Distributed stand-off ID verification compatible with multiple face recognition systems (FRS)

• US 20060082439A1
• Filed: 12/01/2005
• Published: 04/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Columbia Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Bazakos, Michael E., Meyers, David W., Morellas, Vassilios
• Granted Patent: US 7,817,013 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.820
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/251 of input or preprocessed data
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/803 of input or preprocessed data
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/161 Detection; Localisation; Normalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/06 Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e.g. automatic toll systems
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence

Abstract

A system for providing stand-off biometric verification of a driver of a vehicle while the vehicle is moving and/or a person on foot at a control gate, including an RFID vehicle tag reader, an RFID personal smart card reader and a facial detection and recognition (verification) system. The driver carries a RFID personal smart card that stores personal information of the driver and a face template of the driver. The vehicle carries a RFID vehicle tag that stores information regarding the vehicle. When the vehicle approaches the control gate, the RFID vehicle tag reader reads data from the RFID vehicle tag and the RFID personal tag reader reads data from the RFID personal smart card. The facial detection and verification system scans and reads a facial image for the driver. All the data and facial images detected by the readers are sent to a local computer at the control gate for further processing (final face verification). The local computer at the control gate decodes and retrieves the face template from the data read from the RFID personal smart card.

Claims

1. A method for providing dynamic security verification, comprising:

recording data regarding information of a person and a plurality of face prints of the person in a RFID device that is carried by the person, the RFID device having an ID number;

reading the RFID device and relating the read ID number to information stored in a database;

retrieving one of the plurality of the face prints from the RFID device;

dynamically obtaining a facial image of the person via an image-capture device; and

comparing the retrieved face print with the facial image of the person.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the RFID device further comprises identifying codes that correspond to a format of a predetermined face recognition technology.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the face print is retrieved based on the identifying codes stored in the RFID device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the facial image of the person is obtained by:

scanning a face of the person with low near infrared (IR) light and high near-IR light to obtain a first facial image and a second facial image, respectively;

subtracting the second facial image from the first facial image to obtain a skin image of the person,

performing a multi-band extraction on the first and second facial images to obtain a third facial image,

combining the skin image and third facial image to obtain a final facial image; and

comparing the final facial image with the retrieved face print.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of face prints are stored in different formats corresponding to different recognition technologies.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

enrolling one face print from the plurality of face prints that is readable by a reading device as a template, and

comparing the template with the facial image obtained by the image-capture device.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

choosing a face print from the plurality of face prints when none of the plurality prints are stored in a format readable by a reading device;

enrolling the chosen face print as a template; and

comparing the template with the facial image obtained by the image-capture device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data regarding the information of the person comprises personal information and vehicle information registered to the person.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the facial image of the person is scanned dynamically and automatically when the person passes by a reading point.

9. The method of claim 9, wherein relating the RFID number to the information stored in a database comprises comparing at least one of personal information and vehicle information with the relative information stored in the database.

11. A method for dynamically verifying a person at a control gate, the method comprising:

recording data regarding information of the person and a plurality of face prints of a person in a RFID device that is carried by the person;

storing data regarding the information of the person in a database;

reading the RFID device and relating a read RFID number to the information stored in the database to access relevant data in the database;

retrieving one of the plurality of face prints from the RFID device that is readable by a reading device located at the control gate;

enrolling the retrieved face prints as a face template;

dynamically obtaining a facial image of the person via an image-capture device; and

comparing the facial image with the retrieved face template to verify identity,

wherein the retrieving the face print and the comparing are performed by a local computer located at the control gate.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the database is a database located on the local computer.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the local computer is coupled with a remote host computer.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of face prints are formatted according to different facial recognition technologies.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the RFID device further comprises identifying codes that correspond to a format of a face recognition technology.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the face print is retrieved based on the identifying codes stored in the RFID device.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising dynamically verifying a vehicle in which the person is riding, wherein information regarding the vehicle is recorded in an RFID vehicle tag.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

reading the RFID vehicle data from the vehicle tag and relating a read RFID number to the information stored in the database; and

comparing the read RFID vehicle data and information corresponding to the read RFID number.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining a facial image of the person comprises:

scanning the face of the person by a low near-IR light and a high near-IR light to obtain a first and a second facial image, respectively;

subtracting the second facial image from the first facial image to obtain a skin image;

performing a multi-band extraction on the first and the second facial image to obtain a third facial image; and

combining the skin image and the third facial image to obtain the final facial image.

20. A system for dynamic stand-off verification, comprising:

an RFID tag carried by an individual, the RFID device storing personal information of the individual and a plurality of face templates of the individual;

a database for storing data regarding personal information of a plurality of individuals;

an RFID tag reader for reading data from the RFID tag;

a facial recognition reader for scanning a face of a person and obtaining a scanned facial image for the person; and

a computer for relating a RFID number read from the RFID tag by the RFID tag reader to specific information stored in the database and retrieving one of the plurality of face templates of the person stored in the RFID tag,

wherein the computer compares the retrieved face template with the facial image and determines if the retrieved face template matches with the facial image.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the plurality of face templates of the RFID tag are stored in different formats corresponding to different facial recognition technologies.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein when a facial recognition system used by the computer does not recognize any of the plurality of the face templates stored in the RFID tag, the computer chooses one of the plurality of face templates and enrolls the chosen face template as a new face template.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the RFID tag further comprises identifying codes that correspond to a format of a face recognition technology.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the face template is retrieved based on the identifying codes stored in the RFID device.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the RFID tag stores a set of face templates that are formatted according to different facial recognition technologies.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein the computer is a local computer that is decoupled from a central host computer.

27. The system of claim 20, further comprising a sensor that is activated when the individual passes a sensing line, and the activation of the sensor further activates a sequence for the RFID tag reader and the facial recognition reader.

28. The system of claim 20, wherein the personal information stored in the RFID tag includes information regarding the individual and a vehicle in which the individual is driving.

29. The system of claim 20, wherein the facial recognition reader comprises:

a near-IR illuminator for generating near-IR light;

an illumination adjustment module for adjusting the near-IR light based on environmental lighting conditions;

a camera for taking facial images of the individual, and

a computer for processing the facial images to obtain a face image.