Acoustic and surface vibration authentication

• US 10,062,388 B2
• Filed: 10/22/2015
• Issued: 08/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ady, Roger W, Zurek, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Jackson, Jakieda
• Application Number:
  US14/919,980
• Publication Number:
  US 20170116995A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,041 Days
• Field of Search: 704205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/02 Preprocessing operations, e.g. segment selection; Pattern representation or modelling, e.g. based on linear discriminant analysis [LDA] or principal components; Feature selection or extraction
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/24 the user being prompted to utter a password or a predefined phrase
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/08 Mouthpieces; Microphones; Attachments therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/46 Special adaptations for use as contact microphones, e.g. on musical instrument, on stethoscope throat mountings H04R1/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/65 Environment-dependent, e.g. using captured environmental data

Abstract

Systems and methods for authorizing a user of a portable communications device entail sampling a user utterance via both an air mic (audio mic) and a conduction mic (surface mic or bone conduction mic). The difference between these signals is unique to each user since the tissues of each user will differ with respect to audio conduction. This difference may be characterized via a transform including magnitude, phase and time delay components. If the transform for a prospective user matches a stored transform for an authorized user, then the prospective user may be granted access.

Claims

1. A portable electronic communication device comprising:

an audio microphone associated with the portable electronic communication device and configured and located to produce a first signal corresponding to a user'"'"'s voice when the portable electronic communication device is in use by the user;

a surface microphone associated with the portable electronic communication device and configured and located to produce a second signal corresponding to audio vibrations of the user'"'"'s tissue from the user'"'"'s voice when the portable electronic communication device is in use by the user; and

a processor configured to generate a transfer function relating the first signal to the second signal and to identify the user as authorized or unauthorized based on the transfer function.

2. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the transfer function by applying one of an analog division algorithm and a digital division algorithm.

3. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the transfer function is a frequency domain transform.

4. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the transfer function is a time domain transform.

5. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the transfer function is a combination of a frequency domain transform and a time domain transform.

6. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 1, wherein when the device is unlocked, the processor is further configured to lock the device upon identifying the user as unauthorized.

7. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the audio microphone and the surface microphone are installed in a wearable device separate from the portable electronic communication device.

8. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 7, wherein the audio microphone and the surface microphone are installed in an in-ear headset and the surface microphone is positioned to contact a surface of the user'"'"'s ear canal when in use.

9. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 7, wherein the audio microphone and the surface microphone are installed in an over-the-head headset and the surface microphone is positioned to overlie one or more bones adjacent the user'"'"'s ear when in use.

10. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 7, wherein the audio microphone and the surface microphone are installed in a pair of eyeglasses and the surface microphone is positioned to contact the bridge of the user'"'"'s nose when in use.

11. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to receive authorization data wirelessly from the wearable device.

12. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the audio microphone and the surface microphone are installed in the device and the surface microphone is positioned to overlie one or more facial bones of the user when in use.

13. The portable electronic communication device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to perform speech and speaker identification on the acoustic signal and the surface vibration signal in parallel.

14. A method of authorizing a user to use a portable electronic device comprising:

sampling a user utterance from an authorized user through both an audio microphone and a surface microphone positioned on the authorized user'"'"'s body to produce respective first and second signals;

generating a characterization of a difference between the first and second signals;

storing the generated characterization;

sampling a user utterance from a prospective user through both the audio microphone and the surface microphone, with the surface microphone being positioned on the prospective user'"'"'s body to produce respective third and fourth signals; and

determining that the prospective user is the authorized user if the third and fourth signals are related by the stored characterization.

15. The method in accordance with claim 14, wherein generating the characterization of the difference between the first and second signals further comprises deriving a first transfer function linking the first and second signals.

16. The method in accordance with claim 15, wherein determining that the prospective user is the authorized user if the third and fourth signals are related by the stored characterization further comprises deriving a second transfer function linking the third and fourth signals and comparing the first and second transforms.

17. The method in accordance with claim 14, wherein generating the characterization of the difference between the first and second signals comprises deriving a transform linking the first and second signals, and wherein determining that the prospective user is the authorized user comprises transforming the third signal via the transfer function to produce a transformed third signal and comparing the transformed signal to the fourth signal.