System and method for remote self-enrollment in biometric databases

• US 20050229007A1
• Filed: 04/06/2004
• Published: 10/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pankanti, Sharathchandra U., Senior, Andrew W., Ratha, Nalini K., Bolle, Rudolf M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,296,573 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/186
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/00 Pattern recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands

Abstract

A method and system is provided to provide enrollment of biometric data from individuals without the need for the enrollees to travel to a central location. The system and method provides for optionally detecting multiple types of biometric data, for example, fingerprints, facial scan, visual scan, iris scan, voice scan, or the like, to be captured at the point of enrollee use. During the biometric capture process, the biometric enrollment device monitors and establishes the identity of the enrollee and measures the quality of the biometric input as it occurs. If unacceptable quality is detected, then repeated biometric scans may be necessary, but is done at time of enrollment avoiding any need to send inaccurate information back to a service institution. When the enrollment process completes, the biometric data is encrypted, time stamped and either mailed back to the service institution or is transmitted back. The biometric device may remain with the user for subsequent use as an identification sensor which may authenticate a user with stored biometric information to authenticate a user'"'"'s identity for a transaction or a request to access a service or equipment. The biometric enrollment device may also be embodied with another piece of equipment to authenticate use of that equipment.

Claims

1. A method of providing a service for capturing biometric data, comprising the steps of:

acquiring biometric data from one or more biometric sensors;

authenticating the enrollee associated with the biometric data; and

enrolling the authenticated enrollee associated with the biometric data, wherein at least one of the acquiring occurs remotely from a service provider and the enrolling occurs at a different time from the acquiring.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

delivering the biometric data associated with the enrollee to a service provider; and

authenticating at the service provider that all delivered data has been captured according to an accredited procedure.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of communicating the biometric data to an external device using one of a wired or wireless communications port to communicate the biometric data to the external device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more biometric sensors is at least one of a fingerprint sensor, a skin reflectivity sensor, a camera suitable for capture of a facial image, a microphone for acquiring voice data, and an eye scanner, and the one or more biometric sensors acquiring the biometric data sequentially or simultaneously when two or more biometric sensors are present.

5. The method of claim 1, further including verifying the biometric data according to pre-determined verification standards.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of time stamping the biometric data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of encrypting and certifying the biometric data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining a quality measure for the biometric data sensed by the one or more biometric sensors; and

storing one or more biometric records only when the biometric data is of a quality sufficient to meet a predetermined threshold.

9. The method of claim 1, further including providing feedback to cause a change in the biometric data sensed by the one or more biometric sensors so that an increase in the sensed quality of the biometric data occurs.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of comparing two biometric records and denying access when the compared two biometrics records are different.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving at least one of a password, a secret data, and a user identification before sensing biometric data occurs; and

verifying one or more previously enrolled biometrics before allowing enrollment of additional biometric data.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

creating one or more biometric records;

encrypting the one or more biometric records; and

associating the one or more biometric records with the enrollee.

13. A method of providing a service for capturing biometric data, comprising the steps of:

acquiring biometric data from one or more biometric sensors;

enrolling an enrollee associated with the biometric data, wherein the biometric data is verified for quality at the time of enrollment based on a pre-determined threshold; and

delivering the biometric data associated with the enrollee to a service provider.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein in the acquiring step the one or more biometric sensors include at least one of a fingerprint sensor, a skin reflectivity sensor, a camera suitable for capture of a facial image, a microphone for acquiring voice data, and an eye scanner.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the acquiring step acquires the biometric data simultaneously or sequentially when two or more biometric sensors are present.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

authenticating an enrollee using at least one of a password, a user identification and a previously stored biometric prior to the enrolling step and limiting access until the authenticating is successful;

verifying the acquired biometric data meets pre-determined verification standards;

encrypting the biometric data producing encrypted biometric data; and

generating a time stamp for recording when the enrolling occurs.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

determining a quality measure for the biometric data sensed by the one or more biometric sensors and the biometric data is captured only when it is of a quality sufficient to meet a pre-determined threshold;

providing a feedback to cause a change in the biometric data sensed by the one or more biometric sensors so that an increase in the quality of the sensed biometric data occurs; and

sending the biometric data to a service provider using at least one of electronic communications, mail, and hand delivery.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a third party request for authenticating a transaction;

prompting for a biometric to verify a transaction participant;

verifying the biometric matches a stored biometric associated with the transaction participant; and

signing the third party request with a private key associated with the third party and sending the signed third party request to complete the authenticating of the transaction.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising monitoring the acquiring step to determine if the biometric input is being correctly presented for scanning according to a predetermined plan.

20. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer program product includes at least one component to:

acquire biometric data from one or more biometric sensors;

enroll an enrollee associated with the biometric data, wherein the biometric data is verified for quality at the time of enrollment by comparing the biometric data to a pre-determined threshold; and

deliver the biometric data associated with the enrollee to a service provider.