the generated sound or image file to a file database (112) is provided. By means of this, the image or sound file generated by means of the mobile device (100) is accessed by means of said file database (112). Said file database (112) is preferably a database provided at the storage unit of the system server (110). By means of this, access to the system server (110) through the application operated in the mobile device (100) is provided, and access to the file database (112) through the storage unit is provided. Moreover, the mobile device (100) deletes the file from the memory unit (102), and occupying of capacity in the memory unit (102) is prevented.

In a possible embodiment of the invention, the generated sound or image file information comprises readable byte information of at least sound or image in digital medium. Said byte information describes the correspondence of sound or image file in digital format. For instance, it can be the byte array of the data of pixels which exist in the image.

In a possible embodiment of the invention, the descriptive information of said sound or image sensor (103, 104) comprises the brand and model information of the sound or image sensor (103, 104). In the preferred embodiment, the descriptive information of the sound or image sensor (103, 104) also comprises snapshot, diaphragm and posing information.

In a possible embodiment of the invention, the descriptive information of said mobile device (100) comprises the brand, model, operating system information of the mobile device (100). In the preferred embodiment, the descriptive information of the mobile device (100) also comprises the serial number of the mobile device (100).

In a possible embodiment of the invention, the position information received by means of the positioning unit (105) comprises latitude, longitude and height information. In the preferred embodiment, the position information received by means of the positioning unit (105) also comprises the date and time information.

The protection scope of the present invention is set forth in the annexed claims and cannot be restricted to the illustrative disclosures given above, under the detailed description. It is because a person skilled in the relevant art can obviously produce similar embodiments under the light of the foregoing disclosures, without departing from the main principles of the present invention. REFERENCE NUMBERS

10 System

100 Mobile device 101 Processor unit

102 Memory unit

103 Sound sensor

104 Image sensor

105 Positioning unit 110 System server

111 Evidence database

112 File database

120 Time stamp server

130 Network