MODULAR BIOMETRICS COLLECTION SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

• US 20070206840A1
• Filed: 03/02/2007
• Published: 09/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gentex Corporation
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Jacobson, Vincent
• Granted Patent: US 8,085,993 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/117
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/94 Hardware or software architectures specially adapted for image or video understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands

Abstract

A modular biometrics collection system with an architecture having application to a combined features recognition system. The system may be a self-organizing mesh of collaborative independent components. Each component may have inputs, outputs, and local prioritization management. Each component may operate autonomously. Federated behavior of the components may be achieved by subscribing to content that influences local prioritization. An example of the system may have application to combined face and iris recognition.

Claims

1. A collection system comprising:

a biometric scope;

a zone scope for producing guidance content for the biometric scope and consuming content produced by the biometric scope; and

a site scope for producing guidance content for zone scope and consuming content produced by the zone scope.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the biometric scope comprises:

a sensing module for producing sensor outputs; and

an acquisition module for consuming sensor outputs and producing biometric data; and

an evaluation module for consuming biometric data and producing biometric artifacts.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the zone scope comprises:

a sensing module for producing sensor outputs; and

a zone object detector for consuming sensor outputs and producing object of interest locations; and

a zone object reconciler for consuming biometric artifacts and correlating the independently produced artifacts with respect to common objects of interest identifiers; and

a zone surveillance module for consuming sensor outputs and correlated biometric artifacts, and presenting them to a user interface for surveillance purposes.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein:

the sensing module comprises one or more image sensors; and

the acquisition module comprises one or more feature image acquisition modules connected to the sensing module.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the evaluation module comprises one or more matching modules.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein:

the sensing module comprises one or more image sensors; and

the acquisition module comprises;

a face image acquisition module connected to one or more image sensors;

a face matching module connected to the face image acquisition module;

an iris image acquisition module connected to one or more image sensors; and

an iris matching module connected to the iris image acquisition module.

7. A biometric collection method comprising:

zone object detection having sensor input;

face image acquisition having sensor input and receiving content with objects in a zone;

face matching receiving content with a face image correlated to an object in a zone;

zone object reconciling receiving content with face matching results and content with objects in a zone; and

zone surveillance receiving content with a zone image and content with reconciled matching results.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

iris image acquisition having sensor input and receiving content with objects in a zone; and

iris matching receiving content with an iris image correlated to an object in a zone; and

wherein the zone object reconciling can receive content with iris matching results.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising site surveillance and/or management of one or more zones, receiving content with reconciled matching results and with a zone image.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the zone object reconciling can receive content with prioritizing content from the site surveillance and/or management of one or more zones.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the face image acquisition can receive content with reconciled matching results and prioritizing guidance; and

the iris image acquisition can receive content with reconciled matching results and prioritizing guidance.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the face image acquisition can prioritize objects, zoom to a face at object coordinates and/or obtain a face image having sufficient quality for matching; and

the iris image acquisition can prioritize objects, zoom to a face, eye or iris at object coordinate and/or obtain a face, eye or iris image having sufficient quality for matching.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the zone object detection can collect images of a zone, analyze the images, identify objects of interest in the images, and/or assign an identification to each new object; and

the zone object reconciling can analyze matching results, match conflicts, resolve conflicts, resolve conflicts, auto enroll as appropriate and/or the like.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the zone surveillance can display a zone image, matching results and so forth, as appropriate for a present scope of observation.

15. A biometric collection system architecture comprising:

biometric scope;

a zone scope having an interactive connection with the biometric scope; and

a site scope having an interactive connection with the zone scope.

16. The architecture of claim 15, wherein the biometric scope comprises:

a first sensing module;

an acquisition module having an interactive connection with the sensing module; and

an evaluation module having an interactive connection with the acquisition module.

17. The architecture of claim 16, wherein the zone scope comprises:

a second sensing module;

a zone object detector/reconciler having an interactive connection with the second sensing module, the acquisition module and the evaluation module; and

a zone surveillance module having an interactive connection with the second sensing module and the zone object detector/reconciler.

18. The architecture of claim 17, wherein the site scope comprises a site surveillance/management module interactive connection with the second sensing module and the zone object detector/reconciler.

19. The architecture of claim 18, wherein:

the sensing module is for sensing images of people;

the acquisition module is for obtaining face images and iris images from the images of people; and

the evaluation module is for matching face images with face images in a database and for matching iris images with iris images in a database.

20. The architecture of claim 19, wherein the zone object detector/reconciler comprises:

a zone object detector connected to the second image sensor and the acquisition module; and

a zone object reconciler connected to the zone object detector, the acquisition module, the evaluation module, the site surveillance/management module and the zone surveillance module.