A “Try before you buy” approach for networked digital home appliances and services

Though many services are developed and provided for digital homes, a user would both pay for a physical device (appliance) and supporting software (applications and/or services). However, a service or an appliance may only be needed in a period, such as a rental service, or a trial usage. Hence we propose a ldquotry before you buyrdquo solution for networked digital home appliances and services. The idea is to have an authentication scheme to identify the appliance and/or the service based on the device in reasonable legal use at the right place and in the right time period. The appliance has the ability of self checking about the rental agreement and target environment (the user information), and the appliance or the service based on it connects to the home network gateway to check the lease term itself or check with the service provider.