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A Remote Lock System Using Bluetooth Communication

Conference Paper · July 2014

DOI: 10.1109/IMIS.2014.63

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 2014 Eighth International Conference on Innovative Mobile and Internet Services in Ubiquitous Computing
A Remote Lock System Using Bluetooth Communication
Hae-Duck J. Jeong, Jiyoung Lim and WooSeok Hyun∗
Department of Computer Software
Korean Bible University
Seoul, South Korea
Email: hdjjeong@gmail.com, {jylim, wshyun}@bible.ac.kr
∗
Corresponding Author
Abstract—As smartphones have recently become one of the
most popular devices worldwide, various convenient applica-
tions are being released. Now smartphones not only provide
the ordinary internal processes such as dialing or receiving
phone calls, sending text messages, and doing mobile banking
wherever we are, but they also are beginning to control
various other devices that are part of our lives. Through
the smartphone using mobile applications, we can remotely
control a variety of external devices such as TVs, projectors for
presentations, computers, and even cars. This paper presents
the design and implementation of a remote lock system using
wireless communications. The remote lock system is a lock
system that can be controlled remotely by a dedicated Android
application. The main function of the Android smartphone
is equipped with Bluetooth so that a lock can be opened
and managed via the application functions. The users’ lock
information in real time can be stored and managed in the
database via a server that a server manager builds and
manages. Even though users forget the password, our proposed
lock system also guides them to find it easily, and provides
the user’s manual. Using this system, users can do a variety
of management functions such as adding, deleting, modifying,
and purchasing the user’s own locks.
Keywords-Remote lock system; Bluetooth; mobile device;
Android; wireless communication
I. I NTRODUCTION
The number of mobile device users including smartphone
users has rapidly been increasing in the world, and various
convenient and useful smartphone applications have been
developed. Now smartphones not only work the ordinary
internal processes such as dial and receive phone calls, send
text messages, and do mobile banking wherever we are, but
they also are coming to control various other devices in
our real everyday lives. Through smartphones and mobile
applications, we can remotely control a variety of external
devices such as TVs, projectors for presentations, computers,
and even cars.
People normally use ordinary locks with keys or locks
having their passwords. However, these locks have a few
shortcomings such as people losing keys or forgetting pass-
words. In this paper, we propose a new remote lock system
using wireless communications since these kinds of remote
lock products and patents can rarely be found. Our proposed
978-1-4799-4331-9/14 $31.00 © 2014 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/IMIS.2014.63
Woojin Lee
Information Security Laboratory
Graduate School of Information
Yonsei University
Seoul, South Korea
Email: lionheart07@naver.com
remote lock system using wireless communications has
solved these kinds of problems. Using the user’s smartphone,
the remote lock can be easily managed. Furthermore, the
proposed system can be extensively used for various remote
locks such as remote locks for lockers, remote locks for
bicycles, etc.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: In
Section II, a few related products and technologies of the
proposed remote lock system using Bluetooth communica-
tion are discussed. Section III presents how the proposed
system using Bluetooth communication is designed and
implemented, and finally the conclusions are described in
Section IV.
II. R ELATED W ORK AND T ECHNOLOGIES
Related products and technologies of the proposed remote
lock system using Bluetooth communication including An-
droid are the following.
Existing locks are classified into three types: the key lock
method, the password lock system, and the remote lock
method. The key lock is the oldest method used with locks,
and people may lose the key and should always carry it. In
contrast to the key lock, the advantage of using a password
lock is that people do not need to carry a key all the time,
but people are likely to forget the password and the number
of ways that the password can be changed is limited. The
remote control lock, like the key lock, has the disadvantage
that people should always carry the remote control key, and
batteries are required.
To improve these kinds of problems, a previous patent [1]
proposed technology of an unlocking system using Bluetooth
is proposed. The structure of this system consists of three
steps as follows:
Step 1. A mobile terminal sends an address to a Bluetooth
device that we want to control, and the corresponding
Bluetooth device registers the received address on the
unlocked address.
Step 2. In accordance with the external keys, the search of the
Bluetooth device list that the above-mentioned mobile
terminal has registered, then connects the selected
441

Figure 1. Whole system architecture for the remote lock system.
Bluetooth device from a user, and sends out the
Bluetooth address by wireless.
Step 3. After judging whether the Bluetooth address by wire-
less received from the above-mentioned mobile termi-
nal is the same registered address or not, then when
two addresses are the same, the lock/unlock action is
performed.
Such a system, however, has a few disadvantages.
When Bluetooth information is leaked by hacking, a non-
authorized person can unlock the lock. Another disadvantage
is that in case of such a system, if the user loses the
password, unlocking will be difficult. Several objectives of
our proposed system are taken into account to improve and
solve discussed problems as follows: First, because mobile
devices that all the users carry have become a key, users
do not have to carry a separate key or remote control,
and it is easy to use. Second, since the user’s application
provides a way to easily manage the user’s passwords, the
user can make things less of a burden when forgetting the
password. Third, even when the user loses a password, there
is a procedure so that the user can open the lock. The
last objective is provided by the remote lock system using
the wireless communication equipped with multiple safety
locks.
A. Android
Android is a Linux-based open mobile platform for mo-
bile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. It
is composed of not only an operating system, but also
middleware, User Interface (UI), browser, and application.
It also includes C/C++ libraries that are used in components
of various Android systems [2], [3]. Android system archi-
tecture is divided into five hierarchical categories: applica-
tions, application framework, libraries, Android runtime, and
Linux kernel [4], [5], [6]. Figure 1 shows that the proposed
application was designed and developed on Android.
442
B. Bluetooth
Bluetooth is fairly simple to use and can be used to
connect up to seven devices at a time. It is also easy to switch
between devices or find and connect to any device. Bluetooth
devices, such as mobile phones, a mouse, keyboards, office
and industrial automation devices operate in the frequency
domain between 2.4 GHz and 2.4835 GHz that is not
authenticated. To avoid the interference of devices operating
in the same zone, using a frequency hop algorithm, the
device uses a frequency of 1600 per second. This device
operates for a certain frequency, called time slot, and it lasts
for 625 microseconds. Piconet1 internal frequency based on
the pseudo-random hop frequency is changed by the master
unit. Frequency band is divided into 79 channels in the area
of 1 MHz, and the data is transmitted in units of frames.
Two different kinds of links can be established be-
tween master/slave devices in the network: the Asyn-
chronous Connection-Less (ACL) link and the Synchronous
Connection-Oriented (SCO) link as follows: The first tech-
nique is a data transfer method that is controlled when the
data is needed so that it can be processed. A slave unit and a
master unit are connected to the ACL link only. The second
connection method is used when real time data such as voice
data is necessary to transmit. The slave unit to the master
unit is connected to up to three SCO links possible, and is
implemented at the rate of 64kb / sec.
Bluetooth devices can be defined as three groups: class
1 (100mW, 100m range), class 2 (2.5mW, 10m range), and
class 3 (1mW, 1m range). Most of Bluetooth devices belong
to a group of class 2 or class 3. HC-06 in Figure 1, which
is used in the remote lock, belongs to class 2.
1) Pairing Procedure between Bluetooth Devices: Blue-
tooth pairing and connection is technology that can transmit
data, while Bluetooth enabled devices are connected. Figure
2 shows a Bluetooth connection procedure as follows.
∙ To be connected to a Bluetooth device, connection
information such as device name and address is needed,
and in order to know this, the counterpart device shall
be allowed.
∙ Through search, query the Bluetooth information that
can be connected.
∙ Select the destination of the Bluetooth information that
can be connected, and request pairing (task to share
password that is necessary to connect).
∙ If there has not been pairing, the two devices request
pairing approval.
∙ When the two devices approve pairing, try to accept
the connection.
1 A piconet is a network that is created using a wireless Bluetooth
connection and is formed when two or more devices discover each other and
begin to communicate. A piconet can have up to seven devices, with one
device acting as a master and the rest acting as slaves. The first device to
initiate transmission becomes the master, although the specification provides
for a master and slave unit to exchange roles.
 Figure 2. Bluetooth connection procedure.
2) Bluetooth Security Manager: Bluetooth basically pro-
vides security services such as authentication, confidential-
ity, and authorization. Bluetooth controls control rights for
Bluetooth devices and services through a security manager
at the link level. Figure 3 shows about relevance of the
Bluetooth security manager. After Logical Link Control and
Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP), which is used within the
Bluetooth protocol stack and is used to communicate over
the host ACL link, receives connection requests, the security
manager confirms whether the access has been done or
not. The security manager determines whether the service
database and the device database exist, and they are applied
to the appropriate authentication or encryption if there are.
If the security manager authorizes to allow access to the
L2CAP, the connection setup is maintained [7].
The main features of the security manager are as follows:
information security management related to services, secu-
rity information management related to devices, questions
and answers related to security of protocol and application
security, and authentication and encryption performance.
3) Bluetooth Security Level: Bluetooth is divided into
trusted and untrusted devices. The trusted devices are au-
thorized devices, and the link key is stored. They are
defined as ”Trusted” in a database. The untrusted devices
are authenticated, and the link key is stored, but they are
not defined as ”Trusted” in a database. Bluetooth has three
security functions to be applied in four modes [8], [9].
∙ Security Mode 1 is a non-secure mode. A device will
not initiate any security. Only security at this level is by
the nature of the connection: data-hopping and short-
distance. Bluetooth devices transmit over the unlicensed
2.45GHz radio band, the same band used by microwave
ovens and cordless phones. All Bluetooth devices em-
ploy data-hopping, which entails skipping around the
radio band up to 1600 times per second, at 1MHz
intervals. Most connections are less than 10 meters, so
443
Figure 3. Configuration of the role of the Bluetooth security manager.
there is a limit as to eavesdropping possibilities.
∙ Security Mode 2 is a service level-enforced security
mode. The service access depends on devices as fol-
lows: Trusted devices have unrestricted access to all ser-
vices, fixed relationship to other devices, and untrusted
devices generally have no permanent relationship and
services that it has access to are limited.
∙ Security Mode 3 is the link level-enforced security
mode. Security is implemented by symmetric keys in
a challenge-response system. Security implementations
in Bluetooth units are all the same.
∙ Security Mode 4 is a service level enforced security
mode in which security procedures are initiated after
link setup. Secure Simple Pairing (SSP) uses Elliptic
Curve Diffie Hellman (ECDH) techniques for key ex-
change and link key generation. ECDH is an anony-
mous key agreement protocol that allows two parties,
each having an elliptic curve public-private key pair, to
establish a shared secret over an insecure channel.
4) Link Key Generation: A method of link key generation
is not provided in the Security Mode 1, and there are two
methods in which link key generation is performed for
Bluetooth. Security Modes 2 and 3 use one method, while
Security Mode 4 uses another.
For Bluetooth, operating in Security Mode 2 or 3, two
associated devices simultaneously derive link keys during
the initialization phase when users enter an identical PIN
into one or both devices, depending on the configuration
and device type. The PIN entry, device association, and key
derivation are depicted conceptually in Figure 4. Note that
if the PIN is less than 16 bytes, the BD ADDR is used to
supplement the PIN value used to generate the initialization
key. After initialization is complete, devices automatically
and transparently authenticate and initiate the encryption
procedure to secure the wireless link, if encryption is en-
abled. The PIN code used in Bluetooth devices can vary

Figure 4. Link key generation.
Figure 5. M328-mini V1.0 module.
between one and 16 bytes. The typical four-digit PIN may
be sufficient for low-risk situations; a longer PIN should be
used for devices that require a higher level of security.
SSP was introduced in Bluetooth for use with Security
Mode 4. SSP simplifies the pairing process by providing a
number of association models that are flexible in terms of
device input capability. SSP also improves security through
the addition of ECDH public key cryptography for protec-
tion against passive eavesdropping and Man-In-The-Middle
Attacks (MITM) during pairing. Security Mode 4 requires
Bluetooth services to mandate an authenticated link key, an
unauthenticated link key, or no security at all.
C. M328-mini V1.0 Module
The M328-mini V1.0 module in Figure 5 is small size
of 26 x 30 mm, and mounted AVR MEGA328P-20AU.
This module is equipped with PWR-LED, RUN-LED, 6-
PIN ISP, 16MHz XTAL, and USB2 Serial converters. This
system used the main Arduino compatible module to control
a Bluetooth module and motor module.
444
Figure 6. HC-06 module.
Figure 7. L9110 module.
D. HC-06 Module
HC-06 Bluetooth slave module in Figure 6 is used to
connect with Bluetooth master devices such as a Bluetooth
dongle 2 or Android smartphone. When the power is sup-
plied to the master module, search for the HC-06 Bluetooth
slave module in the neighborhood and the slave module is
directly connected.
E. L9110 Module
This module can control two DC motors or one two-phase
four-wire stepping motor. As two ports of blue terminal are
motor A and motor B ports, the DC motor is connected
to each port. Figure 7 shows a 6-pin header pins, which is
connected to a digital pin of the Arduino, which is an open-
source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible,
easy-to-use hardware and software, to control the motor. For
controlling a DC motor A (A-1B, A-1A), 2 pins are needed
and for controlling a DC motor B (B-1B, B-1A), 2 pins
are also needed. It should be noted that the PC USB port
supplies up to 500mA current.
2 A device that is connected to a computer to allow access to wireless
broadband or use of protected software.
 III. I MPLEMENTATION AND R ESULTS
A. System Architecture of the Proposed System
Our proposed remote lock system consists of a lock with
four main modules, a mobile device, and server computer.
The system provides seven operations to achieve the above
goals as follows.
is based on MySQL, and query statements that are
received from the server are run.
∙ The mobile device stores a password for locking and
unlocking the lock.
B. Some Selected Menus
∙ Figure 8 (a) shows the main menu that after starting the

∙ Our proposed system consists of four major modules:

application, the user enters the main menu and starts
motor, Bluetooth, main, and biometric modules. Plus, to communicate with the server. After the user brings
the lock is paired with Bluetooth communications with necessary data (the lock information which was regis-
a mobile device, and the mobile device also commu- tered, announcements, etc.) taken from the database in
nicates with a server. For remote locks, after removing the server, and the user temporarily stores them his/her
existing internal modules of the remote control lock device. Figure 8 (b) and Figure 9 (a) show unregistered
product with the remote controller, which is sold by lock menu that the lock is available to register, and
eBay in the United States, we renovated the lock lock information. After user’s Bluetooth searches for
product when developing our proposed remote lock his/her peripheral devices in a new registration menu,
system. For Android, Bluetooth socket connections for unregistered lock is retrieved. The user selects the
operating, the lock was programmed using Java and, retrieved lock and inputs user’s information, and its
socket communications with the server using sockets information is stored in the database. This information
were implemented to store, delete, and modify individ- is successfully stored, and completion message will be
ual users’ information. In other words, when using the shown on the menu.
applications, WiFi, Bluetooth, or 3G communications
should be available. The remote lock system provides
that the lock is connected with the main and biometric
modules for wireless communications.
∙ The application is running on a mobile device to
manage passwords sending and receiving between the
mobile device and the server. When the password
is authenticated by the Bluetooth module, the main
module of the lock operates the motor module through
wireless communications.
∙ The server can distinguish and classify each mobile
device, and each user can register each other. The
password entered by the user and the password hint (a) Main menu (b) Unregistered lock
that the user uses to log in are also registered. The Figure 8. Some of selected menus.
proposed remote lock system provides these roles via
wireless communications.
∙ When each user authentication through the biomet-
ric module and each password authentication through
Bluetooth are performed, respectively, our proposed
system provides that a control signal is delivered from
the main module to the motor module using a wireless
communication system.
∙ On top of that, this lock is equipped with an alarm
means and it shows when the Bluetooth pairs. When
locking and unlocking of the lock, the system provides
a sound function and lighting of the lamp.
∙ The server also grants a master number to each mobile
device, and if a person authenticates by himself/herself,
this system shows the master number in the mobile (a) Lock information input (b) Password input
device. The server is linked with a database, when the Figure 9. Some of selected menus (Continued).
data transfer request from the client receives, depending
on the input received instructions, it will work in ∙ Figure 9 (b) and Figure 10 (a) show password request
conjunction with the database. Our proposed system and ’Open’ button creation after connecting the lock.

445
 This menu retrieves the lock through Bluetooth, and the
user enters a password. If the information is correctly
entered, the device and Bluetooth will be connected.
When ’Open’ button is touched, the lock is opened.
Figure 11 also show a sequence diagram of the regis-
tered lock retrieval.
∙ Figure 10 (b) shows list of registered lock, modification,
and deletion dialog. This management page shows the
list of the lock that the user has registered in the server.
Then when the user wants to change the information,
if input password is the same as the existing password,
the user can enter new information.
(a) Connection (b) Select modification
deletion
Figure 10. Some of selected menus (Continued).
Figure 11. A sequence diagram of the registered lock retrieval.
IV. C ONCLUSION
This paper proposes a new remote lock system using
wireless communications. The remote lock system is a lock
system that can be controlled remotely by a dedicated
View publication stats
Android application. The main function of the Android
smartphone is equipped with Bluetooth so that a lock can
be opened and managed via the application functions. Users’
lock information in real time can be stored and managed in
the database via a server that a server manager builds and
manages. In addition, even though users forget the password,
our proposed lock system guides them to find it easily, and
provides the user’s manual. Using this system, users can do
a variety of management actions such as adding, deleting,
modifying, and purchasing user’s own locks.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to give thanks to the funding
agencies for providing financial support. Parts of this work
were supported by a research grant from Korean Bible
University. The authors also thank Robert Hotchkiss and
anonymous referees for their constructive remarks and valu-
able comments.
R
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