Wireless handheld device with local biometric authentication

• US 20070057763A1
• Filed: 09/12/2005
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Imation Corporation (Glassbridge Enterprises, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Imation Corporation (Glassbridge Enterprises, Inc.)
• Inventors: Martin, Robert, Le, Trung, Blattner, George
• Granted Patent: US 7,664,961 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.520
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0336 Mouse integrated fingerprint sensor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03543 Mice or pucks G06F3/03541 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/13 Sensors therefor
• 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: H04W 12/065 Continuous authentication

Abstract

The invention is directed to a wireless handheld device that securely accesses one or more remote devices subject to locally authenticating a user via biometrics. The device may be implemented as a wireless mouse with a biometric sensor incorporated with a scroll wheel that captures a biometric from the user and authenticates the user to the device using the captured biometric. More specifically, the captured biometric is compared to a template stored in memory. The device transmits a wireless signal, such as a command stream including the user'"'"'s user name and password, to access the remote devices when the captured biometric matches the template. However, the device does not operate when the user is not authenticated. Accordingly, the invention may be particularly useful to log-on and log-off a user who frequently leaves and returns to a personal computer or various remote devices during the course of a day.

Claims

1. A wireless handheld device comprising:

a biometric sensor that captures a biometric from a user and generates a digital representation of the captured biometric;

memory that stores one or more biometric templates;

an authenticator that compares the digital representation of the captured biometric to the one or more biometric templates;

a transceiver that sends a wireless signal to access one or more remote devices subject to matching the captured biometric to one of the one or more biometric templates; and

a battery that powers the biometric sensor, memory, authenticator, and transceiver.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the wireless handheld device comprises a wireless mouse with the biometric sensor on a scroll wheel of the wireless mouse.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein each of the biometric templates is associated with a different user, and wherein a new biometric template is captured from a new user and stored in memory in an initial registration process that registers the user as an authorized user.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the wireless signal comprises a command stream that logs the user onto the remote devices.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the command stream includes a user name and password associated with the user.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the wireless signal further comprises one of a file, a folder, medical records, music, and a calendar stored in the memory.

7. The device of claim 1, further comprising a processor that encrypts the wireless signal in accordance with encryption techniques.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the transceiver sends the wireless signal in accordance with one of a radio frequency identification (RFID), Ultra Wideband (UWB), wireless universal serial bus (USB), Bluetooth, 802.11(a), 802.11(b), 802.11(e) and 802.11(g).

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the memory stores sensitive information and updates the sensitive information subject to authenticating a second party to one of the remote devices.

10. A method comprising:

capturing a biometric from a user in a wireless handheld device;

comparing the captured biometric to one or more biometric templates stored in a resident memory of the wireless handheld device;

when the captured biometric matches one of the biometric templates, sending a wireless signal from the wireless handheld device to access one or more remote devices;

when the captured biometric does not match one of the biometric templates, denying access to the remote devices via the wireless handheld device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the wireless handheld device comprises a wireless mouse with a biometric sensor that captures the biometric from the user incorporated with a scroll wheel.

12. The method of claim 10,

wherein capturing the biometric from the user comprises generating a digital representation of an image associated with the user, and

wherein comparing the captured biometric comprises comparing the digital representation of the image to the biometric templates.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising performing an initial registration process to register the user as a new user authorized to operate the device, wherein the initial registration process captures a biometric from the user, stores the captured biometric as a biometric template in the resident memory, and authorizes the user.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein sending the wireless signal comprises sending a command stream to log the user onto the remote devices.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the command stream includes a user name and password associated with the user.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein sending the wireless signal further comprises sending at least one of a file, a folder, medical records, music and a calendar.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein sending the wireless signal comprises encrypting the wireless signal.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising updating information stored in resident memory of the wireless handheld device subject to authenticating a second party user to one of the remote devices.

19. A wireless mouse comprising:

a processor that processes input signals that control the operation of the wireless mouse;

a flash memory drive that stores data; and

a transceiver that wirelessly communicates with one or more remote devices to send data stored in the flash memory drive, receive data to be stored in the flash memory drive, and navigate a graphical user interface on the remote devices.

20. The wireless mouse of claim 19, further comprising a scroll wheel and a biometric sensor on the scroll wheel.